LAST week, I attended a food and wine pairing dinner at Durbanville Hills Wines and my experience inspired today's column.
The winery is taking visitors on an eight-week journey to discover food and culture of countries around the world. Last week, the focus was on Peruvian cuisine. A selection of dishes from Peru were served and paired with wines from the winery. Each dish came with a bit of history, which made it more exciting.
It is good to know one's own cuisine, but it is equally important to explore food from other countries and cultures.
This week, Durbanville Hills Wines is showcasing food from Spain. Therefore, for this week's column I researched Spanish dishes and decided on a winter stew called Fabada. Of course, some of the ingredients used in the stew are not available here in South Africa, black pudding/Morcilla, for example, which is a Spanish sausage. That doesn't mean we can't improvise.
Other recipes use pigs' trotters and boil them with the beans. The meat gives flavour to the dish, therefore it is important to let it simmer. Traditionally, butter is not added to the dish, but I've added it to round up the flavour. It is perfect for this cold weather.
I've paired the dish with carbenet sauvignon merlot.
Fabada (Spanish bean and pork stew)
Serves: 2 - 3
Ingredients:
500ml (2 cups) white
kidney beans
Boiling water
1 stock cube
15ml (1tbs) oil, for frying
200g rindless streaky bacon
± 200g pork chorizo, cut into slices
5ml (1tsp) paprika
2.5ml (½tsp) all spice (pimento)
10ml (2tsp) freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper to season
15ml butter (optional)
Method:
Soak beans in cold water overnight.
Discard the soaking water, rinse the beans and boil them with the stock cube until they are cooked.
In a saucepan, heat oil and fry bacon and chorizo until the bacon is cooked.
Transfer the beans together with its liquids into the pan with bacon.
Add paprika, all spice, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
Allow to simmer for about 30 minutes, adding more water when necessary.
Add butter (optional) and serve hot.
See www.mzansistylecuisine.co.za