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Monday, August 27, 2018

Pork Chops

Inspired by the simple but great treatment of good ingredients at Johan’s, Lynne decided to do something simple with pork chops this week. You can use chicken as a substitute

4 pork steaks or chops – juice of one large lemon – 2 crushed cloves of garlic – 1 T olive oil – good grinding of black peppercorns – salt

In an ovenproof dish, cover the pork with the lemon juice, garlic, oil and pepper. Put in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours. Salt the pork and put into a hot oven to roast for 10 plus minutes or until the pork is cooked through. Drain off the juices and make a good jus with them. We use a little more water, some cornflower and a little good stock. Cover with foil and rest for at least 10 minutes. Serve with crisp duck fat roast potatoes, steamed courgettes and broccoli

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Barracuda in ginger and garlic

We have had great difficulty finding any good quality fish or fresh seafood while visiting Durban, until we visited the magnificent Checkers in Ballito which has an impressive fish counter – we only wish ours in Sea Point could match it in the freshness and availability of fish. We bought two sizable barracuda steaks on Saturday and Lynne marinated them in chilli, chopped garlic and ginger, then we pan-fried them and had them with baked potatoes and a salad. A Braai would have been good but sadly it was drizzling and pitch dark when we wanted to eat at 7

2 Barracuda or similar (swordfish, tuna) steaks - 2cm piece of fresh ginger – 1 large garlic clove – 1 tsp zhoug (Israeli/Yemeni chilli spice)– 1 T hot water– 1 T oil – good squeeze of lemon juice – salt and pepper

Grate the ginger and the garlic, pour hot water on the zhoug powder then stir in the oil and mix with the ginger and garlic. Spread over both sides of the fish and leave to marinate for at least an hour. Fry quickly on both sides then season, add a squeeze of lemon and serve

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The Best Chilli con Carne recipe

We are currently in the grip of more cold, wintry weather, so it is back to the kitchen for spicy warming food. Lynne’s favourite Chilli recipe is also probably the oldest cookbook recipe she uses – The International Cookbook bought from WH Smith in 1967. This is a Tex Mex chilli, not a true Mexican one. We do use tinned beans, as they are so cheap and they save so much time and energy. If you don’t do pork, you can leave out the bacon, but it is the secret ingredient, bringing out lots of flavour

350g dried or 2 tins red kidney beans -2 large onions, finely chopped – 2 cloves of garlic, crushed - 2 tablespoons olive oil - 450g lean minced beef – 30g chopped streaky bacon or pancetta 1 bottle of tomato passata or 1 tin of whole tomatoes, roughly chopped - 2 fresh red chillies– 1 t powdered Cumin - Freshly ground black pepper – Salt

If you are using dried kidney beans, soak them overnight in cold water. The following day, bring the beans to a boil in plain water, then discard that water. Cover the beans with more water and boil until they are soft

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan and fry the onions until soft. Stir in the garlic, the meat and the bacon and continue frying, stirring occasionally, until the meat has browned. Blend in the drained kidney beans, add the passata or tomatoes with their juice, and season to taste with chilli, pepper and cumin

Cover the pan with a lid and cook on a low heat for at least an hour and a half, (the meat must be getting soft, the onions and tomato melting and all the flavours must be coming together) stirring occasionally and checking that it doesn’t dry out. Add a little water if it begins to dry. You can bury it in a slow oven as well. Taste and, if it is not hot enough, add some more chilli or a little hot chilli sauce. Only add salt at the end as the bacon usually adds enough

Serve with guacamole, a chopped tomato, spring onion and coriander salsa, rice or crusty bread and a tossed green salad. Serves 6

Tip: If you want a darker flavour, add one or two squares of good dark chocolate

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Risotto of Chicken and Broad Beans

