Enchanted wedding in South Africa

Our wedding was small (150 guests) and absolutely beautiful, everything I had hoped for. We got married outside Johannesburg, South Africa at Toadbury Hall, a lovely country hotel with an expansive lake and welcoming greens. We had family and friends from Nigeria, Senegal, France, USA. They all descended on Johannesburg to wrap their arms around us as we said I do.

We got engaged in January 2007 and quickly decided on a May date to avoid 9 to 12 months of endless planning. I always thought I would work with a wedding planner but when the time came, I felt inspired to tackle it all on my own. So inspired in fact that I designed and made our wedding invitations, even worked with a seamstress to come up with the simple silk dress I wore. I felt very sure about my creative choices and made them rather quickly.

The dinner reception menu was traditional European fare (choice between lamb and salmon) beautifully executed by the chef at Toadbury. The highlight of the meal though, was the three-tiered chocolate and truffle cake designed by Vicky Crease.

I discovered Vicky's work in 2004 while strolling through the annual home decor and food show called Rooms on View. I called on her to do a birthday cake for my husband the following year and it was memorable. For the wedding, I did not consider anyone else so she created the dreamy chocolate creation above in our wedding colors, tamarind and orange.
If you are getting married in South Africa, I would recommend the following service providers as they were outstanding for me:

Recommended Service Providers:

• Vicky Crease Catering: + 2711 880 5776 www.vickycrease.co.za
• Munton Photography and Video: a uniquely creative husband and wife team who did an amazing job for us. +2711 315 0189 www.chrismunton.co.za
• Atomic Orchid: a wonderful mother and son team who went beyond the call of duty to provide us with outstanding service. They did flowers, table settings and decorations. Call Colin at +2782 843 9057.

Photos courtesy of C. Munton Photography

Fish and Shrimp Bobotie

As I mentioned in the last post, the Cellars Hohenort has 2 restaurants, The Greenhouse and The Cape Malay Restaurant. We did not get to try The Cape Malay Restaurant but I did purchase the hotel's very own cookbook simply called The Collection Cookbook.

It turns out that the Cellars Hohenort is a member of a family of lovely boutique hotels all nestled in different parts of the South African Cape. The family calls itself The Collection by Liz McGrath, hotelier extraordinaire. Ms McGrath runs 5 restaurants inside the Collection and decided to compile some of their recipes into The Collection Cookbook.

The fish bobotie was the first recipe I tried. Bobotie is a cornerstone of Cape Malay cuisine and is usually made with minced (ground) meat but the chef decided to try it with fish. In some ways, I simplified it, leaving out the garam masala and mint. In others, not. I added shrimp, replaced the recommended margarine by real butter and soaked the bread in milk instead of water and added a bit of heat with some red pepper.
It turned out beautifully: the fish and shrimp took in all the flavors, the bread got crunchy in some spots and remained soft in others. I think I may have added one more recipe to the quick meal, mix-all-and-pop-in-oven-so-you-can-go-do-something-else category.

The book is divided in 5 sections, one for each restaurant and includes beautiful photos and pared down text. It is a mixture of (mostly) European and South African cuisine. The back includes a "Basics"section explaining how to make pestos, vinaigrettes etc... Given how well the bobotie turned, I feel encouraged to try some of the other recipes.

Fish and Shrimp Bobotie

• 4 slices of bread
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) of milk
• 300 g hake steaks
• 200 g shrimp
• A bunch of parsley
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 30 g of softened butter
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon of pepper (cayenne or something hotter)
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1 pinch of turmeric
• 1 small tomato, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preparation

1. Pre-heat oven to 180º C (350º F).
2. Soak bread in milk for 5 to 10 mns
3. Steam the hake. This took about 3 mns in the microwave.
4. In 1 ovenproof dish, tear the bread into pieces, flake the fish and add all the remaining ingredients except the eggs
5. Bake until golden brown for about 30 mns
6. Remove and pour the eggs over the mixture and bake another 15 mns.
7. Ready

