Apricot glazed port belly with Nuy Muscadel
Testament to Topsi Venter's wellspring of creativity is that, although tasked
with preparing just one dish, she came up with six! Her options ranged from
lamb's tongue, to rolled pork belly in two incarnations (depending on whether
you wanted the crackling crispy or soft and the roll stuffed or not…),
two side dishes and a frozen dessert.
This inimitable figure - often with African grey parrot Arnoldus Pannevis perched
on her shoulder - has worked at the Dried Fruit Board, Cape Town's Wild Fig,
Paarl's Roggeland Country House and finally settled in Franschhoek where she
celebrates 10 years of Topsi & Co this month.
Chef, restaurateur and author Robert Carrier wrote the following as the foreword
to the book Fooding about with Topsi published in 2003: "Topsi cooks with
a painter's eye. Imaginatively. This book brings her heart to the table: it
speaks her language. It's all about imagination and the love of good food. Her
whimsical way of jotting down a recipe. Her style. Her daring… and her
innate good taste. You'll love having Topsi in your kitchen."
"My son-in-law always says my daughter and I lack focus - which is partly
true - but there's just so much you can do to match a muscadel," she says.
"I grew up drinking Muscat d'Alexandrie and have drunk an awful lot of
Muscadel over the years. It's wonderful stuff! Everyone makes such a fuss about
the great dry wines that muscadel is often overlooked."
But back to the Muscadel match. It must have fat, she said, so settled on the
rolled pork belly for WINE mag, glazed with apricot jam and mustard seeds with
side dishes of sultana, dried fig and ginger hot salad and drunken prune salad
with naartjie and lemon peel.
Sources of inspiration ranged from friends and family as well as C. Louis Leipoldt's
recipes (the lamb's tongue) to her years of experience at the Dried Fruit Board.
"I don't know why, because I left the Dried Fruit Board in 1980, but I'm
still so immersed in using dried fruit - I felt it went so well with the wine's
lovely sweet, raisiny flavours."
Quite right, too. Unfussy, simple hearty fare that satisfies the soul - somewhat
like Muscadel in all its cheerful sweetness.
Apricot glazed pork belly
Whole pork belly (2 - 3kg), unrolled
5 T apricot jam
2 T brown sugar
2 T yellow mustard seeds
(or 1 T ready-made mustard)
Soak the unrolled pork belly in brine for three days. Remove and pat dry. ("You
can do a stuffing if you want to - any dried fruit will do, apricots for example,"
Topsi says.) Then roll and tie with string. ("I use skewers and poke those
through the meat at either end to anchor the string and then just roll that
around the entire piece of meat rather than making fussy fancy knots one inch
apart.") Mix the apricot jam, brown sugar and mustard seeds and heat in
a pot until the sugar has dissolved. "Then take your husband's favourite
paint brush…." And glaze the pork belly roll and place in a slow oven
- 120° C for four to five hours. ("Slow, slow, slow!" Topsi exhorts.)
Serve with barley rice and side salads.
Sultana, dried fig and ginger hot salad
120g dried apricots
120g sultanas
120g dried figs
2 large onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
15ml cooking oil
15ml chopped root ginger
2ml grated nutmeg
2ml ground clove
1 cinnamon stick
zest of 1 lemon
15ml Maizena
200ml Muscadel
250ml hot water
Sauté the onion and garlic in the oil. Add spices and Maizena. Then the muscadel and water. Stir until thick. Add fruit and zest. Simmer until tender. Leave to cool. Garnish with slices of lemon.
Drunken prunes
500g pitted prunes
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 lemon (or naartjie)
750ml Muscadel
3 T cold, unsalted butter
Combine prunes, zest and Muscadel in a saucepan. Simmer for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Whisk in butter, one piece at a time. Lift pan from heat occasionally to cool the mixture. Keep adding new butter before previous piece has melted. Mixture must be thick and smooth.
Topsi for Food & Wine, 7 Reservoir St West, Franschhoek. Tel: 021 876 2952
