We had a busy and wonderful 2011. And we aim to do the same this year. Just looking at our mid summer cooking courses is enough to make your mouth water.

We start off the new year by proving  that vegetarian is delicious.  Join us for a full day anytime course exploring the regions summer vegetables and fruits and visiting the producers and farmers in Prince Albert. Jeremy takes us down the Spice Route for a gourmet weekend mid January; mid summer is fig time in the Weltevrede valley – join us on a weekend to explore this delicious fruit. Jacques Erasmus is back with Let’s Get Saucy to end our January calendar.

Back in early Feb is Stefan Marais and a Summer Bistro. Bread baking is a trend for 2012 so join our popular bread making weekends with artist Neil Jonker. Pickles &  Preserves 18 Feb, capture summers bounty. Our Gourmet Karoo Cycle Tour is fully booked already but will certainly be scheduled again during 2012.

March – True Karoo, but more later, there is too much going on already in the kitchen. Hope to see your there. Remember our wonderful Karoo cottages are available mid week and half and one day cooking courses can be tailored to suit your culinary curiousity.

Happy cooking and Happy 2012.

South African Tourism in Germany designed a campaign to promote South Africa to the German public as an exciting tourism destination. They approached African Relish and Reuben Riffel to attend the EAT & STYLE EXPO in Cologne to showcase our cuisine and culinary heritage. Eat & Style is the largest food and lifestyle exhibition hosted by four cities across Germany during October and November each year.

Cologne comes to see South Africa in action

Knoblauch!

Jeremy Freemantle and Reuben Riffel headed to Cologne to tantalise the German taste buds with some South African culinary classics. Everyday dishes, we are so used to eating, raised some eyebrows with the German visitors. Bobotie, pickled fish, malva pudding and slaphakskeentjies  were tasted with fresh palates and it was wonderful to see the expressions on faces as the locals of Cologne tasted these unfamiliar combinations.

Prep in real time

That's how you do it!

KAI - the Samurai of chef's knives

The live cooking shows were packed with curious and hungry visitors as they sampled the dishes prepared in real time. No TV tricks, just cooking on demand for 120 people per hour…. sounds like a speed limit! It was fast paced and exciting and the food was delicious. There is no doubt that South Africa is an attractive tourism destination and our food gave them a taste of what to expect when they reach our shores.

Reuben stirring - as usual

Autographs and paparazzi

The show kitchen was equipped with state-of-the-art induction cookers and fridges from MIELE, beautifully crafted KAI SHUN chefs’ knives from Japan and small appliances from PHILIPS.

The Cologne Team - Corinna, Reuben, Jeremy, Angela

Reuben & Jeremy will be back there in the future to share the magic of South Africa’s cuisine.

Our weekend with Reuben Riffel was an extraordinary experience, for our guests and our African Relish team. We had the good fortune to spend time with a highly talented chef who has an instinctive way with presenting sublime food with seemingly no effort whatsoever. His manner is calm, focused and spontaneous… his results spectacular. Unpretentious, modern and irresistible would accurately describe his signature cuisine.

That says it all!

Jennifer & Essie misbehaving in class

We recreated some of Reuben’s signature dishes from his restaurants and we had a master class in creative plating and presentation. All the senses were aroused with a definite emphasis on light, delicate and subtle.

There is no pretention in anything that Reuben does; he is a great example of how to allow the food to be the hero and the chef merely the instrument.

Simone & Reuben

Stuffing quails!

Dishes such as prawn risotto with vanilla and leeks, chilli salt squid with nuoc cham, braised pork belly with ginger caramel sauce, grilled quail with grape, mascarpone and tarragon stuffing, mustard-glazed ostrich fillet with tomato smoor, polenta and butternut crème….. to name but a few.

Poached chicken salad with cashew vinaigrette and mixed leaves

Chili salt squid

We had the rare opportunity to have quality time with Reuben to chat about all things culinary and to pick his brain for tips and hints. It was a combination of master class demo and hands on happiness.

Plating up!

Reuben and African Relish’s Jeremy Freemantle are off to Germany in November to represent and promote South Africa as a desirable culinary destination. SA Tourism invited them to participate in the Eat & Style Food & Lifestyle Expo in Cologne and they will be cooking some South African favourites to entice Europeans to come and sample our famous hospitality and wonderful cuisine.

