wine&dine in Cape Town

Welcome summer! Well for today in any case and as an added bonus it’s the weekend and two glorious days of ‘me time’ lies ahead. Summer time is of course an inspiration for a different way of eating. People want to be outside, laze around and snack on all sorts of happy finger foods. It is a time to enjoy fresh ingredients, have a braai and nibble in between visits to the beach. And for me, all good summers include a visit to my favorite place: yes you guessed it, Walker Bay. So this past weekend, in high spirits we took off for a weekend in Hermanus accompanied by good friends for a weekend of celebrations and summer food that were started of with a visit to the vineyard on a hill in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley, La Vierge who now also serve their own home grown MCC, Claudia (you can see me jumping up and down in the background of course!). The rest of the weekend was a non-stop social affair with good wine, good food and good times.

Now my absolute cannot-do-without-it ingredients in summer are olives and watermelon. Olives is in my book that perfect little ready-made snack you enjoy with a glass of wine, sprinkle on a salad, wake up an otherwise dull pizza base or pasta sauce with. Like olive oil, not all olives are the same. The mass produced bagged&bottled versions (like so many other mass produced productsL) rarely makes it to my shelves(and tend to stay there if they do). I find that buying straight from small producers is the only answer really and if you can make your own – even better. While my taste buds are somewhat forgiving in the olive department, the hubby’s is not. As a matter of fact, he believes he does not like olives and hardly ever touches them, except for those really good finds, and recently I came across one of those – Kalamata Olives in a blueberry dressing from the Olive Boutique. The olives are bathed in blueberry vinaigrette that adds a subtly fruity sweetness to the characteristic bitter olive taste. It is the perfect side snack, goes well in the traditional salad and transforms an otherwise dull foccacia in no time.

To make the foccacia mix 1 packet of instant yeast with a spoon of sugar and a cup of warm water and left to double in size(about 1/2h and hour). Prepare the dough by adding 2 and a ½ cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt and half a cup of olive oil. Mix well, knead and rest to allow the dough to double in size(about 2 hrs). Prepare the dough for baking by kneading it again for about 2 minutes, before you spread it out on a greased baking tray. Sprinkle with some coarse salt and bake for about 20 minutes in a preheated (230 °C) oven. For the blueberry olive foccacia, add some chopped olives and grated lemon zest before kneading the dough for the second time and add halved olives on top in a pattern of your choice. Alternatively, also add a few blueberries on the foccacia, together with the olives for a sweet and indulgent version.

My other must-have ingredient in summer, the watermelon, is just as versatile. It is an unbeatable snack on its own but this is not where it ends. As a refreshing salad you cannot go wrong by tossing watermelon, red onion(optional), fresh parsley/mint, feta and olives(optional) together. Alternatively you can skewer them with other fruits (melon and strawberries is my favorites) for breakfast (or dessert) and if you are lucky enough to be left with a few small bits and pieces, remove the pits, use a food processor to transform the flesh into a juicy pulp, drain through a sieve and use the juice as a refreshing base for a summer cocktail. I was also quite excited to see one of the celebrity chefs skewer the watermelon with a selection of cherry tomatoes and grill them on an open fire – mouth watering.

©Nelda van Soelen

Thank you to the friendly online deli crew at www.diletto.co.za that sponsored the blueberry dressing olives

 With the long weekend now only a distant memory it feels almost outdated to only now share my foodie adventures that was enjoyed around a braai in Kakamas, but being South African, luckily Braai Day is not only an annual celebration but also a regular item on the menu. Traditionally, a braai is associated with chops and steaks and boerewors but I recently discovered a few other dishes that just love to be cooked on a fire.

Kakamas, is a town in the Northern Cape, close to Upington. The landscape is somewhat magical as you might think that you are travelling through a semi-dessert area but then suddenly you stumble upon a vineyard laden landscape. Life runs at a pleasantly different pace here. The air is fresh, you are close to the majestic Orange River and people seem to have time for each other. And what better way to celebrate this all but to sit down around a fire and have a braai with your friends.

