Thursday, December 03, 2015

This week's recipe: Strawberry Ice Cream

This week's recipe was served at John's birthday lunch and had everyone demanding the recipe. It is the easiest ice cream recipe ever, it does not take a lot of time to make, has only four ingredients and does not need either an ice cream maker or lots of stirring to break up ice crystals. It comes out of the 1973 edition of the Cookery Year Book, which Lynne has used for years. Their recipes are faultless. This quantity would fill one ice cream container. Make this before the end of the strawberry season and you can have strawberry ice cream in the middle of the winter.
Strawberry Ice Cream
500g fresh strawberries - 175g icing sugar - 1 teaspoon lemon juice - 600 ml whipping or double cream

Wash and hull the strawberries and cut them in half. Put them into your liquidiser or food processor with the lemon juice and icing sugar. Add the cream and blitz. You can do this until completely smooth, but we like it with a few small pieces of strawberry still remaining for texture. Freeze. It is soft serve and can melt quite quickly. You don't have to take it out to defrost a little, as you do with normal ice creams. We know you will enjoy it.
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Brewers braai before the Beer Festival

The festival was held last weekend and on Thursday night before we were invited to join other media and the exhibitors for a braai there. We tasted lots of the different new beers and ciders and ate a good braai. It was a great fun evening, except for the exercise required to get there, after we chose the wrong route
We learnt an important lesson. NEVER leave the house for a function without checking a map. Lynne spent her Tween years living in Green Point, so we decided to take the bus there and Uber back. She knew how to get to Hamiltons. Or did she? Had we checked a map, we would have seen that the Metropolitan Golf Club has now blocked the way she knew and we had a very, very healthy 4 to 5 Km walk, first through the beautiful Green Point park at twilight and then onward in almost a circle to get there! Well, we do need the exercise
Getting together with Boschendal cellarmaster Neil Groenewald and his brewer friend, with Jan Loubser and Anel Grobler
Broadcaster Guy McDonald with two of his friends and some new beers
Lots to try. The Long Beach Blonde is made by former Tierhoek winemaker Roger Burton. It was very well received. We also loved the Birkenhead Chocolate Porter
We got up to get some supper and some rude, cheeky monsters pinched our table and our beers! But luckily we found another table with some great company and beer
Sadly, because of complete exhaustion after John's birthday parties, we did not make it to the Beer Festival on Sunday, as we had planned, but we hear it was a riot. Next year, please
 © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015
Six trophies were awarded by the SouthYeasters, a BJCP judging panel of certified beer judges, to different categories:

Best Ale on Show: Brewdog Dead Pony Ale – A hop-heavy US-Style pale ale, the Brewdog Dead Pony Club Session pale ale, delivers a wash of tropical fruit, floral garlands and spicy undertones with citrus aromas of lemongrass and zest. 

Best Lager: CBC Pilsner – A craft pilsner brewed in the style of a lager, the CBC Pilsner has a strong hoppy aroma with a bitter finish. 

Best Dark Beer:  Hoghouse Brewing Co Porter – A classic London style porter, the Hoghouse Porter has a flavour of caramel oats, coffee, hazelnuts and toast with a smoky aroma. 

Best Weiss/Wheat/Wit Beer: CBC Krystal Weiss – A Weiss beer or wheat beer is brewed with a large amount of wheat. The CBC Craft Krystal Weiss is clear-filtered with an elegant twist of lemon and grapefruit producing a citrusy aroma.

Best Hoppy Beer: Devil’s Peak King’s Blockhouse IPA - Named after the historic military blockhouse on Devil’s Peak, this West Coast style IPA has a fruity and bitter taste with a citrusy, floral and piny aroma with passion fruit aspects. 

Best Cider: Orpens Cider – Produced on the Drift farm, this Irish Cider is made from fresh juice as opposed to the mass produced cider made from reconstituted juice concentrate. Orpens Cider is produced the same way that the farm produces 
wine with care and devotion which gives it its distinctive character. 

Festival goers were treated to the sounds of the Rockerfellas, Grassy Spark, Nomadic Orchestra and Los Taco’s and had an array of tasty treats to choose from such as Hudson’s Burger Joint, Lotus Food Truck and I Love Pizza.

All in all the Cape Town Festival of Beer was a huge success continuing to climb from strength to strength each year. They are looking forward to being back for their 7th year with even more exhibitors to showcase their new and exciting beers and ciders.