Reuben’s new book Reuben Cooks  Local is due to be launched in November this year and promises to be a real cracker. This is his second cookbook to hit the shelves and Reuben brings you a collection of some of his favourite South African feasts. The easy-to-follow home grown recipes are inspired by the chef’s deep-seated knowledge and love of readily-available, local ingredients and produce to take you on a mouth-watering exploration of the freshest seasonal items, whether from sea, field, earth or orchard. Reuben Cooks Local is proof that local is indeed lip-smackingly lekker and will be ripe for the picking from Reuben’s restaurants, local bookshops or directly from QuiverTree Publications,  the publisher from November 2011.

Frankie and Jenni get stuck in

To say that Stefan Marais is a culinary wizard is an understatement! This past weekend, our guests were seduced into hedonistic ‘gourmetdom’ with his bistro cooking such as Prince Albert has never experienced.  I strongly urge you to visit Stef and eat at his restaurant , Societi Bistro in Cape Town, where you can experience the deliciousness firsthand.

Baked leeks with thyme and butter

Pasta python

Tortellini and Ravioli production line

Stef regaled stories of the origins of bistro food and classic dishes such as cassoulet, pot au feu, classic French onion soup, liver parfait and eggs bourguignon, apple tarte tatin, torta Caprese and much more.

Ravioli in perspective

Perfect tortellini

Rustic Ravioli

We had a few raised eyebrows when the eggs bourguignon appeared, all purple from their poaching bath in red wine. This was topped with a classic bourguignon sauce made with a rich beef demi-glace with red wine, mushrooms and smoked pork belly lardons. Outrageously delicious.

Yum!

Childhood habits endure

Mmmmm!

The show stopper was of course the cassoulet. This French classic is a marathon to make over two days and is not one of those dishes you whip up to watch in front of the TV. This one is a labour of love and be prepared to invite a group of your best friends to share in its decadence and huge flavours. It is well worth the effort and you are guaranteed to make a few new friends along the way as the word spreads. Filled with smoked pork belly, Tolouse sausages, confit duck legs and haricot blanc (cannellini beans), cooked slow and low…… well worth the wait. Eat with a bold and spicy shiraz or a big busty blend.

Met eish!

Stef pours it in... Cassoulet in the making

constructing classic cassoulet

Ready for the oven

Stef adds the finishing touches

If you would like some of the recipes that we prepared over the weekend please feel free to drop an email to jeremy@africanrelish.com and we will send it to you with pleasure.

Stef and the ladies

Look out for our upcoming culinary capers and the great personalities that are coming to visit our kitchen.

NASTURTIUM (Kappertjie) PESTO

INGREDIENTS
Bunch of nasturtium leaves
Bunch wild sorrel (surings) (optional)
2 cloves garlic
½ cup raw cashew nuts
½ cup Prince Albert Olives Extra Virgin olive oil
½ cup parmesan cheese, finely grated
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
1 green chilli, chopped (optional)

METHOD
Place all the ingredients in a blender and pulse to a smooth paste. Add more oil and lemon juice if pesto is too thick. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Reza Mahammad, the undisputed Star of India, returned to African Relish once again to spice things up a bit.

Classroom kit

Reza gets things going

Reza spent ten days here enthralling our guests with his culinary antics and his high energy cooking lessons. Two weekends and a week in between – we kept him busy, and he kept us even busier.

Debbie and Louise pay attention

Simone and Collette size things up

We learnt about mysterious, the exotic and the aromatic. Our senses were sent into orbit with heady aromas and robust tastes and it became clear that there is a whole lot more to Indian cuisine than the one-dimensional ‘curry’ that most of us grew up with. Reza gave us an insight into the real depth and complexity of Indian cooking, yet revealed also just how simple it is when one grasps the fundamentals of balance and subtlety. He dispelled some fears and misconceptions around the use of spices and demystified the mysterious names of ingredients that some of us find intimidating.

Via, teacher's pet!

