food and drink – Page 6 – Notes from the Cape

Published December 12, 2011

The Stone Kitchen

Last Sunday, we decided to drive to Wellington for lunch and some wine tasting. What we had completely forgotten is that small towns like Wellington close on a Sunday. Absolutely nothing was open. Well almost nothing…

Dunstone wines

But, it was still wonderful weather, so we were not going to let that stop us. So with the help of some friends who live in the area (thanks Doug from PT Productions and Dawn from Jorgensen Distillery), we managed to find what was probably the only open place in Wellington, but also one of the nicest restaurants I have ever been to. It is called The Stone Kitchen, and it is found on the Dunstone wine estate. At about 2 hectors of vines, it is a tiny little estate but with some fabulous wine. But the restaurant was great, the food was simple, fresh and tasty.

When we arrived they were full, but after a quick wine tasting at the bar counter (we finally got our wine tasting), they found us a table. The chef came out to introduce the menu, and we made our choices.

Warthog Burger

I had a grated warthog burger, with onion marmalade and cheese, and Lois had the goat’s cheese salad. Now for Lois to eat goat anything is pretty amazing! But at the chef’s instance she tried some of the goat cheese, and she loved it. She actually asked where they got such good goat’s cheese (that does not taste like, well…goat). I could tell you the answer but I will save that for a future post.

The chef

So two suggestions. Firstly if you want to go wine tasting on a Sunday, stick to the well-known areas like Stellenbosch or Paarl, and if you want a fantastic meal, goto the Stone Kitchen (but best to book – they were very full). And their sauvignon blanc and merlot are both brillant wines. We took a few bottle of each home with us.

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Published November 28, 2011

At the market

Markets are always great places for photos, especially when there is great food. And when you goto a market in an Afrikaans area, you are assured of plenty of great food shooting opportunities.

This particular market was in the park directly across the road from our holiday house in Langebaan. Langebaan is a small seaside holiday village on the West coast about an hour from Cape Town. Like most small town markets, it had an eclectic collection of great food, lovely hand-crafts and rubbish. It amazes me how you can see wonderful food and beautiful carvings right next to miscellaneous junk from somebody’s recently cleaned up house. And I am not talking about old antiques. No, this is just junk that nobody wants, but is still for sale on the off-chance that somebody might buy it. And have you noticed how all markets have at least one junk stall?

Anyway, lets straight past the junk to the good stuff.

Big yellow blocks of Boere-kaas (farm cheese)

Handmade dark chocolate cupcakes

Handmade pepper grinders

These pepper grinders are hand made from tree branches, resulting in grinders that have a natural variation in shape and size. If you examine the quality of these grinders, and the hard work that went into the turning and varnishing of them, it is difficult to really put a fair price on them. They are truly beautiful.

These samosas were a little unexpected at an Afrikaans market (especially vegetarian samosas), but nevertheless they were freshly made, crispy and excellent.

Like most small markets you can walk through and see everything in about 1/2 an hour. Will you life be unfulfilled if you miss it? No. Will you have an enjoyable 1/2 hour delay if you are driving past? Yes, worth the visit, but don’t stay too long.

Go hungry!

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Published November 25, 2011

Mince pies for luck

In some traditions, it is considered good luck to eat a mince pie every day for the 12 days before Christmas, and even luckier to eat each pie in a different home. In my family it is far more simple.

Every mince pie eaten before Christmas gives you a month’s good luck.

So the more you eat, the better your luck (assuming they don’t kill you from a heart attack). Of course eating 12 pies guarantees your luck for the next year. To continue this nonsensical and superstitious tradition, I ate my first mince pie of the season last night; like I need an excuse to eat a mince pie. It was supplied by my friend Sandra, and baked by her husband.

Ok to tell the truth, my luck is guaranteed for at least the next two months, and I am bound to have a little more luck coming my way soon.

Enjoy the pies :-)

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Published October 9, 2011

Espetada at Forries

Francois’ Espedata

The weather this weekend has been glorious (you may notice that Capetonians have an obsession with the weather), so a group of us decided to have an outdoor lunch at Forries in Claremont. Foresters Arms, which is a traditional English pub, has been around for as long as I can remember. And they server about 15 beers on tap (which is very rare for Cape Town).

