Main Ingredient's MENU 13th April 2013

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MENUMain Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet Foods & Ingredients
Eat In Guide’s Five time Outstanding Outlet Award Winner
www.mainingredient.biz - http://www.adamastorbacchus.com/
+27 21 439 3169 / +27 83 229 1172
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Queen Mary 2 passes the V&A Waterfront en route to the Duncan Dock in Cape Town harbour
In this week’s MENU:
• South African Grand Wines Collection presented to Premier Helen Zille
• Tracy van Maaren Trade wine tasting
• QM2
• Taste of Cape Town competition
• Cashew nut chicken recipe
• On Line Shop
• This week’s Product menu
• Our market activities - Neighbourgoods, Long Beach
• Wine and Food Events

2. • Wine courses & cooking classes
To take a look at our Main Ingredient blogs, follow the link:
http://adamastorbacchus.blogspot.com/ because to tell our whole story here would
take too much space and you can also read earlier blogs. Click on underlined and Bold
words in the text of this edition to open links to pictures, blogs, pertinent websites or
more information. Follow us on Twitter: @mainingmenu
Main Ingredient's On Line Shop is performing very well. We are continuing to update
it with new products and with photographs of products. Please do not pay until we
have confirmed availability and invoiced you. When you make an eft payment, make
sure that it says who you are. Use the form on the website to email us your order and we
will send you the final invoice once we’ve made sure stock is available. Click here to
see the shop.
This week’s Product menu Unless you have lots of time to make your own, you
probably use stock cubes. We have Italian Chicken, Beef and Vegetable cubes.
Portuguese fish stock in cubes. Australian vegetarian cubes without MSG in beef, chicken
and vegetable flavours and a jar of vegetarian stock powder made with olive oil.
We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things
we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet
foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and delicious
ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our
website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.
Our market activities Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s wonderfully exciting,
atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday and every Saturday
between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip: Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking.
It’s quite easy if you know how. Click here for a map which shows where we park. We
will be back at the market in Long Beach Mall, Sun Valley, Fish Hoek tomorrow, Friday
April 11th and next Friday, April 18th.
Presentation of the ‘South African Grand Wines Collection’ to Premier
Helen Zille. Leeuwenhof is one of the oldest houses in Cape Town and is set in a beautiful
estate at the foot of Table Mountain. It is the official residence of the Premier of the Western
Cape. The South African Wine Index invited us to a reception there, along with members
of the wine industry and wine media, to witness Premier Helen Zille accepting the
‘South African Grand Wines Collection’. This collection currently represents 125 natural
wines which show up the variety which comes from the SA landscape, their complexity
and structure. Wines which achieve top scores in competitions here and abroad are
indexed, evaluated to select the best and then listed as iconic South African wines.
Premier Zille indicated that she would love to have some guidance from the industry as
to the wines to serve at official banquets and other state functions. She was presented
with two iconic brandies, 20 year olds from Van Rijn and the KWV, and two wines by
Hempies du Toit: a magnum of Alto Rouge, which delighted her as she said this was the
wine served at her wedding, and a very special bottle of Annandale. Hempies, who also
achieved fame as a rugby Springbok, succeeded his father as winemaker at Alto before
he bought his own farm, Annandale. She also received two bottles of Vin de Constance,
the iconic dessert wine from Klein Constantia which was resurrected by the late Ross
Gower to match the style of the famous Constantia wines of the 18th and 19th
centuries.
We then moved through to the dining room, where we were served two courses of three
canapés each, made by talented Chef Marc Wassung and some very good wines including
Oak Valley, Bouchard Finlayson, Creation, Eagle’s Nest, Saronsberg and Cape Point,
Premier Zille spoke about the new Liquor Bill which has just come into effect in the
province, imposing more restrictions on the sale of alcoholic beverages, saying that
alcohol abuse poses an enormous problem. It is the cause of large numbers of Foetal

