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Our Wines Online home page will change continuously with new information and views from a variety of contributors. Enjoy! The Gourmet Spies Michael Olivier's Nosh News A Lady to Watch LIZA Goodwin – she should be called Goodwine – is the Cellarmaster at Meerendal Estate. As a little boy I used to go there with my grandparents to visit then owners, Uncle Willie and Aunt Erilda Starke. Their son Kosie put Meerendal on the map as a producer of benchmark Shiraz and Pinotage. Today visiting Meerendal is a trip of nostalgia but it so filled with the energy and excitement of the developing estate. Read more… Quince & Lamb Knuckle Bredie I have always wanted to make a Quince Bredie and with the shelves full of wonderful quinces at the moment, I thought I’d give it a bash. Good idea to keep the quinces in your fruit bowl to get them really wonderfully ripe.  Leipoldt talks of a quince bredie in his writings, 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… click here. John & Lynne Ford's Main Ingredient SOMEONE said the other day that Capetonians are obsessed by the weather. Well, yes, maybe but not as much as the entire British nation. We do have a lot of it down here and at the moment it is particularly bloody, but we love it. Sheeting rain, clamorous thunder and flashy lightning have brightened up our week. Our fire has been lit and wonderful bowls of soup and stews are being dreamt of – and consumed. We hear that it’s been really cold up north and that the whole country has been suffering, so Lynne dug out her old UK recipe cards and came up with this easy cold weather gem Iranian Stuffed Cabbage 1 onion, chopped – 175g lean minced beef or lamb – 1 tomato, chopped 1t cinnamon – ˝t allspice – bunch of chopped parsley – 75g risotto or pudding rice 1 whole cabbage, separated into leaves, washed – 5 cloves of garlic cut into slivers tamarind paste Line a deep saucepan with the outer leaves of cabbage. Fry the onion till just beginning to caramelise, add the beef, then the tomato and the spices. Stir together till brown and then add the rice and the parsley. Put a spoonful of the mixture into a cabbage leaf and roll up into individual parcels. Place these in circles in the bottom of the pot and tuck slivers of garlic in amongst them. Add 1 T of tamarind paste to 1 litre of hot water, stir, then pour over the parcels. Cover with a lid and cook very slowly until all the liquid is absorbed. Do add more water if it looks dry. Serve with a rustic spicy shiraz and some roasted butternut and courgettes. Arabella shiraz will do very well or you could try a hearty blend like Raoul’s Rustic Red from Beaumont. Restaurant Food We have been eating out a lot lately and it occurred to us that we had made a couple of discoveries. While the prices do vary a lot - there are some real rip-offs out there and some real bargains - venues cannot be compared as they vary from tacky to trendy to smart. However, we actually have not eaten terribly bad food anywhere. Indifferent food yes, badly presented food too but nothing that has had to be returned or made us ill. But as far as service has been concerned: OUCH! LOTS of really bad service, some indifferent and only one or two places where the service has been absolutely stunning. Restaurants still need to do a lot about training their staff, especially now that they have to be properly paid, instead of relying on tips for their living – something of which we really approve. Tell them what they are there for! |
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