Great British Cousins Dinner party in Cape Town

Well, here I am, fresh off my Bloggers online course, attempting my first Blog...

My husband's cousin, Toni and her new boyfriend, who hail from the mud island came to stay for the weekend.  We planned a weekend full of fun typical Cape Town things to do, one of which was a dinner party with some of our local friends.

The Home Dinner Party sends shivers up some peoples backs, but I absolutely love it.  I adore the preparation, the menu research, preparing the invitations, deciding on the table decor and finding the right wine for each course.  Its also particularly wonderful when people have thoroughly enjoyed the evening and compliment your food.  I cook with so much love and I am sure that people feel that when they eat my food.  One must never forget that people want you to succeed, so even if there are small mistakes you will be easily forgiven.

The table was going to have an African feel, in other words, all the wonderful browns, burgundies, yellows and reds which epitomize the warmth of our continent .  It was time to use that very special  cloth my mom gave us for a wedding present two years ago.  To match the table cloth I found some incredible Cheetah serviettes, paired with cream Georgette napkins, red candles and Jenna Clifford Red wine glasses, we were ready to go!!!

The Menu

Champagne and Pomegranate seed cocktail on arrival.  Don't they just look incredibly sexy?

Starter

Light and fluffy Smoked Salmon Pate, served with a micro green salad, decorated with edible pansy flowers and a slither of gorgeous peach and coriander.  I made the starter the day before as it needed to settle in the fridge over night and it saved me time on the dinner party day to spend time with our relatives showing them the beautiful Blouberg Beach front area, the On the Rocks restaurant and Blue Peter pub where we had a few drinks.  Our starter was paired with Capaia Sauvignon Blanc, a gem of a wine from a farm off the N7 about 10 kilometers from Melkbos.  For more information, please follow the link to www.capaia.eu.

Mains

Oven roasted sirloin, smothered in French Dijon mustard, black pepper and extra virgin Olive oil, prepared medium rare, coupled with tricolor organic carrots cooked in orange juice and ginger, runner beans with slithered almonds, golden roast potatoes, beautiful Yorkshire puddings (done the old fashioned way with no rising agents), sweet little Brussel Sprouts and old fashioned roasting pan red wine gravy.  The main course was paired with de Grendel Rubaiyat, one of the Durbanville wine valley's top five wine farms, a fabulous wine, with a wonderful ruby nose, goes beautifully with red meat. The Rubaiyat is De Grendel’s flagship wine, first made in 2007 when cellar master Charles Hopkins was asked by Sir David Graaff to make an “icon” for the Estate For more information on this wine, please follow the link www.degrendel.co.za. 

Lasts

The final course was a cheese board, accompanied by preserved figs and ginger, fresh figs and grapes served with various biscuits and a few tiny carrot and red velvet cup cakes.  Desert wine was from Muratie Stellenbosch, quite honestly one of the best cheese paired desert wines out there.  For more information on Muratie, please check out their web site www.muratie.co.za

Everyone loved the food.  Most people had a food or a wine favourite at the table, for some it was the Brussel sprouts, and for others the Yorkshire puddings.  The mix of people worked, and my Great British Cousins dinner party went down as a superb success.

I would love to hear back from you.  Let me know what you think?  Is the content of the blog interesting?  Did you like the photos?  What were your thoughts about the wine?  Hopefully some new wines for you to try and if you live in Cape Town, some new wine farms to visit.