Nederburg Estate, Paarl

Are you (like myself) a professional procrastinator? Or did the speed with which 2015 took off leave you reeling and not noticing the days ticking by towards the 14th of February? Is Januworry posthumously eating away at your February budget? Or are you just not that good at the morantic missions associated with the month of luuuuurve? Never fear. You can still save your heart-shaped-candied bacon. Picnics are still THE romantic go-to activities. And Nederburg has an excellent one lined up for tomorrow. (Pssssst…and because they have such huge lawns, they still have space available…if you book now!)

The Red Table at Nederbug is dishing up a fantastic al fresco Valentines dining experience until Sunday the 15th of February. They are lunch only, with one exception on Valentine’s day where evening picnics are a go.

The picnic consists of a generous amount of delicious cheeses, preserves, crackers and bread, two salads (one with butternut, beetroot and feta and the other a spectacularly fresh mango salsa styled salad), a mouth-watering individual quiche and a delectably decadent chocolate brownie which may or may not be laced with love potion, because I definitely fell for the chocolate treat on the spot. I wish I could have paid more attention to the details of each treat but I was too preoccupied with depositing said treats in my mouth.

Each picnic also comes with a bottle of Nederburg Premiére Cuvee Brut, a perfect picnic bubbly: crisp, fresh and delicious.

Picnics are R250 pp (order and pay 24 hours in advance) and you can book on 021 877 5155 or email The Red Table directly. Space is still available thanks to the expansive lawns, but don’t leave booking a moment longer as bookings are filling up fast.

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Vreedsaam

Op pad Franschhoek toe vanoggend het my gedagtes aanhoudend gemaal oor my “to do” list. E-posse om te stuur, vergaderings om te reël, verslae om te skryf. Soos dit klaarblyklik die moderne mens betaam, kon ek my kop nie sover bring om rustig te raak nie, al was ek op pad na ‘n bederfie; ‘n paar uur uit my dag om rustig te raak en iets spesiaals te geniet. Nie lank nadat ek my plek by die restaurant – op die ‘glaskas’ stoep wat uitkyk op ‘n bewolkte, koel Franschhoek dag – ingeneem het nie, het die gedruis in my gedagtes begin verdwyn.

Ek is altyd op soek na ‘n storie. Dit is altyd lekker om iets te skryf oor ‘n aangename ervaring; ‘n ete of ‘n wyn, ‘n uitstappie of ‘n gebeurtenis. Maar dit is altyd beter wanneer daar ‘n storie is. Almal het vandag iets om te sê, maar nie almal het ‘n storie om te vertel nie. Hierdie verskynsel loop natuurlik oor in die wynbedryf. Almal het ‘n brand. Almal het iets om te verkoop (dit is immers baie se brood en botter). Maar wie vertel regtig nog ‘n storie?

Min het ek verwag dat ek by La Motte se Winelands tee ‘n storie sou kry. Tee? Beslis. MCC? Ja, hoekom nie? Watertand lekkernye? Verseker. Maar ‘n storie? Die storie agter die tee ervaring is die eg gasvryheid van die Kapenaars van ouds: altyd ‘n blink, blikpot koffie op die stoof of ‘n teetjie reg om te trek. ‘n Warm verwelkoming vir vriende, familie en vreemdelinge wat oor die kombuisdrumpel trap.

Die tee spyskaart word aangebied saam met ‘n skatkissie vol feite oor die gebruike rondom tradisionele tee en gasvryheid. Van die gebruiklike bediening van konfituur – gepreserveerde konfyt gemaak van heel of groot vrugte stukke – tot Boerejongens en Boeremeisies (appelkose of rosyntjies ingelê in brandewyn). Daar is ook notas oor die verskeie teesoorte: wit, swart, rooi en rypgemaak. En natuurlik, ‘n bietjie meer oor die ‘soet sopie’ wat gebruiklik aan gaste gebied is tydens middagete, namiddag kuiers en aandete.

Die tee ervaring bestaan uit ‘n bordjie met fynproewer lekkernye: ‘n gerookte forel pannekoek bedryf met gebraaide kappertjies en roomkaas, biltong soes (dis die properse Afrikaans vir ‘choux pastry’), ‘n sjokolade truffle, ‘n amandelkoekie (en dis die mooi woord vir ‘n macaron) en jou keuse van wat op die koek spyskaart vir die dag is. My knieë het lam geword vir die rooi fluweel koek.