Now, I am not going to pretend that I am this big braai guru. In fact, I am probably most useful if I stay away from the whole braai and concentrate on having a great time, keep the conversation going and chop up a salad or two in the kitchen. I also know that most people have their own unique way of having a braai and I trust that you all know how you like it best but here is a few suggestions that I recommend for your next braai outing:

Use a flat bottomed swart potjie, fill with cold vegetable oil, add freshly cut potato chips, put on to the fire for about 25 minutes and enjoy chips that are more crispy and tasty than any other chips I have ever had before.

You can also do the same with a whole chicken. For every kg the chicken weighs, you have to cook it in the oil for 15 minutes. Season with your favorite spices on the inside of the chicken and below the skin. Only add the chicken to the oil on the fire once it is boiling.and rather use a conventional swart potjie for this dish. Use a potjie big enough for the chicken to be covered by the oil but with enough space left so that all the oil won’t spill onto the fire when you add the chicken.

Prepare a mixed vegetable pot as a side dish with your choice of braai meat. Use a mixture of root vegetables, season with S&P, cover ¾’s of the veggies with wine(or water) and cook on the fire for about 30 minutes. Whole vegetables will take a little longer so chop the veggies in portion size bits for a quick&easy side dish.

Fish and chips on the fire! If you are lucky enough to stay close to a good supplier of fresh fish, there is few things that beat ‘vis oor die kole’. Served with your open fire fried chips old school style on newspapers makes for an enjoyable and fun meal outside.

And saving the best for last….after all this relaxing and having a braai on a weekend, you might end up feeling a bit overwhelmed by all your carnivores’ activities. This is of course a problem easily solved with a fire pizza oven. Pizza’s can range from bases covered with garlic and feta to a range of vegetarian topping options and maybe a few touches of ham or bacon, and ultimately it is still a braai!

But what’s for dessert, you might ask? Also not a problem! Cover halved green apples with a dash of sugar, cinnamon, butter and some light sherry. Use (your last remainingJ) swart potjie and allow to cook at a leisurely pace until the apples are soft. Do keep a close eye on this one to make sure the sugar doesn’t burn. Serve with a dollop of Vanilla ice-cream or Mascarpone.

All this eating will need some liquid refreshments off course and to start of the celebrations what about a local MCC hero like Graham Beck’s Brut Rosé, a very elegant but still fun sparkling wine. Alternatively what about a homemade refreshing Mojito, which can be served with or without a touch of light rum to spice it up (Juice of 1 lime/ half a lemon, 2 teaspoons of sugar, soda water to fill the glass, ice cubes, 3 mint sprigs per glass and 1 – 2 shots light rum (optional). See picture for presentation)

© All pictures and content of this post is copyrighted and not reproducible without the permission of the owner of this blog

Hello bloggers,

Today’s menu was inspired by one of SA’s stand-up comedian talents who recently made his debut on ROER, a local celebrity cooking show, and kindly agreed to contribute to the blog.  If you are interested in a good laugh, check out one of his live shows with ‘The Flying Dutchmen’ http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=81846751589, who soon will be visiting Cape Town. Enjoy!

Way back in die middle of the 90’s my very conservative Afrikaans teacher made a bold decision. She decided to use our Matric class as the first ones to use a new textbook that she came across. It wasn’t exactly a seminal moment in my education, but somehow the more lighthearted approach to a usually very inane and boring subject seemed to work.

Or maybe I’m just remembering it that way because of one single comprehension test in it. It was an article written by literary man Kerneels Beytenbach about a very decadent and über garlicky chicken.

Basically it was just a normal whole chicken, rubbed with salt and pepper and sealed in about four tablespoons of olive oil.

