Are you looking for inspiration on wining and dining in November? Take a look at our delicious menu, complete with the perfect wine for every course.
Savouring a glorious glass of wine with your meal is a real indulgence, an easy way to treat yourself at the end of a hard working week. Of course, for the best experience it’s recommended to pair your wine with your food so they work in beautiful harmony, complementing and balancing each other.
Preparation
You can choose to buy ready-made meals but there’s something special in making food yourself. You can find all of the ingredients for these dishes at your local supermarket and you could save money on the ingredients on Black Friday at Shoprite, Spar and the other big names. You can even get stewing beef for as low as R69 per kg from shoprite saving you R19.
You can browse online first to see if they have the ingredients you need. Their catalogues make planning a menu easy as it’s split into sections such as bakery, fruit & veg and liquor. This means you might be able to pick up the wines you need from the supermarket too, again at a great price but if you’ve got some special bottles at home, you may prefer to drink those.
Appetiser
Celeriac croquettes on salsa
Oaked Chardonnay
Ingredients:
- Potato
- Celeriac
- Cheese
- Butter
- Milk
- Salsa
An American oaked Chardonnay is the ideal wine to serve with celeriac croquettes as it offers a rich, fuller flavour which has more complexity. Rather than the usual crisp fruits, the oak lends this wine caramel and vanilla tones which can taste buttery. This pairs exceptionally with the creaminess of the croquettes, cut through by the green, fresh tones of celeriac.
You can find Chardonnay produced from many countries around the world but those from the US are nearly always oak-aged and have that beautiful buttery flavour.
Starter
Watercress soup with poached egg and potato roost
French Sauvignon Blanc
Ingredients:
- Poached egg
- Potato
- Onion
- Watercress
- Stock
- Garlic
- Optional: black pudding
This is a great starter to serve as it’s possible to make the potato rosti and soup in advance, just leaving the eggs to cook on the night.
Choosing the right wine for this dish is tricky as it brings together both rich and fresh flavours but the French Sauvignon Blanc manages the job delightfully. With notes of fresh greenness and crisp acidic tones, the Sauvignon Blanc picks out the watercress expertly. At the same time, it’s light enough not to overwhelm the rich yolk flavours of the egg.
Main Course
Pork belly with cannellini beans and salsa verde
Italian Valpolicella
Ingredients
- Pork belly
- Cannellini beans
- Fennel
- Lemon zest
- Black peppercorns
- Shallots
- Garlic
- Sage
- Rosemary
- White wine vinegar
- Parsley
- Anchovies
- Capers
Pork is a wonderfully versatile meat as it can work with both white and red wines. On this occasion, it’s been paired with a light Italian red, Valpolicella. The soft and smooth flavour and relatively few tannins means that it complements the tanginess of the salsa verde while also cutting through the fattiness of the pork belly. A heavier red would overpower the flavours of this pork dish but the Valpolicella offers balance and depth.
Dessert
Spanish rosé
Ingredients:
- Strawberries
- Full-fat soft cheese
- Vanilla pod
- Butter
- Icing sugar
- Double cream
- Digestive biscuits
Normally you’d finish the meal with a sweet dessert wine, but the cheesecake has so much rich sweetness, a Spanish rosé is a refreshing alternative. The crisp and fresh tones of the rosé cut through the creaminess of the cheesecake while still offering a fruity sweetness which is perfect for dessert.