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Alcohol Syndrome children, crime, extreme violence and murder. She told us of how, for
a short period in Nyanga, they had managed to close all the liquor outlets and for that
period all the crime and violence decreased enormously. She asked for the industry’s
help in combating these problems, while recognising that the industry does bring
enormous wealth and tourism to the Province. Click here to see the photographs.
Tracy van Maaren Trade wine tasting This was held yesterday afternoon at
Auslese, Harald Bresselschmidt’s function venue in Hope Street. This is one of the trade
tastings we really look forward to each year, because Tracy represents a small but very
good list of wine farms and Harald is a master at matching the food to those wines. We
started with a lovely, crisp NV Pol Roger Champagne (said to be Winston Churchill’s
favourite), matched with a phyllo crisp topped with fennel puree and 2 magnificent tiger
prawns. This had a flavour of lemon curd which went very well with the bubbles. There
was a very ripe and fruity 2011 Chablis from William Fevre and a 2008 Rioja Reserva
from Bodega Muga, which was matched with a bittersweet chocolate filled with
blueberry and praline – magical. Next were John Loubser’s three Silverthorn Cap
Classique bubblies. The Green Man is stunning and the canapé of Vitello topped with a
fried white anchovy on Potato-artichoke puree was a very, very good match to it. The
recently released Jewel Box was a very good match for the Paupiette of free range
chicken and Prawn with leek mousseline. Matching their Genie Rosé with rose Turkish
delight was also a lovely idea.
Vriesenhof have a deep and many layered 2012 Chardonnay and a really impressive 2009
Pinot Noir. One of the memorable canapés on their table was a wagyu beef topside and
aubergine involtini with spinach, pomegranate and pumpkin seed salad. So unusual but
in a way, so familiar.
The Pan fried duck liver, still just pink, with orange zest aroma and a grapefruit gelée
completely echoed the taste of their 2009 Chardonnay. So well matched by the chef. We
reached Lynne’s wines of the evening at Raats. On tasting the Original Chenin Blanc
2012, John heard those favourite words “Birthday Wine”. One word was written on the
tasting sheet ‘Perfection’. She found it crisp and tight, full of minerality with long lime
and lemon flavours and then the richness develops on the palate. We now have a case on
order. Also of note is their interesting Blanc white blend.
On Cathy Marshall’s table we had our first tasting of Black pudding. The jury is still out
on that, but we absolutely loved both her wines: the Amatra 2012 Chenin is rich, full
and icy hot on the palate. This was paired with beautiful salmon trout that had been
cured with beetroot and served with a tarragon mustard crème fraiche. Her 2011 Nine
Barrels Reserve Pinot Noir is elegant and savoury and full of red berry fruit. Click here
to see the photographs.
Queen Mary 2 We were a little late for the tasting because, as we crested the brow
of High Level Road going into town, we heard on Cape Talk radio that the liner Queen
Mary 2 was just passing Camps Bay. So we stopped and waited with camera at the
ready. She really was a magnificent sight sailing past Robben Island, Blaauwberg and the
Waterfront. She seemed to float above the new Stadium, then past some welcoming
boats before meeting her tugs and entering Duncan Dock. The largest luxury Ocean Liner
in the world, and Cunard’s Flagship, she is on her way from Australia to Britain. How we
would love to be sailing on her. She will be back in Cape Town in 2014, so start making
your plans now. Note for photographers: the picture was taken with a 300mm lens on
John’s Nikon DSLR (which is equivalent to a 450mm lens on a 35mm camera), so the
perspective is compressed. This is why Table Bay looks so narrow and Tygerberg hill and
the oil refinery look so near.
Taste of Cape Town Thank you to all the MENU readers who sent in entries to our
Taste of Cape Town competition. We have never had so many entries to a competition
and were able to obtain an extra ten pairs of tickets from the organisers. After the first
ten names had been drawn, we drew another set of ten names from the submissions of

