This week's MENU - Paternoster, Oep ve Koep, Bertus Basson at Vondeling, SA Sommelier competition

Three banded plover, Paternoster

In this week’s MENU: 

 Relaxing by the sea at Paternoster

 Oep ve Koep

 Lunch at Vondeling with Chef Bertus Basson

 Best Sommelier of SA Finals

 This week's recipe: Pulled Pork

To get the whole story with photographs, please click on the paragraph title, which will lead you there. At the end of each story, click on RETURN TO MENU to come back to MENU.

Hey ho, It's a long, hot summer and we still have months to go. We have had a lovely rest over Christmas and New Year with a good break away and are now revving up for another busy year. We hope you are all settling back into work and looking forward to a good 2016. We are glad to be back

Relaxing by the sea at Paternoster      We are normally very energetic and like holidays where we do lots of different things. But this year we were dog tired and knew we had to stop and do nothing for a while. Lynne found a lovely place in Paternoster, our very first AirBnB booking, and it was a huge success. We had our annual wine club Christmas party on Sunday the 13th and left for the West Coast the next day for our week by the sea. It's a lovely drive up, but the countryside is looking very sere and dry with the drought.  ....>

Oep ve Koep     This restaurant in Paternoster has earned many kudos and we decided, before we went to Paternoster on our summer holiday, that we would treat ourselves to lunch there. It was not cheap, but it was an exciting and very different experience, as the young chef Kobus van der Merwe, the 2014 winner of the Nederburg Rising Star Award, is a true forager and innovative cook. He combs the local tidal rocks along the uninhabited coastline and grows unusual local herbs and plants in his kitchen garden at the restaurant and the menu changes with the seasons or his mood or what he finds

You do need to book and they require a deposit or your credit card details when you do as, surprisingly, they have had many group 'no shows' and this for a small restaurant can be very expensive and a huge time and food waste. He prepares everything fresh so don't expect it to be a quick lunch. Dinner is only for groups of 8 or more people, which made us feel rather excluded and lunch is in the garden when possible. Restaurant open Wednesdays to Sundays  ....>

Lunch at Vondeling with Chef Bertus Basson     When we booked our summer break at Paternoster we had already been invited to this lunch, so we scheduled the end of our holiday so that we could do the lunch on the way back to Cape Town. Bertus Basson has done a series of lunches this year at Vondeling and tells us more are planned for 2016. Get your bookings in now, they are extremely good and very, very popular

Our friends Loraine and Ronnie who joined us for our last night in Paternoster also booked and asked for vegetarian food and they also had a lovely lunch. We know and love Vondeling’s wines and they matched perfectly with the food   ....>

Best Sommelier of SA Finals      We are continually impressed by the progress our local sommeliers are making and it was good to see that ten of them, many of whom we interact with regularly, had reached the semi finals of the Inaugural Best Sommelier of South Africa competition this week. We were invited to attend and watch the final three contestants compete for the title at The Taj hotel on Monday this week. And what an arduous competition it turned out to be. It was won by Gareth Ferreira, a South African currently working at a wine-focused private club in London (67 Pall Mall) as Assistant Head Sommelier under the tutelage of Master Sommelier Ronan Sayburn. Gareth has therefore qualified to compete at the Best Sommelier of the World competition which will take place in Mendoza, Argentina, in April this year. Here, he will face more than 55 other candidates in a bid to win the title ‘Best Sommelier of the World’. Currently held by Paolo Basso from Switzerland, the Best Sommelier of the World is only awarded every three years.

To quote SASA (South African Sommeliers Association " Acknowledging and rewarding the best professional working in the South African hospitality industry, it was open to all SASA members with relevant work experience and tenure in South Africa."

We both qualified as potential sommeliers when we graduated with our Cape Wine Academy Diploma in 1996, but we never intended to practice, instead we opened our wine and food shop and spent the next 9 years tending to our customers’ wine needs at home.  ....>

Recipe     If you have a slow cooker, this week's recipe is for you. If you don't, you can put this in a very low oven and cook until you can shred the pork but you will need to check that the liquid has not evaporated and replace it with water if it does. The Chipotle chilli is not essential but it adds that final smoky hit to the pork. It is quick and easy to assemble when you have all the right ingredients to hand and cooks itself. Great for a late supper on a hot day.