Drift Farm at the Biscuit Mill has had superb young broad beans for the last couple of weeks. They inspired Lynne to make this risotto and she now uses the Masterchef method of shaking the pan instead of stirring it. She finds it much easier and far less tiring and you do still get a lovely creamy risotto. Do make sure that your cooking temperature is not too high; the rice should simmer, not boil. It should not ever stick to the bottom and should stay nice and liquid and creamy

1 T olive oil – 1 T butter - 1 small onion, finely chopped - 2 cloves of garlic, crushed - 500g Arborio or Carnaroli rice – a large pot of good chicken stock– 150ml dry white wine -1 t fresh thyme leaves – 1kg broad beans – 400g cooked chicken, chopped into bite-sized pieces – 1 T butter – 100g grated parmesan cheese – pepper and salt

De-pod the broad beans, boil them for two minutes, drain; take off the hard skins of very large beans and discard them. In a separate pan, heat the stock and have a ladle ready. Fry the onion in the oil in a heavy bottomed pan until soft but not brown, add the garlic and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the rice and stir till it is all covered in the oil and butter. Pour on the wine and let it bubble and reduce for a few minutes. Cook on a medium heat, not a high one. Start ladling on the stock, a ladle at a time. Shake the pan rather than stir and when the stock is reducing, add another ladle. Keep giving the pan a good shake every now and then. Stir if you prefer to. When you see the rice is nearly ready, and getting nice and creamy, add the thyme, the chicken and the broad beans. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. With good stock, you usually don’t need extra salt. Continue shaking the pan to incorporate everything and when the rice is cooked but still has a little bite, remove from the heat, stir in the butter and the cheese and rest for five minutes before serving. Serves 4

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Stuffed Pasta Shells with Salmon, Ricotta & Spinach

Lynne discovered some amazing huge pasta shells at Checkers and decided to use them for friends who were coming to supper. Using a classic recipe of stuffing the shells with ricotta and spinach, she added some tinned Canadian salmon for added protein and made a separate tomato and red pepper sauce as a base. What went wrong? Lynne has decided she just doesn’t like the taste of ricotta cheese, which she found bitter, unlike all the others who enjoyed the dish. Here is the recipe, if you want to try it. Next time (and there will be a next time - as we cooked the whole packet of pasta, which was far too much and now have half of it frozen, waiting to be stuffed with a different filling. Perhaps a thick cream sauce with prawns, or a mushroom and spinach filling?

For the tomato and pepper sauce

1 T olive oil - 1 large onion, finely chopped – 2 cloves of garlic, chopped – 1 tin of chopped tomatoes - 1 large red pepper, sliced - 3 stalks of thyme – salt – freshly ground black pepper – sugar

Gently sweat the onion in the oil till soft, then add the garlic and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the pepper and the tomatoes and thyme and cook covered until they have broken down and made a nice thick sauce. Do stir occasionally and season. It the mixture is too acid, add a teaspoon or two of sugar. This is often necessary with local tinned tomatoes. If the mixture looks too thick, do add a little water

Pasta recipe

Conchiglioni – very large pasta shells – 350g fresh ricotta cheese – 2 fresh egg, lightly beaten – 180g fresh spinach – 1 tin of salmon – salt and pepper – nutmeg – half a cup of grated parmesan cheese – 200g mozzarella or taleggio

Cook the pasta according to instructions until it is ‘al dente’ (still with a bite, not floppy and soft). You will need about 5 shells per person and the cooked pasta left over will freeze. Cook the spinach briefly, then strain well and dry it off as much as you can. (You can use Swiss chard but real spinach is far better). Finely chop then add to the ricotta with the eggs, seasoning and several gratings of nutmeg. Drain the can of salmon; flake it and stir into the cheese and spinach mix. Use this to stuff the pasta shells. In a large ceramic serving dish that will go into the oven, put a 2cm layer of the tomato sauce then arrange your pasta shells. Top with the parmesan and slices of the soft cheese. Cover with foil and put into the oven at 180°C for half an hour before serving. You can serve with extra tomato and pepper sauce

