Quinces

Quinces, which have been grown at the Cape for over 350 years, are back in season again.

They were planted and mentioned in his diary by Jan van Riebeek’ s gardeners in the Company Gardens in Cape Town shortly after the settlement at the Cape by the Dutch to create a fuelling station for their ships sailing to Batavia.

Quinces were popular right up to the turn of the 20th Century but with the urbanization of rural peoples they have become less and less known.

However there is hardly a farm which does not have its quince and pomegranate or cape gooseberry hedges – all of which have been at the Cape since the early Dutch settlement.  Quinces are a most nostalgic fruit for me as we ate them each year as they came into season.  They were also turned into jelly which cooked slowly on the Aga stove in our kitchen producing a ruby red clear jelly which we ate with roast leg of lamb instead of the ubiquitous mint sauce.

Quinces look a bit like large fluffy knobbly yellow-skinned apples and are firm fleshed.  The core and the area around it is particularly hard.  There is a variety which Leipoldt called the borrie quince which was more yellow fleshed than the better known white fleshed quince and he suggested they were better for a bredie.

When cooked – they can be poached in a sugar syrup or baked in the oven – the quince turns a most beautiful ruby pink colour.

Quinces are never eaten raw except in a sambal usually served with tripe by the Malay peoples of the Cape.  The quince was peeled and grated and mixed with grated onion, lemon juice, salt and chopped chili.

As children, we used to take quinces to our beach house and take them into the sea, wash the fuzz off them and eat them dipping them into the sea water.

Leipoldt also talks of a quince bredie, though his recipe is quaintly very basic and gives little direction in terms of quantities and in my opinion the ratio of quince to lamb is too high.

Here is my version:

You’ll need: 3 kg lamb knuckles, flour [seasoned with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, sweet smoked paprika, ground ginger, pinch ground cloves], extra virgin olive oil [Morgenster or Vesuvio are my favourites], 3 onions – finely chopped, 3 fat cloves of fresh garlic – finely chopped, 2 large carrots, – diced, 2 sticks celery – diced, 3 bird’s eye chilis – finely chopped [leave out seeds and membranes if you want a milder taste], 3 large quinces [peeled and cut into eighths, seeded and cored and kept in acidulated water to prevent oxidation], 250ml fruity dry red wine, 100ml brandy, generous sprig thyme, 4 bay leaves, 4 blades mace, 2 Tbs tomato paste, 1 litre beef stock, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Method: Season the lamb knuckles well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Dip them into the seasoned flour and slow fry them in a little oil a large pan over medium heat until they are well browned on the outside.  Do not do them all at once otherwise the meat will stew rather than brown; rather do them in three batches.  When done, transfer them to an oven proof casserole.  Wipe out the pan and pour in a little oil, slow fry the onion and garlic in a little oil until it is just starting to colour, add the carrot celery and chilis and cook together for a short while. Pour in the red wine and cook over low heat until the wine is almost completely reduced.  Heat the brandy, ignite it and pour it over the lamb shaking until the flames die out.  Place the quinces on top of the lamb. Tuck in the thyme, bay leaves and mace.  Mix the tomato paste with the beef stock and pour over the mixture.  Cook in a 180C oven for two hours.  Remove form the oven and season for taste.  Good thing to leave it overnight at this point for the flavours to mature.  If you are not able to, cook for a further 30 minutes or until the meat is tender.

If you are able to keep it overnight, next day remove any of the solidified fat which has risen to the top, add a little more stock if necessary and reheat gently for about 30 minutes, stir the quinces through the meat.

Serve with plain steamed Basmati rice.  Basmati rice was the chosen rice of the Malay peoples of the Cape, according to Cass Abrahams.

A good fruity rustic red wine would do well with this.

Serves 8.

Simnel Cake is traditionally baked at Easter and has 11 eggs on top made from marzipan, signifying the 11 Apostles.  Judas having betrayed our Lord shortly before his crucifixion, does not merit an egg.

In our house it was always baked at the start of Lent, was wrapped in brandy soaked muslin so that it had time to mature.  While most people use store bought marzipan, made usually from almond flavoured apricot kernels, my grandmother used to buy ground almonds in a tin which you opened with a tin opener, I cant remember the brand name, but it was imported – British.