Elgin Wine Valley Christmas Tweetup

The Elgin Winemakers Guild decided to reward all the hard work by the Tweeters this year with a last tasting for 2015 and Christmas lunch party in Elgin at South Hill. Transport was arranged for many of us from town and a great day was had by all

The first pick up was for Atlantic coast people and was at the Mouille Point lighthouse, where you can park free all day. We then picked up more people at The River Club and in Somerset West
Sadly, road works on the N2 made for heavy traffic for a while, but we made it in time
The first white wines we tasted were Iona 2015 Sauvignon Blanc (our favourite), Elgin Ridge 2014 Sauvignon Blanc and South Hill 2015 Sauvignon Blanc. Two superb white blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon: Highlands Road 2012 Sine Cera and Oak Valley 2011 Mountain Reserve, made by the late Pieter Visser
Everyone getting their phones, tablets and computers tuned into the Internet. We had some problems getting connected, but not overwhelming as we all appeared to have 3G connectivity
The next flight we tasted was Chardonnays: Paul Cluver 2014 (the wine that wowed Lynne the last time she tasted it), the excellent Hannay 2014 made by Richard Kershaw, Winters Drift 2014 and Almenkerk 2012
Then we were on to the reds
Dead soldiers
Karen Glanfield Pawley taking us through the wines
The four really great reds tasted were this marvellous merlot from Shannon - Mount Bullet 2012 made by Gordon Newton Johnson - 2012 Pinot Noir from Elgin Vintners, Richard Kershaw’s 2013 Syrah and Thelema Sutherland 2011 Syrah
Owner of South Hill, Kevin King
Group pose! A very joyous day
Girls having fun
Back inside for lunch
There was a lovely selection of other Elgin wines to drink with lunch
Sandy King supervising the lunch service
Our starter was a cup of good pea soup - the perfect foil for a good sauvignon blanc
Then a fresh Panzanella salad
Gammon and roast pork with a mustard sauce and lots of vegetables was the main course
A very good vanilla panna cotta with strawberries nicely topped off a great meal
Natalie Opstaele of Almenkerk with Karen Glanfield Pawley
Kevin King with South Hill winemaker Sean Skibbe
Kevin with his very friendly pooch. Thank you Elgin. And, yes, we did trend No.1 on Twitter
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

SASSI Trailblazer 2015 Award Winners presentation at The Table Bay

Every year SASSI (South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative) awards chefs and others who support the initiative in some way. This year the awards went to seven chefs and to a cookbook writer. SASSI is aimed at informing the public how their choice of fish for consumption can help determine the future health and productivity of our oceans. We were invited to the awards, which took place last Monday evening
Clare Mack, of Spill Communications, also the awards organiser, said, “It’s gratifying to see, in the third year of these awards, that many restaurants are adopting sustainable practices in seafood, without any intervention or prompting. Sustainability is now mainstream, it has really caught on
Listening to the award announcements
Two wines had been donated to refresh the guests: De Wetshof Limestone Hill Chardonnay and a rosé from Flagstone
Pavs Pillay, SASSI Programme Manager at WWF-SA, commented, “Our partnerships with chefs are inspired by a love of seafood and a shared commitment to help restore our overexploited seafood species. The chefs we are recognising have gone the extra mile in advocating the sustainability message. She thanked the nominees for flying the SASSI banner and welcomed the newcomers
Previous Trailblazer winner, now mentor and SASSI stalwart, Chef Brad Ball of Peddlars in Constantia
Brad accepted the awards for Chef Greg Coleman of East Head Café, Knysna; and Chef Michelle Theron of Pierneef à La Motte, who could not attend
Chef Jonathan Japha, of Black Sheep restaurant in Kloof Street, was an award winner
So was Chef Peter Pankhurst of Savoy Cabbage
Another winner, Chef Hylton Espey of Equus at Cavalli Restaurant near Stellenbosch with his wife, Petro
Chef Jocelyn Myers-Adams of the Table Bay Hotel was delighted to receive one
Chef Sias Tabambi of Harbour House in the Waterfront was another winner
The winners posing with Percy the seal
Happy smiling faces
We spent a very enjoyable late afternoon on the terrace at The Table Bay talking to the winners
And watching the working harbour tugs
And the tourists walking along the dock
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

This Week's MENU - Travel Massive, Klink Awards, Casa Labia, 40 Years of Meerlust wine, Wine Concepts Champagne Festival, Diners Club Winemaker of the Year, A night at Le Franschhoek


The Meerlust manor house, built in 1776
In this week’s MENU:
If you have missed and wish to catch up on a previous issue of MENU for any reason, please go to Main Ingredient. The second page of the site has links to previous issues of MENU.
To get the whole story with photographs, here and in our blog, please click onRead on.....” at the end of each paragraph, which will lead you to the related blog, with pictures and more words. At the end of each blog, click on RETURN TO MENU to come back to the blog version of MENU.This has been another hectic week, with some wonderful events to report, while we prepare our house for a big event at the weekend. Lots of things on this weekend and we are going to miss lots of them as it is time for a big celebration. Friday will be John's 70th birthday and we are having a family dinner on Friday night and a lunch party for close friends and family on Saturday. Lynne has been cooking and preparing for weeks. We did try to have it elsewhere, but the function venues were out of our reach, so home it had to be. And we will have some great wine to drink from our cellar.
We will be at the Beer Festival launch on Thursday evening, however and also hope to get to the Jordan Summer Festival on Sunday, bearing animal necessities. It really depends on how much clearing up we have to do and how tired we are! Hope to see lots of you there.

We have many American readers, to whom we send our hope that you will have a joyful, peaceful Thanksgiving celebration.

