Thursday, November 13, 2014

Main Ingredient's MENU - Fantinel from Friuli, Boland Chenin, Bocca, Festivals, Roast Baby Beetroot Salad

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A dramatic Sea Point sunset
In this week’s MENU:
* Elgin Sauvignon Blanc
* This week’s recipe: Roast Baby Beetroot with Goats cheese & Walnuts
* Tastings and Festivals
* Learn about wine and cooking
To get the whole of our story, please click onREAD ON.....” at the end of each paragraph, which will lead you to the related blog, with pictures and more words. At the end of each blog, click on RETURN TO MENU to come back to the blog version of MENU.
This week’s Product menu      Nut oils. We have Walnut, Hazelnut and Argon oil. They are imported and therefore a luxury but so worth it as they add so much to the dishes they are added to.  See them here
One part of our job that we love is the different places we get to visit, eat at and often stay. It must be a nightmare for PRO’s finding all these superb venues for functions, we just love exploring them. They don’t always work as venues, the Waterfront can be a little noisy and in your face, with tourists peering in but it is central, and if you pick your spot carefully, there are a lot of hidden corners. And places in the country can be so romantic and graceful, as we found this week.
An Italian experience      Unless we go abroad, we don’t often get the opportunity to taste single estate regional wines from Europe and it is always a very good learning experience when we do. On Monday we were invited to a tasting of wine from the Fruili area in North East Italy by the producer Fantinel. The tasting was held at Mondiall restaurant in the Waterfront. We were welcomed with a glass of chilled crisp Spumante Prosecco DOC extra Dry and then proceeded upstairs to taste their range of wines which they export to South Africa. The company was founded in 1969 by grandfather Mario Fantinel, who was in the hotel and restaurant business when he bought his first vineyards, continued by his sons Luciano, Gianfranco and Loris and is now run by the third generation Marco, Stefano and Mariaelena.
Lunch downstairs in the main restaurant was prepared for us by Chef/owner Peter Tempelhoff and was rather tempting and special. It certainly went with the wines served. Read on.....
Boland celebrates Chenin’s Terroir      Johan Joubert has left Kleine Zalze and “returned home” to Boland Kelders after 12 years of award winning winemaking elsewhere. He is now the Cellarmaster and was joined on Tuesday by CEO Paul Malan and Sales & Marketing Director Maraleze Knoetze to present eight different examples of different Chenin Blancs they are producing. These are from different soils on their 2,200 hectares from five different wards in Berg River, Swartland, Philadelphia, Wellington and the Paardeberg.
It was a fascinating tasting, especially now that site specific wines are the current subject of discussion in the industry and we gain momentum mapping our soils, climate and terroir. You can indeed taste the different terroirs in the wines. We got to see some of the different soil types and they are amazingly different from their farms all over the Boland. Don’t let these wines slip off your radar, we think they are about to do amazing things. And if you don’t know their wines you can go to their tasting room in Wellington. They are sold at very reasonable prices for very high quality. Read on.....
Elgin Sauvignon Blanc      We took part in another Elgin “Tweet up” this week. This time we tasted 15 Sauvignon Blancs. The room was hugely disadvantaged by bad internet connections so, sadly, we couldn’t get many of our tweets out. No chance sadly on the last four as connections just packed up, even 3G. It must have been the storm. We had lively debates on how Sauvignon Blanc should taste, especially from the ‘naughty table’, it’s nice to see what the young like. Sean Skibbe from South Hill did his best to herd a group of “cats”, but the wines we tasted were all interesting. We loved some of the classics like the Paul Cluver and the Iona stood out above the rest by head and shoulders. But some preferred the newer more tropical style. Is this what Elgin should be doing? Make what your soil gives you, don’t try to turn Sauvignon into something else is our comment. You can’t grow chenin, don’t use SB as a substitute. We think a new larger venue without pizza oven smells throughout might be a good move for the future though. These “tweet ups’ so work for us.
“In Bocca al Lupo”      Which means “Good Luck” to Neil Grant of Burrata fame for the future of his second great restaurant. Bocca (means mouth in Italian) is on the corner of Bree and Wale Streets in Cape Town and last night it was rocking. They have a lovely, simple menu with something to suit all tastes and we got to sample some of the pizzas with a glass (or two) of wine. People were clamouring to get in, a restaurant across the road with a similar theme was empty and we think it is going to be a great success. They make the perfect Margarita pizza. Just the right tomato sugo, good herb flavours and superb mozzarella on a thin pizza base. And there are lots of other flavours to try. Read on.....
This week’s Recipe      This is a lovely ‘cooked’ salad that works well as a starter or as an accompaniment to other salads and it is very good option for vegetarians. Walnut oil is not obligatory, you can substitute olive oil but it does add so much more depth and flavour. The honey is to counter the acidity of the wine vinegar. Go easy, the beets may be quite sweet.
Roast Baby Beetroot with Goats cheese & Walnuts