I asked my friend Colleen Grove to bake one for me this year.  She took some stunning photographs of it too!  Colleen has a blog of her own, do visit it.  She is a sensational baker, and at times has baked over 250 Christmas cakes for friends.

See the Marzipan in the middle

You’ll need:

For the almond paste

250g castor sugar

250g ground almonds

2 free-range eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla essence [some like to use almond essence]

For the cake

180g butter [don’t even be tempted to use margarine or vegetable fat]

180g soft brown or Moscovado sugar

180g cake flour

¼ tsp each ground nutmeg, ground ginger, ground cloves and fine salt

3 extra large eggs

150g Orange River Raisins

150g Orange River Golden Sultanas

50g currants

60g chopped mixed peel

grated rind of 1 lemon and one orange

2 Tbs smooth apricot jam

1 egg – for brushing over the cake before grilling.

Method

Prepare a 20cm cake tine by lining it, bottom and sides, with greaseproof or silicone paper.  In a large glass bowl mix the sugar and the ground almonds.  Beat the eggs and use only enough to give the paste a soft texture.  Flavour with the vanilla essence and knead gently for about a minute.  Set aside.  You will need to roll about a third of the weight of the almond paste to make a circle 18cm in diameter which will go into the centre of the cake.  The remainder will be used for half for another circle to place on top, and half to make the Apostle eggs. Preheat oven to 140C.  To make the cake mixture, in the bowl of a food mixer, cream the butter and then add the sugar and beat together until pale in colour and light in texture. Sift together the flour, spices and salt.  Add the eggs one at a time and add about a third of the flour mixture with each egg as this helps prevent curdling.  Add the fruits, the mixed peel the grated rinds and stir together to mix well.  Spoon half of the batter into the prepared cake tin.  Level it off and then put the circle of marzipan on top.  Spoon the rest of the batter on top and smooth over allowing a bit of a dent in the middle so that the cake ends up with a flat top.  Bake for 105 minutes, insert metal skewer into the middle.  If it comes out clean, the cake is baked.  If not test after a further ten minutes.  Remove the cake from the oven.  Allow to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes, then turn out onto a cake rack to cool completely.  Now when the cake is completely cool, remove it from the greaseproof or silicone paper.  If it is slightly domed, put it upside down on a baking tray.  Set your oven’s grill on high.  Heat the apricot jam and brush over the top of the cake.  Using half of the remaining marzipan, roll it out into a circle and place it carefully on top of the cake.  With the remaining marzipan, roll out 11 small egg shaped balls and place them round the edge.  Brush the marzipan and the eggs with beaten egg and set in the oven to brown gently, watching all the time for about 1 – 2 minutes, depending on the heat of your grill.  Or else, use a blow torch to brown it.  Garnish with some little candy or small chocolate Easter eggs.  And do place a little fluffy chicken on top.

Colleen Grove browniegirlblog.wordpress.com.

The Demonstration Kitchen at African Relish

Maddy and I are returning to African Relish in Prince Albert for a cooking weekend from Friday March 23rd to Sunday March 25th.

I will be cooking some of my favourite dishes, Jeremy will be joining me and cooking some of his in a kind of ‘Manne met die Panne’ weekend.

I will be including wine in the programme too.  I have secured some utterly delicious wines which Maddy will be pouring while I am cooking.  I will be conducting a MasterGlass on the Saturday evening before dinner.  Again there will be some new and unusual labels.  I am even bringing some artisanal beers from AndUnion and a couple of bottles of Tequila from which I am going to make Ernest Hemingways favourite cocktail The Mojito.  The mint in the African Relish is so lush, it’s almost a pity not to use it in a drink like this.

The dishes I will be preparing will be some of my favourites from the Expresso TV Breakfast Show.  We will be providing a complete folio of all the recipes we prepare.

We would love to see you there – perhaps bring some friends along and make a happy weekend of it.

Akkedisie, one of African Relish's enchanting cottages

The accommodation provided by the school is so quaint and so Karoo and meets every requirement for a luxury stayover.  There are opportunities to visit Gay van Hasselt’s iconic dairy and cheesery – I will be serving a selection of her cheeses with lunch on the Friday.  Visits to Prince Albert Olives, the Swartberg Pass, a Botanical Walk with an expert and a Ghost Meander through the village led by a local legendary history teacher will provide much fun. And perhaps even a local winery.

