Charred Swordfish Steak with Salsa Verde, Garlic Butter Parsley Potatoes and a Chopped Salad

Here’s something of a blast from the past, that I uncovered while sorting through my recipes to go into the upcoming recipe book (Yes, at long last, The Man in the Kitchen is setting about producing a recipe book!), and this, I am sure, will be one of them. I perfected and wrote the recipe way back in July 2007.

Charred Swordfish Steak with, Salsa Verde, Garlic Butter Parsley Potatoes and a Chopped Salad

Preparation Time: 45 minutes

Cooking Time: 20-30 minutes

Yield: 4

Yummy charred swordfish steak with salsa verde, potatoes and chopped salad.

What does a Man in the Kitchen do when he cannot get hold of a nice piece of tuna loin, or even a tuna steak for that matter? That’s the question which troubled me as I drove down to Seafood on Sail in Gants Centre on Friday afternoon. I was planning to meet up with Claudio Paioni, the owner, with the intention of schmoozing him for either the tuna I needed, or at the very least, a viable alternative.

Claudio was not available, so I met up with Mike, the manager and we conferred on my dilemma.

“Hmmm,” mused Mike “no tuna I’m afraid. With this weather, not much is coming out of the water right now.”

And so the big American adventure begins….

Flight Emirates EK771m, Cape Town to Dubai: 23h40 CAT somewhere over Africa

The 10 hour flight path from Cape Town to Dubai on Emirates

I’ve finally figured out that I hate long distance travel. Don’t get me wrong, I love visiting new and interesting places, but I hate getting there and back. Take this current odyssey to  Los Angeles which is depressingly far away; 26 hours of flying time, and three hours of layover.

The journey commenced a few hours ago when Emirates flight EK771 from Cape Town lifted off the runway (almost on time I might add, only 12 minutes late!) at 18.22 and headed north-north-east for Dubai in the UAE. The pre-flight cabin routine went of with the usual degree of enthusiasm from the cabin staff, and the usual degree of attention from passengers, which is to say pretty much nothing from either. We’d all done or heard it before, depending upon which side of the blow-up life jacket your were sitting or standing on.

The plane was chock-a-block, full to the ceiling, and much as I had a seat at the emergency exit, I had leg room but little elbow room, at least on the one side. I’d cleverly (I thought) asked for an aisle seat, because that way I wouldn’t have to wake up a grumpy fellow traveller to get to the toilet during the flight.  Of course, sitting at the emergency exit means you can simply get up and walk around your neighbour’s feet, so I could have taken the window seat which gives you something to lean your weary head on once exhaustion overtakes the discomfort inherent in long distance flying in cattle truck class!

Thought-provoking and uplifting ‘Miss Daisy’

Originally published July 20, 2011 in Bolander Lifestyle & Property

Republished with the kind permission of Cape Community Newspapers

by Carolyn Frost, Editor

Hough and Miss Daisy in the car

I spent a leisurely Sunday afternoon in the genteel company of members of the Helderberg Society for the Aged, as part of the guest audience for the final dress rehearsal of Driving Miss Daisy – which started last night (Tuesday July 19) at The Playhouse Theatre on Lourensford Road, Somerset West.

Directed by Norman McFarlane, and starring newcomers and veterans to the stage, it was with a constricted throat as I watched the tender story unfold of the crotchety, elderly Miss Daisy undergo the transformation from recalcitrant and peevish behaviour at the notion of losing her independence and having to endure a driver invading her sense of space and rocking her composure; and the genial, accommodating Hough September, whose long-suffering yet compassionate sighs of “ja, Miss Daisy” punctuate the canny dialogue and allude to the unfolding respect and fondness that grows between these unlikely characters.

De Wetshof “The Site” Chardonnay and white sand mussel chowder

Preparation Time: 60 minutes

Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Yield: 4

White sand mussel chowder paired with Danie De Wet's fabulous 2009 "The Site" Single Vineyard Chardonnay

A recent holiday in Knysna found me on the beach at Brenton-on-Sea in search of white sand mussels. Commonly used for bait by fishermen all the way along our coastline, I’ve often wondered what sort of chowder they would make.

I’d taken a bottle of Danie De Wets’ 2009 “The Site” Chardonnay on holiday with me (along with a whole bunch of other wines, naturally!) and I had this plan to pair a white sand mussel chowder, made with crème fraiche, with this single vineyard Chardonnay. More about the wine and how it paired with the chowder later on.

The liquor business: An industry under siege

Wine Cellars SA chairperson Henk Bruwer speaking at the WCSA annual congress.

