V Day weekend

I survived the super active and foodilicious weekend! Thank god for Mondays!
A little respite and time to catch up on the Blog (and eat Dahl and rice)... from el blotto to el blogo...
Thats not to say I was el blotto the whole weekend, there was a lot of climbing up Chapmans Peak for V day and yoga..... and in between all of this activity I ate a lot of lamb, and drank ice ice icey cold beer and pinot noir...

Ah yes mid summer lamb.
The fall off the bone, suck out the marrow, lamb curry (on the bone) at Maharajah on Friday.
Succulent lamb shanks with green chilli raita and rotis on Saturday at friends, and saddle lamb chops with a minty potato salad (I want more) on Sunday made by friends who-braai-so-well. So, actually, I didn't do any of the cooking this weekend, just the eating....

There was also a little trip to the courtyard of Caveau for lunch on Saturday, and here we managed to keep it light with Camillas choice of salmon tartare and thin chips. The sushi platter was good, the sashimi was the best of it. My friend Mr S had the entrecote from HQ, with the thin chips again and the Cafe de P Sauce, and it was delicious. We drank Waterford ¨Rose -Mary¨ Rosé, like water, and finished off with a couple of local grappas - yay – and espressos.
We also shared a little crème bruleé, which is the nicest thing Ive had for R25 for while.

The crowd was a decent mixture of the usual suspects, Japanese perlemoen smugglers posing as legit, uptight Eurofools in pastels smiling for no reason, and washed out joburg party poopals - fun.

Caveau 021 422 1367 http://www.caveau.co.za/

Inspiration

Everybody needs it, never under estimate the power of INSPIRATION.
I dont know who this guy is, but thank god for him. He has inspired me to write like myself, not to write like the WASPy little fool I might have become. Also he is damned funny. So god bless your dreams of steak forever more and your sense of humour freak. Please check out The Foodie for laughs and a halfs.

The Yellowtail Linguine

Just managed to stop eating for 2.5 minute to take a photo.....

Right, you need some braaied fish leftovers, if you can manage not to eat them with your bare dirty little hands before youve even begun then you can make this pasta dish. If you dont have braaied fish, then sorry for you. Actually you can do some in a pan, or under the grill.

OK, for the sauce: Finely chop some onions and sweat ( sweat means not brown, not burn, add a little water if neccesary to keep them translucent, they add the sweetness) in olive oil on med heat. Add some wholish garlic cloves to impart flavour, you can pop a chilli or two in. Open two tins of whole peeled tomatoes ( the kind that read - ingredients: tomotoes, tomato juice, nothing else) add to pan, mush with potato masher, and leave to simmer on med heat for a long while. Add half your fish, leave to simmer some more( like 10-15 min simmering in total), add the rest of the fish 5 min before serving ( this is in order to keep some of your lovely yellowtail chunks whole)

While this is all shimmering away, make some damn al dente linguiné, or penné is good too. Im currently partial to not throwing the pasta into my saucé, depends on the saucé...

Season your sauce, that is salt and fresh black pepper, maybe even white..and EAT.

ps parmesan is good with this gdmit...and so is a very cold glass of Haute-Cabriére Pinot Noir Chardonnay - see photo.

Kogelberg weekender bliss

This is about my happy little weekend not too far from Cape Town.
In Kogelberg Nature Reserve. With good people and good walks and good food. Lots of it.
Kogelberg is home to the pristine Palmiet River, with lots of lovely walks around mountains, through kloofs and along the river itself.

We arrived at lunchtime on Saturday,and proceeded to eat the previous nights braaied Yellowtail (it was a monster) and cous-cous with gusto. Four of us still hadnt finished the fish by the time lunch was over and I was already dreaming about the nice pasta sauce I was going to make from it...

But first to the picture above...The ostrich fillet, and linguine aglio olio ( with chilli and pinenuts)
The last little bite to take a photo of - I almost forgot because Im new to blogging and because the food tasted so good and my friend is so handsome...

Ostrich fillet - whole
salt -use good salt, like maldon, or sea salt or similiar...good salt makes all the difference
black pepper
white pepper
mustard -english, dijon, german...

To Marinate...
Sprinkle fillet with the salt and peppers, and then using your hands rub mustard all over the fillet. Leave the meat at room temperature for a min of an hour before cooking.
To Cook...
Make a nice braai (barbeque), with good even coals and place your fillet on the grill. Test the centre by cutting through the meat in the thickest part with a sharp knife and fork, it should still be pink inside, it cooks quite quickly as it's a fillet. To serve, slice the meat in one centimetre slices, but first allow the meat to rest for at least 5 minutes - the perfect time to go and make your Linguine.....

500g Linguine - cook till very al dente, that is almost undercooked...
4 tbsp olive oil
6 garlic cloves, chopped, squashed, definetly peeled..
2 dried chillis whole or 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes ( gives it a bite)
50g pinenuts - roast them in a pan to a nut brown colour, ps they burn quickly.

Warm the olive oil gently to a medium heat in a pan, add the garlic and chillis (and the pinenuts if you can time them not to burn.) The garlic must not burn just go golden, you are flavouring the olive oil with it. Once it's been humming for 5 minutes you can add the linguine (add pre-toasted pinenuts here), turn up the heat and toss it around properly so all the pasta gets coated with the tasty oil. Take off the heat as soon as it's all distributed. Serve immediately with grated parmesan, salt and pepper.

We drank a lovely Malbec (from the Woolie) and it was spot on!

Dinner at The Grand Cafe Camps Bay

Lets just say, I know The Grand Cafe very well. Like many of you.
So, I was happy to tootle down Geneva Drive on a warm windless Atlantic mirror evening.

I parked in that impossible side road where you always somehow find parking.
I snuck quietly into The Grand, and settled at our table for four next to the staircase that´s perfect for people-watching. And though it's true that we did watch the ex-gogo dancers swanning around the bobo interior, I was there for the food.

The Caesar salad was eaten before I arrived, but apparently the bacon and croutons were perfectly crisp, the dressing classic, the salad was judged a little too small all in all.

Main course for my friends was the very fresh Tuna Tagliata, which is a tuna fillet cooked whole and then sliced, and then dressed with a light sauce of soya, lemon, ginger, chilli, garlic, mint, baby and roast tomatoes. Accompanied by rocket and some parmesan shavings, the end result is a deceptively simple dish with all the lovely flavours in the sauce enhancing the fresh tuna.

I had my usual here, because I know its the best one I'm going to get in Cape Town!
The Fillet Bernaise. Medium Rare. Cooked to perfection, a truly wonderful, relaxed, delicious (best basting sauce) piece of fillet. It was accompanied by finger size chips that are cut from actual potatoes, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and they actually taste like potatoes. To round it off: a bernaise sauce on the side, light, not a lot of herbs but perfect with the steak.

To befriend all this good food, we chose the Peter Falke 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, which is a good choice to go with the fillet with its strong berry flavours. Interestingly, Peter Falke is the same man who makes those wonderful hiking socks, and he has a wine farm here in Stellenbosch (see for yourself).

Service by Gunter was warm and informed, the restaurant was full but not crowded, and the music selection was good - with the exception of one or two weird tracks that had absolutely no place in the playlist.

The Grand Cafe remains for me a classic choice for great food, good atmosphere, assured service, and the smell of the sea.