This is going to be a real fun weekend.

For reservations please go to the African Relish Website  - http://africanrelish.com/courses-and-tours-test/

We look forward to seeing you there.

Matt Allison's Heirloom Tomatoes

With Matt Allison leading the way in urban farming in the Cape, we are being made so much more aware of growing your own, even in pots outside your kitchen door and keeping a couple of  ‘skrophoenders’ in the back yard for your breakfast eggs.

Eve Palmer's Return to Camdeboo

Books like Eve Palmer’s Return to Camdeboo, and friends who have farmer’s markets down the road from where they live all talk about fresh farmed organic good wholesome produce.

Matt has little gardens he looks after and has recently started selling his heirloom tomatoes in a deli near me called Gogos.

They come in different sizes and shapes and colours.  And they are delicious.  Grown up in the warm Cape Sun, they are sweet, rich in flavour and remind me of the tomatoes we used to eat from my grandmother’s vegetable garden when I was a boy.  Tomatoes with names like Kellogg’s Breakfast, Brandywine, Beefsteak, and Oxheart which we were only too happy to eat with salt on a slice of homemade salt rising dough bread, thickly spread with marigold yellow fresh farm butter.

I asked my friend, food writer Jamie Shler who lives in Nantes to send me a picture of a tomato.  She didn’t have on, but had seen some in the market in the morning, so nipped out and bought some and this was what she sent me.  Jamie’s website is http://lifesafeast.blogspot.com – go look.

Jamie Shler's 'Coeur de Boeuf' from Nantes Market

When I acquired a bag of Matt’s tomatoes recently, I wanted only the natural flavour.  I poured boiling water over them, slipped their skins off and cut the bigger ones into pieces the size of the smallest.  For the 500g I landed up with, I used about 75g of unsalted butter, brought it to a bubble and then tossed in the tomatoes.  Turned down the heat and let them braise till they were really soft.  I added some Maldon salt, a few grinds of pepper and chopped Sweet Basil from another urban farmer friend Janey Muller.  A swirl of cream added, I poured it over short macaroni pasta, sprinkled over a dusting of Parmigiano Reggiano and we were set up for a truly Lucullan feast with a glass of De Wetshof Finesse.  Danie de Wet is a Chardonnay maker of note on his eponymous Wine Esate in Robertson and the Finesse which is delicately oaked really complements the pasta dish.

Return to Camdeboo, recently republished by Penguin, is a sister publication to The Plains of the Camdeboo written by Eve Palmer.  Daughter of Cranemere, a farm in the Eastern Karoo, which is central to both books, Eve Palmer was the wife of the famed author Geoffrey Jenkins.  You simply have to read these books.

The HPF Vineyards

Bartho Eksteen – Mr Sauvignon

Diners Club Winemaker of the Year 2010

A wine tasting with Mr Sauvignon Blanc, Bartho Eksteen, is an experience I have had on a few occasions.

For the past almost 20 years Bartho has been host to The Bartho Eksteen Sauvignon Blanc Celebration to share his passion for this variety.

Diners Club Winemaker of the year 2010.  27^th November 2010 is a date that this sultan of savvy and the Hermanuspietersfonteiners will remember forever …  To have the honour of Diners Club Winemaker of the Year bestowed on you is an honour only one man receives every year.  Furthermore this award confirms Bartho’s status as South Africa’s sage of Sauvignon Blanc, the variety Diner’s Club put under their magnifying glass for 2010. The wine that stood out from a healthily competitive line-up is the wooded HPF Sauvignon Blanc No 5.

HPF No 5

In gratitude, Bartho said “I am truly blessed and honoured to receive this prestigious award. My sincere gratitude to the Diners Club team, Leila Fourie, Ebrahim Matthews and Jane Ledger. I will treasure this achievement for the rest of my life. Many of the previous winners assure me that 30 – 40 years from now HPF and I will still be benefitting from this great accolade.”