Die liplek-lekkernye word bedien met of jou keuse van tee (‘n formidabele boks met minstens agt verskeie geure word vir jou gebring om te beloer), koffie of die moderne ekwivalent van ‘n gasvrye drankie: Méthode Cap Classique. Die soet sopie keuses sluit in Amarula, Van der Hum likeur, peperment likeur of La Motte se Straw Wine. Ek het beide die MCC en Straw wines gekies. Die MCC is verfrissend, appelgeure en geroosterde amandels met ‘n prikkelende suur en fyn mousse. Die Straw wine het intense gedroogde sultana geure met n treffende soetsmaak sonder om aan jou keel te kleef en ‘n skimp na geblikte perskes.

Tussen die aanhoudende gejaag van afspraak na afspraak, taak na taak en doel na doel vergeet ons om stil te staan en die wêreld bietjie in te asem. Ons ontneem onsself die kans om af te skakel en die gasvryheid van ander te geniet. Pierneef á La Motte se Winelands tee is ‘n intieme bederfie. Geniet dit saam met vriende of familie, of knyp ‘n uur of twee vir jouself af daarvoor. Ontspan. Haal asem. Bederf jouself.

Die La Motte Winelands tee is Dinsdae tot Sondae beskikbaar vanaf 09:00 – 17:00 teen R145 per persoon. Besprekings is noodsaaklik. Kontak [email protected] vir meer inligting.

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Belgian Bacon Pudding. A recipe from IBM’s Watson SuperComputer.

At a recent event with IBM at The Griffin, the Incogvino JHB team got to experience some cognitive cooking (and human wine pairings). The recipe below was generated by Watson, IBM’s SuperComputer.

Inputs used to generate this recipe:

• Primary ingredient: Bacon
• Primary style: Belgian
• Unique recipe, never seen before.

Pairs with: We don’t know! The Chef changed this course because he just didn’t “get” the flavours. Thankfully we forced him to bring out his trial dishes. Tres #YUM! What pairs with bacon?

Belgian bacon and porcini mushroom pudding

500ml cream

110g bacon: rendered, fat reserved

porcini mushroom powder: 2 teaspoons

ground black pepper: 1/4 teaspoons

granulated sugar: 3/4 cup

egg yolks: 2

sheet gelatin : 4 pieces, in cold water

500ml buttermilk

unsalted butter: 7 tablespoons

almond flour : 1/2 cup, finely ground

all-purpose flour: 1/2 cup

fine sea salt: pinch, more as needed

Icing sugar,: 1 1/4 cup, more as needed

large egg whites: 4

extra virgin olive oil : 2 tablespoons

orange: juice and zest of one

honey: 1 tablespoon

ground cumin : pinch

ground caraway: pinch

golden raisins: 1/2 cup

dried figs: 1/2 cup, stem tips removed and roughly chopped

Method

Make the bacon-porcini pudding, gently heat the cream to approximately 65˚C; add the warm rendered bacon and fat and infuse for at least 4-6 hours, chilled. After infusing, strain the cream and discard the bacon and congealed fat solids. Add the mushroom powder and black pepper and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, whisk together the sucrose and egg yolks. Temper the hot cream into the yolk mixture and return to low heat, cooking just to 85˚C Remove from heat and add the gelatin. Temper the mixture into the buttermilk and blend well with an immersion blender. Divide into glasses or serving dishes and chill to set.

Next, prepare the walnut financier. Gently cook the butter to a light brown color and reserve warm. Combine the dry ingredients; in another large mixing bowl, manually whip egg whites just until frothy and yellow color dissipates. Whisk in the flour mixture

Slowly whisk in the warm butter, followed by the olive oil, ensuring complete emulsification;chill. Divide the mixture into silicon baking molds; bake at 150˚C until lightly browned and cooked through. Cool and break the financier into small pieces.

To prepare the spiced fruit compote, combine the orange juice and zest, honey and spices and gently warm. Pour the orange-honey mixture over the raisins and figs and macerate several hours, chilled.

