The freedom of flight – Kelp gulls off Strandfontein
One thing you never hear anyone say in the Western
Cape: “Damn, it’s raining!” Right now, the spirits are lifted, a steady, soft,
soaking rain is falling; the pipe from our gutters to the fish pond is sending
a largish trickle to bring a little relieving fresh water to our embattled koi
whose home has about half its proper content. This has been a Festival week. We
have been to Harvest festivals at two historic wine estates and to a preview of
a very popular, very South African Festival which will take place mid next
month. We will miss it as we will be in the Iberian environment. So, click on
the links below to see what it’s all about
Lanzerac Harvest Day-
Pinotage and Biltong Festival Media Briefing
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Celebrating the Harvest at Muratie
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MENU's Wine of the Week is yet another beautiful Chenin Blanc
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On
the MENU this week. Prawn and Tamarind Curry
This is the Villiera Traditional Barrel Fermented
Chenin Blanc 2017. Rich on the classic Chenin nose; on the palate it starts
shyly, then suddenly blossoms out and grows in depth and fruit, showcasing just
how versatile and enticing Chenin with a little wood can be.
Full of golden fruit, pineapple, peach, lemon,
honey, some subtle spice and with just a little toasted vanilla wood, it shows
lees and some minerality. Perfect for food and so quaffable. 4 months in oak
barrels, 20% new French, the rest 2nd fill, given regular batonage to the lees
and fermented with natural yeast. We predict that this wine is going to win
more awards; it already has two. It will age beautifully. Get some soon. R129 on
the farm. Platter gives it 4½ stars
3cm piece of ginger - 1 onion - 2
cloves of garlic - 150 g ripe tomatoes - 3 T vegetable or coconut oil - ½ t
black mustard seeds - ¼ t fenugreek seeds - 12 fresh or dried curry leaves - 1
t chilli powder - 1 t ground coriander - ¼ t ground turmeric - 1 T tamarind
pulp - 12 peeled king prawns - sea salt - 1 x 400 ml tin coconut milk - 2 dried
red chillies - 1 fresh green chilli if you want more heat
1 T = Tablespoon 1 t = teaspoon
Peel and finely chop the onions, crush the garlic.
Grate the ginger and chop the tomatoes.
Heat 2 Tablespoons of oil in a frying pan and,
when it’s almost smoking, add the mustard seeds, the fenugreek, ginger and the
curry leaves. Fry for a few seconds, then add the onion and the garlic and cook
over a medium heat until golden.
Add the chilli powder, coriander and turmeric, and
stir for a few seconds. Add the tomato and tamarind. Simmer until slightly
reduced and you can start to see oil separating from the sauce.
Add a few tablespoons of water to get the sauce
back to the consistency it was before, season with sea salt. Simmer until the
sauce is quite dry. Then add the coconut milk and the prawns; bring back to
boil and turn the heat down to low till the prawns are cooked. Taste and adjust
the seasoning. This makes quite a chunky curry. If you want it smooth,
and we do, just put in your stick blender and blitz to the desired consistency
BEFORE you add the prawns. They only take a minute or two to cook.
In another pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil, the
chillies and remaining mustard seeds and curry leaves. Fry for 10 seconds or
so, then tip into the curry. Serve with steamed rice, some atchars and a sweet
chutney which will temper the tartness that the tamarind brings.
We enjoyed it with a 2016 Chenin blanc from De Wet cellar,
a previous Wine of the Week
14th March 2018
© 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
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,