This week's recipe is Pulled Pork

2 kg piece of pork shoulder, cut in two pieces - 1 large onion, finely chopped - 2 large cloves of garlic, sliced -1 cup barbeque sauce - 1 cup tomato passata - 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar - 1/2 cup chicken stock - 1/4 cup light brown sugar - 1 t English mustard powder - 1 T Worcestershire sauce - 1 t chilli powder - 2 t fresh thyme - 2 bay leaves - 1 t dried oregano - 1 Chipotle chilli in Adobo sauce, chopped.

Pour all the sauce into the slow cooker pot, add the herbs and spices, onion, garlic and chilli. Stir well. Then put in the pork and make sure it is well covered with everything in the sauce. Put on the lid and set to High and leave for 5 to 6 hours or until you can shred the meat easily using two forks. Do check that it is not drying out at any time.

Remove the roast from the slow cooker, and shred the meat using two forks. Return the shredded pork to the slow cooker, and stir the meat into the juices. Serve on rolls or instead of shredding cut into chunks and serve with salad and baked potatoes.

14th January 2016

PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information

Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169

Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005

Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups (up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in English, German, Norwegian and standard or Dutch-flavoured Afrikaans.

If you like the photographs you see in our publications, please look at our Adamastor Photo website for our rate card and samples from our portfolio

We apologise if MENU caused your phone to bleep in the early hours. To send to our huge list of subscribers takes a long time and many of them receive it in the middle of the night. Might we suggest that your phone should not be activated to receive messages from us or from other sources in the witching hours? If your boss needs to contact you at that time, (s)he’s intruding on your valuable personal time.

Recommendations of products and outside events are not solicited or charged for, and are made at the authors’ pleasure. All photographs, recipes and text used in these newsletters and our blogs are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are usually unsolicited. We prefer to pay for our meals and not be paid in any way by anyone. Whether we are invited or go independently, we don’t feel bad if we say we didn’t like it. Honesty is indeed our best policy. While every effort is made to avoid mistakes, we are human and they do creep in occasionally, for which we apologise. Our Avast! ^® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.

This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. We own our mailing software and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.

Subscribe to MENU

This week's MENU recipe: Pulled Pork

If you have a slow cooker, this week's recipe is for you. If you don't, you can put this in a very low oven and cook until you can shred the pork but you will need to check that the liquid has not evaporated and replace it with water if it does. The Chipotle chilli is not essential but it adds that final smoky hit to the pork. It is quick and easy to assemble when you have all the right ingredients to hand and cooks itself. Great for a late supper on a hot day.

This week's recipe is Pulled Pork

2 kg piece of pork shoulder, cut in two pieces - 1 large onion, finely chopped - 2 large cloves of garlic, sliced -1 cup barbeque sauce - 1 cup tomato passata - 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar - 1/2 cup chicken stock - 1/4 cup light brown sugar - 1 t English mustard powder - 1 T Worcestershire sauce - 1 t chilli powder - 2 t fresh thyme - 2 bay leaves - 1 t dried oregano - 1 Chipotle chilli in Adobo sauce, chopped.

Pour all the sauce into the slow cooker pot, add the herbs and spices, onion, garlic and chilli. Stir well. Then put in the pork and make sure it is well covered with everything in the sauce. Put on the lid and set to High and leave for 5 to 6 hours or until you can shred the meat easily using two forks. Do check that it is not drying out at any time.

Remove the roast from the slow cooker, and shred the meat using two forks. Return the shredded pork to the slow cooker, and stir the meat into the juices. Serve on rolls or instead of shredding cut into chunks and serve with salad and baked potatoes

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

Subscribe to MENU

Best Sommelier of SA Finals

We are continually impressed by the progress our local sommeliers are making and it was good to see that ten of them, many of whom we interact with regularly, had reached the semi finals of the Inaugural Best Sommelier of South Africa competition this week. We were invited to attend and watch the final three contestants compete for the title at The Taj hotel on Monday this week. And what an arduous competition it turned out to be. It was won by Gareth Ferreira, a South African currently working at a wine-focused private club in London (67 Pall Mall) as Assistant Head Sommelier under the tutelage of Master Sommelier Ronan Sayburn. Gareth has therefore qualified to compete at the Best Sommelier of the World competition which will take place in Mendoza, Argentina, in April this year. Here, he will face more than 55 other candidates in a bid to win the title ‘Best Sommelier of the World’. Currently held by Paolo Basso from Switzerland, the Best Sommelier of the World is only awarded every three years.

