Masala spiced banana Flan and ham hock Salad with Kanonkop Pinotage 2004

"All things nice" sum up this month's food and wine match by acclaimed chef Margot Janse of Le Quartier Français in Franschhoek. She accepted our challenge to pair the Kanonkop Pinotage 2004 with a curry but the results - as one might hope - are surprising. Joanne Simon reports. "It's a very nice wine," says Le Quartier Français executive chef Margot Janse after tasting the Kanonkop Pinotage 2004 which scored 41/2 Stars in WINE's latest review of the category. "Then again, I usually like Kanonkop's wines!"

No flowery descriptors from the down-to-earth chef who has brought accolades showering down on this luxurious country inn which boasts two of South Africa's finest restaurants - iCi, for sophisticated café food, and The Tasting Room, whose mind-blowing dégustation experience has made it a Top 10 Special Occasions Restaurant in the 2006 and 2007 editions of dine, WINE magazine and Diners Club International's annual restaurant guide, not to mention one of the 50 best restaurants in the world, according to UK magazine Restaurant.

Dutch-born Janse herself has held the title of Best Chef in South Africa (WINE magazine Top 100 Guide, 2004) but she is famous, above all, for her modesty - perhaps a result of being entirely self-taught (she started out as a waitress in Johannesburg after realising that she wanted to cook for a living rather than act).

While regulars at Le Quartier Français - not to mention its owner, Susan Huxter - are constantly amazed by "Margot's wellspring of creative talent", Janse describes her approach to cooking as culinary logic. "I know in my head what a dish will taste like."

Coming up with innovative food and wine matches is also all in a day's work for her. "Our general manager, Linda Coltart, is forever coming into the kitchen with four or five wines, saying 'try this'. The other chefs and I stick our noses in the glass and swirl and taste, and then start thinking of new ideas for our constantly evolving, eight-course tasting menu."

But Janse admits she had her doubts when challenged to match this particular wine with a curry. "I know Pinotage and curry can be a successful match, particularly in Cape Malay cuisine. But the Kanonkop actually seemed to accentuate the chilli and make it hotter!"

Picking up tobacco and leather notes, Janse felt pork would be the wine's perfect partner - hence "a little side-salad of braised eisbein". Ever the professional, however, she stuck to her brief to think along curry lines. "Because the wine has a lightness about it, I decided to play with the nuances of curry - the gentler masala spices - and although my dish didn't end up as a curry at all, it has all the elements that you can find in a curry."

No one is more pleasantly surprised about the resulting match for the wine - a masala-spiced, caramelised banana flan - than Janse herself. "I would never have said you could do a dish like this with a Pinotage. That's why it's so great to be asked to take part in this sort of food and wine matching exercise - it opens up the mind!"

Masala spiced banana flan with crispy fried ham hock salad (Serves 6)

Flan
200g banana flesh
40g palm sugar
5g leaf masala
5g garam masala
5g pickle masala
pinch white pepper
pinch salt
1 Tbsp tamarind paste
60g butter
100ml milk
200ml cream
5 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to140°C

Combine all the above ingredients except the milk, cream and eggs in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and caramelise lightly.

Add milk and dissolve the banana mixture in it.

Blend till smooth and strain through a fine sieve.

Add cream and eggs, mix well.

Pour into small ramekins and bake au bain marie for 15/20 minutes until set.

Leave to cool in the waterbath and unmould when cooled down.

Salad
100g picked cooked ham hock
½ tsp black onion seeds (nigella seeds)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup sunflower shoots
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and quickly fry the ham hock together with the nigella seeds till the ham hock is slightly crispy. Drain on absorbent paper. Mix the ham hock with the sunflower shoots, spring onion and olive oil. Season with a little salt.

Labne dressing
200ml yoghurt
pinch of salt
1 garlic clove, bruised
1 shallot, finely chopped
pinch of turmeric

Mix the yoghurt with the salt and add the garlic clove. Hang in muslin cloth over a bowl for 2 days. Take the drained yoghurt out of the muslin cloth and mix with the shallot and turmeric.

To serve
Spread some of the labne dressing on a plate. Place a banana flan on it with some of the ham hock salad next to it.

Le Quartier Français, 16 Huguenot Road, Franschhoek, Tel: 021 876 2151