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Courgette Soufflé

BE BRAVE

Soufflés are regarded as something terribly difficult to make and they just are not. If you have been watching Masterchef, you would have seen a good Master class on them and learnt the tip of properly greasing the dish: how to carefully fold in the egg whites so that you don’t knock the stuffing out of them. What you need is a thick flavoured sauce into which you stir egg yolks while the sauce is warm (not hot) and then gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. They do need to go into a hot oven and they must not be disturbed until they are nearly finished. And – you can reheat the cheese variety the next day for what is known as a twice baked soufflé, to be served with a cheese sauce. You can make savoury or sweet soufflés. Do be brave and have a go – you will be surprised how easy they are. Two tips – use eggs that are slightly old and that have been taken out of the fridge to get to room temperature

6 medium courgettes – 4 eggs, separated – 175g grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg – a dash of Tabasco - sea salt - a grinding or two of black pepper – a little vegetable oil

Roughly grate the courgettes, put them in a sieve and plunge it into boiling salted water for 1 minute, then plunge into ice cold water to refresh. Drain well and pat dry. Stir into the egg yolks, add the cheese, nutmeg, Tabasco, salt and pepper. Grease a small soufflé dish with the oil or use individual ramekins. Stiffly whip the egg whites then fold them carefully into the courgette mixture. Bake in a moderate oven at 180ºC until they are puffed up and golden on the outside. As a variation you could add some flaked cooked fish or some slivers of cooked meat or chicken

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Venison in Port

The supermarkets have lots of venison at the moment and this is one of our favourite ways to cook it. We know it is traditional to tenderise the venison in buttermilk, but we find that this softens it too much. The port works very well indeed to tenderise the meat; it does not taste too sweet when roasted and it isn’t necessary to use an expensive, old bottle. You do need to start this a day or two before you plan to cook it, because it does need to marinate for at least 24 hours or longer

A small leg of venison (Springbok) 1.5 to 2kg – a bottle of red port - 1 tablespoon wine vinegar - 1 sliced onion - 1 teaspoon crushed coriander seeds - 1 teaspoon crushed Juniper Berries - 2 crushed cloves of garlic - a large sprig of thyme or marjoram - ground black pepper – salt – strips of bacon or beef fat

Pour the port over the venison in a deep china or glass bowl and marinate with all the ingredients (except the bacon or fat) for at least 24–36 hours. Dry off the meat and roast, covering the roast with some strips of fat to protect it. Venison is a very lean meat and does need protecting or it will dry out. You can use the marinade (strained) to make delicious gravy to serve with the roast. Traditionally, it is served with matchstick potatoes, and good winter vegetables like roast parsnips, butternut and some green peas

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Moroccan Lamb Kebabs flavoured with Ras Al Hanout

We sold lots of unusual spices and spice mixes at Main Ingredient. One of our most popular was Ras al Hanout – the quintessential spice mix from Morocco which is used in tagines and many other dishes. This is a rub for kebabs and is very easy to prepare

25g Ras al Hanout Spice - 1 clove of garlic - 1 t grated fresh ginger - 1 shallot - 1 T chopped flat parsley - ½ teaspoon of flaked sea salt - 800g lean lamb cut into cubes

Warm the Ras al Hanout mix in a dry frying pan for a minute to release the flavours, then add them to a pestle and mortar in which you have put the garlic, parsley, finely chopped shallot and the ginger and salt. Crush well together, then spread onto lamb cubes and put onto wooden skewers. Put them into a Pyrex dish in the fridge overnight and onto the barbeque the next day. This will allow the flavours to permeate the meat. You can also put this mixture onto chicken, beef or goat. When the kebabs come off the fire, slide the meat off the skewers and wrap it in warm pita bread or tortilla wraps - very good finger food! Serve with salads, harissa, plain yogurt and preserved lemons

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Pamela’s Chicken and Pistachio Paté

