Tapas and Swartland Idelia 2004

How to make the myriad flavours of tapas stand up to the rich, bold layers of Swartland Idelia 2004? Vicki Sleet spoke to Nic van Wyk of Barnyard Brasserie about making the marriage work."We want people to pop in after work for a glass of wine or bubbly and a plate or two of tapas, to unwind and to chill,” chef Nic van Wyk explains of his tapas bar at The Barnyard Brasserie restaurant at the Willowbridge Lifestyle Centre in Durbanville. And chill is exactly what he did to a bottle of Swartland Idelia when asked to team it with some of his flavourful tapas choices. “My initial thoughts were that the wine was not particularly ‘wow’, but after I’d popped it into the fridge for an hour or so it became another wine altogether – the tannins were less noticeable, the spice of the Shiraz really came through and I could really pick up on some fragrant fruity flavours,” he explains. Van Wyk’s decision to chill this Swartland red certainly shows its versatility, especially with the complex flavours one finds on his tapas menu.

Van Wyk explains “I chose four items, each of them offering two or three very different taste sensations. The paprika flavoured chorizo on the charcuterie platter mirrored the smoky, spicy Shiraz flavours beautifully while the fig syrup I use in the beetroot and goats cheese salad meets the summery ripe fig flavours in the wine”. Similarly his chimmichurri (coriander, garlic, chilli, olive oil) salsa stood up to the multilayered character of this wine with the greatest of ease, while the sweet and smoky flavours of Van Wyk’s Chipirones (calamari tubes in a tomato and red wine vinegar sauce with squid ink) had made a happy match. Van Wyk says “this type of pairing is exactly what we’ll be doing this season at the tapas bar, encouraging people to think out of the white wine box and to broaden their horizons”.
Chipirones

SAUCE
1 tin (2,55kg) tomatoes
1 chef spoon (170g) tomato paste
3 (450g) onions
1 (200g) green pepper
4 (400g) garlic cloves
¼ cup (75g) sugar
120ml red wine vinegar
12 pockets squid ink

Cook onions, garlic and peppers till soft.
Add tomato paste and cook through, add sugar and cook till melted, deglaze with vinegar and cook dry.
Add tomatoes and cook for one hour.
Blitz and strain, add squid ink and season.

PER SERVING

120g squid – 6 tubes
3 tentacles
60ml chipirones sauce
Salt and pepper

Heat oil in pan and fry squid.
Add chipirones sauce and season.
Serve in a high sided bowl, garnished with chives or flat leaf parsley.

Beetroot and Goat’s Cheese Salad

ORANGE VINAIGRETTE (makes 550ml)

500ml half olive oil, half vegetable oil
2 oranges, zest of half and all the juice
50ml verjuice squeeze lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard 100ml Fig syrup

Mix all the ingredients together and add the oil bit by bit, while whisking.
Check that the vinaigrette is fresh and not bland and season well.

PER ORDER

100g beetroot
Rroasted 70g soft goat’s cheese
20ml orange or fig vinaigrette salt and pepper

Toss beetroot with the vinaigrette and top with goats cheese. Don’t touch the goat’s cheese with beetroot fingers…

The Barnyard Brasserie, Willowbridge Lifestyle Centre, Carl Cronje