Wet Winter Days and Wine Coolers

Winter has left its mark on the garden with trees and rosebushes becoming less leafy every weekend. The 110mm of rain the previous week has left the ground soaked and the seedlings are in no hurry to get any bigger. The sugar snaps and green peas are the only ones showing growth climbing in and over their new supports.

A cold and wet winter's day

With summer behind us the maintenance of the garden is starting with the big winter pruning ahead of us in July.

The weekend was spent catching up with friends and preparing meals with the ingredients from Cape Town and Ondersteun Handelaars that I had bought the previous weekend.

Bokkoms and sour figs

Evenings spent with friends around the dinner table is always a pleasure and sometimes an adventure when my meals get creative.

Bokkoms a la Siciliana

We had starters of Bokkoms a la Siciliana, mains of Snoek and sweet potato with korrelkonfyt, or venison and brown mushroom soup and a desert of flambéd quince crepes, the best for cold evenings.

Venison and brown mushroom soup

 Quince crepe Flambe

I served the bokkom strips with sour figs, capers, olives and peppers mixing the flavours of the West Coast of the Cape with the flavours of the Mediterranean.

Pot roasted lamb chops with fresh garden herbs

For lunch I made pot roasted lamb chops with a bouquet garni of fresh herbs from a cold and wet herb garden.

The persimmon season in the valley is nearing its end with fruit like orange baubles hanging in the bare trees. I had to pick some just for the beauty of the basket of fruit in the kitchen.

Persimmons

We spent the cold rainy days exploring antique shops and buying wine. We even found a blue and white porcelain wine cooler reminiscent of the ones popular in the 18^th century. We have been looking for a wine cooler that will complement the house for some time but could never find the one that felt right. 

Porcelain wine cooler

On a rainy day when one least thinks of wine coolers, it found us.