Two of Nitida’s Yellow-billed ducks (Anas undulata)
enjoying a spring day on the pond
So many
things to do, so little time…. but we continue to have fun enjoying the
experiences we tell you about. One that promises to be most enjoyable this week
is the Darling
Flower Show
which starts this Thursday, the 14th and runs till Sunday 17th. We’ll be there
on Friday 15th and would love to see you there. We hear that the
flowers this year are especially spectacular and look forward to seeing them
for ourselves
We have been producing
MENU for many years, in which we have written about many interesting things.
You can find them all in the Blog Archive in the right hand column of our blog page and in
the Previous MENUs page on our website. Entering a word in the “Search this
Blog” window on the blog site should bring up everything we have ever written
which relates
Ormonde wines from Darling are
being showcased at The Taj Hotel in Cape Town for the month of September. This
is a taste teaser for the chef’s pairing dinners with the wine estate’s wines
throughout the month. They were presenting their Barrel selection range. Ormonde
and The Taj hosted an early evening launch last Thursday evening in the foyer
of the hotel and we were invited. The present owner of Ormonde is Theo Basson. Ormonde's
talented Cellar master is Hennie Huskisson, producing many 4 star Platter
wines. The farm is large, 3500 hectares with 380 planted with grapes. They also
produce the Alexanderfontein wines. They say "the Darling hills are on
contours of an ancient granite intrusion. These molten rocks, forced from the
earth to 300m above sea level, guard the Atlantic Ocean while banks of fog roll
to the foot of the hills, blessing the vineyard with coolness and moisture".
And they produce grapes of such quality that there are many wine farms in other
areas that buy these superb grapes for their wines
This
fun annual competition, open to all South African wine clubs, announced the
winners at a lunch held on the farm last Friday. We met the four teams in the
final, three from the Western Province and one from Gauteng, aptly named the
Outlanders. We had a great lunch and we tasted the winning wine, which
Blaauwklippen thinks is good enough to warrant putting on their Cabriolet label
this year
We
love Indonesian food. We have a friend in Holland who has Indonesian heritage.
He has taken the trouble to makes a proper Rijsttafel for us several times so,
when we saw an invitation from the Indonesian Ambassador on Facebook to come to
their open day on Saturday, we made plans to be there
Over the years we have given you several recipes for some
popular and easy to make at home Indonesian food. From Sate to Babi Ketjap, Mee
Goreng, Beef Rendang, Nasi Goreng and the Gado Gado salad. This week it is
Loempia, their version of substantial spring rolls, deep fried. You can now buy
these wrappers, kept in the freezers of Asian shops and some good supermarkets.
They are about 10 or 11 cm square. You can use leftover pork, lamb or beef or
fresh prawns. You can freeze Loempia before you fry them, until you are ready
to cook them
6 to 8 Spring Roll
wrappers - 2 tablespoons peanut oil- 1 medium onion, thinly sliced - 1 garlic
clove, chopped - a thumb of fresh ginger, grated - 1 teaspoon sambal oelek (hot
chilli sauce) - 1 teaspoon trassi oedang (shrimp paste, very stinky) - 225 gm
cooked chicken, sliced into thin strips - 2 cups white cabbage, thinly sliced -
2 cups fresh bean sprouts - 1 large carrot, roughly grated - 1 tablespoon
ketjap manis (sweet Indonesian Soy) - 1 beaten egg - Oil for frying the spring
rolls in a wok
Heat your wok and add the peanut oil. Add onion, garlic, ginger,
and soften, do not brown. Then add the Sambal Oelek and Trassi and cook for a
further 2 minutes. Put in the vegetables, meat and ketjap manis. Stir fry until
they are beginning to soften. Take off the heat, put into a strainer over the
bowl to collect any juices and cool completely
Wrapping the
Loempia
Spread out a spring roll sheet with one corner at the top. Spoon
about 2 to 3 Tablespoons of filling to 3 cm above the middle of the sheet. Fold
in the top over the filling. Fold in both sides and roll up into a tight roll. Spread
some beaten egg over the bottom corner to help it stick. Heat some oil in the
wok to 170⁰C
- about 4 to 5 ml should be enough - and deep fry the loempia, one at a time,
turning them to get all sides crisp and golden brown, for about 5 minutes. Serve
with peanut sauce or just Ketjap Manis and Sambal Oelek
This year's Blending Competition
winner, a blend of 8% Zinfandel, 15% Cabernet Franc, 30% Merlot, 7% Petit
Verdot & 40% Shiraz. With incense and vanilla wood, it has berries and
whiffs of geraniums from the Zinfandel. On the palate there are soft, chewy,
chalky tannins; it is full of ripe fruit, with hints of violet from the Petit
Verdot and a zing from the Zinfandel. The wine is sold in 750 ml & Magnum
bottles from selected retail outlets, the farm’s Tasting Room and online via www.blaauwklippen.com
at R112 per bottle and R230 for the 1.5 litre bottle. Very good value for
parties and large dinners
13th September 2017
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017
Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169
Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005
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
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.