8 thin slices of Parma or Prosciutto ham – 2 T butter – 2 T olive oil – 80g finely diced bacon – 1 onion, finely chopped – 2 cloves of garlic, crushed – 500g chicken livers – 3 bay leaves – 80ml brandy or sherry – 125 g butter, softened – 50 g pistachio nuts, toasted

You will need a loaf tin, which you line neatly with cling film or foil. Then carefully line it with the slices of ham, so that it hangs over the sides, making sure each slice overlaps. Heat the butter and oil together and fry the bacon, onion and garlic for 5 to 6 minutes, or until soft but not browned

Trim the livers of any veins, fat or filaments. Add them to the pan with the bay leaves and cook for 3 to 4 minutes until they are brown on the outside but still pink inside. Add the brandy or sherry and simmer stirring continuously for 3 minutes or until the liquid has almost disappeared. Remove the bay leaf. Put the mixture into a food processor and blend to a very fine texture. Gradually add the rest of the butter and blend till smooth. Season, then stir in the pistachios. Spoon the mixture into the tin and fold the ham over the top to enclose it. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. You can keep this in the fridge for a couple of days; the flavour will improve and it will be easier to slice. Cut into slices and serve with crisp French bread, toast points or melba toast

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Peking Braised Beef

1 tablespoon peanut or canola oil - 500g beef (Shin, brisket, sirloin, even fillet) in one piece - Spring Onions, sliced diagonally into 7.5 cm pieces - 2 slices fresh, peeled ginger -half a small onion or one shallot, chopped finely

Braising Sauce

400ml good chicken stock - 2 whole star anise - 2 oz sugar - 1.5 tablespoons dark soy sauce - 1 tablespoon Shao Xing rice wine - Half a cinnamon stick - 2 teaspoons sesame paste (Tahini) - 1 tablespoon Hoi Sin sauce -2 teaspoons Szechuan Pepper

Heat the oil in a heavy pan. Brown the beef. Then add the spring onions, ginger and onion to the pan and continue to fry for 5 minutes. Add the braising sauce ingredients. Bring the liquid to the boil, skim off any excess fat and turn down the heat until it is just a very slow simmer. Cover and braise for 1½ hours or until the beef is quite tender. Baste and turn the beef a couple of times during the cooking

Remove the beef and slice thinly. Serve the slices on a bed of noodles, cover the meat with sauce and serve with braised Pak Choi – a Chinese vegetable somewhere between Swiss chard and cos lettuce

You can serve this cold. The sauce will turn into a jelly if you use beef shin

If you wish to double up the quantities, buy two pieces of meat of 500 grams rather than one large one. This will serve 4 to 6 and more if served with other Chinese dishes

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Fennel Ratatouille with Puy Lentils

Originally published on Friday September 29, 2006

Lynne promised a Puy lentil recipe for last week’s newsletter, then forgot to deliver. Apologies. We served this (low GI) dish with roast lamb on Heritage Day. The Puy lentils are delicious and the only reason they are cooked separately from the ratatouille is that they colour it the most alarming shade of khaki green if you cook them together.

1 small aubergine – salt - 1 onion – 1 T olive oil - 1 fennel bulb - 3 courgettes – 3 tomatoes - 3 cloves garlic – small bunch of thyme, chopped – 50 ml white wine – 100g Puy lentils - sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook in a stove top casserole with a tightly fitting lid. Chop the aubergine into 3 cm chunks, salt and leave for 20 minutes to get rid of any bitter juices. Rinse well. Chop the onion into 2cm chunks and fry in the oil till it just begins to take colour. Chop the rest of the vegetables into rough chunks, then add to the casserole. Crush the garlic and add it too, along with the thyme. Season, cover and allow to simmer gently in their own juices for 20 minutes until the vegetables are softening, stirring once or twice. At the same time, cover the lentils with water, add the wine (don’t salt) and simmer until soft then drain and add to the fennel stew. Adjust the seasoning and serve