Cape Town Restaurant Tour Part III: In the Greenhouse

On Sunday, we drove 30 mns out of the city to the "country"to sample rural life in Constantia and spent one night at the Cellars Hohenort, a lovely hotel set in the middle of the winelands. It's small, beautiful, tranquil, perfect for a romantic weekend. The hotel was nicely restored and boasts many modern amenities but as usual, Sim and I focused on the restaurants and took walks in the magnificent gardens to help with digestion. We found the hotel through a web search and I have to admit, I was intrigued by why they would choose to highlight German Satellite Television as one of their services. I personally would have insisted on the French gardens but you may chalk that up to my bias in favor of our former masters. Hey, the French did bring some pretty great bread and cake to Senegal! And they let us eat it.

The Cellars Hohenort has 2 restaurants but we only got to sample the Greenhouse for dinner and we did share a truly memorable meal. It all started with great bread and butter (again, great restaurants tend to do humble items really well) and launched into the creamiest mushroom soup (without cream) for me and pan-fried foie gras with berry jam for Monsieur. I have to confess that I do not like foie gras. I am not sure why, it's not because I am pro-geese or anti-French, the concoction just doesn't speak to me.

We later had duck in ginger and honey and Oxtail roulade with what I call "magic" potatoes. Both the duck and the oxtail were incredibly tender and flavorful but I was most intrigued by the potatoes. The inside tasted like really smooth and buttery mashed potatoes but the outside was crispy as if fried. If you know how to make them like that, let me know.

As you would expect by now, we did order dessert: bay leaf-infused creme brulee with a pistachio wafer and some traditional malva pudding with white chocolate ice cream. As soon as I got home, I tried to replicate the malva and will tell you about that in the next post.

Overall, we had a great time at the Cellars Hohenort and can not wait to visit again and try the Cape Malay Restaurant.

Cape Town Restaurant Tour Part 1: Manolo

Eating our way through a long weekend in the Cape

Cape Town is often described as one of the most beautiful places on our continent, perhaps in the world. It also has a high concentration of great restaurants. My husband and I recently spent a long weekend there eating our way through a number of places. Some, we had heard and read about. Others, we happened upon.

We started our "tour"with dinner on Friday night at:

Manolo

30 Kloof Street

+2721 422-4747

http://www.manolo.co.za/

We had heard and read about a lot about Manolo as one of the hipper, cooler, etc...places. The restaurant is set in a beautifully restored house, age: 180 years; and boasts a renowned chef and nice staff members. We generally do enjoy the ambiance brought about by a beautiful decor and discrete music but ultimately, the proof is always in the pudding.

Because I ordered the ZAR200 (~US$27) 5 course meal, we ended up with 4 starters, some of which were quasi-repeats:

• corn soup with prawn ice cream
• line fish tempura with shiitake mushrooms with ginger and almond froth
• glazed scallops with kingklip tempura with turnip puree and grapefruit froth
• shiitake mushroom terrine with pea mousse and you guessed it! ginger froth

Do you detect a tiny bit of irritation in my tone? You are quite perceptive since this is what I would deem abuse of a technique en vogue (copycat or hommage to a great chef?). The corn soup was light and smooth, the mushroom terrine very flavorful, the scallop docile but the omnipresence of froth was sincerely annoying. In case, you believe that I am overreacting, let me jump to dessert where we had a pear mousse, light as a summer breeze, but accompanied by more froth. Surely, less would have been more. To re-balance the mood though, I do have to swear allegiance to my husband's dessert: the chocolate trio of chocolate fondant, chocolate ice cream and truffle. In that case, less would not have been more.

Before dessert was served, we did eat our main courses which were preceded by a guava gazpacho to clear our palate (of what exactly? Please send me the answer if you do know). This was some form of smoothie made with delicious, refreshing guava but I guess calling it smoothie would have taken away some of the panache so delicious gazpacho it is.

For main course, we had a most down-to-earth chicken with mashed potatoes and duck with risotto. Both were quite good but the chicken covered with cracked peppers beat the duck. The mashed potatoes had the richness of true comfort food and a great prelude to further comfort provided by the chocolate trio.

Overall, Manolo was a good start to our Cape Eating weekend but there was definitely more to come!