Tasting in the Cellar

Why a wooded Sauvignon Blanc, Bartho?  “There are only a handful of high quality wooded Sauvignon Blancs out there and the trend is away from “fragrance bombs”.  My aim was to create a full, well-balanced food wine, complementing classic dishes associated with wooded white wines whilst still retaining the unique flavour profile inherent to Sauvignon Blanc. I have enormous appreciation for the fact that the judges recognized my vision for this wine and sealed it with the award.”

A true terroir wine, all the grapes used in the HPF Sauvignon Blanc  No  5 come from the cellar’s BWI [Biodiversity and Wine Initiative] champion farm.  This award raises the reputation of Sondagskloof, one of the winelands’ youngest wards and it is also fitting for a dedicated farming team to be rewarded for their labour, having made the most of the terroir by extracting the unique combination of regional elements.  This distinction follows hot on the heels of the cellar’s platter 5 star rating for its Sauvignon Blanc-driven Die Bartho 2009.  The HPF motto, good earth makes better wine, is bearing fruit.

The beginnings of Hermanuspietersfontein

In the Oak Barrel Cellar at HPF

In the early 1800’s farmers in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley chose for their children to be schooled in Dutch, the mother language of Afrikaans, in preference to the English demanded by the British colonialists then in charge of the Cape of Good Hope. Hermanus Pieters was the leermeester  and oftentimes the farmers remunerated Mr Pieters with sheep.  He grazed these at a spring under the milkwood trees by the sea.  In l855, long after his passing, and in his honour, the village Hermanuspietersfontein was named after him.  In 1902 the postmaster, doubtless tired of writing out this long village name, shortened the name to Hermanus.

Hermanuspietersfontein Vineyards

What better setting for a Vineyard?

More than a hundred years later, the owners of this multi award winning vineyard and winery felt it fitting to revive and relive the village’s history by naming their cellar and wine brand Hermanuspietersfontein.  And, quirkily, to stay true to the tradition of the use of Afrikaans HPF are committed to using Afrikaans only for all their wine names and labels – the only cellar in South Africa to do so.  Afrikaans is the third most spoken of the 11 official languages of South Africa.

The HPF farm lies in the eastern corner of the Walker Bay wine district.  The farm was a founding grape producer in the Sondagskloof wine ward.  The  picturesque 320ha BWI champion conservation farm [the first wine farm in the district to be awarded this recognition] nestles in a valley in the mountainous area near Stanford and the Atlantic Ocean where it benefits significantly from the maritime influences on the vineyards.

Sustainable and eco-friendly farming practices are followed to preserve and support the rich biodiversity of the area and to conserve the HPF ecosystems.  Vineyard blocks were planned around fynbos corridors to keep natural pathways for the flow of indigenous wild animals and birds between various eco-systems on the farm.  Tilling by nature’s ‘first gardeners’, the earthworms, presents the HPF vineyards with the valuable underground benefits of air, moisture, bacteria and soil-conditioning material.  There is also an army of ducks that performs the all-important role as ‘natural’ snail controllers.  Bees work their magic with the fynbos, flowers and other trees spreading around the vineyards.  And in doing so producing the most remarkable quality fynbos honey.

The Hermanuspietersfontein Cellar

The HPF Cellar

The 350 ton HPF gravitation cellar is situated some 40km from the farm in the popular seaside holiday village of Hermanus.  Bartho Eksteen, the cellarmaster, follows a minimum handling approach and his main focus is to treat grapes with the utmost care and attention. All grapes are hand selected and twice-graded, ensuring quality is never compromised.  The spacious underground barrel cellar provides the essential space for ideal maturing of both red and white wines.

Grape Sorting

The Hermanuspietersfontein Food and Wine Market

The Saturday Morning Market at HPF

With the same style that they brought the original name of Hermanus to life again, HPF revived the traditional Saturday morning community market.  This popular food & wine market has become the place where friends and families meet, where they come for breakfast or lunch, or just to enjoy a glass of wine and relaxing in a child-safe and dog-friendly environment.  Open every Saturday of the year, no matter what the weather, visitors are invited to come and browse the food tables.  Wine tasting is free and there’s something for everyone.

The Wine Tasting Room

Contact details

Tel: 028 316 1875

fax: 028 316 1293

email: kelder@hpf1855.co.za

www.hpf1855.co.za

Harvest Moon over Avondale

When you stand in a Shiraz vineyard on the slopes of the Klein Drakenstein with a clear view of Table Mountain, on a God-given day, with a black eagle circling overhead, Johnathan Grieve next to you with a handful of soil that looks like Christmas pudding, writhing with earthworms, you get a sense of the seriousness and passion with which he farms the family Estate.