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Moroccan Chicken Tagine

Our recipe this week is one more way to use left-over cooked chicken, chic enough to serve to your friends. Serves four. Use a standard cup measure

On Sunday this week, Lynne made a very straightforward roast chicken, cooked in a bag with lots of herbs and garlic, and served it with boiled new potatoes, lots of good white wine and chicken stock gravy and lots and lots of vegetables. Putting this together takes a very little time and produces a lovely Sunday dinner. But we only ate half the chicken. On Monday, she took out a roll of flaky pastry from the freezer – we always keep some’ in case’ and fried up some onion, celery and garlic, added frozen peas, the remains of the chicken, potatoes and the vegetables cut into bite sized pieces, moistened the mixture with the rest of the gravy and made a chicken pie which has fed us for one meal with another two meal portions waiting in the freezer for another time. That means one chicken went into four meals and, if she had had the time, she could have made some chicken soup with the carcass

2 T olive oil - 1 onion, chopped – 2 cloves garlic, crushed – 2 t Ras el Hanout spice mix - 1 tin chickpeas – 2 cups of diced butternut – 2 cups of diced courgettes - 2 parsnips, sliced – 8 to 10 baby potatoes – a can of chopped tomatoes– 1 cup chicken stock – ¼ cup of dried apricots – ¼ cup of green, pipped or stuffed olives – 2 or 3 cups of skinless cooked chicken, cut into bite sized pieces – ¼ cup of almonds – one preserved lemon cut into small slices

Fry the onion in the oil till soft and taking on colour, add the garlic and the Ras el Hanout and fry for a further 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chickpeas, butternut, courgettes, parsnips, potatoes, tomatoes and stock and cook for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Add the rest of the ingredients and warm through well. Serve with couscous or rice.

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Zuppa di Fagioli alla Fiorentina (Florentine Bean Soup)

This is the authentic bean soup recipe from Florence. The Tuscans have been renowned for centuries for their great love of bean-eating! The soup is placed in a wide ovenproof dish, covered with thinly sliced onions, coated with a sheen of olive oil and heated in the oven until the onions form a perfect golden crust. Serves 4

1kg fresh or 450 g dried cannellini or borlotti beans - 5 large cloves garlic - 2 large onions, peeled and chopped - 8 tablespoons olive oil - 1 carrot, finely chopped - 1 leek, chopped - 1 stick celery, chopped - 1 large ripe tomato, chopped - 1 ham hock - 1.5 litres water – salt - ½ teaspoon beef extract - 275 g black Tuscan cabbage or dark green cabbage leaves washed and cut into large pieces - 1 sprig fresh rosemary - 2.5g dried thyme - 4 slices coarse white bread - 5 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

If you're using dried beans, soak them overnight and boil twice for 5-10 minutes, washing in between each boiling. Drain and discard the water

Peel and chop 2 of the garlic cloves and fry with the chopped onions in 3 tablespoons of olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the chopped vegetables and the ham bone, the beans and cold water. Add a pinch or two of salt and the beef extract. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour or until the beans are tender

Remove the ham hock and 1 large ladleful of whole, cooked beans. Liquidise or sieve the rest of the soup. Return the whole beans to the soup with the cabbage. Continue to simmer gently until the cabbage is tender. Cut off some of the meat from the ham hock, cube it and put it into the soup

Meanwhile, pour the remaining olive oil into a small saucepan and heat it gently with the rosemary, thyme and 2 more of the garlic cloves, unpeeled but crushed. After 10 minutes or so, strain the oil into the soup and heat it through for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Toast the bread in the oven. Peel the remaining garlic clove and rub each side of each slice of bread with it. Place the bread in the bottom of a warmed soup tureen. Pour the soup over the bread, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve at once

