This week’s recipe in MENU is Preserving Plums

To remind you how short our summer fruit season is and to remember to cook some of the fruits so you can have lovely puddings in the winter. It is plum season at present and a plum crumble on a cold winter day is superb. You may not realise how easy it is to make and freeze for use in a few months time.

Stewed Plums for freezing

1 kilo of red or purple plums (NOT prune plums, you want the juicy sharp and tangy plums) - ¼ t cinnamon - 1 teaspoon of butter - 2 Tablespoons water - 2 Tablespoons sugar or more according to your own taste and the ripeness of the plums - a pinch of salt

Halve the plums and remove the pips. Put all the ingredients in a deep pot and cook gently until the plums begin to melt and form a nice juice. Don't cook until it is all mush, leave some shape. Taste, adjust the sugar and add a pinch of salt to intensify the flavours. Pack into freezer boxes and freeze till you need them. 

To make the tart or crumble, put the defrosted plums into a pie plate and cover with shortcrust pastry - glaze the top with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar, or just add a crumble top with some added chopped almonds. You can do this with other fruit too, like cling peaches, apricots and cherries

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

This Week's MENU. Yzerfontein, Darling, Brandy Alexander, Getaway Good Value wines, Wine & recipe of the week

A flight of Black oystercatchers at Yzerfontein on the West Coast

We have had a busy start to the year, fixing things at home, taking clients on tours to the Winelands and even being part of a British TV commercial, but our world is waking up and we have stories to tell you.

•       A Summer Holiday in Yzerfontein
        A West Coast Day
        Brandy Alexander Day at Shaker with Distell
        The Getaway Best Value Wine Awards
        This week’s recipe
        MENU's Wine of the Week

This year certainly has had a dry start. The drought is severe in the Western Cape and if the rains don't come this winter, and early, we are going to be in serious trouble. Apparently we only have enough water for about 80 days. And getting the last 10% out of the dams is apparently not an option. It has rained this week, the first time in our area for months and it was lovely; it won’t be enough, so we hope for more. We are getting a lot of exercise watering a few of our precious plants by hand, the rest of the garden is dying. No hoses or watering systems are allowed

Now, it is harvest time in the Winelands and it is all GO again. We will be writing about several harvest festivals and experiences that we have been invited to. We would encourage you to go to these if you can, they are so much fun and a very good way to see how hard farms have to work in this season. Most winemakers are very short of sleep, having to work incredibly long hours, not only to get the grapes in to the cellar, but then deal with them and start the wine making process. The smell of fresh ripe grapes going into a crusher is a superb, never to be forgotten aroma. And tasting the freshly pressed grape juice, not yet fermented, is something you will never forget, it’s sensational.

A Summer Holiday in Yzerfontein     

After the hectic activity of our year, we decided to take a week off and booked a small flat at the side of a house in Yzerfontein, about 1½ hours north of Cape Town. It was at the edge of a dune. We do live by the sea but a holiday right on the front with no buildings in front of us, no traffic, fresh sea air and lazy days are what we crave. We read books, ate and drank well, walked on the beach, watched the birds and enjoyed the beautiful sunsets. A restorative for our souls, which was all too short but very beautiful....

A West Coast Day 

You might think the West Coast is quite sleepy but it is not! There are so many things to do up there. While we were on holiday there, we accepted two invitations from Darling people which included wine and food: Lukas Wentzel at Groote Post and Charles Withington of the Darling Wine shop, who was doing a wine tasting at Chicory Cheese restaurant. We decided to see them both on the same day so we could spend the other days relaxing by the sea! Tasting wine from the tanks, lunch at Hilda's and a game drive at Groote Post with Lukas

Brandy Alexander Day at Shaker with Distell     

Cocktails or straight up? We love having our predilections challenged. We like good brandy, gin and whisk(e)y. We didn't think that we liked cocktails. Distell threw us in at the deep end and taught us how to make some cocktails with their brandies. We had a ball and loved the experience, although it did have an effect on the rest of the afternoon. And yes, we took the bus there and back. First, we sampled some great brandies and imported cognacs.....

The Getaway Best Value Wine Awards     

Almost 250 wines were entered for this annual competition and we attended the awards ceremony this week. Should you want a copy, this year's Getaway Best Value Wines Guide is bagged with the February issue of Getaway, which is on sale from 23 January 2017. Results are also are also available at www.bestvaluewineguide.com  Wines to enjoy without breaking your budget.....