To assemble, divide the dried fruit mixture among each set pudding and top with the torn financier pieces. Garnish with a few grains of Maldon salt and a dusting of icing sugar.

The post Belgian Bacon & Mushroom Pudding. A recipe from IBM’s Watson #CognitiveCooking appeared first on Incogvino.

Inputs used to generate this recipe:

• Primary ingredient: Lamb
• Primary style: Traditional
• Combination recipe using flavour profiling (not necessarily unique).

Pairs with: Rust en Vrede Cabernet Sauvignon 2012.

Deboned loin of lamb with pinenut crust, tarragon gnocchi, savoy cabbage & anchovy stuffing. A recipe from IBM’s Watson.

Lamb

1.15kg toasted pine kernels

4kg butter, softened

10 clove garlic

100 g thyme, leaves only

200 g leaves parsley, chopped

1kg freshwhite breadcrumbs

pinches nutmeg

pinches chinese five spice

olive oil, for frying

20 x 200 g portions lamb loin

Preparation Method:

Put the pine nuts, butter, garlic, herbs, breadcrumbs and spices into a food processor and blend to a coarse paste.

Roll out the pine nut paste between 2 sheets of greaseproof paper until large enough to cover the portions of lamb, then cut in half and chill in the fridge.

Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan, and fry the lamb portions until cooked to your liking. Rest the meat for 10 minutes. 

Preheat the grill. Lay a portion of the pine nut crust on top of each lamb portion and cook under the grill until the crust is golden brown.

Tarragon gnocchi

9kg potatoes, peeled

salt and pepper

10 tbsp chopped tarragon

10 tbsp chopped flatleaf parsley

75g plain flour

glug of olive oil

salt and pepper

Preparation method:

To make the gnocchi, cook the potatoes in a pan of as little water as possible until tender. Drain and mash or rice the potatoes while they are still warm.

Turn out the mash onto a work surface, season with salt and pepper and add the herbs. Slowly add the flour in batches, kneading gently by folding the edges of the dough into the center and pressing down lightly before sprinkling in each further addition of flour, until the dough is soft. Don’t overwork the dough or you will spoil the structure and the gnocchi will be powdery on the outside and pulpy on the inside.

Roll the dough into a Frankfurter-sized sausage. Cut the sausage into 3cm pieces.

Press each piece of dough against the back of a fork so that it curves slightly and the prongs leave indentations (which will help the gnocchi hold the sauce).

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the olive oil and drop in the gnocchi. Cook for a minute, or until the gnocchi rises to the surface. Remove from the pan, plunge into a bowl of ice-cold water and drain.

Caponata

9 medium aubergines, chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

2 onion, chopped

4 celery sticks, chopped

800g chopped tomatoes

200g green olives, pitted and sliced

6 tbsp capers, drained and chopped

60ml red wine vinegar

3 tbsp sugar, or to taste

handful flatleaf parsley, chopped

Preparation method:

Sprinkle the aubergines with salt and leave to drain in a colander for 30 minutes.

Heat some of the olive oil in a saucepan and brown the aubergine on a moderate heat for 10 minutes. When cooked, set aside and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a separate saucepan, heat the remaining olive oil and sauté the onion along with the celery and tomatoes. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the olives and cook for 20 minutes.

Add the cooled aubergine and the capers.

In a separate bowl, mix together the red wine vinegar and sugar. Add this to the pan and cook for 10 minutes. It is ready when the red wine vinegar has been absorbed & add parsley

Mint gel

¼ cup Fresh mint

1/3 cup Simple Syrup

1/3 cup Water

1 t Sugar

½ t Agar

Preparation Method:

Blanch the mint, shock n dry, Blend syrup with water and mint

Place in bowl in ice bath for 20 minutes. Then strain.

Combine sugar and agar.

Place the mint liquid into a blender on low.

Sift in the agar sugar mixture and blend for 1 minute.

Pour into a sauce pan and bring to boil, simmering for 5 minutes.

Pour into dish and cover chill for 10 minutes.

Blend the mixture till smooth, stain and store.

The post Deboned Loin of Lamb with Pinenut Crust. A recipe from IBM’s Watson #CognitiveCooking appeared first on Incogvino.