Reza introduced us to some fantastic dishes such as coriander and walnut chutney, baked baby aubergines with caramelised onion and turmeric marmalade, potatoes with pickling spices (achar ke aloo), chapathi, sweet potato and goat’s cheese samosa, swiss chard falafels with tahini, sumac and lemon sauce, venison pasanda (hiran ke pasanda), minced lamb and lentil pilau amongst other delicious and extraordinary dishes.

Master class

Reza is a born entertainer and he made sure that all were given a fair measure of side-splitting laughter, serious moments of real culinary insight and a warm and satisfied feeling of contentment.

To keep Reza busy in between cooking sessions we organised some extra mural activities for him with a visit to the Cango Caves and a rather hysterical ride on an ostrich which can be viewed on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j4PWEitWZ8; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrKDP2y4gm0&feature=related; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxUM-qREzj8&feature=related

So, Reza left his mark on Prince Albert and it is a much quieter place now that he has left, but you can be sure that he will return for more spicy adventures in the Karoo.

On a freezing winter weekend in the Great Karoo, meat was on the menu at African Relish. We decided to introduce our guests to a more conscious approach to buying, preparing and eating meat. So much is and has been said about the moral, environmental and health issues surrounding meat production and consumption, that we thought it appropriate to explore these in more depth.

The perfect stock in the making

Stock foundation

The weekend was devoted therefore to a fair amount of meat, the preparation, cooking and consumption while we turned a temporary blind eye to our diets and headed on a hedonistic roller coaster of ‘Maillard’ caramelisation and Umami sensory overload that had the taste buds tap dancing on our tongue tips.

Frank the perfectionist preps the herbs

MaryEllen gets stuck into the hot water pastry

Rolling out the pastry

Simone with a Melton Mowbray classic!

We took our guests through the process of preparing stocks, what goes into making a classic foundation stock and the importance of that foundation in the preparation of all that flows from it so to speak. Sauces, reductions, soups and stews all stand or fall by the quality of the stock they are built on.

Warthog loin with tarragon cream sauce.... Mmmmm!

The produce in waiting

We also experimented with some more exotic meats such as warthog loin, quails, kudu and eland, ostrich, and of course beef and lamb. We made terrines, pork rilllettes, Melton Mowbray raised pork pie, roasted quail with apple and fennel marmalade….. Yum! Thank s to Stefan Marais, head chef at Societi Bistro in Cape Town, who shared his mouth watering, melt-in-the-mouth chicken liver parfait recipe…. It is life changing!

Venison Bunny Chow baked in a flower pot.

It was a wonderful weekend where we played with our food, exploring and experimenting and relishing the results. We will be sure to repeat this course on Meat as we feel it is very important for us to understand what we are eating, respect the ingredients, be more conscious of the provenance of our food, and that applies to all our food, not only meat by the way.

Below is a short discussion taken from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s amazing book The River Cottage Meat Book, which puts so many things in perspective.

“Meat is a food that many millions of us take for granted and one that is riddled with complex issues—issues of health, economics, and environment, not to mention of course, taste. But also, undeniably, issues of right and wrong. There are fundamental questions that we must consider – Why do we eat meat? And is it right morally, that we do?

Humans are unthinkingly and historically, carnivores. For hundreds of thousands of years we have hunted animals and for tens of thousands of years we have farmed them, so that we can eat their meat. It is likely that we were meat eaters throughout that period of our development when our moral capacity could be said to have evolved. It is a deep-rooted natural instinct we have developed. In eating meat, then, we are doing what comes naturally. But that is not enough to resolve the moral dilemma. In order to be untroubled carnivores we need to persuade ourselves not merely that it’s been okay for our ancestors to eat meat for the past several millennia but that it is still okay for us today.

Things change. We continue to evolve, and so do does our relationship with the animals with whom we share the planet. For a long period in our evolutionary history, our primate ancestry was primarily, or even exclusively, vegetarian. Today our cousins, the Orang-utans and the gorillas, survive, indeed, thrive without a scrap of meat in their diets. On the other hand , our closer relatives, the chimpanzees, do hunt for meat, usually killing other monkey species.

So why has the human primate hung onto the meat eating habit? A question all vegetarians ask, who see abstention from meat as a mark of moral progress.”