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Umngqusho

Some History (Published on Suite101 on 26/01/11): Samp and Beans is a traditional dish of the Nguni people of South Africa. Referred to as isistambu by the Zulu people and umngqusho by the Xhosa people – the biggest Nguni groups – the dish is made from slowly cooked sugar beans and samp (crushed corn kernels). It is believed that the word ‘samp’ comes from the Native American word ‘naussamp’ which the English called ‘samp’, according to Alice Morse Earle in Customs and Fashions in Old New England (p.81). Seeing that South Africa was also once a British colony, it is likely that the word travelled to the country’s shores in due time

250g samp – 125g sugar beans – 1 T canola oil – 1 onion finely chopped– 1 clove of garlic – 1 or 2 chillies, chopped - 200ml meat or vegetable stock -1 large tomato, chopped - 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into 3 cm cubes - salt – pepper

Rinse the samp & beans in a colander under running water. Soak them overnight or for at least 12 hours in twice their volume of water. Rinse again before cooking and do not cook in the soaking liquid, it will give you stomach problems. Cook them for 2 hours until they start to get soft. Use a pressure cooker and it takes only about 30 to 40 minutes. Sauté the onion in a little oil till soft, add the garlic and the chilli and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomato, the stock and the potatoes. Simmer until the potato is soft. Combine the two mixtures, season with salt and pepper and continue to cook until they are all soft

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Prego Lamb with Samp and Beans

Here is our recipe for Samp and Beans. Traditionally, you could use 1 or 2 spoonfuls of curry powder to flavour it as well.800g of lamb shanks or cooked lamb, cut into pieces – ½ a bottle of Prego sauce

Cover the lamb in the sauce, put into a covered casserole and cook slowly in the oven at 170°C until the lamb is soft. You will not need any other flavourings

1 small butternut, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes – 1 T olive oil – a good scraping of nutmeg – salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mix together and cook in a covered Pyrex dish in the microwave for about 8 minutes or until just soft

Mix together with the Samp and Bean mixture and serve with the spicy lamb on top, and a mixed leaf green salad of rocket, watercress and baby spinach

Umngqusho

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Spicy Thai Prawns in Coconut Milk

We hear that we are heading into some hot weather and we always start to feel the need for spicy and hot food! Tonight Lynne is making prawns in coconut milk and we thought you might like the recipe. It should be aromatic and be hot, sweet, savoury and sour all at the same time and then nice and creamy because of the coconut milk. You can use chicken or pork or fish. Serves 4

1 T Red Curry paste - 1 T canola oil - 2 cloves garlic, chopped - 1 chopped red chilli - 400ml can Coconut Milk - 200ml water - 2 T fish sauce - 2 T palm sugar - 2 T lime juice - 1 bruised stalk of lemon grass - a few thin slices of fresh peeled ginger - 1/2kg large peeled prawns Optional: a few broccoli spears, or mange tout

Fry the red curry paste in the oil, add the garlic and chilli and stir for a few moments then add the coconut milk and the water. Stir well to blend then add the fish sauce, palm sugar, lime juice, lemongrass and ginger and simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes, tasting and adjusting the flavours. Put in the prawns and cook till they are pink and done. Add the vegetables and cook for just another minute.

Serve with Steamed Jasmine Rice or very thin rice noodles and accompany with 3 to 4 T roasted cashews or peanuts, roughly chopped, and 4 T toasted coconut flakes

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Goat’s Cheese Panna Cotta

(you will need to make this in advance to allow it to set)

1 round of Fairview chevin goat’s cheese - 1 tub of pouring cream - 3 sheets of leaf gelatine - a little milk - freshly ground black or pink pepper - sea salt Optional: 2 T small ½cm cubes of fresh celery - 2 finely chopped pepperdrops

