Recently, we sat down with our Goathsed Chef SJ Nel, the inventor of our beloved pies, to find out more about his love for food:

Tell us a bit about your background?
I have Northern Cape roots and was fortunate to gain experience in British, Swedish and a few South African kitchens.

What is your favourite dish to eat?
Cooking all day does not create cravings for anything fancy. A simple freshly baked roll with sausage, coleslaw, mustard and a beer is what I love. I guess that’s why I particularly love making a good pie too!

What is your favourite dish to make?
I am guilty of crowd pleasing and therefore our most popular dish at The Goatshed Restaurant is Braised Fairview Lamb.

What are the most interesting things happening in food right now?
Real top notch ingredients, being prepared simply, served informally, with amazing attitudes, leaving small footprints.

What is your food philosophy?
Getting your hands dirty to bring together flavourful ingredients, from sustainable sources, taking care of the environment while helping people.

What are your guilty pleasures?
Dry aged T-bone steak with a generous piece of fat, matured cheeses and red wine.

Most bizarre thing in your fridge right now?
My wife, Lisa, is keeping me healthy with a variety of nutritious smoothies so I will have to say some of those ingredients – like coconut water, cocoa nibs and organic granadilla pulp.

What is your favourite food memory?
“Potjiekos” with my father, mastermind snack platters with my mother, traditional “padkos” roadtripping with my three sisters and mushroom risotto for my one and only Lisa.

Two flavours that shouldn’t go together but do?
Goats’ milk and caramel.

Advice you wish you were given as a young chef?
Listen to all your mentors, good and bad, you will definitely learn something.

The post Goatshed’s Favourites | Interview with Chef SJ Nel appeared first on Fairview.

We know that not everyone is a wine lover. But surely everyone is a cheese lover? This autumn, we’re digging into our dessert cheese range, namely our White Rock with Dried Cranberries, White Rock with Glazed Fig, White Rock with Pear and Caramel and White Rock with Mango and Ginger.

While the White Rock Dried Cranberries and Glazed Fig flavours have been available for years, we only released our Pear and Caramel and Mango and Ginger flavours two years ago – to a rocking success! So far, we’re received feedback that the cheeses taste like cheesecake (never a bad thing in our books), and are delicious served with cheeseboards, crumbed over fresh summer salads or even as dessert.

Our White Rock cheese is a full fat semi-soft cheese, made using cow’s milk. The concept behind the cheese was to complement our Blue Rock range, which is a more Roquefort-style cheese with a rich flavour and a firm yet creamy texture. Since inception, our White Rocks have been best-sellers in our busy Tasting Room, even occasionally used in our Wedding Cheese Cakes. Read more about that here.

But don’t worry, you don’t need to be planning a wedding or big event to indulge in our White Rock. Recently we dug into our archives and found this delicious Nina Timm recipe for a Fig and Cheese Tart – we highly recommend trying it. Click here to view the recipe. And remember: Our White Rock cheeses are available nationwide in selected retail stores.

View the range:

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As you should already know by now, Fairview and our winemakers, under the careful guidance of Charles Back, love to break with tradition. In fact, we’re all about doing things differently. This really came to the fore with our Fairview Brut Méthode Cap Classique (MCC), a re-imagined take on the classic bubbly. Traditionally, Champagne (in France) and MCC (in South Africa), is made using the grape varieties Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. For our version, one of our talented winemakers Stephanie Wiid decided to break with tradition, and use a celebration of Mediterranean varieties – Viognier, Grenache Noir and Grenache Blanc – for her bubbly. Given Charles’s reputation as one of the SA wine industry mavericks, perhaps it’s not that surprising that he insisted on the first Fairview MCC rather being Rhône-like in its varietal mix.

For our pen-ultimate Goatshed Dinner for 2018, we will be sharing the delights of our Fairview Brut MCC and pairing it with Old World style food – meaning food from regions like France. Our chefs and winemakers thought it would be an interesting comparison to take our New World bubbly and pair it with Old World traditional fare. The combination will no doubt be delightful! Coming up on Friday 7th September 2018, come enjoy a warm environment, hearty food and a pop, clink, fizz with your friends!

In case you haven’t heard, this year, we’ve decided to introduce a strong relationship between the food and wine pairings, by complementing the Goatshed dinners to our most food-focused wine range, titled the Regional Revival Range.

The Regional Revival Range consists of the following 6 wines:
1. Fairview Homtini
2. Fairview Nurok
3. Fairview Drie Papen Fontein
4. Fairview Caldera
5. Fairview Brut MCC
6. Fairview Extrano

Here is a breakdown of the menu you can expect to enjoy on the evening:

Amuse Bouche
Blinis with smoked salmon & fish roe

First starter
Paprika chicken schnitzel with stuffed cabbage

Second starter
Mushroom and barley soup

Main course
Roast beef, potato dauphinois, roasted vegetables and rosemary jus
Goulash hot pot

Dessert
Apple pie, vanilla ice cream and custard

***

R325 per person
Wine Pairings included

Click below to purchase your tickets.