Francois could not resist the Espedata, which looked fantastic. But at 400 grams, it was simply big a meal for me, so I settled on a chicken burger covered with Bree and cranberry sauce.

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Tomato tart with gruyere pastry

We are supposed to be at Kirstenbosch Gardens having a birthday picnic with our friend Sarah, but alas I am having an acute and sudden dose of pollen allergy, so I don’t think that an afternoon in the botanical gardens in spring is such a good idea.

However, our contribution to the picnic was going to be a baby tomatoe tart with gruyere pastry, which Lois still made for lunch.

It is really simple to make and very yummy. Here is the recipe:

Fry 1 chopped onion and 4 cloves chopped garlic
Mix about 800 g baby tomatos with 1/4 cup salt, 1/2 cup chopped basil, 1.5t sugar, and a little salt and pepper
Mix in the onion/garlic mixture
Put the tomatos mixture into a ceramic pie dish
Cover dish with puff pastry from the supermarket
Brush some egg over the pasty
Finally sprinkle about 1/2 cup finely gruyere cheese over the top
Bake at 180 for about an hour, and leave to stand for a few mintues before cutting

Serve hot or cold. Yummy indeed!

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Published September 24, 2011

Artichokes for lunch

My local fruit and vegetable shop had a whole basket of fresh artichokes, so guess what I am having for lunch today? Yes the look weird to eat, but they are excellent!

Instructions:

Boil until the other leaves are soft.
Pull the leaves off
Bite into the fleshy bits of the leaves and eat (a bit like you would eat an unpeeled roasted clove of garlic)
When you get to the inside, scrape the hairs off and eat the heart, which is the best bit.

Great with a vinaigrette or melted butter.

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New York Cheese Cake

When we were in Delaware, we had an amazing cheese cake for dessert one night. Pam, who made it could not join us because she was receiving some “hurricane refugees” at her house. But on the night of Hurricane Irene, I met Pam, and she gave me the recipe. It is easy to make, unhealthy and good. I tried it out last night at a friends birthday dinner and it was excellent.

Although it uses a lot of cream cheese, it feeds about 10 people, so there is plenty to go around.

Here is my metricated and slightly modified version of the recipe:

Use a 24cm Spring Form Pan

Crust Ingredients

1 1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp of vanilla
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup butter

Place butter into mixing bowl. Pour flour and sugar on top of butter. “Fork-In” flour and sugar into butter. Add Vanilla and Yolks.

Roll dough into ball and place in refrigerator for 1 hour.

Roll out 1/2 of the dough (OR I JUST PRESS THE DOUGH WITH MY FINGERS ) on the greased Base of the Spring Form Pan, and the rest on the sides of the pan.

Bake 220 degrees for 8-10 minutes until slightly golden brown.

Filling Ingredients

(allow the below ingredients to sit at room temperature for 1 hours)
1kg Philadelphia Cream Cheese (4 packets)
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons Flour
1/2 tsp of Vanilla
5 Whole Eggs
2 Egg Yolks
1/4 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream

DO NOT OVER WHIP THE BELOW
Put cream cream Cheese in mixing bowl.
Add Sugar and mix well.
Add flour, mix well.
Add vanilla.
Add 1 whole egg at a time and blend well.
Add 1 Egg Yolk at a time and blend well.
Fold in Heavy Cream.

Pour batter into Spring Form Pan
Bake 180 degrees for 20 Minutes then drop temperature to 140 degrees for 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

When cooled…place fruit topping of your choice…

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Published July 22, 2011

Jack Daniels

This is one of my first HDR photos, an empty bottle of Jack Daniles; Uncle Jack to some. I don’t think that this is how I will be celebrating the end of the week, perhaps a glass of wine will be in order.

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Published July 16, 2011

Lunch – food from the market

Fresh bread, home-made gouda cheese, rocket and Spanish sausage, all from the Earth Fair Market in Tokai.

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Published May 31, 2011

One G&T please

Even though it is cold and wet, there is nothing quite like a gin and tonic with a splash of lime to end off the day. The cool liquid, the sharpness of the lime, and the hint of bitterness in the gin. Just the way to relax after a day at work.

Cheers!

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