4. correct answers received before the first deadline. We did receive a few late entries,
but could not consider them. Deadlines are deadlines. All the winners will have been
notified by now and should have retrieved their tickets from the website. We will be at
the opening tomorrow and look forward to seeing many of you there.
This week’s recipe Lynne has been cooking a lot of Asian recipes in the last couple
of weeks. We have had a Chicken Tikka Masala and another Vietnamese beef. On
Saturday, inspired by Masterchef Australia, she went out and bought a (not-so) fresh
coconut, fresh turmeric (both at the Biscuit Mill) and uncooked prawns and made Rick
Stein’s Malaysian Laksa. This still needs work, as the coconut was a washout and we
think tinned coconut cream would probably work better here. The turmeric was also
very unripe, so it didn’t give that wonderful golden orange colour or flavour Mr Stein
achieved. And the prawns were awful and mushy. Hmmmmm. And it was a LOT of work.
One recommendation: we find it is better to eat spicy Asian recipes when they are warm
rather than hot. When they are piping hot, you seem to lose a lot of flavour. Our recipe
this week is from China. Probably more Western in influence, it is something you may
have eaten in a Chinese restaurant or ordered as a take-away. Chinese food is really
simple if you have the right ingredients and are prepared to do some prep beforehand.
These ingredients are all easy to find. We find that the corn flour seems to help
tenderise the chicken and it will help to thicken the sauce at the end.
Cashew Nut Chicken
80g raw cashew nuts - 2 skinned chicken breasts, cut into 1 cm slices – 1 T corn flour – 1
small egg, beaten – 2 T peanut oil for frying – 3cm piece of fresh ginger, grated – 2 fat
cloves of garlic, chopped - 1 small white onion, chopped into 4cm pieces – 6 green
beans, chopped into 3 cm lengths – 4 baby corns, sliced – 1 small red pepper, cut into 3
cm cubes – 2 spring onions, chopped into 2 cm lengths – 1 T sweet chilli sauce – 2 T light
soy sauce -1/2 cup good chicken stock – 1 cup bean sprouts
Dry fry the cashew nuts till nicely toasted, then set aside. Mix the chicken, cornflour and
egg and set aside while you do your preparation on the vegetables. When ready, heat
your wok till smoking, then add the oil and quickly fry your chicken on all sides. Remove
and set aside. Stir fry the onion quickly until the edges brown but it stays quite firm.
Add the ginger and garlic to the pan and throw in all the other vegetables except the
bean sprouts and quickly stir fry for two minutes. Put in the sauces and the stock and
cook for another two minutes. Add the chicken and cook for a couple of minutes until it
is just done. Throw in the bean sprouts and cashew nuts, stir, taste and add more soy if
necessary, then serve immediately with fluffy boiled jasmine rice.
Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy
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 month 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 Events Calendar. All the events are listed in date
order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right
through the year.
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.
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their
classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs
evening cooking classes at Sense of Taste, his catering company in Maitland. We can
recommend them very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme
here. Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has cooking classes in Fish Hoek and conducts cooking

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tours to Normandy. You can see more details here. Emma Freddi runs the Enrica Rocca
cooking courses at her home in Constantia. Brett Nussey’s Stir Crazy courses are now
being run from Dish Food and Social’s premises in Main Road Observatory (opposite
Groote Schuur hospital).
10th April 2013
Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if
you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our
product list for details and prices.
PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information
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 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.
This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed
to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to
you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or
organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. We own our
mailing software and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be
added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to
be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.

6. 5
tours to Normandy. You can see more details here. Emma Freddi runs the Enrica Rocca
cooking courses at her home in Constantia. Brett Nussey’s Stir Crazy courses are now
being run from Dish Food and Social’s premises in Main Road Observatory (opposite
Groote Schuur hospital).
10th April 2013
Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if
you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our
product list for details and prices.
PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information
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 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.
This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed
to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to
you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or
organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. We own our
mailing software and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be
added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to
be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.