Black Garlic

When visiting a local supermarket I noticed black garlic for sale. Now, new and strange products and vegetables attract me like a moth to a flame. Expecting it to be a new kind of garlic, having planted pink and white garlic myself, I was surprised to find it soft and not hard like other garlic.

Black Garlic

I decided that it must be old black garlic and put it down again. I decided to find cloves for sale that I could plant myself. I prefer to grow culinary ingredients myself. Growing my own, I know where they come from and what they have been fed. Growing our own vegetables also reduces our carbon footprint.

Cleaned Black Garlic

Searching for the cloves to plant, I discovered that black garlic is not a new variety of garlic. Black garlic is what one gets when one heats the whole garlic clove at about 60˚C for about 40 days in a relatively humid environment. The result is black or dark-brown garlic that is sweeter and more acidic. The flavour is supposed to be less pungent and is more fruity, toasty and caramelised.

Black Garlic Sauce

In Taoist mythology, black garlic was proferred to grant immortality. Black garlic is great for your health. It’s loaded with nearly twice as many antioxidants as raw garlic. It also contains S-Allyl cysteine, which has been proven to be a factor in cancer prevention.

I will not be making my own black garlic but decided to try it after I found a recipe for Aubergine and Black Garlic in my cookbook “Plenty More” by Yotam Ottolenghi.

In Yotam Ottolenghi’s own words “It’s a lovely ingredient, and I really would tell people to try it, but don’t worry if you’re not sure how to use it, I wasn’t at first either”. Now he is creating the most amazing meals with it.

Aubergine and Black Garlic made at Towerwater

I can recommend black garlic. I was blown away by the flavour of the Aubergine and Black Garlic dish I prepared for an al fresco supper and enjoyed with a Weltevrede 1912 range Malbec.

    

Inspired to Cook

My latest acquisition for the library is the new cookbook, Nopi by Yotam Ottolenghi. With the Wolff’s visit over the weekend, Ilze decided to make a recipe for potatoes out of the new cookbook. She was pleasantly surprised that we could walk into the garden and harvest all the ingredients required except for the potatoes.

I was pleased to see the books in the library inspiring our guests to cook and my garden enhancing the inspiration by supplying the ingredients.

Crushed new potatoes with caper berries, pink pepper corns and roasted garlic by Ilze

It was amazing to enjoy a braai complemented by the culinary creation of an inspired guest who could plan a dish in the library with the ingredients growing in full view. 

Nopi. Towerwater style

Thanks to Ilze, the garden and Nopi, we could enjoy crushed new potatoes with caper berries, pink pepper corns and roasted garlic with our lamb sosaties and boerewors.

The Cape Hummingbird Cocktail

Summer and the holidays are times for cocktails on the lawn. Realising that the Cape has a rich heritage of spirits that can be used in cocktails, I have decided to create some new ones.

Using Van Der Hum liqueur, Salt River Gin and Caperitif ‘Kaapse Dief’, I made a cocktail that I have called the Cape Hummingbird. It is a sweet nectar-like cocktail.

The recipe is:

 1 tot measure Van Der Hum Liqueur

1 tot measure Salt River Gin

1 tot measure Caperitif, Kaapse Dief

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with lots of ice and shake well. Put half a slice of orange into a cocktail glass, pour the cocktail over it and enjoy al fresco in a beautiful garden.

A Laughing Dove in an Oak Tree

We arrived at Towerwater for our holiday to discover that a couple of laughing doves have built their nest in the big oak tree in front of the kitchen door. Our preferred source of shade has now become home to a pair of laughing doves and their two chicks.

The laughing dove on its nest

This was no laughing matter for us as we had to shift all the activity on the property around this new family. Children had to stop running and playing under the tree and we had to find a new position for al fresco dining.

A flimsy little nest was home to two rapidly growing little doves and we feared for their safety from falling out of the nest to becoming prey to a very interested fiscal shrike.

The laughing dove chicks

We will entertain this inconsiderate nest building from the laughing dove parents and look forward to seeing the two little down balls into adulthood.

We have discovered new ways of enjoying our garden around the new tenants and have to thank them silently for forcing us to look at the entertainment possibilities of the garden differently.