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Okay, yes. So this year we have flipped the theme of our annual Goatshed Dinners on their head, with the introduction of a paired Regional Revival Range wine to each themed event. However, the one evening we would never remove from our calendar is the ever-popular Fairview Shiraz and Free-Range Lamb Shank Evening on the 15th June 2018, which also happens to be the third Goatshed Dinner in our calendar this winter. Sold out every year, we trust there will be no exception this year! It also happens to align with Shiraz SA Week, so all the more reason to celebrate this bold red variety!

There is definitely a comfort factor that revolves around bringing together a bold red and a hearty meat in the middle of winter. Add to this our underfloor heating, roaring oven fire, and cosy Goatshed interior, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a true feast of flavours and trending hygge indulgence. We invite you to come and enjoy Chef SJ Nel’s reinvention of classic dishes using pork and duck ‘shank’, and incorporating smoked Shiraz vines with his tasty spiced pumpkin soup. Shiraz is also Fairview’s flagship grape variety, used across a wide range of blends and single bottlings. This one is definitely not to be missed, so book now to avoid disappointment!

Here is a breakdown of the menu you can expect to enjoy on the evening:

Amuse-Bouche
Pickled pork “shank” & mustard slaw

First Starter
Duck “shank” & bean cassoulet

Second Starter
Spiced pumpkin soup, lightly smoked with Shiraz vines

Main Course
Shiraz braised Lamb Shank Pie, mashed potato & baby marrow

Dessert
Goatshed’s milk tart & Shiraz poached pear

***

R325 per person
Wine Pairings included

Click below to purchase your tickets:

The post Fairview Shiraz and Free-Range Lamb Shank Evening | Goatshed Dinner #3 appeared first on Fairview.

At Fairview, there is always a story to share behind everything, none more so than our wine and food. For this reason, this year our Goatshed Restaurant will host its popular annual Goatshed Dinners throughout the winter period, but this time around, we’ve added a more focused twist. To enhance our delicious farm-to-plate dishes, we’ve curated a wine and food pairing using wines exclusively from our food-friendly Regional Revival Range.

Fairview’s Regional Revival Range brings storytelling to the fore, blending together adventurous grape varieties with cutting-edge winemaking. Inspired by wines of the Old World, the range takes these traditional regional styles and brings them alive to local palates by integrating an unexpected Cape twist. Take for example our Fairview Brut MCC, a bubbly made in the traditional Méthode Cap Classique style, but using completely non-traditional varieties Viognier, Grenache Blanc and Grenache Noir. All of these award-winning wines are designed to pair with fine fare, and so our winemaking and Goatshed team will be joining forces this year to create a menu that is orientated around one particular wine from the range at a time.

Starting with the Homtini Italian Dinner on the 25th May, the offering will highlight the Tuscan roots of the Homtini Red Blend wine to be paired effortlessly with delicious Italian-style cuisine. The same can be said for all 6 dinners, paired with a matching theme that links to each of our wines’ regional origins. The dinners will culminate in the Regional Revival Range Chef’s Journey evening, during which time Chef SJ will take the highlight meal and wine pairings from our other 6 Regional Revival Range focused nights and create a culinary experience to be truly savoured.

Now don’t fret! Naturally, we would never take away our ever-popular and much loved Fairview Shiraz and Free-Range Shank evening. This will still be held on the 15th June, perfectly in line with SA Shiraz Celebration week! With this said, we encourage you to come and join us on one of the other Revival dinner nights to experience something a little different.

Tickets include a hearty three-course meal prepared by the Goatshed’s much-loved chef, SJ Nel, as well as beautifully paired Fairview Regional Revival Range wines to complement each dish. Fairview’s own farm fresh, free range meat and cheese will feature on the menu.

Tickets cost R325 per person, including wine. The cost for the Chef’s Journey on the 27th of July is R375 per person, as the evening will include a more broad offering and a more substantial wine offering.

Should you wish to book overnight accommodation, Fairview recommends the following neighbouring farms:

Belair: www.belair.co.za/belairWP

Email: info@belair.co.za

Diamant Estate: www.diamantestate.com

Email: info@diamantestate.com

Tickets will open for booking from April 2018, but have a look at the dates below in the meantime and offerings, to whet your appetite:

MAY:
25th May – Goatshed Dinner 1
‘Homtini Italian Dinner’

JUNE:
08 June – Goatshed Dinner 2
‘Nurok Morccan Dinner’

15 June – Goatshed Dinner 3
Fairview Shiraz & Free Range Lamb Shank

JULY:
13 July – Goatshed Dinner 4
Drie Papen Fontein Curry Evening

27 July – Goatshed dinner 5
Regional Revival Range Chef’s Journey

AUGUST:
24 August – Goatshed Dinner 6
Caldera Greek Dinner

SEPTEMBER:

7 Sept – Goatshed Dinner 7
‘Brut MCC Old World Evening

28 Sept – Goatshed Dinner 8
‘Extrano Spanish Dinner’

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