Swiss Thai Quiche, a recipe from IBM’s Watson SuperComputer

At a recent event with IBM at The Griffin, the Incogvino JHB team got to experience some cognitive cooking (and human wine pairings). The recipe below was generated by Watson, IBM’s SuperComputer.

Inputs used to generate this recipe:

• Primary ingredient: Asparagus
• Primary style: Swiss & Thai
• Unique recipe, never seen before.

Pairs with: Jordan Unoaked Chardonnay 2014

Swiss Thai Quiche. A recipe from IBM’s Watson.

155g Butter: divided

82ml Water: divided

2 Egg Yolk: divided

1.5 tsp salt: divided

225g plain flour: sifted

115g Lemongrass: peeled, tender white part only, thinly sliced

115g Leeks:, white part only

25 Asparagus tips: SHORT ONE

3 Eggs

225ml Heavy Cream

225 ml Plain whole-milk yogurt

Mild Curry Powder: 3/8 tsp

Method

Make the pastry dough, place the flour in the bowl of an electric mixer fit with the paddle attachment. Add 1 tsp of salt, 1 egg yolk, and 2.5 oz of water, and mix over low speed. Make sure your butter is room-temperature, and add it, diced, continuing to mix until homogeneous. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead by hand for 1 minute. Shape into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Lightly grease the tart molds. Roll the pastry dough to 1/16” thick, into a rectangle of approximately 14” x 16”. Cut out 14 discs of 4” diameter each, and fit them into the tart molds. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the quiche filling: Melt 2/3 of the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then sauté the sliced lemongrass and leeks with a dash of salt until soft, stirring regularly. Let cool. Melt 1.5 oz of butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then add 0.4 oz of water and asparagus, season with a dash salt, and cook for a couple of minutes until the asparagus is cooked but still crunchy. Let cool. In a bowl, mix the eggs, 1 egg yolk, heavy cream, curry, coriander, pepper and ¼ tsp of salt. Fold in the yogurt, the sautéd lemongrass and leek, and crumbled feta

Pour the quiche mixture into the molds, arrange 2 asparagus tips on top of each of them, and sprinkle with the grated Gruyère. Bake in a 400º F / 205º C oven for about 30 minutes, until golden brown.

Serve warm with some chopped parsley sprinkled on top.

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The Chef at The Griffin telling the story of what it’s like to get his instructions from a computer…

You may remember when Watson won Jeopardy.

From Wikipedia:

Watson is an artificially intelligent computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language,[2] developed in IBM’s DeepQA project by a research team led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM’s first CEO and industrialist Thomas J. Watson.[3][4] The computer system was specifically developed to answer questions on the quiz show Jeopardy![5] In 2011, Watson competed on Jeopardy! against former winners Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings.[3][6] Watson received the first place prize of $1 million.[7]

Watson had access to 200 million pages of structured and unstructured content consuming four terabytes of disk storage[8] including the full text of Wikipedia,[9] but was not connected to the Internet during the game.[10][11] For each clue, Watson’s three most probable responses were displayed on the television screen. Watson consistently outperformed its human opponents on the game’s signaling device, but had trouble responding to a few categories, notably those having short clues containing only a few words.

Enter Watson’s next trick. It can cook. Which led to a fascinating experience… First of all, pairing wine to a bunch of recipes generated by a computer must have been interesting in itself, but probably the most interesting part of “Dining with Watson” was how hard it was for the Chef (in this case from The Griffin in Illovo) to put together these dishes. Some of them went against every trained cooking bone in his body. And yet… they tasted great!

Watson’s recipe generation repertoire is generated off a couple of factors.

• Primary ingredient
• Primary style (eg. Indian, Spanish etc.)
• Should the recipe be completely unique

Unique recipes is where it gets a bit crazy. Combinations of ingredients and styles that never, ever would make sense in your head. But I guess that’s the fun bit. And how you end up with Swiss Thai Quiche… or Belgian Bacon Pudding.

I’m going to post each recipe separately, but definitely have a look at the wine pairing below. Then follow the links below and try your hand at some computer generated cooking. Let us know how it goes!