Put the cream and the cheese into a small pan and heat gently till the cheese melts into the cream. Do NOT boil. If it is very thick, add a little milk. It should coat the back of a spoon. As soon as it has melted, remove from the heat and add the flavourings. Soak the leaf gelatine in cold water for just a few minutes till it softens, remove, shake off any water and put into the pan with the warm cream cheese mixture. Stir until the gelatine dissolves completely. If you like a bit of texture, stir in the celery and the pepperdrops. Pour into a square dish (approx 16 cm) and put into the fridge to set. Cut into single portion squares and serve as a starter with melba toast. Decorate your plate with rocket and watercress, a drizzle of a nut oil and a drizzle of Orange Zest balsamic reduction. You could add a segment or two of orange or another fruit. You could also serve in individual ramekins

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Summer Nectarines in Muscadel

Done recently for a Sunday night supper, this uses the wonderful seasonal nectarines we are enjoying at the moment. It is light and fresh because the nectarines are not cooked, just marinated. For six people you will probably need 8 nectarines, as seconds may be called for. You need to start in the morning or even the day before. It is easy but a little fiddly. If you can’t get the stones out easily without bruising the fruit, slice it instead of serving it in halves

8 ripe nectarines – bottle of white or red muscadel – 250ml cream – caster sugar to taste - Amaretto liqueur

Put the nectarines in a deep bowl, pour on boiling water to cover and leave for five minutes. Put in a tray of ice cubes to cool it down, then drain. Peel - you will find the skin comes away from the fruit easily. Carefully cut the nectarines in half and remove the stones. Put in a bowl and cover with the muscadel. Leave to marinade in the fridge for at least 6 to 7 hours or overnight. Before serving, stir a couple of spoonfuls of sugar into the cream (to your own taste), lightly whip it till forming peaks, then stir in about 2 tablespoons of Amaretto, again to your taste. Serve this with the nectarines and the muscadel juice

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This Week’s MENU. Birthday lunch at Chefs Warehouse, Top Ten Pinotage Awards lunch, Bottling Vineyard Hotel's Sauvignon, New vintage De Wetshof Limestone Hill, Sopa de Garbanzos, MENU’s Wine of the Week

A male pin-tailed whydah (Vidua macroura) in non-breeding plumage

Last weekend began with a bang and ended with a mess. In between, we had a great time in the Overberg, but we’ll tell you about that next week. Sometimes you have a week which has exceptionally high points and some dreadful lows and this was one of them. We enjoyed some wonderful wines, great food, beautiful places and lovely company. That was the good part. On Friday morning, on our way to Klein Constantia on a wet road, just as we entered the freeway behind the Convention Centre, a truck changed lanes without warning and the cars behind it had to brake very quickly. The car behind us didn’t, which is why our car’s rear end needs a bit of plastic surgery, not serious but a nuisance nevertheless. Then, after a super weekend with our wine club, we arrived home on Monday evening to find that burglars had forced the back door and trashed a lot of the interior of our house – without, it seems, stealing anything. The police say that they must have been after a safe with guns or money. We are impecunious scribes, we don’t have those things. We had a long list of stories for you, but sorting out our home has stolen some of the time we needed, so some of them will appear next week. We hope you’ll enjoy these…

Birthday lunch at Chefs Warehouse, Beau Constantia

We are great admirers of Chef Liam Tomlin and the innovative food he and his chefs prepare. On Lynne's birthday last year, we celebrated at the Chefs Warehouse in Heritage Square in town. We have since been to Thali, his Indian restaurant. This year, she chose to go to the Chef's Warehouse at Beau Constantia. It was a grey and fairly chilly day but the views from the farm do make up for it.

The Top Ten Pinotage Awards lunch at Cavalli, Stellenbosch

The Top 10 Pinotage Awards lunch was held this week at Cavalli Estate in the Helderberg ward of Stellenbosch. The panel of judges for the 2018 competition consisted of Neil Ellis of Neil Ellis Wines (chairman), Samarie Smith, Benguela Cove’s Brand and Business Manager, winemaker Francois Haasbroek, wine educator Nomonde Kubheka and Francois Rautenbach, wine buyer for Singita. First. we met in the tent to taste the top 20 finalists.