I have known the Grieve family for three generations, and each generation has been passionate and caring of fellow beings, the flora and the fauna and what they are to leave for the next generation.

While Avondale is registered as an Organic winery, it practices biodynamic farming methods, and Johnathan also uses the offerings of modern science and technologies for sustainability.  Blending seamlessly these great ideas, and knowledge into his farming and wine-making.  Using Mother Nature as model, mentor and measure, Johnathan has with dedication and purpose rebuilt soil fertility, planted new vines and set about achieving the goal of making natural, delicious wines in a healthy, balanced environment.

The Duck Army - snails beware!

“It has to start in the vineyard” says Johnathan, as he points out some soil on the side of the vineyard which, in stark contrast to the moist friable damp dark soil in his hand, is compacted, dry and sand coloured.  Everything done in the vineyard, from the planting of the cover crops, to the pest control – usually by predator pests – and a platoon of Peking Ducks to eradicate snails and slugs.  No ploughing takes place, minimizing the risk of compacting soil.

Johnathan & the next generation

Johnathan has planted 100 hectares of vineyards on Avondale with the classical French wine grape varieties Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Semillon, Chenin Blanc, Shiraz, Mourvedre, Grenache, Viognier, Rousanne and Chardonnay.  Each and every vine planted in order that all the vineyards could be certified by the Dutch-based Control Union, one of Europe’s leading certification authorities.  Control Union also provides accreditation with other recognised international organic certification bodies such as the German Bio Nach EG-Öko Verordnung, Britain’s Soil Association, and the USDA certification in the United States of America.

Vineyard view

Working with Nature, Johnathan also had to counter the effects of monoculture on these traditionally vine covered lands.  To do this a number of activities had to take place, from the building of soil fertility using a soil balancing system pioneered by environmental scientist Dr William Albrecht, a respected authority on the relationship between soil fertility and ecosystem health.  Re-mineralisation of the soils is vital and Johnathan has returned vital, natural mineral elements to the soils.  These are enhanced the pure quality of the spring water used for irrigation.  This re-mineralisation process works in conjunction with maintaining a diverse plant community that provides food and shelter for an abundance of vital soil microbes.  They use mixes of cover crops, which include indigenous plants, to create a vibrant, diverse plant community in the vineyards.  Interesting standing there with Johnathan to see the variety at your feet.  And specific cover crops are planted in certain areas to add required minerals to the soils.

A glass of Armilla?

Sweet clean water is vital and a stream of natural, sweet water runs down the slopes of the Klein Drakenstein mountains through Avondale.  This pure quality water is the source of life in the vineyards and to use in the cellar in the making of their extraordinary wines.  Irrigation takes place only when necessary.  In the cellar only organic standard cleaning agents are used. All waste water is recycled using a waste water system that mimics the way Nature cleans water, three dams interlinked by spiralling channels of cleansing reeds that replicates a natural river system.

An important mantra of WOSA, the wine industries export arm, is “Diversity is in our Nature”.  Avondale was one of the first South African wine producers to be awarded the Biodiversity in Wine certification.  An ongoing restoration project where biodiversity is promoted not only in the vineyards but throughout the farm fosters micro-life in the soils and attracts an abundance of beneficial insects.  This leads to a variety of naturally occurring birds, frogs, reptiles, small and larger mammals.  Strains of beneficial bacteria are used to combat downy mildew and harmful worms.  Purpose-bred predatory wasps combat attacks by mealy bugs.  A number of rodent controlling birds of prey such as Spotted Eagle Owls, Rock Kestrels, Yellow-billed and Black-shouldered Kites occur naturally on Avondale.  Johnathan encourages them in their work where they are most needed by erecting tall poles for convenient perching and owl houses in the vineyards.

Fun in the Vineyards for the Créche kids

Then add to this, a crèche for the farm children, an echo tour around the farm (please reserve ahead), and wine tasting in the most beautiful surroundings in the cellar for a unique experience and one that should not be missed.