Klink Awards     The awards focus on what wine farms have to offer visitors, other than the wine. The awards were held on the terrace with those marvellous views of the city at De Grendel wine estate, last Thursday evening. Wesgro have come on board as sponsors; we hope the association continues for a long time. Wesgro is the official Destination Marketing, Investment and Trade Promotion Agency for the Western Cape.
"Out of its 17 categories ... the best performing category, with 1512 votes, was the Gourmet. It awards the best cellar-door restaurant that is set in a great location, offers first class service, focuses on artisanal foods, has a sommelier service and wine list with older vintages, own wines and other regional wines. Among Klink’s 77 nominees across its 17 categories, the overall Supernova (or nominee with the most votes) was De Grendel. It took first place in both its category (the Gourmet) as well as overall, receiving 634 votes, beating La Colombe and Waterkloof to the true-blue foodie post." See the event and the results here
Casa Labia relaunch     This beautiful house, filled with treasures, is owned by the Labia family and has been used as a museum for several years. It was returned to the family by the state after several years in the shadows. They have now restored it perfectly and on Thursday evening we rushed from the Klink Awards to the relaunch of the house and the opening of the new restaurant and function venue, which will be run by Andrea Foulkes of Dish Food and Catering. With a huge fire raging on the mountain in Simonstown, we did not rate our chances of getting there on time, but the trip down the M5 was fast and seamless at 6.30 pm. The good news is that the road repairs outside Casa Labia have now been completed. Click here for photographs
Meerlust 40th Anniversary lunch     How to describe this classic Cape Dutch wine farm in the Helderberg? Owned by charming Hannes Myburgh, who prefers to keep rather a low profile, the award winning iconic wines are made by Chris Williams and shepherded into the cellar by viticulturist Roelie Joubert. Guests are shepherded to the tasting room by the ten friendly dogs, who have the most wonderful life on the farm. We were privileged to have lunch on Friday in the beautiful lived-in Manor house, which is filled to bursting with art, antiquities and curiosities. We had a marvellous Cape country lunch and a tasting of great vintages of Meerlust Cabernet and Rubicon, starting with the first ever vintage, made in 1975. And, yes, it has lasted, as we expected.
We also visited the Compagniesdrift wine storage and bottling facility next door, which Is the Myburgh Family Trust Social Responsibility investment in their staff. The companies involved, MWT Investments and Faure AgriVillage, are jointly owned (50% each) by the Myburgh Family Trust and the Meerlust Empowerment Trust, which is comprised of 72 people who have long-standing relationships with the Meerlust, Vriesenhof and Ken Forrester farms in the area. See the wines, the people and the farm here
Fire and Ice at the Wine Concepts Champagne Festival at the Vineyard     After a nap, Friday night saw us enjoying life at The Vineyard Hotel, where we enjoyed Wine Concepts’ annual salute to French Champagne. It was a busy and very social evening, with a chance to taste 18 Marques (brands) and at least two different champagnes on each stand. Many of the top names were there to enjoy. Lots of prizes were awarded to ticket holders, the band played great music and you could fantasise about driving and buying the two classic cars in the room. And The Vineyard supplied canapés throughout the evening. Glitter and glam here
Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Awards     This glittering affair was held at La Residence in Franschhoek on Saturday night where the Winemaker of the year Award went to Johann Fourie of KWV for the Mentors Pinotage. The Young Winemaker of the year was Phillip Viljoen of Bon Courage for his NLH. It was a chance to put on one’s best bib and tucker and enjoy the good wines entered into the competition with dinner. A truly  glamorous affair, see it here
Le Franschhoek     Diners Club, thankfully, offered us and many other guests accommodation for the night at Le Franschhoek, which meant we could really enjoy the evening and, because shuttles were provided, no driving was required at all for John. We had a very comfortable room in a quiet setting and a good breakfast the following morning. See the hotel here
Travel Massive     We also did some good travel networking this week at the local Travel Massive meeting held at the NAC helicopter offices in the V&A Waterfront. Photographs here
This week’s recipe is a vegetarian dish for a change. It serves 4 to 6 people. Carrots have an affinity with two spices - cumin and nutmeg. You can add a dusting of them to the purée if you want more flavour but not at the same time, either powdered cumin or nutmeg.
Carrot and Cashew Nut Gratin
750g thickly sliced peeled carrots - 100g raw cashew nuts - 2 T dried breadcrumbs - 100g fromage frais or mascarpone cheese - salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cook the carrots in boiling water until soft. Meanwhile, roast the cashew nuts till golden, either in the oven or in a dry frying pan over a low heat. Take a tablespoon of the nuts, chop them coarsely and mix with the breadcrumbs. Drain the carrots and put into a food processor with the fromage frais and blend till smooth. Stir the whole nuts into the mixture and season well. Spoon into an ovenproof dish. Sprinkle with the nut and breadcrumb mix and place under the grill till golden. Serve with green vegetables or a salad. Great with a dry Viognier or a crisp Chenin Blanc.





25th November 2015
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