Close to the first day of Christmas our garden gave to me, a laughing dove in the oak tree.

Christmas Colours in the Countryside

Driving to Bonnievale on the R317 from Robertson is like driving into a Christmas card with bright reds and greens all around one.

The red cannas are growing taller and thicker along the road, turning into walls of red and green against the green orchards and vineyards that stretch over the hills and through the valleys. This display of vivid Christmas colours gives the whole valley a festive feel. One cannot help but be filled with joy driving through this visual splendour.

The familiar road and its views has become a subconscious source of pleasure over the 25 years of driving to Bonnievale from Cape Town. I can hardly remember how it felt the first time I drove through the valley. Instead of the view becoming familiar like a well-worn favourite jacket, it has stayed amazing to drive through this valley.

The beauty is not constant and one dimensional, but is continually changing in colours and hues, from warm yellows and reds in autumn to the visually subdued.  The colder days turn to monochrome blacks and greys in winter seemingly to enhance the cold of winter. Then spring warms up the spirit with the subtle sun and with the soft green, white and pink of the orchards in blossom. Spreading through the valley to become vibrant shades of green against the bright blue African sky to give summer a sense of coolness.

Christmas in Africa and especially this valley is not the familiar greeting card pictures of snow, Robbins and hot Christmas puddings of my childhood. Instead it is a delicious bright green with a red canna core like a sweet slice of watermelon on a hot summer’s day.

I do not have a favourite season. Each season brings its own joys when nature paints her different moods over the landscape. For now, I enjoy the bright summer days and the abundance of the garden inside this landscape of watermelon hues. 

Restoring a Cape Regency Linen Press

The antique yellowwood and stinkwood Cape country Linen Press that we bought at an auction in July needed some restoration work to return it to its original function, that of a linen press.

I embarked on a search of references to the linen press using our various Cape country furniture books but they all describe the outside with very little or no reference to the inside design. The linen press is a beautiful Cape Regency piece of furniture with its straight pediment above and Regency turned feet below.

Original shelf support

Shelf support made by Keith

Somewhere in its approximate 150 years of existence, the three shelves on the inside were removed so that it became a wardrobe with hanging space. Luckily for us two of the shelf supports remained. With an example of what they looked like we could replace the missing ones to their original design and positions. The places from which they were removed were clearly visible.

The linen press originally had three Oregon pine shelves positioned above two drawers which were located on the inside bottom. As it often happens in furniture, the rare wood was used on the outside and the less expensive wood on the inside.

Restored shelf supports

I had the raw Oregon pine shelves and unfinished shelf supports made up. Keith replicated the shelf supports with the exact detailing that he found on the remaining ones in the linen press. In true Keith style he replaced the shelf supports using matching screws to the originals, in the exact positions where they had been, taking care not to detract from the original fabric.

Shawn gave the shelves a final sanding before I oiled them with a mixture of Woodoc furniture oil, raw linseed oil and oil of turpentine. This recipe was provided by a friend who is a professional restorer of antique furniture.

The restored interior of the Linen Press

The mixture even imbues the furniture with a nostalgic aroma.  With the linen press restored to its former glory we cannot wait to put it back to its original use.

Die Kaapse Dief Martini

Die Kaapse Dief martini

Saterdag was een van daardie warm dae wat mens verlep laat voel en na ‘n bedrywige dag het ek besluit om myself te bederf met ‘n skemerkelkie onder die akkerboom.

Kaas en vrugte in seisoen

Ek het besluit om ‘n Martini te maak saam die peuselhappies van kaas en die eerste vars vye van die seisoen. Ek geniet ons plaaslik gemaakte gins. Met meer en meer gin distilleerders wat oor die Wes Kaap opspring, het ons baie om van te kies. Inverroche van Stilbaai maak die heerlikste fynbos gin en ons geniet die Verdant die meeste.

Om die draai van ons in Kaapstad in Soutrivier, is Hope on Hopkins besig om ook gin te maak met Kaapse fynbos. Ek het besluit om die Salt River Gin te probeer  want die gin word met onder andere kapokbos of wilde roosmaryn, organiese sitrus skil en boegoe gemaak.

