Extract from Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein, 25 July 2011

Stellenbosch Wine Route turns 40, celebrates with most excellent restaurants in SA on Stellenbosch Restaurant Route!

The pioneering Stellenbosch Wine Route, founded in 1971 by winemakers Frans Malan of Simonsig, Neil Joubert of Spier, and Spatz Sperling of Delheim, celebrates its 40th anniversary with an extensive wine and food feast and fest from 28 – 31 July. The Route has established itself not only as one with the largest number of outstanding wine farms of the 18 wine routes in the country, representing 18% of all vines planted in South Africa, but also with the largest collection of outstanding restaurants in South Africa, Stellenbosch now wearing the Gourmet Capital crown.

Spatz, Vera with children Nora and Victor in the 60s

The trio which established the Stellenbosch Wine Route was inspired by the wine route Routes de Vins at Morey St Denis in Burgundy, the late Frans Malan and Neil Joubert returning from their 1969 trip and connecting with Spatz Sperling to establish the Stellenbosch Wine Route, the first wine tourism activity in our country. I was delighted to meet Spatz Sperling (who celebrated his 81st birthday last week) and his wife Vera, as well as daughter Nora and son Victor on their Delheim wine farm recently.

To create the Stellenbosch Wine Route, the founding wine farmers had to overcome red tape and bureaucracy, and even had to have wine legislation rewritten to accommodate the new Stellenbosch Wine Route. Meals were not allowed to be served at wine estates, and bottled wine could not be sold from a winery in those days.

The renamed Stellenbosch American Express Wine Routes has 147 wine farms, making it the largest wine route in our country, but also is the only one to celebrate its assets with the Stellenbosch Wine Festival for the 10th year running. Not focusing exclusively on wines, food has been added to the Festival.

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We wrote last year that the Stellenbosch Wine Route should create the Stellenbosch Restaurant Route, and while they have not yet done so, we have created it on this Blog nevertheless, and in honour of the cuisine excellence in Stellenbosch, list from it the restaurants on wine farms in Stellenbosch:

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* Delheim restaurant – read about the visit during the Delheim Nouvelle Mushroom Week earlier this month. Tel (021) 888-4600

Stellenbosch Wine Festival, 28 – 31 July. Paul Roos Centre, Stellenbosch. Tel (021) 886-4310.  www.stellenboschwinefestival.co.za. Book www.webtickets.co.za. Entry R120 on-line, R140 at door. R350 for a pass for entry over the whole period of the Stellenbosch Wine Festival.

Posted by Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage

Tandy Sinclair's delicious Dried Mushroom & Apricot Biscotti

Dried Mushroom and Apricot Biscotti

Ingredients:

50g butter

225g cake flour plus a little extra for shaping

150g castor sugar

pinch of salt

½ teaspoon baking powder

100g dried mushrooms, I used whole ones and cut them into slices to retain the hint of a mushroom shape. The Nouvelle ones are already cut up!

75g dried apricots, sliced

2 extra large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180° Celsius.

Melt the butter in the microwave and cool slightly.

Sieve the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder into a large bowl.

Add the mushrooms and the apricots and mix in well.

In a small bowl whisk together one of the eggs and the yolk of the second egg, the vanilla extract and the butter.

retain the second egg white and whisk slightly to break it up in case you need it to bring the dough together.

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the egg and butter mix into it.

Stir until it forms a dough, you might need to add some or all of the left over egg white to achieve this.

Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces.

Very lightly dust a work surface with a little flour and shape into 2 logs, each about 20cm long.

Cover a large baking sheet with non-stick baking paper and place the logs on it leaving plenty of space between them.

Bake on the middle shelf for 40 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch.

Remove from oven and cool for 20 minutes.

Using a sharp knife slice the biscotti logs on the diagonal into slices and arrange standing up in a single layer on the baking sheet.

Return to the oven for 20 minutes to allow them to crisp up.

Biscotti ingredients - before

Biscotti ingredients - after

Annareth Bolton, CEO of the Stellenbosch Wine Route, shares a joke with Spatz

2011_07_13_SABC2_Pasella_20h20 (1) Excerpt from the Pasella programme featuring Spatz Sperling, the only surving member of the trio of “angry young men”, who founded the Stellenbosch Wine Route forty years ago. Says Spatz: “Forty years on and we are still the undisputed leader in wine tourism – a jewel of wines, landscapes and vineyards.  I am proud to have been a founder member of the first and still the most famous wine route on the African continent.  Happy birthday!”

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with exotic mushroom and blue cheese

by Tandy Sinclair, Lavender and Lime blog

So, you want to go mushroom hunting! Well, the best advice I can give you is don’t unless you know 100% what you are doing! I was  recently invited to attend a day of mushrooms at Delheim Wine Estate and I learnt a lot! I learnt that not all pretty mushrooms are edible. I learnt that some ugly mushrooms are. I have been cooking exotic mushrooms for many years, and frankly, I think it is easier, and safer to buy them than forage for them.

But, if you are determined here are some words of advice as given to us by Dr. Adrian Smit:

Read more and recipe…

Finally, we share with the world – Nora’s famous Dried Boletus Mushroom Risotto!

Mushroom Risottto with Dried Boletus

INGREDIENTS

50g dried Boletus Edulis (Porcini) mushrooms (obtainable from Nouvelle Mushrooms)

125ml Delheim Sauvignon Blanc

1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

6 shallots, peeled and finely chopped

115g unsalted butter

350g risotto rice

1 litre hot chicken stock

A handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

85g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

Reconstitute the mushrooms by soaking them  in 300ml of hot water for at least two hours.  Keep this mushroom stock water for later.

Fry the garlic and shallot in half the butter until slightly coloured, then add the mushrooms, rosemary and black pepper.

Add the rice and stir to coat in the mixture. Add a ladleful of hot stock and stir well until it has been absorbed by the rice. You may also add some of the mushroom stock for added flavour. Keep adding the stock in this way, a ladleful at a time, until the rice is creamy and the broth is used up, stirring all the time.  This takes about 18-20 minutes.

Add some salt, the Delheim Sauvignon Blanc, parsley, remaining butter and the Parmesan.  Adjust the seasoning to taste.

Cover for a minute to allow the rice to rest.

Serve with extra grated Parmesan on the side.

SERVES 6

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Theresa in Wine, http://www.fineplaces.co.za/

The establishment of the Stellenbosch Wine Route is one example. It seems like a no-brainer now, but at the time the founding fathers – Spatz Sperling of Delheim, Neil Joubert of Spier and Frans Malan of Simonsig – had quite a challenge on their hands, even becoming known as “The Three Angry Men with a Cause” following their heated debates with critics. It’s a good thing they didn’t give up the fight. Today the Wine Route hosts more than 500,000 visitors each year.

And since rubies are the iconic gift for 40^th anniversaries, what better excuse than to help celebrate with a glass of award-winning, knock your socks off while blowing your hair back ruby-red? Afterall, Shiraz is just another thing that Delheim, Simonsig and Spier excel at producing. Read on for tasting notes and pairing suggestions for three of their very best:

Read more…

By: Sarah Duff, Getaway Magazine, July 7th, 2011

Beautiful 'shrooms (photo by Sarah Duff)

As the mushroom’s biggest fan, I was super excited to be invited to a mushroom day at wine estate Delheim, in the winelands near Stellenbosch. The invite promised mushroom foraging in a ‘secret location’ in the forest, mushroom tasting and a mushroom lunch paired with wine. They didn’t need to ask me twice…

Read more…

Delheim’s Mushroom Week will last until 10 July. Visit us to learn about wild mushrooms and try our delicious wild and exotic mushroom dishes.