This week’s recipe in MENU is Preserving Plums

To remind you how short our summer fruit season is and to remember to cook some of the fruits so you can have lovely puddings in the winter. It is plum season at present and a plum crumble on a cold winter day is superb. You may not realise how easy it is to make and freeze for use in a few months time.

Stewed Plums for freezing

1 kilo of red or purple plums (NOT prune plums, you want the juicy sharp and tangy plums) - ¼ t cinnamon - 1 teaspoon of butter - 2 Tablespoons water - 2 Tablespoons sugar or more according to your own taste and the ripeness of the plums - a pinch of salt

Halve the plums and remove the pips. Put all the ingredients in a deep pot and cook gently until the plums begin to melt and form a nice juice. Don't cook until it is all mush, leave some shape. Taste, adjust the sugar and add a pinch of salt to intensify the flavours. Pack into freezer boxes and freeze till you need them.

To make the tart or crumble, put the defrosted plums into a pie plate and cover with shortcrust pastry - glaze the top with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar, or just add a crumble top with some added chopped almonds. You can do this with other fruit too, like cling peaches, apricots and cherries.

MENU's Wine of the Week: Altydgedacht Gewürztraminer 2014     

We showed this wine in a tasting of Teutonic varietals with our wine club recently. It is one of very few bone dry examples of this varietal in produced in South Africa. Like Riesling, Gewürztraminer does not have a large following, largely because it is not well understood. It is a delicate and aromatic wine, typically with roses and a little spice on the nose (gewürz is the German word for spice) and Turkish delight and litchis on the palate with lightly spicy notes   Many people assume....

7th February 2017
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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. 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. 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.

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MENU's Wine of the Week: Altydgedacht Gewürztraminer 2014

We showed this wine in a tasting of Teutonic varietals with our wine club recently. It is one of very few bone dry examples of this varietal in produced in South Africa. Like Riesling, Gewürztraminer does not have a large following, largely because it is not well understood. It is a delicate and aromatic wine, typically with roses and a little spice on the nose (gewürz is the German word for spice) and Turkish delight and litchis on the palate with lightly spicy notes

Many people assume that a Gewürztraminer will be a sweet or semi-sweet wine, and there are good examples of this style too, but dry wines like this are a delicious accompaniment to Middle Eastern and other lightly spiced foods. It is also a very good wine to serve as an apèritif

The Altydgedacht website has not been updated for several years, but expect to pay around R120 per bottle at good wine shops for the current vintage. Platter gave it 4 stars

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

The Getaway Best Value Wine Awards

Almost 250 wines were entered for this annual competition and we attended the awards ceremony this week. Should you want a copy, this year's Getaway Best Value Wines Guide is bagged with the February issue of Getaway, which is on sale from 23 January 2017. Results are also are also available at www.bestvaluewineguide.com

It was held at a new venue for us, The Eatery Wood Fired Grill in Belvedere Square, Claremont There is a list of national restaurants in the guide where you can drink these wines as they allow you to Bring Your Own good value wines

All the wines were laid out for us to taste at our leisure. There are a few more wine farms we would like to see entering these awards next year

They produced some very good canapés to ease down the wines. These were Bruschettas of tomato, olives, cheese and basil. Messy but satisfying

They have a lovely shady terrace where the winners were announced.

Kathryn Frew is the organiser of this event for Getaway magazine

Neil Piper, Getaway Publisher, told us about these awards, which have been presented since 2002. The statistical model that rates each wine was developed by UCT academic Dr David Priilaid after more than a decade of analysing the results of various wine competitions and tastings. Dr Priilaid’s system uses the data he’s collected to work out each wine’s value, quality and price. All the wines are available on shelf for R80 or less

Fiona MacDonald, head judge, told us about the process. All the wines are tasted blind and by two separate panels of judges. They were tasted in specific categories: Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, white blends, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Pinotage, Merlot, red blends, Almost 250 wines were entered for this annual competition and, this week, we attended the awards ceremony. Should you want a copy, this year's Getaway Best Value Wines Guide is bagged with the February issue of Getaway, which has been on sale from 23rd January. Results are also are also available at www.bestvaluewineguide.com 