As ‘n baie trotse Suid Afrikaner vind ek hierdie eg Suid Afrikaanse geure ‘n ongelooflike trekpleister. Met Salt River Gin as die verkose gin wou ek uitbrei op die Suid Afrikaanse tema en wat beter keuse as die Kaapse Dief . ‘n Caperitif met Chenin Blank, Quinchona bas, fynbos, kalmoes en naartjies wat deel uit maak van die 35 eg Kaapse bestandele waarmee dit gemaak word.

Met een van die mees diverse planteryke is dit net natuurlik dat ons dit in kos- en aptytwekkers gebruik. Dit is wel bekend dat ons planteryk vol medisiniale kruies en plante is. So aan die einde van die dag, kan dit net goed vir die gesondheid wees om skemerkelkies te drink wat gemaak word met fynbos.

Caperitif is ‘n historiese aptytwekker wat in die Kaap in die 1920’s gemaak is. Met die hulp van ‘n Deense “mixologist” het ‘n Swartlandse wynplaas dit weer verlede jaar begin maak.

Hierdie hand gemaakte produkte gaan baie gewild word want ek glo Suid Afrikaners hoef geensins terug te staan waneer dit kom by die maak van unieke produkte nie.

Ek noem die eg inheemse martini “Die Kaapse Dief” ter erkenning aan die Caperitif. Want hierdie martini, ryk aan Kaapse “Botanicals”, kom steel jou moegheid van die dag. Dit verkwik jou terwyl jy die Kaap proe vanaf Sout Rivier tot by die Swartland onder ‘n boom in die Klein Karoo.

The Cape Thief Martini

The Cape Thief martini

Saturday was one of those hot days that left me feeling wilted and after a very busy day I decided to enjoy some cocktails under the big oak.

Cheese and Fruit in Season

I decided to make my favourite, a martini complemented by some snacks made with the first figs of the season from the garden and some local cheese. We have been buying locally made gins to try some produce from the gin distilleries popping up all over the province. Inverroche makes very good gin with fynbos botanicals and we enjoy the Verdant the most.

Around the corner from us in Cape Town, Hope on Hopkins is making gin as well. I bought a bottle of the Salt River Gin recently to make some cocktails with a local flavour. The gin contains among other things, wild rosemary (kapokbos), organic citrus peel and buchu.

I consider myself as being proudly South African and love these home-grown flavours. With Salt River Gin as my gin of choice, I wanted to elaborate on the South African theme and I decided to try “Die Kaapse Dief”, the Caperitif made with Chenin Blanc, Quinchona bark, fynbos, calamus and “naartjies” forming part of the 35 genuine Cape ingredients of Caperitif.

As one of the most diverse plant kingdoms in the world, it is just natural that we will use them in our food and alcoholic beverages. Much of the fynbos is also well known for its medicinal properties.  Ending your day with one of these richly infused cocktails can only be beneficial for your health!

Caperitif is a historical aperitif dating from the 1920’s and was made in the Cape. With the help of a Danish mixologist, a wine farm in the Swartland has recreated this historical aperitif.

These handcrafted beverages are going to be very popular with the growing demand for bespoke produce. I believe that South Africans are ahead when it comes to producing uniquely South African products.

I am calling this genuine South African martini “Die Kaapse Dief” (the Cape Thief) in honour of the Caperitif. This martini, rich in Cape Botanicals, steals your daily exhaustion and rejuvenates you while you taste the Cape from Salt River to the Swartland while under a tree in the Klein Karoo. 

Warming up to summer

The garden is a pleasure with an abundance of fruit, vegetables and flowers. It is as if the high temperatures of the early summer days are encouraging everything to grow faster.

The roses are as beautiful as ever and the flowering Agapanthus and Hydrangeas makes me realise it is nearly Christmas.

We are hoping for a good crop of apples and pears next year and with a fig tree full of figs, summer lunches are going to be gorgeous.

The vegetable garden is a joy to behold with the Tai Gold corn aiming to be higher than the cottage and the runner beans already running out of the structures I made them.

The garden and I are warming up to summer. We are looking forward to the long hot days with meals enjoyed Al fresco when the sun hangs around until late in the evening.