Contact:

Avondale is off the R301 to the east of the N1 in Paarl

Open Monday to Saturday

Tel: 021 863 1976

www.avondalewine.co.za

The Prickly Pear or Turkish Fig

Most people don’t want to approach them.  “All those thorns!”

On the farm, Dagbreek in the rolling hills of Durbanville, on which I grew up, there was a huge prickly pear cactus at the end of the long lawn in front of the double gabled whitewashed house.  Close residents were all the ubiquitous fruits one found round old farm houses.  Loquat trees, lemons – the old thick skinned variety, pomegranates, quinces, a granadilla hedge, a blackberry plant or two, and mulberries.

When prickly pears were in season, there was always a plate of them in the large kitchen fridge with the heavy door for us to at when we got home from school.  More pip than flesh but it was the coolness which made them so attractive after walking up the drive in a heat which had crows sitting open mouthed in the trees and the cicadas screaming so loudly as to deafen you.

Maggie de Kock, who was first my grandmother and then my mother’s housekeeper had a way with all of this abundance of fruit.  She had a way with many things, her rusks I can still taste when I think of them.  Crisp and the aromatic aniseed whispering up the back of your nose.

She had a severe limp, and I can still see here walking down the lawn looking longingly at the prickly pears, bearing in her right hand a carpet broom and in her left a Lucky Star Pilchard tin.  A wicker basket had been deposited at the foot of the stairs leading up to the red Cobra-ed front stoep.

Once she reached the cactus, she walked round it sizing up the crop and choosing her victims.  They were then carefully removed with the tin can and placed in a row on the lawn.  Once she had sufficient, usually about 8, she would sweep them slowly up the lawn to the front stoep.  By them time she reached there, the prickly pears were devoid of thorns, now embedded wrong side up in the lawn.

Clever no?

Once at the foot of the stairs, she would pick up the basket, take it into the kitchen, peel them, slice them thinly and put them into a square white enameled container with its own lid.  Ten in the fridge in preparation for the post school raids.

Here is a rather badly lit picture of some we had recently.

Sliced chilled prickly pears

Jane Anne Hobbs, one of the finest cooks and bloggers in the Cape offers this salad on her blog.  Click here for the recipe.

Jane Anne's Prickly Pear and Feta Salad

Prickly pears are in the fruit sections of Supermarkets at the moment and seem to be free of thorns.

Do buy some and if you are not sure, sweep them across your lawn a while.

Watermelon, Goats Cheese, Walnut & Pumpkin seed Salad

Sonia Cabano, well known TV Cook and food writer, recently called Watermelon The King of Summer.  Growing up on a farm as children, it was the best pudding on a hot  summer’s afternoon, lying in the shade of a huge tree nestled up against one of the twin gables of our farm house, on a leather throw listening to vinyls of some of the greatest singers and orchestras the 1950s and 1960s had to offer.

It was only fairly recently that I realised that this monarch could be made into a fabulous savoury salad.

You’ll need:

1 small red onion, sliced thinly

1 lemon

1 bunch flat leafed parsley

1.5kg watermelon, well chilled

2 rolls Fairview Chevin

1 bunch mint – roughly chopped

handful of toasted pumpkin seeds

100g toasted walnuts

pumpkin seed oil for drizzling

extra virgin olive oil

freshly milled black pepper

Method:

Place the sliced onion in a small bowl and grate over the zest of the lemon and squeeze over the juice. Cut the watermelon, use the heart if possible, and cut it into thin slices.  Lay a bed of the flat leafed parsley on plate and place the watermelon slices on top.  Crumble over the goat’s cheese, sprinkle over the mint, the toasted pumpkin seeds, the walnuts, the sliced onion, and drizzle over the pumpkin seed oil.  Drizzle over a stream of olive oil and add a few grinds of black pepper.

Serves 6-8

And the perfect wine to go with it is Christophe Durand’s Vins d’Orrance Kama Chenin Blanc 2010.  Layere os sweet spice, gentle oak flavours from 3rd fill barrels and a long finish.  Made in honor of his wife, Sabrina.

Vins d'Orrance Kama Chenin Blanc 2010

I usually drive out to Bellville at crack of dawn on a delivery Saturday to fetch the meat.

