Christmas is always a special time at Kleinhoekkloof, and this year we wanted to share a typical feast that’s prepared by the whole family. This year will be no different as we are expecting the boys to come in from a mountain biking journey across the Klein Karoo just in time for this incredible meal, so we are almost certain that there will not be a crumb left on the table.

Here is a typical Kleinhoekkloof Christmas Lunch…

Smoked Salmon & Avocado Starter

1 Bunch salad spring onions – slivered into long pieces of ± 5cm

Avocado pears sliced

Smoked Salmon or Trout

Sesame seeds

Chili infused Kikkoman Soy sauce

Place slivered spring onion on the plate

Top with sliced avocados

Arrange torn pieces of salmon on top of avos & spring onion

Sprinkle with sesame seeds

Dress with Chili infused Kikkoman soy sauce

The starter is best paired with Kleinhoekkloof Sauvignon Blanc 2009.

Granna’s Slow Roasted Lamb

Lamb

Large bunch of fresh rosemary
2kg shoulder of lamb
olive oil
Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bulb of garlic, unpeeled, broken into cloves

Gravy

1 tablespoon flour
500ml good-quality hot chicken or vegetable stock
2 heaped tablespoons capers, soaked, drained and chopped
a large bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Preheat your oven to 300ºC. Cut into the fat side of the lamb all over with a sharp knife. Lay half the sprigs of rosemary and half the garlic cloves on the bottom of a high-sided roasting tray, rub the lamb all over with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place it in the tray on top of the rosemary and garlic, and put the rest of the rosemary and garlic on top of the lamb. Tightly cover the tray with tinfoil and place in the oven. Turn the oven down immediately to 170°C and cook for 4 hours – it’s done if you can pull the meat apart easily with two forks.

Remove the lamb from the oven and place it on a chopping board. Cover it with tinfoil, then a tea towel, and leave it to rest. Pour away most of the fat from the roasting tray for the potatoes to roast in, discarding any bits of rosemary stalk. Put the tray on the hob and mix in the flour. Add the stock, stirring and scraping all the sticky goodness off the bottom of the tray. You won’t need litres of gravy, just a couple of flavoursome spoonfuls each. Add the capers, turn the heat down and simmer for a few minutes.

Finely chop the mint and add it to the sauce with the red wine vinegar at the last minute then pour into a jug. Place everything in the middle of the table, and shred the lamb in front of your guests. Absolutely delish!

Picture courtesy http://www.jamieoliver.com/

The roast lamb is best paired with Kleinhoekkloof Taigh 2006, or our Shiraz 2007.

Mom’s Smoked Gammon

Gammon

1 medium tin Lyle’s Golden syrup or Wildepaardekloof Unprocessed Fynbos Honey

Cloves

Cherries fresh or maraschino

Pineapple pieces fresh or tinned

1. Remove skin & slice fat into diamonds
2. Place cloves into crosses on fat
3. 3. Preheat oven to 180ºC  (Oven is on 170ºC for the lamb so now we have to adjust the recipe to 170ºC but this will make no difference )
4. Line pan with heavy duty tinfoil to protect your pan
5. Bake for 2½ – 3 hours.  If the top should start browning too much cove with a loose piece of foil
6. Pour the syrup or honey over and bake for another 1 hour – basting often
7. Allow to stand for 20 minutes before carving

Roll cherries & pineapple in the sauce & decorate around the meat

We just love the Wildepaardekloof Unprocessed Fynbos Honey available Loure & Johanna van Zyl on 023 615 1829.  Really worth getting your hands on!

Mustard sauce

1. Beat 6 eggs
2. Dissolve 6 tsp mustard powder in 12 Tbs white vinegar
3. Add 12 Tbs sugar & a pinch of salt to the mustard/vinegar & beat until thickened in a double boiler

The Gammon works sublimely with the Kleinhoekkloof Merlot Rose 2008.

Piet’s Perfect roast potatoes

You need – for 5 people

1 kg Roasting potatoes

250g Holsum fat with some fat from the lamb roast.

Maldon sea salt

We like Holsum because

• Holsum is a fantastic shortening agent, as it is 100% fat, with good plasticity, which means that it melts slowly when baked and results in a rich crispy pastry.
• Holsum contains no added moisture, it will not spatter when heated.
• Holsum is also an excellent frying medium and produces the most delicious, crispy roast potatoes, fritters, vetkoek and French fries.
• Holsum has no discernable flavour of its own, but is an excellent flavour carrier, and enhances the flavour of foods cooked with it.
• Holsum can be used to grease baking sheets and pans, simply peel bake the wrapper and rub the brick lightly over the surface of your baking pans.

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Preheat the oven to 180ºC (Oven is on 170ºC for the lamb so we have to adjust the recipe to 170ºC but this will make no difference – we can always heat the oven a little more once the gammon & lamb are out to rest) and place a roasting tray in the oven to preheat with 75g Holsum fat.

Peel the potatoes and cut in half lengthwise.

Boil potatoes for about 10 minutes or until the edges are soft and fluffy.

Drain them in a colander and then give the colander a good shake to break up the edges of the potatoes – this is what gives them those crispy edges while being soft and fluffy inside.

Place the potatoes into the hot roasting tray with a long spoon & either grate or slice the Holsum over the potatoes and add some of the fat from the lamb roast & return to the oven.  Turn and/or baste each one to get it coated with the oil every 10- 15 minutes. Place on a middle shelf in the oven roast for about an hour.

Serve with a good sprinkle of Maldon crushed sea salt immediately.

Grape Salad

1 pkt almond slivers roasted in oven

1 tin water Chestnuts slivered

500g litchi flesh torn from pip

500g seedless green grapes sliced in half

Dressing

3T    mayonnaise

1t     curry powder

1T    lemon juice

Combine all the ingredients & mix in the dressing

Serve over a bed of butter lettuce or add torn Butter lettuce – optional

Rice Salad

Combine

Cooked Basmati Rice

Sautéed chopped bacon pieces, onion & mushrooms

Frozen peas

Pan fried cherry tomatoes in balsamic – optional

Mixed Baby leaf salad with roasted vegetables with Elsabe’s dressing

Mixes baby leaf lettuce

Roasted Rosa tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, courgettes

Caramelized onions

Feta

Freshly chopped garlic – not bottled – too smelly!

Combine all the ingredients & pour over Elsabe’s dressing

Elsabe’s salad dressing: Combine & shake well

2T extra virgin olive oil

1T balsamic vinegar

1T Honey

1t mustard

Mango pudding

Make 24 hours in advance as it needs to stand

5 large smooth Mangoes – peeled & sliced & packed into a large flat dish

1 Tin black cherries spread evenly in-between

Mix & spread over the mangoes & cherries:

250ml smooth cottage cheese

250ml plain Greek yoghurt

Sprinkle brown sugar over the yoghurt mix & refrigerate overnight.

We recently had a festive evening where some authentic Limoncello was the result of lots of wine and a experiment with fire gone awry. Now that its ready, I am sure it will be the last course, and a worthy end to a day of unbelievable food, lots of laughter and family time.

We would like to send our love to you all, and thank you for another amazing year.