To quote SASA (South African Sommeliers Association " Acknowledging and rewarding the best professional working in the South African hospitality industry, it was open to all SASA members with relevant work experience and tenure in South Africa."

We both qualified as potential sommeliers when we graduated with our Cape Wine Academy Diploma in 1996, but we never intended to practice, instead we opened our wine and food shop and spent the next 9 years tending to our customers’ wine needs at home.

These magnums of Veuve Clicquot, who were sponsors,  became part of the competition later

Neil Grant is Chairman of the SA Sommeliers Association and acted as Master of Ceremonies for the finals

There were 10 members of SASA who reached the semi-finals: Gareth Ferreira, Joakim Blackadder (Hoghouse), Manuel Cabello (Ellerman House), Jeanette Clarke (Ex-Amino), Spencer Fondaumiere (Burrata), Denis Garret (Benguela Cove), Marlvin Gwese (Cape Grace), Ralph Reynolds (Karibu), Jean Vincent Ridon (winemaker and consultant), and Roxan Waldeck (Delaire Graff ) Here they are awaiting to hear who were the final three

And they were Gareth Ferreira, Joakim Blackadder and Jean Vincent Ridon

We were then told of the five tasks each contestant would be put through and also the fact that their overall presentation, style and demeanour would be judged. Each contestant had to perform all five tasks on e after the other. The first task was to serve a bottle of a Sparkling wine to a table of four

The second task was to come up with a wine pairing for each course on a menu set by Chef Harald Bresselschmidt of Aubergine Restaurant and Auslese. This is the menu

Here is Gareth Ferreira making his pairing suggestion to judges Higgo Jacobs, Harald Bresselschmidt, Hans Aström (manager of Klein Constantia and Best Sommelier of Sweden 1986). He presented a list of mainly foreign wines and seemed very knowledgeable about them

The third task was to decant and serve a bottle of very old red Alto Rouge wine. These Non vintage wines were made by Pieter du Toit between 1959 and 1983.

The wine had to be poured into a decanter from a cradle using the candling method. The lit candle is held behind the bottle as it is poured gently into the decanter and shows up any sediment, which should not go in to the decanter.

Here Joakim Blackadder carefully removes the foil of the bottle. The cork in his bottle crumbled badly due to age

Gareth used a prong to remove the old cork, very sensible as they were very old and fragile

He also was the only one to use a funnel

Gently pour in to the decanter

And then very gently into the glass. All the wines were tasted by the sommeliers before they were served in case they were faulty. Some asked permission to taste

Every movement was watched, and scored. It was a very tense competition

Gareth pouring the wine

Task over, on to the next

The audience came from the wine trade and the media and there were other sommeliers

On to the fourth task please

Identify one white wine and one red wine, four minutes each and then five spirits in three minutes in total. This one had them a bit foxed. The white wine was Bon Vallon from DeWetshof. Gareth came closest to guessing it by choosing a Chablis. The spirits were also quite difficult. A wooded Grappa, a clear Absinth, a single Malt Scotch whiskey, Grand Marnier and Midori melon liqueur from Japan.

Jean Vincent Ridon describing the white wine as he examines it

Joakim Blackadder tasting the red wine

The judges listening and looking intrigued ? impressed? at the conclusions

Gareth Ferreira talking about the red wine

And he alone identified the Midori

Task five was to look at this list of wines and spot the mistakes. It does require quite a lot of international and local wine knowledge.

And just when they thought they were finished they were required to do another test. To pour equal amounts from one magnum of Veuve Clicquot into 18 champagne flutes and finish with no wine left in the bottle. And all in four minutes. And no topping up of glasses was allowed, just the initial pour. No one quite succeeded. This takes a lot of experience of pouring large portions of wine

Each had his own strategy

This was Joakim Blackadder putting the glasses in one row

Gareth Ferriera poured very carefully and came close. He finished in time

Jean Vincent Ridon had his own methods but took a little longer than allowed.

