Wine Tasting

Tonight we are hosting a wine tasting with a South African theme (Yes, for those who don't know, I am a South African, living in deepest Oxfordshire!)
As an art teacher we taught Cape Dutch architecture c1700 and 1800's so I can't resist throwing this in.  Here is a Boschendal, a typical Cape Dutch Homstead with the vineyards in front of it

The Cape Dutch architects built long low homes, using the idea of the Dutch gable, but on a horizontal facade rather than a vertical facade. In Boschendal you can see that the end gables are classical (curivilear convex and concave) and the front gable is a mix of Neo-Classicism and Cape Baroque.

We'll also show our favourite wine farms - such as Spier, for the great picnic hampers, Delheim for the Spatzendrecht and Fairview for the goats. Fairview sells goats cheese and feta and the goat's house is always a sure hit. They have a wine named - rather tongue in cheek - Goats do Roam (after a more famous French wine) There are many more illustrations, many with lovely memories such as our daughter's graduation dinner at The Lanzerac in Stellenbosch.
Now at Delheim they have a story about the best wine they ever produced only to discover later that there was a little sparrow nest above the vat and the sparrows had added their inimitable flavour. So they brought out a wine called Spatzendreckt, appropriately illustrated. 

 Cheeky!

We are limited price wise in our choice of six bottles and they have to be locally available. We did rather well at Waitrose, with wines from Boschendal, Nederburg, (a white and a red) Rustenberg, Vredenhof and Simonsig.
We also decided to serve tasters of South African food afterwards, so we'll give our guests mackerel pate then heated samples of Boerewors - a rather coarse sausage and Babotie - a Cape Malay spicy sort of cottage pie. We'll have spaanspek or melon to refresh the palate followed by Cape Brandy Pudding called Tipsy Tart and melktert which is a baked custard tart. I should do koeksisters but I've never made them and can't buy them locally.
(Are all you South Africans feeling hungry like we used to as kids when reading about Enid Blyton's Famous Five picnics?)

Here is my recipe for Tipsy Tart.
Every ingredient is either bad for you (like sugar and butter) or wicked (brandy) - oh I forgot; it has pecan nuts and dates and that's healthy!

Tipsy Tart

(also called Cape Brandy Pudding)

(serves 8-10 people)

Tart:

2 Tbs butter

1 cups sugar

1 eggs

1 cups roughly chopped dates – or 125g

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1¼ cups flour

pinch salt

4tsp baking powder

¼ cup chopped pecans (plus some for decoration)

¾ cup boiling water

Brandy syrup

¼ cup sugar

⅔ cup water

2 tsp butter

½ tsp vanilla

¼ c brandy

Tart

In a medium bowl, soften dates in the boiling water and add bicarb.

Cream butter and sugar and add egg.

Sift flour, salt and baking powder into the creamed mixture and mix, adding the date mixture gradually..

Add nuts.

Grease a 25cm pyrex dishes.

Be sure to only half fill the dish as this mixture rises a lot.

Bake at 180 C until brown – 25-30 minutes

It usually sinks in the middle after coming out of the oven – don’t worry!

Brandy Syrup

Boil ½ cup water and ¾ cup of sugar for five minues. Remove from cooker

Add 1 Tbs butter, 1 tsp vanilla and ¼ cup brandy

When cold pour the brandy syrup over it and decorate with dollops of cream, cherries and nuts.

Serve cold form the fridge.

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