IBM Watson’s recipe for Swiss Thai Quiche

IBM Watson’s recipe for Deboned Loin of Lamb with Pinenut Crust

IBM Watson’s recipe for Belgian Bacon Pudding

The post IBM’s Watson can cook (quite well actually)… appeared first on Incogvino.

Daily Dish’s amazing menus

We’re all busy people. If we’re not out working hard to bring home the bacon, we’re busy with family, friends, hobbies, exercise, studies… There’s always something. For me, the first thing that flies out the window when I’m swamped is my diet. Even the simplest healthy eating routine gets dropped like a hot, carby potato when I’m buzzing around. I either don’t have time to cook, or I’m too tired. Or there aren’t groceries in the fridge. Cue take-aways. Not ideal.

Enter Daily Dish. A simple solution not only for those of us perpetually strapped for time but also great if you’re out of fresh dinner ideas and the ol’ mac and cheese just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Daily dish is a straightforward service that’s easy to sign up for and offers not only excellently priced meals but flexibility and quality. It takes the hassle out of fresh, healthy dinners. You sign up, choose your menu and they send you everything you need for four meals (and plenty of leftovers!) for a week. Simply go to the website, register (for free) and then browse their menus. They have three options: Classic, Low Carb and Vegetarian. You can have a look at the recipes for the following week and choose your menu. There’s a deadline for orders with the delivery date clearly stated so you know exactly when to expect it.

This week, I chose the vegetarian menu because it looked absolutely fantastic. Admittedly, I “enriched” two of them with some added animal protein but the options were just mouthwatering. The recipes are idiot-proof but make you feel like a top chef. And, because Incogvino is all about the wine (which forms part of lifestyle, of course), I have a little pairing suggestion for each meal I made this week:

• Caponata on Ciabatta – Lovely, fragrant aubergine based dish with olives rosemary and tomatoes. I had some ostrich steak on the side with this, prepped medium to medium rare and paired it with 2009 Zonnebloem Pinotage. The pairing worked well with both the meat and the vegetarian main dish.
• Aglio e Olio with Blistered Cherry Tomatoes – Fabulous, garlicky pasta dish with gorgeous spinach and a hint of chilli for a lovely bite. I added some smoked salmon trout to the dish by flaking it generously on top once finished. Paired it with a 2007 Vriesenhof Pinot Noir but the dish will work well with a Chardonnay too, not too oaked but rather one with some zest.
• Feta Sweet Potato Jackets – The easiest of the meals (which really makes it a no-brainer as the others were all very simple to prepare), I kept this one straight vegetarian. Squeeze lots of lime on top and have it with a flavourful Sauvignon Blanc, like the Nederburg Airhawk.
• Chilli Bean Wrap – This was my ultimate dish of the week. Dead easy recipe but packed with flavour. Also made it vegetarian but it’ll be great with some added mince (or try chicken mince for a fun twist). Tex-mex grub actually calls for a beer (whatever your preference may be) so I didn’t pair this with a specific wine but you can definitely crack open a light red, like a Grenache or a light red blend.

And now, folks, the very generous and brilliant folks from Daily Dish have given us THREE Daily Dish subscriptions for one week (that’s FOUR MEALS) to give away! Here’s how to enter:

1) Like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
2) Retweet the link to this post and share it on the interwebs. You can make up your own tweet/post or you can just copy and paste this:

Dish me up! Win a week’s worth of delicious @DailyDishForYou meals. Enter here: http://bit.ly/1tSMdv7

3) Leave a comment below telling us which menu (Classic, Low Carb or Vegetarian) you’d prefer and why.

Winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 7 November at 17:00. Please make sure that you live in one of their specified delivery areas.

***COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED***

The post {Giveaway} Daily Dish – The Definition of Convenience appeared first on Incogvino.

Restaurant Mosaic

But this isn’t about Cape Town vs JHB (even though Mosaic will give most places a run for their money in terms of sheer opulence). This is about some pretty amazing cooking. I’m not writer enough to describe it. But I can show it. The 10+ course endurance eating extravaganza was paired with a selection of off-the-charts international wine from Mosaic’s 49,000 bottle cellar (every bottle of which is purchasable).

It’s a destination restaurant, both in terms of location and price (R1,100 per head for the full experience). But have a look at these pictures and tell me you’re not intrigued?

— Andy Hadfield

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