500 g baby beets – 1 garlic clove, - good sprig of fresh thyme – 1 T olive oil – 100 g soft creamy goats cheese (Chevin) – 2 to 3 T walnut or olive oil – 1 T red wine vinegar – juices from the roasted beets – 1 t honey – flake salt and freshly ground black pepper – 500g mixed baby leaves of peppery rocket and spinach – 25g walnuts
Leave 1 cm of stem on the beetroot. Wash the beets well to get rid of any soil, then dry. Place them with the garlic clove, and the thyme on some foil, drizzle with the olive oil and make into a well sealed parcel. Roast in a preheated 180°C oven for at least an hour. The beetroot is cooked when a knife will slip easily through one. Remove from the foil when still warm and peel off the skin and quarter the beets (you might want to wear gloves) and don’t let them get cold, they are impossible to peel. Keep the juices in the foil. Make a dressing with the walnut oil, vinegar, beet juices, a little honey and salt and pepper to taste, When ready to assemble, put the leaves on a plate, scatter over the beetroot, then the crumbled cheese, dress with the vinaigrette and scatter over the walnuts. Serves 4
It is Festival season, we may see you at one or all of these: Bosman Release Celebration on Lelienfontein estate on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th November. Bosman Wine Club members each receive two complimentary tickets. Tickets can be booked online through Webtickets. Additional tickets for family and friends can also be booked at R150pp. Ticket includes access to both days, a wine glass and a R50 voucher redeemable with your first purchase of six bottles of wine on the day. Tasting journey through the 250 year old cellar. Children under 12 enter free of charge. Food is sold at an additional cost of R50 per station. Live entertainment.
Wine Concepts will celebrate their thirteenth year of staging their “Finer Things in Life” Champagne Festival with the theme of Ebony & Ivory on Friday 21st November from 6 pm. They will be offering more than 40 cuvees for tasting from premium and boutique French Champagne Houses to tantalize your taste buds. Expect names like Taittinger, Piper Heidsieck, Drappier, Mumm, Ruinart, Montaudon, Jacquart, Philipponat and many more. For the price of one bottle of entry level Champagne, R380, you get to taste many of the best ‘marques’ in France. There will be a lucky draw, canapés and prizes for the best dressed. This year’s theme is Ebony and Ivory and dress will be smart (and formal if you wish). Tickets from R380.00 if purchased from Wine Concepts stores or online on www.webtickets.co.za Tickets will be on sale for R400 at the door on the evening.
Franschhoek’s “The Magic of Bubbles Cap Classique and Champagne festival will be held this year on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th November from 12 to 5 pm in the gardens of the Huguenot Monument. Their theme this year is Parasols and Panama Hats, very suitable for the usually hot weather. Tickets here There is a reduction if you pre-book using a MasterCard.
The Cape Town Festival of Beer Yes, we also like beer. John used to brew at home. and will one day have the time to do so again. Lynne is British, so it’s a given. And Cape Town is having its annual Beer Festival at Hamilton’s Rugby Club on Green Point Common from Friday, 28th November to Sunday 30th. Get your tickets now. This is very popular and gets very crowded, so go early.
There is a huge and rapidly growing variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. There are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have made separate list for each type of event for which we have information. To see what’s happening in our world of food and wine (and a few other cultural events), visit our list of wine and food pairing dinners, list of Special events with wine and/or food connections, list of Wine Shows and Tastings and list of special dinner events. All the events are listed in date order and we have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Events outside the Western Cape are listed here.
Learn about wine and cooking We receive a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details of Cathy’s WSET and other courses here and here and the CWA courses here. Karen Glanfield has taken over the UnWined wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here
The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become professional chefs, has a variety of courses. See the details here
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here.
In addition to the new Sense of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details here
Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek and conducts cooking tours to Normandy. You can see more details here.
Emma Freddi runs the Enrica Rocca cooking courses at her home in Constantia.
Lynn Angel runs the Kitchen Angel cooking school and does private dinners at her home. She holds hands-on cooking classes for small groups on Monday and Thursday evenings and she has decided to introduce LCHF (Banting classes). The Kitchen Confidence classes, which focus on essential cooking skills and methods, have been expanded and are now taught over 2 evenings. She continues to host private dining and culinary team building events at her home. She trained with Raymond Blanc, and has been a professional chef for 25 years. More info here






13th November 2014
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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.
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.

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