Sitting listening to Wine Cellars SA (WCSA) chairperson Henk Bruwer deliver his annual report last Thursday at the WCSA Annual Congress at the Spier Conference Centre, it was easy to conclude that the wine industry is facing desperate times. Deviating from a prepared speech, he chose to speak from the heart, saying that the industry was facing some of its greatest challenges yet. Things are so bad, says Bruwer, that if something dramatic does not change in the next year, the impact on the industry will be catastrophic.  He’s not alone in this view, if the extent of head nodding that accompanied his (at times) emotional delivery is anything to go by.

The current state of the market locally and overseas notwithstanding, there is a growing, government-led assault, on the liquor industry in general, clearly aimed at addressing the enormous alcohol abuse problem that bedevils our society.

Beguiling mountain rye

Preparation Time: 3 days

Baking Time: 90 minutes

Yield: 2 loaves

Portuguese mountain rye

 Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s fabulous book “Home Baking” started me on a bread-baking odyssey some months ago. One of the recipes I tried, is for a Portuguese mountain rye loaf, well two actually. It’s kind of a bulk recipe.

Anyway, the dough seems to be very moist, and therefore difficult to work with. I’ve made it about a half dozen times, with mixed results, until I decided to exclude one of the cups of water. What a difference! I finally figured out that what appears in the book is actually wrong, and tweaking it the way I did makes all the difference.

The Bilton: over-oaked monster or intriguing concept wine?

The Bilton, the offending wine that has caused such a storm in a wineglass.

Flamboyant wine producer Mark Bilton seems to have created a minor storm in a wineglass with the release of the eponymous The Bilton last month.

Watching the toing and froing between the wine hacks who were invited, and those who were not, has been hilarious, quite frankly.

The Bilton is a 2006 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon, which was subjected to a 500% oaking regime over four years. As if that isn’t enough to set the tongues of the wine writing cognoscenti wagging, the price tag of R3 000 a bottle most certainly is.

Accused of “aspirational pricing” in the most tawdry sense, grandstanding, and little short of being too big for his boots, Mark Bilton has it seems, refrained from weighing in on the increasingly acrimonious debate, and for this he is to be commended.

The most hilarious contribution around makes the pertinent point, that if one has not tasted the wine, one is hardly qualified to comment on it, despite the stature of ones palate or self-perceived place in the wine writing diaspora.

Rye bread revisited – again

Preparation Time: 24 hours

Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Yield: a loaf

The ultimate light rye - great loft, slightly moist fine crumb

After about a year’s experimenting with rye bread, the ultimate loaf has finally emerged.

One of the biggest problems with a pure rye loaf is the lack of loft. Even using light pure rye flour, the loaf tends to be quite dense, the slices small. If sliced too thick, it is inclined to be stodgy, and it does not toast well.

Having started working with a poolish of late – a fermentation starter or pre-ferment – in my bread baking odyssey, the thought struck me that perhaps weaving a poolish into the conventional rye recipe may well make a difference.

The origins of the name poolish are not credibly determinable, but the word is used in French to describe a sponge pre-ferment, consisting of equal proportions of flour and lukewarm water, and a pinch of dry, or a thumb-sized piece of fresh yeast.

Green Thai Curry Fish

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 4

Spicy green Thai curry fish with Basmati rice

This is one of my earliest forays into stir-frying. I’d recently purchased a mild steel wok, from a Chinese food store at N1 City. After seasoning it well, I decided to test drive it. This is the result.

With the onset of winter, and the imminence of cooler weather (and a not inconsiderable prod from the Editor!), I felt that my Green Thai Curry Fish recipe would be appropriate for this week.

It introduces the concept of stir frying, which is ubiquitous with Asian style cooking, and if that scares you, don’t let it. It’s a lot easier than you might think.

With fish increasingly under threat – the WWF’s SASSI List System wouldn’t be around if there was no problem – finding decent fish is becoming difficult. Other than those listed below in the recipe, you may also want to try Gurnard or if you can get it, Mackerel, since Yellowtail is not that easy to get.

Perdeberg cracks the nod in Chenin Blanc Challenge

Riaan Moller

 

The drive up to Hidden Valley is not for the faint hearted. After turning of the Annandale Road hard by Peter Falke Wines, the road narrows alarmingly, and each approaching blind corner and rise pushes up the pulse rate from the adrenaline spurt which anticipates taking sudden avoiding action if an oncoming motorist, perhaps inattentive from imbibing at one or more of the many wine estates along the road, challenges you.