Lorraine & Guillau squinting in the morning sun

In France this type of lamb is also regarded as a great delicacy and justly so for its rich, slightly salty flavour.  In the Legend of Mont St. Michel, Guy du Maupassant describes a meal prepared by St Michael for Satan, during which some pré-salé lamb “as tender as cake” was served.

Pré-salé – pre-salted – lamb that feeds on the salty marsh grass of the Bay of Mont-St.-Michel has put the town on the roster of France’s 100 sites remarquables du goût – places with a unique local speciality.

This dish is perfect in the middle of summer when the lamb was fat on early summer pastures and the garlic is fresh and still green.

It is not easy to find fresh garlic here, use it if you are lucky enough to find it.  If not, use heads of garlic and carefully remove as much of the papery outer covering without disturbing the head.  If you like, you can cut off the tops of the cloves to expose them to the sauce.  They will become rich and sweet during the long slow cooking.

You’ll need:

2 shoulders of lamb

sea salt and freshly milled black pepper

4 Tbs olive oil

2 Tbs butter

2 heads of very fresh garlic, trimmed but with green shoots left on

6 – 8 sprigs fresh thyme

24 shallots or pickling onions – peeled and left whole, especially have the root still attached, as it will hold the whole onion together

600ml full-bodied red wine

250ml NoMU Lamb Fond

1 Tbs dried herbs – I use ‘Italian herbs’ or Herbes de Provence

Method: Preset the oven at 220C.  Place the lamb on a board and lightly stab or score the fat all over.  Season the joints with the salt and pepper and massage the seasoning in.  In a lidded shallow oven proof casserole or oval roasting tin heat the oil and add the butter.  Over medium heat, brown on the fat side, then turn fat side up and brown on the underside.  Tuck in the garlic, thyme and the shallots or pickling onions.  Pour in the wine and the water, sprinkle with the herbs and bring the liquid to the bubble.  Put in a 220C oven, uncovered and roast for 30 minutes.  Then turn down the oven to 150C, cover the lamb with foil and braise for 2 to 2½ hours, or until so tender that the meat will fork easily from the bone.  Now, if you have the time, allow it to stand overnight and next day, remove all the fat from the surrounding sauce.  Reheat carefully in a 180C oven.  Or simply spoon the excess fat off the top, reduce the sauce, season well and thicken with buerre manié – equal quantities of butter and flour kneaded together.

You just have to serve this with creamy mashed potatoes, some crisp bread and a green salad.

Serves 8 generously.

We are great believers in using quality wine in cooking.  As this is a rustic dish, we chose Diemersdal Grenache 2011 as it was our wine of choice to drink with it.  Thys Louw, winemaker f this well known and much lauded Durbanville Wine Estate is a master at Sauvignon Blanc, so do look out for one if his, either under the Diemersdal label, or Sir Lambert, or Sauvignon.com.

]]> http://michaelolivier.co.za/2012/01/01/lamb-shoulders-williston/feed/ 0 http://michaelolivier.co.za/2011/12/28/beach-bag-books-for-new-year/ http://michaelolivier.co.za/2011/12/28/beach-bag-books-for-new-year/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:03:10 +0000 Michael Olivier http://michaelolivier.co.za/?p=2959 I have gathered up some books for your beach bag this festive season.  Some easy and amusing reads to while away the hours.  I also suggest a suitable wine to go with each.

A pair from the Penguin African Writers series.

Dangerous Love - Ben Okri

Penguin Books recently launched an African Writers series.  I was very pleased to read a Ben Okri novel, Dangerous Love.  Okri is a Nigerian writer of major international repute.  His use of language is brilliant and though slow moving, perhaps this is an African thing, the leisurely pace of life, it is a fascinating picture of the life and times of Omovo, and office worker and artist.  Okri is able to conjure up the most complete of pictures in one’s mind of Omovo’s life in the compound with his father and step mother, and his ill fated love affair with the beautiful Ifeyiwa.

ISBN 9780143528265
Penguin Books

A Question of Power - Bessie Head

A Question of Power is by Bessie Head, born in Pietermartizburg, lived in Botswana where she was long considered as that country’s best writer.  She died very young in 1973, just as she was reaching international recognition as a writer.  In this semi-autobiogrphical novel, Head describes the life of Elizabeth and her son, refugees from South Africa like Head herself.  Finding that you can’t leave the past at the border, and in your new homeland, as a person of mixed race and with urban ways, she is marked as an outsider.  An excellent read from this award-winning writer.