The kicker came when the chicken was placed inside the oven dish: on a bed made up of 40 cloves of whole garlic. Add to that the whole bulb of garlic stuffed into the chicken’s cavity and you could see why this was not only a departure in terms of not being an Afrikaans comprehension test about Voortrekkers, Gold rushes and patriotism, but also as un-Afrikaans cuisine as you could imagine. I mean, garlic is a good thing when you order it as a sauce with your well done steak in the local Meat and Eat, but fourty whole cloves…?

Anyway, if you’re wondering, the recipe proved to be a success – the first time I did something out of a textbook that did not qualify as homework:

After you’ve sealed the chicken in the olive oil, place it on a bed of garlic (at least 40 cloves, remember).

Add four tablespoons of dry white whine to the oil in the pan and heat.

Drizzle it over the chicken and cover as much of the garlic as possible.

Add rosemary and thyme (not forgetting the cavity), close the lid and pop into an oven that’s been waiting patiently at 180 degrees.

When it comes out, the cloves will be as soft (and spreadable) as warm butter and goes down extremely well with a nice crispy piece of bread.

And all of that out of an Afrikaans textbook, circa 1997. In Ventersdorp, nogal.

Now, the reason for all of this, is that the owner and writer of this blog was present. Both during the first reading of the recipe and the first try-out. And boy have both of us progressed a bit since then.

She got a real education, a real job and a real husband. I became a comedian.  But at least we both love to cook. And recently I had the pleasure of welcoming a camera crew into my home to come and film me behind the kitchen counter, dishing up some more progressive food that I’ve moved on to since those days of garlic and poultry.

I was very honored to be asked to write something about the experience for this blog, but I thought I’d rather just do what I do well: talk nonsense. So that’s the story of the garlic chicken. By the way, it tastes great if you serve it with some lemon rice (The juice of one lemon and a good deal of zest added to some white or brown rice).

If you want to see how I fared as a tv chef, take a look at this:

http://beta.mnet.co.za/fanclub/Roer/ArticleList.aspx?ClubId=13&navId=37

 RESEPTE, met geskatte quantities….

Slakke:

1 Blikkie Slakke
Botter
Knoffel
Gekapte Pietersielie en chives
Room
Bloukaas
Portugese broodrolletjies
Gerasperde geel of wit kaas

Braai slakke in botter.
Voeg knoffel by.
Voeg Groen kruie by.
Draai hitte laer.
Voeg ‘n paar lepels room by om die sous romerig te maak.
Krummel Bloukass in mengsel in.
Skep slakke in sous in rolletjies waarvan die koppies afgekap is.
Rasper geel/wit kaas bo-oor. Plaas in oond tot kaas smelt.

Fancy Steak.

Vars Spinasie
Goeie biefstuk (Rump, Sirloin, Fillet)
‘n Wiel Camembert
Grenadellas
Fyn Parmesan
Wynasyn en Olyfolie

Kook die pulp van die Grenadillas saam met suiker totdat dit ‘n lekker dik stroop maak.

Snipper die Spinasie en bedruip met Asyn en Olyfolie.

Sny die Steak in stukkies so groot soos die camembert.

Flashfry (blitsbraai) die gesnipperde spinasie baie vinnig in uiters warm olie. Net voor jy dit uitskep, meng ‘n halwe koppie parmesan by en gee dit ‘n goeie vinnige roer. Haal af en dreineer.

Braai die steak en sit elke stukkie bo-op ‘n bedjie van die spinasie.

Halfeer die Camembert (in deursnee) en plaas ‘n wielietjie bo-op elke stukkie steak.

Skep ‘n lepel van die grenadilla stroop bo-oor elkeen.

Viola!