Our reward for watching was being allowed to drink the Champagne. We needed it. There was a short wait while the judges conferred and chose a winner

Lovely canapés were served

50 spice chicken nuggets

The prizes await the winner

At last the announcements made by Neil Grant and the awards were presented by Michele Chantome. Joakim Blackadder in third place

Jean Vincent Ridon came second

And the winner is Gareth Ferreira

The top three with the judges

The judges with members of the SASA committee

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

Subscribe to MENU

Bertus Basson cooks lunch at Vondeling wine estate, Voor Paardeberg

When we booked our summer break at Paternoster we had already been invited to this lunch, so we scheduled the end of our holiday so that we could do the lunch on the way back to Cape Town. Bertus Basson has done a series of lunches this year at Vondeling and tells us more are planned for 2016. Get your bookings in now, they are extremely good and very, very popular

Our friends Loraine and Ronnie who joined us for our last night in Paternoster also booked and asked for vegetarian food and they also had a lovely lunch. We know and love Vondeling’s wines and they matched perfectly with the food

Vondeling is in the Voor Paardeberg, which is only one hour from the city and it was a lovely warm summer's day when we arrived at 11.30. This is their wedding chapel

Inside the tasting room it is cool and comfortable with great air conditioning

We were welcomed with a glass of crisply chilled Rosé wine made from Merlot, very refreshing

The tasting counter wall

Lynne cooling off in the lounge area

John crept into the kitchen to get some quick shots of Bertus and the food being prepared. This is the caramelised onion tart canapé

The production line

Light as air biltong bitterballen with a garlic emulsion

Those onion tarts

Chatting with chef are Maggie Mostert, Bertus' wife Mareli Christian Eedes and Hennie Coetzee

Hot summer vineyards. We ate outside on the terrace but under the shade cloth

Local flora for decorations. Vondeling is a nature conservancy and they have reclaimed most of the farm from alien infestation

More people, more canapés

Manager and co-owner Julian Johnsen supervising the table laying while the serving staff have a briefing

Lunch under the vines at long tables

The menu

The wine list

We (and many others) opted for their excellent white blend Babiana 2014 (Chenin Blanc 60%, Grenache Blanc 15%, Viognier15%, Chardonnay 10%)) The Babiana noctiflora is a rare species of fynbos

Lunch was served family style, which means platters were placed on the table and you could help yourselves. We had some hearty eaters at our table and you had to call loudly for the platters in order to get some. This is the Rare roast beef served with parmesan, olive pesto and semi dried tomatoes topped with young carrot fronds

Great smoked olives, olive oil mousse, butter and great bread

Beautifully crisp spiced batter squid with radish slices, miso cream

A wickedly sinful, smooth as silk, chicken liver parfait served with toasted mosbolletjie bread and jam. It could have been duck liver and the bread was as good as any brioche. One to copy at home if the blender can get the livers to a creamy consistency

Cos lettuce with crisp soy seeds, shaved parmesan, red onion and radish with a wholegrain melba and a rich creamy dressing. And these were just all the starters!

Chatting while waiting for the main courses to arrive

Cooked, pickled puréed and raw organic beetroot of different colours, with sour cream and herbs

Roasted line fish, broccoli, asparagus, courgettes, fennel and capers in a smoked velouté

Caramelised sweet potato with maple syrup and pecan nuts. Orgasmic

Salted smoked pork belly with organic carrots, salsa verde and roasted almonds. Of course all the platters were cleared and the plates went back to the kitchen clean. It was a tour de force of summer eating

Then for dessert. Bertus likes bringing back childhood dessert memories and he certainly excelled with this very sweet local favourite, Peppermint Crisp Tart with vanilla ice cream. You do need a very sweet tooth for this sort of dessert

For the non dessert lovers, Ash camembert with homemade green fig preserve, nuts and grissini

Two of the three partner owners of Vondeling, Julian Johnsen and partner Anthony Ward thanking the chef for a lovely meal

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

Subscribe to MENU