ISBN 9780143528487
Penguin Books

Barista Pinotage 2010

Barista Pinotage 2010

An African wine for African Books.  Bertus Fourie’s invention, he who knows how to make Pinotage with these overt coffee flavours.  Hugely successful with the people rather than the sniff- and spitterati, this wine is great slightly chilled, sappy fruity stuff.

Ben Trovato – The Whipping Boy

The Whipping Boy - Ben Trovato

Anyone who reads the fictitious Ben Trovato’s column in the Sunday Times would love to have this amusing reminder of columns past. However, should one wish to use The Whipping Boy for nothing more than the simple pursuit of reading pleasure, one will be pleasantly surprised to discover that the book contains more than just a compilation of Trovato’s much-loved and widely hated columns.  Scattered among these literary vipers, like shrapnel from fragmentation grenades, are a bunch of fake news stories, hilarious letters to the rich and famous and outrageous job applications that resulted in the author receiving not a single offer of employment.

ISBN 9780143528272
Penguin Books

Creation Merlot 2010

Creation Merlot 2011

From the upper reaches of the Heel en Aarde Valley comes this elegant sappy fruited Merlot. The Martins and the Kasers are an enthusiastic foursome but I don’t think would offer the politically incorrect Trovato a job.  The wine will certainly provide way more entertainment than the book.

Mind the Gap – Graeme Codrington & Sue Grant-Marshal

Mind the Gap

Amusingly subtitled, Own your Past, Know your Generation and Choose your future, this book takes a look at the way people think they understand children because they were children once.  Here you will find out about your generation and those of the people who make up your world.  Once you begin to understand them, and what makes them and you ‘tick’, the generation gap will shrink.  So fasten your seatbelt for the roller coaster ride which will change your thinking forever.  Excellent, amusing and informative.

ISBN 9780143528418
Penguin Books

Swartland Winery Bushvine Pinotage 2010

Swartland Winery - Bushvine Pinotage 2010

Ruby heart with garnet flashing round the edges.  Bloodplums and black cherries wrapped in fresh spices and a swirl of smoke on the nose.  Berries and cherries follow through on the palate with firm food friendly tannins and spices on the aftertaste.

Celebrate – Tina Bester

Celebrate - Tina Bester

Jenny Crwys Williams of Radio 702 describes this as ‘simply the prettiest cookbook on the block.’  Pretty it might be – and with Craig Fraser’s sublime photography, Vivky Sleet’s words and Libby Doyles magical design, one would expect it to be.  BUT if you want to celebrate – even if it is just four of you, this is a must have book.  I can see your copy, like mine, getting covered in Macaron filling, smears of Chicken Liver Paté, slops of MCC and chocolatey drops of Duck Sauce.  It’s a cant do withouter.

ISBN 9780986981346
Quivertree Publications

Krone Borealis 1997

Krone Borealis 1997

With what else one Celebrate other than the pop of a cork off a good local bubbly.  And this is a serious one.  The Krone Borealis Vintage 1977 showing all the wonders of age, rich biscuity nutty and fruity whiffs, deep citrus and mineral flavours.  You’ll want to drink this while planning your celebration – and during it.  And after!

Come Again – Andrew Donaldson & Mandy Rossouw

Come Again

Andrew Donaldson has been a journalist with the Sunday Times for many years.  I so enjoy his weekly column.  Mandy Rossouw is the international correspondent for Media 24 newspapers.  Together they have put together this wonderful little snapshot of South Africa.  The who and what that made you laugh or cry – or pull your hair out in frustration.  If you are a news junkie [Julius Who?]  or want a great giggle, this is for you.  Or certainly a gift you should be buying for Christmas for your news junkie friends.

Rustenburg Roussane 2011

Rustenberg Roussane 2011

You want something extraordinary to drink with this book and this wine fits the bill.  A delicious Mediterranean grape, making a sublime wine from one of the Cape’s First Growth Estates.  Delicious creamy stuff, smelling of white flowers, tasting of white fleshed peaches with vanilla cream.  Stonker!

Happy New Year, peace, health, success and prosperity be with you during 2012!