Sjokolade drankie

Smelt 100g donker sjokolade.
Voeg ‘n blikkie kondensmelk by.
Voeg dieselfde hoeveelheid (as die kondensmelk) melk by die mengsel.
Maak seker alles is gesmelt, opgelos en goed gemeng.
Verwyder van hitte en gooi ‘n deeglik skeut Whiskey, Brandewyn of Rum by. (As ie mengsel te warm is, is dit bo die kookpunt van alkohol en die hele besigheid kook soos ‘n mal koshuismatrone se soppot op moelike Maandag…)

–
Melt Sieberhagen
meltsieb@gmail.com
082 335 9845 (cell)
086 698 1376 (fax)

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.’
Hunter S. Thompson

Disclaimer:
By sending an email to ANY of my addresses you are agreeing that:

   1. I am by definition, “the intended recipient”
   2. All information in the email is mine to do with as I see fit and make such financial profit, political mileage, or good joke as it lends itself to. In particular, I may quote it on stage.
   3. I may take the contents as representing the views of your company.
   4. This overrides any disclaimer or statement of confidentiality that may be included on your message.

© Melt Sieberhagen

Hello Fellow Foodies,

I am back.  And no, I never really left but got carried away by the now historic football event that entertained us during June&July. Having had to spend a lot of time catching up with all the day to day stuff that was nonchalantly forgotten during the SWC, blogging was in my thoughts but I got nowhere near a few free minutes to catch up with you all online about my foodie adventures. So without any further delays, let’s get going with all the catching up.

 The joy of… red wine Now I don’t know how many of you know that I am in the privileged position to share my kitchen with another budding foodie groupie who happens to be much better than myself in actually following a recipe. (If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you might have noticed that I am a bit of that and a handful of that type of a cook J). So just before the big kick off, I happened to celebrate my birthday and were delighted to find a copy of the popular ’Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ by Julia Child & kie in my birthday goodie bag. And as a bonus, the hubby cooked up a storm and we enjoyed our own homemade version of the legendary Boeuf Bourguignon.

Bourguignonne sauce is a classic French style red wine sauce that can be used for meat, fish and chicken. The classic garnish consists of small onions, button mushrooms and bacon.

The bourguignonne sauce served with chicken, another french classic better known as Coq au Vin (Chicken in red wine sauce) also made an appearance on my winter menu. The preparation of this red wine sauce that accompanies the chicken is very similar to that of chicken à la bourguignonne with the main difference it seems being that the chicken is tossed with brandy/cognac and flambéed after browning it in hot butter, if you prepare a Coq au Vin.

quick&easy Winter is a great time for moorish stews and curries. The only problem with these lovely dishes is that you need a little bit of time to make a really good one. So what to do on a weeknight when you are craving a home cooked meal but it is already seven o’clock? Your answer is to dish up a lentil curry.  The basic recipe that I use usually takes no more than 20 -25 minutes and there is room for a little bit of experimentation with the type of curry flavours you use. I always start with browning in butter some finely chopped onions, carrot, garlic cloves (about 3), 1 green chili, and ginger. Now I really take a short cut from here on and tend to use pre-packed curry paste. Good choices are a Korma paste in which case I’ll add a tin of coconut milk as well or a tandoori curry paste together with a tin of pureed tomatoes. Only start to add the lentils and coconut milk or tomatoe puree once the onions are softened. Cover and allow the flavours to be absorbed throughout the dish on a medium heat (about 15-20 minutes). This recipe serves two people quite generously and goes well with fragrant rice on the side.  

Another quick and easy recipe is cheese straws. Cover half a sheet of  readymade puff pastry with black pepper, grated strong flavoured mature cheddar, and some fresh parsley. Fold the remaining half over, and press down firmly to make sure the filling stays between the sheets. Cut in half centimeter strips, and twist to form the characteristic cheese straw twirls. Allow to rest for half an hour in the freezer, then bake for 25 min’s or until golden in a pre-heated oven at 180°C.

The filling options are numerous and the only limit  is your imagination. Alternative suggestions include powdered biltong&cottage cheese, peppadew&feta, chilli&cheddar to name but a few. It will be interesting to hear what everyone else comes up with.

 local&lekker I admit I am obsessed with the way the French cook. I can spend hours paging through my copy of the Larousse as if it was a glossy magazine (mine is the soft cover dictionary style version). The more I learn about French cooking, the more it seems familiar, almost like the food I used to eat as a child. South African cooking off course does have strong influences from all over the world. So I decided to rediscover another classic cookery reference, SJA de Villiers’; “Kook en Geniet’ which is sometimes overshadowed by all the celebrity chef action going on in my bookshelf. My mother, sister and I all have a different version of this local gem, but it harbours most of the traditional classics universally, so my new challenge is to write up (and cook of course) a dish inspired by the ‘Kook & Geniet’ for every French dish that I try .