Taken from The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

In his wonderful book, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall approaches the issues surrounding meat production and consumption with a very measured and balanced view. The debate is an endless one and one which I doubt can ever be ‘resolved’.  I do not believe that it is one that necessarily requires resolution as individual choice is a fundamental right of every human being and as long as we respect the choice of others on the grounds of their moral or cultural convictions, we can put the issue to rest.

However, there are issues that meat eaters should, through moral conscience, take note of and become more aware of their significance in terms of health, environment and respect for the animals themselves.

These are issues that have become even more significant in modern times with the introduction of dubious farming practices and mass production, all of which have a direct impact on our health, environment and moral conscience.

There is a global trend emerging with regard to food purchasing and consumers are becoming more conscious of the quality of the food that they purchase. They are beginning to enquire about the provenance of the food, the manner in which it was processed, the ingredients and additives that are included in our food and whether it has any health debilitating or enhancing properties. There is a growing awareness, albeit in the more privileged classes, but nonetheless an increasing desire to return to the smaller producer, the artisanal rather than the conglomerate.

Food is fuel to the body, but it is also a reflection of our culture. It is our culture and as Professor Philip Tobias says, “A nation’s culinary culture reflects its values, religious customs, art, and folklore – in other words, its total humanity.”

When we buy meat, we should reflect on its origin, its quality and the way in which the animal(s) were reared, fed and treated during their lives. This can only be done if we know where the animal came from or at least deal with a butcher that is aware of the origins of the meat he/she buys. This is important if we are to take a more conscious and responsible approach to what we eat.

In a perfect world we would be able to experience the true symbiosis of the relationship between humans and animals bred for food. We have complete control over their deaths, and we also have complete control over their birth and their life. We breed them and feed them, then we slaughter them and they feed us. We should be conscious and aware of how this process takes place and ensure that we only buy meat from responsible and ethical producers.

WHAT IS GOOD MEAT?

The reality is that most of the meat we buy in large supermarkets is of mediocre quality. The reason for this is simple: we as consumers appear to be happy to buy poor meat, so the suppliers continue to give us poor meat. As long as it’s cheap we don’t complain. We just load it in the trolley without asking  where it came from, what it was fed on, how it lived and died, how it was stored ,cut and packed, what was added and how far it travelled. Yet it is the answers to these questions that should make us flinch and not the price!

Jacques Erasmus casts a flavour spell with exotic Eastern delights

The African Relish kitchen was filled with flavours of the East this past weekend as Jacques Erasmus once again had our guests spellbound with his culinary mastery as he showed off mouth watering and exotic dishes from the Mekong Delta and Cambodia. Exotic, mystical and sometimes unpronounceable, yet lip-smacking and delicious they certainly turned out to be.

Exotic display

Jacques entertained us with a personal account of his travels to Vietnam and Cambodia and the extraordinary people he met along the way, the street markets and food and the account of a 5-course meal prepared and served deep in the Mekong Delta by a 15-year old boy on a boat not much larger than a dugout canoe. We prepared some of these dishes and in particular two, which are regarded as special in Vietnam, The Mekong Fish Platter (Jacques interpreted name) and an utterly mesmerising noodle/broth dish called Bun cha ca. The recipes for both are included below and we strongly urge you to have a crack at preparing them at home….. you will not be disappointed!

Fragrant and delicious Bun Cha Ca

VIETNAMESE BUN CHA CA

Serves 2

50 gm rice noodles

400ml water

Fish sauce, lemon juice, palm sugar, salt and fresh chilli to taste

200 gm white fish (hake, cape salmon, kingklip, yellowtail)

1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

Zest and juice of half a lemon

1/2 tsp corn flour

Salt and black pepper to taste

150 gm pork belly, skin removed

1/2 cup green papaya, thinly sliced

Assortment of fresh coriander, lemon verbena, sweet basil, Thai basil, Vietnamese mint and garden mint

Boil the rice noodles in salted water for 2-3 minutes, drain and rinse under cold water. Set aside.

Season the water with fish sauce, lemon juice, palm sugar, salt and fresh chilli and bring to a boil. Adjust seasoning and set aside. Prepare the fish cakes by finely chopping the fish and mixing with coriander, lemon juice, lemon zest and corn flour. Season with salt and pepper. Shape mix into small fish cakes and set aside. Thinly slice the pork belly and fry slowly in a pan until crisp and most of the fat has cooked out. Remove the pork and set aside. Fry the fish cakes in the pork fat over medium heat until golden in colour.