The Getaway team 

The awards were presented by Sonya Schoeman – Getaway Editor

Here she is with Ken Forrester and Shawn Mathyse of Ken Forrester wines, who won for the Petit Sauvignon Blanc

Jean du Preez receiving his award for the Du Preez Rockfield Cabernet Sauvignon

Theunis van Zyl of Imbuko in Wellington swept the board with three separate Awards - Imbuko Merlot, Van Zijl Coffee Pinotage and Shortwood Red Blend 

and therefore won the Overall Best Value Producer award

Brendan Butler of Mount Vernon won the award for the best value Rosé

Calamari and chips motivate us to make a booking soon

Chilli poppers

Very good, lean seared steak topped with a green herb sauce

 And Bobotie spring rolls with a sweet chilli dip, dessert wines and bubblies

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

Brandy Alexander Day at Shaker with Distell

Cocktails or straight up?

We love having our predilections challenged. We like good brandy, gin and whisk(e)y. We didn't think that we liked cocktails. Distell threw us in at the deep end and taught us how to make some cocktails with their brandies. We had a ball and loved the experience, although it did have an effect on the rest of the afternoon. And yes, we took the bus there and back

Brandy Alexander day is celebrated on January 31st every year. It is the only cocktail to have a day officially named in its honour. Bet you didn't know that; neither did we. The motivation for the day, therefore, was to teach us how to make them. The venue was at the Shaker Bar School, a school for bartenders and the public. First, we sampled some great brandies and imported cognacs like these

Just in case the cocktails made us hungry, some snacks were provided. The sweet ones went very well with what we were sampling. Yes, chocolate brownies, almond biscuits and macarons are the perfect match

The savoury options were good if you had skipped lunch. The lecture started at 2.30

Rissoles with dips

Beetroot and cream cheese

and Thai vegetable rolls

The lecture room

Also has a proper mixologists' bar

Dr Winnie Bowman CWM talked us through the brandy tasting and gave some history and some tasting hints

Professional snifter glasses

The French Cognacs. We didn’t taste the Bisquit XO, sadly. Our South African brandies stand up well to the French ones. We consistently win lots of international awards with them

Discussing the finer points

Then it was time to learn from the expert. Anil Sabharwal was our instructor and he is the Director of the Shaker Bar School at 235 Bree St Cape Town. They also have a school in Johannesburg. He is a Londoner, so we got on well

Here he is showing us how to make the Brandy Alexander. Preciseness is important. Chill the glass with ice too. Here is the recipe: This relatively simple cocktail is a concoction of 1 part brandy, 1 part chocolate liqueur and one part cream, garnished with a dusting of nutmeg. And for a decadent dessert, just add a scoop of vanilla or chocolate ice cream and transfer to a bowl. You will need for one cocktail:

25 ml crème de cacao - 25 ml cream - 75 ml Van Ryn’s 10 year old brandy - Nutmeg, - Ice cubes

Add all the liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker, fill the shaker halfway with ice cubes and shake for about 30 seconds or until the outside of the shaker is getting nicely frosted. Strain into a glass, traditionally a cocktail glass or martini glass which, ideally, you’ve been chilling in the freezer. Garnish with a sprinkle of nutmeg and you’re ready to celebrate!

This is the cocktail he made. Dark Crème de Cacao chocolate liqueur is difficult to get in South Africa. He used the Bols white version. You can use Klipdrift Black Gold, a chocolate coffee liqueur, or other brands of chocolate liqueur on the market

We get to make our own and were encouraged to try and make other versions. Here Lynne receives instructions on making a variation

Shaking well is the key. And chilled glasses

Everybody's doing it!

TaDa! Lynne has invented a new Alexander, named by her the Almond Alexander, using DiSaronno Amaretto liqueur, a favourite

We all made the Alexander and then an old fashioned cocktail, The Side Car from the 1920's. Wow - we absolutely loved this sour cocktail made with Brandy, fresh lemon juice and Cointreau. Perfect if you don't like very sweet cocktails. And not drowned in ice as Mojitos so often are

Fiona MacDonald getting in the spirit

Benika Palfi enjoying a very popular cocktail which originated in Harry's Bar in Paris. Thank you Distell and Dayne Stern. We are converted

A creative Bree Street sign
We were amused. We hope it works

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