First up in the challenge is ‘Kerrie boontjies’. This was inspired by my hubby that is not all that fond of my style of green beans. Stuck with a wholesome but ordinary pot au feu style beef stew and only green beans in the fridge as a possible side dish, I recalled the magic of my grannies preserved curried green beans. Being quite desperate to make sure I saved the dinner with this side dish I referred to my local cookery classic for some pointers and after a few tweaks emerged with MOK (My own kitchen) style caramelized curry green bean relish.

Cook together 500gr green beans, 250gr chopped onions, 25ml water and salt to taste until the green beans are tender. Mix together half a cup of vinegar, ½ a table spoon of flour, 2 teaspoons of curry powder and ½ a cup of sugar and add this mixture to the grean beans. Cook over a slow heat until the beans start to caramelize. Use as a relish, hot or cold.  This is an excellent way to lighten up any meal and it goes exceptionally well with beef.  The best of it all is that you can bottle it for later use if you wish to make a bigger batch.

shop&Co. Entremet à l’ Maggie is my friend, Maggie’s contribution to this newsletter. I am so excited about this newly found treasure that I had to share it, and it is very possible that I am the only one that was not aware of it but nonetheless, just to make sure you all know about it,  here it goes: for a taste of the best vanilla ice cream available from a shop try Vanilla Bean Ice Cream from The Nice Company – this is the real deal when it comes to ice-cream.

Last but not least is a bubbly find that I am very excited about. During a recent visit to the Constantia wine route, we stumbled upon the the High Constantia Farm and were really impressed with their award winning MCC – Clos André. This is pretty close to any french bubbly rivals and deserves a place at your next special celebration.

So hopefully, this is the last of winter menu’s for this year (trust me, my waistline agrees) and my next kitchen adventures will be filled with fresh produce (served without butter and cream) and lots of salad dishes

All content and pictures are copyrighted by ©Nelda van Soelen

Gratin de pommes (Gratin of Potatoes)

Have you ever imagined your life, without potatoes? Never in a million years might you say, and I agree. My childhood food memories recall Sunday roast crispy potatoes, mayonnaise&condensed milk potato salad at a braai and oh those mouth watering potato gratins.

The secret of any good gratin, is to make sure you end up with a perfectly brown cheesy crust on top, much like the coffee creamer add from long ago that chanted ‘ it’s not inside, it’s on TOP!’ This is off course not entirely true, as the other beautiful thing about a potato gratin is that you can actually do so many interesting things with the actual ‘inside’ of the gratin.

So for my moorish version: (enough for 2 people as a main dish, 4 people if served as a side dish)

Cut up in thin slices 4 big potatoes.

Layer the potatoes while adding your additional ingredients between layers.

I added 2 chopped chorizo sausages (you can also use bacon, smoked chicken breast or even smoked snoek), ½ a grated onion and 3 grated baby marrow’s. Season plainly with S&P only or add you choice of herbs (parsley is an old favourite that I would exchange for coriander if I am using fish and basil if I was looking for a more Mediterranean flavour.)

Mix well ½ a cup of cream and ½ a cup of milk (yip, you can definitely use one cup of low fat milk instead or only cream if you are looking for a very rich finish) and pour over the layered potatoes. The fluid should cover about ½ to ¾’s of the layers. Now add some hard white cheese on top, and bake in a preheated oven for about 45 minutes at 180?C. Serve with a fresh green salad as a light main meal.

- MOK (My own kitchen)

PS: I am trying to set up some pictures for the blog but am constantly ending up with a ‘steamed’ up camera lens! Any suggestions out there apart from allowing the dish to cool down?