To serve:

Place the fish cakes and crispy pork in rice bowls and top with the thinly sliced papaya. Pour over the hot broth and serve with noodles and leaves on the side for dipping and mixing in the soup.

MEKON FISH PLATTER WITH WHOLE FRIED FISH

Serves 4

2 whole fish, gutted (grunter, roman, panga etc)

Flour for dusting

Dressing

1 spring onion

50 ml soy sauce

25 ml palm sugar

1 small red chilli, chopped

2cm fresh root ginger, shredded

Juice of one lime

Oil for deep frying

To serve

16 sheets Vietnamese rice paper

1/2  English cucumber, cut into sticks

2 spring onions, cut into sticks

Fresh assorted lettuce, mint, coriander, sweet basil, Thai basil, Vietnamese mint

Soy sauce for dipping

Score the fish on both sides and dust with flour. Prepare the dressing by combining all the ingredients and mixing well. Fry the fish in a wok with enough oil to cover the fish until the skin starts to puff and crisp and the fish is cooked on the inside – this takes about 7 – 10 minutes. Remove the fish from the oil and place in a platter. Pour the dressing over the hot fish and place the rest of the items on the side. Break pieces of the fish off and roll in the rice paper with vegetables and leaves and dip in the soy sauce.

Banana flower

Exotic cabbage from the garden

Vietnamese food, as with most Aisan food, is screamingly fresh and prepared quickly. It consists of large quantities of fresh greens, herbs and healthy ingredients such as ginger, galangal, lime, garlic, palm sugar and so on. The dishes are all prepared with a great deal of care and over centuries have evolved from a culture where food is regarded as more than mere fuel for the physical needs of one’s body, but also consists of deeper health, restorative and cleansing properties and spiritual significance. Complete food if you like!

We prepared the most beautiful salads with green papaya, banana flowers, ruby grapefruit and shredded dried squid, doused in tongue tingling dressings and toasted nuts. Hong Kong style egg tarts and steamed tiger prawns with hot pepper mandarin salt also filled the tables as we took our taste buds on a roller-coaster sensory adventure not to be forgotten in a long time.

Sea Bass awaiting the wok!

We suggest that you take the trouble to find suppliers of Asian ingredients in your neighbourhood and get those woks fired up.

Enjoy the ride!

Pumpkin Fritters (Pampoen poffertjies)

500 ml cooked and mashed pumpkin or butternut

1 large egg, beaten

30 ml cake flour

5 ml baking powder

Pinch of salt

Butter

Cinnamon sugar

Mix the pumpkin, egg, flour, baking powder and salt together. Heat the butter in a heavy bottomed pan and drop spoonfuls of batter into the pan. Cook until nicely browned on both sides. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. And squeeze some lemon juice over. Eat warm.

Ingredients

15ml olive oil
5 cloves garlic, sliced
2 small green peppers, cored, deseeded and coarsely chopped
250g courgettes, thinly sliced
250ml canned, peeled and chopped tomatoes
3ml salt
freshly ground black pepper
410g butter beans, drained and rinsed
400g red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
400ml cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
15ml fresh sage leaves
lemon juice to taste
600g mashed potato
40g Parmesan cheese
seasoning to taste
3 ml paprika (optional garnish)
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 190 ºC. Heat 10 ml of the oil in a frying pan over a moderate heat for 1 minute. Add 2 of the garlic cloves and sauté for 1 minute.

2. Add the peppers and courgettes, sauté, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes or until they are al dente (cooked, but firm). Add 180 ml of the tomatoes, salt and black pepper and cook, uncovered for 5 minutes longer.

3. Place the canned beans, chickpeas, the remaining oil, garlic, tomatoes and sage in a food processor, and purée until smooth. Season with lemon juice, salt and black pepper.

4. Spoon the purée into a lightly greased casserole dish, top with the courgette mixture. Flavour the mashed potatoes with Parmesan and seasoning, and then spoon on top.

5. Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are lightly browned. Sprinkle with paprika if desired.