Cape Town Restaurant Tour Part Deux: Dejeuner Au Jardin

La suite from previous post

Saturday was a most glorious day and after a quick breakfast, we headed out to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, situated on 528 hectares of land (the cultivated garden is only 36 hectares) and dedicated to growing indigenous South African plants.

We walked though the centennial camphor trees planted by the previous owner of the property the gardens sit on, Cecil Rhodes, that most voracious of real estate "investors". We eventually made our way to the top of the garden to admire the view and were greeted by some guinea fowl. That's not what we had for lunch though.

After our stroll through the gardens, we decided to drive to the Vineyard hotel, 5 mns away, to have lunch at one of their restaurants called Au Jardin, of course overlooking their magnificent garden.
Au Jardin
+2721 657 4500
http://www.vineyard.co.za/

We decided to order some classics to start. S and I believe that to do familiar dishes well is a sign of a good restaurant. When our Caesar salad with poached egg and anchovies served with cheese croutons arrived along with the avocado and shrimp cocktail, we knew we were in for a real treat.

I normally hate shrimp cocktail. The larva-sized shrimp smothered in mayonnaise with the sweetness provided by ketchup is usually hard to swallow. So I had to be assured that this would be special, the shrimp would be detectable. And special it was! There was just a thin veneer of mayo on the shrimp and you could really taste how fresh it was. It's avocado season here so that was a wonderful addition, not to mention the blini it came with. The salad also showed signs of restraint as it was not drenched in Caesar dressing. It was full of flavour, fresh, all around yummy.For main course, we had the absolute best Mozambican prawn in a curry and calamari with tomatoes, black olives and capers on focaccia. The curry was incredibly delicious without being heavy and overwhelming. S said the calamari tasted as if the chef invented tomato sauce. I knew what he meant as soon as I took a bite and felt the tanginess hit the back of my jaw.

For dessert, I ordered an orange souffle but ended up sharing Sim's pineapple and ginger pudding which was absolutely divine. It was gooey but every so often you'd bite into a tiny bit of fresh pineapple.We absolutely loved Au Jardin and can not wait to go back as soon as we get a chance.

Harira (Moroccan Lamb Soup)

When it is cold, as it is in Johannesburg right now (2°C with exceptional snow on the ground this morning!), I find it difficult to eat cold salads and vegetables. In order to make sure I do get my veggies in, I turn to soups. Today, I flipped through my Essential Soup Cookbook and picked Harira.

Harira is a chickpea and lamb soup from Morocco usually served in the evening when it's time for the Muslims to break the daily fast during Ramadan. In Senegal, where the vast majority of the population is also Muslim, there are many culinary influences that have come from the Middle East and North Africa, following trade routes across the Sahara desert, riding on the back of various conquests and migrations. So for my version of harira, I combined a traditional Moroccan recipe with my friend Djenaba's to create a Senegalo-Moroccan blend.

The recipe calls for many ingredients and a lot of chopping so it is wise to make a batch and freeze some for later. I actually think it tastes better the day after or reheated after a few days in the freezer. There are few things sweeter than getting home late, thinking you have nothing to eat and not feeling like cooking, only to find some neatly frozen soup in the freezer. I equate the feeling to finding a long lost and definitely forgotten $20 bill in a coat pocket.


Harira
Serves 6

Ingredients

• 500 g of lamb (you can use beef as well), cut into small cubes
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped coarsely
• 1 tablespoon of ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons of ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 6 saffron threads (optional)
• 3 trimmed celery sticks (~220 g), chopped coarsely
• 1 can of chickpeas (425 g)
• 7 medium tomatoes (~1.2 kg), seeded and chopped coarsely or use 2 400g-cans of tomatoes
• 2 1/2 liters (10 cups) of water
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 100 g (1/2 cup) lentils
• 1/4 of fresh coriander leaves, chopped or whole

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Make sure it is large enough to accommodate all the ingredients since this is a one-pot dish.
2. Cook onions until soft.
3. Add spices and stir for ~2 mns until fragrant. Note: I found myself frantically adding spices fast enough and trying to stir to avoid them burning so I would recommend mixing all the spices beforehand in a bowl and pouring them all in at the same time.
4. Add lamb and celery and cook for 2 mns until lamb is all coated with the spices.
5. Add tomato and cook for 10 mns until tomato softens.
6. Add water, chickpeas and salt and bring to a boil. At this stage, Djenaba suggests adding 1 carrot and 1 turnip (both chopped into tiny cubes) if you wish to include even more vegetables.
7. Simmer covered for about 1 1/2 hours.
8. Add lentils and cook covered for another 30 mns.
9. Add coriander just before serving.