Chilli Fried Drumsticks

This recipe is a great way of adding some glamour to an otherwise ordinary middle of the week menu.

For about 6 – 8 drumsticks, mix until foamy with a food processor, 2 eggs and 1 – 2 chilli’s’. Dip the drumsticks in the egg mixture, then cover lightly with breadcrumbs or flour. I prefer to add my seasoning(S&P only) to the flour mixture, but you can also season the drumsticks directly, after it was dipped in the egg mixture or season the egg mixture.

Brown the outsides lightly, then bake in the oven at a 180 degrees Celsius for about 45 minutes.

Can be served with a fresh green salad, or some blanched veggies of your choice.

- MOK (My own kitchen)

Creamy beef and pasta

This recipe is simple and easy but needs a little bit of oven time, so ideal for a cold and cozy day over a weekend.

Brown in some hot butter 500g of beef cubes, 2 finely chopped red onions and 2 cloves of garlic. When done, deglaze the pan with some sherry/brandy and add about 2 cups of beef stock and allow to heat through. Season the meat with salt, white pepper, tarragon, parsley and a bay leaf and cover with the stock mixture. Add the intact peel of about a quarter orange. Place in the oven for 1.5hrs at around 150 degrees Celsius.  If you feel indulgent, add a little bit of cream 10 minutes before removing the dish from the oven.

Before serving, strain the cooking juices, and add to a roux (2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour dissolved over a medium heat). Allow about 10 minutes for the mixture to cook, add back to the meat and serve with some pasta.( home made and fresh if you were really industrious)

 - MOK ( My own kitchen)

Here is another one of my 5 minutes pasta dishes.

Mix together in a mortar and pestle/Flavour shaker (Mr Oliver’s very useful invention ) the following for each person you want to serve:

one small clove of garlic

5 capers

5 anchovy fillets

a handfull of fresh parsley

1 teaspoon of pine nuts (optional) or 1/2 a fresh chilli(optional)

Add a 1/4 cup of good quality olive oil and 2 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar.

Mix it all together vigourously(you could even use a handblender), then add your cooked pasta to the sauce, a few slivers of parmesan and Voila…dinner is served.

This sauce could easily be beefed up with some grilled bacon bits or spicy sausage.

Enjoy

 - MOK (My own kitchen)

1. Name 3 vegetables you really really dislike (hate is such a strong word):

I quite like veggies to be honest. Come to think of it maybe I don’t really like cassava that much.

2. The kitchen appliances/gadgets you wanted the most, and hardly use now you’ve got it: 

I’ve got a whole box full of manual gadgets with specific functions. We’ve been in our current house for 2 years and I’ve never had to open the box! Any takers?

3. Favorite Wine (cellar/ type/ color will do) 

That is a question without an answer…there is so many! But I must say I do have a constant craving for MCC and really enjoy Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel. Even the name sounds festive.

4. What is one of your worst childhood food memories?

Polony sandwich

5. If a craving/munchies strike, what would it most likely be for and what would you do to get it: 

My famous black pepper French toast with…All Gold Tomato sauce

6. Strangest thing you’ve ever eaten (foreign and/or frightful): 

Lappiesvleis..when I was little, offal used to be on the menu as a delicacy every now and then. I was mesmerized by the patterned intestines except for the fact that I didn’t know that it was intestines and stomach and all sorts of other bits and pieces. Needless to say, when I did find out what it really was, I was less enthusiastic

7. Do you ever buy ingredients, having absolutely no clue what to do with

it? 

All the time… then I grab the Larousse and find a use for it J

8. Do you have any Obsessive and/or Compulsive behaviours in the Kitchen, name a few!! 

I cannot follow a recipe exactly! I have to personalize it.

9. Name one thing you would like to have in the kitchen 

A big farm house style kitchen table that can seat 12 people.

10. If life was like box of chocolates, which chocolate would you choose? 

I can’t get enough of Lindt Dark chocolate with Sea salt