Bottling The Vineyard Hotel's 2018 Sauvignon Blanc at Klein Constantia

The Vineyard Hotel in Newlands has a small vineyard which produces Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon grapes. They are vinified each year by one of the partner wineries and this year it was the turn of wine maker Mathew Day at Klein Constantia. On Friday we were invited to help with the bottling of the new wines from the 2018 vintage at the farm

New vintage of De Wetshof Limestone Hill Chardonnay

An invitation from De Wetshof to the launch of this year's Limestone Hill Chardonnay. The launch was held at the recently opened Upper Bloem restaurant which, rather confusingly, is nowhere near Upper Bloem Road in Bo Kaap, but is on Main Road in Green Point, near the Stadium. This is a new venture for Chef Henry Vigar and his wife Mari, who have been very successful with their restaurant, La Mouette in Sea Point, where they played a great part in re-establishing Sea Point as a place to eat

On the MENU this week Sopa de Garbanzos (Moorish Chickpea and Spinach Soup)
Given the cold and thankfully wet winter we have had, Lynne took a risk and planted a pot full of spinach. No, not chard, real spinach. It was needing a first harvest of rain-drenched leaves, so she went searching for a suitable recipe. The weather has been SO cold for Cape Town and soup is again on the menu. This is from the Casa Moro cookbook, a favourite in our household, by Sam and Sam Clark of Moro restaurant in London

400 g home cooked chickpeas (see below) or 2 x 400g cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained – 1 pinch of bicarbonate of soda - 150 ml extra virgin olive oil – 300g fresh spinach, washed and well drained – 75g white bread, crust removed, cut into 2 cm cubes – 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced – ¾ of a teaspoon cumin seeds – 2 heaped tablespoons of fresh, roughly chopped oregano – 1 small dried chilli, crumbled – 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar – 700-800 ml water or chickpea liquor, or a mixture of the two – 60 threads of saffron, infused in 4 Tablespoons of boiling water – ½ teaspoon of sweet Spanish paprika – sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

If using dried chickpeas, place them in a bowl with plenty of cold water and a pinch of bicarbonate of soda and leave to soak overnight. Drain in a colander, rinse well, then place in a saucepan with half an onion or 1 head of garlic. Cover with 2 litres of cold water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, skimming off any scum, for 1 to 2 hours or until soft and tender. (Lynne: it’s so much easier to open two tins!)

Place a large saucepan over a medium heat and add 1.5 Tablespoons of oil. When hot, add the spinach with a pinch of salt and stir well. Remove when the leaves have wilted and are just tender. Cool then chop quite finely and set aside

Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and fry the bread cubes until golden brown all over, then add the garlic and cumin seeds. When the garlic begins to colour, add the oregano and chilli, and continue cooking until the garlic is brown. Transfer to a mortar and pestle or food processor with the vinegar and mash to a paste. Now put the bread paste into the saucepan, add the drained chickpeas, water, saffron infusion and paprika and simmer for 10 minutes. Whizz the chickpeas until almost smooth (we prefer a little bit of texture to the soup). Return to the pan if necessary and season with salt and pepper. If the consistency is too thick (a bit thicker than double cream is right) add some more water. Stir in the spinach until it too is hot. Check seasoning and serve

MENU’s Wine of the Week. De Wetshof Limestone Hill Chardonnay 2018

We tasted this wine at the launch last week and it so impressed us. It is the top seller of the six De Wetshof Chardonnays and is unwooded. Limes and lemon blossom perfume on the friendly nose with some brioche, butter and marmalade hints from the lees. A good prickle on the tongue; the wine is fruity and rounded with citrus, apple, white peach and a little tropical hint, followed by some nice soft chalky tannins and minerality. It pairs with all sorts of food really well, from soups to fish to meat and goes especially well with rich sauces

24th August 2018

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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