Quince & Cocoa

Hooray....quince is finally back in season.

A difficult fruit to eat on its own as has a very bitter taste. However, in preserving terms it is a fantastic fruit to work with. Very high in pectin (pectin is essential for preserving...not much pectin in banana so you never really see a preserved banana product) and goes a lovely colour when cooked.

The chutney is a really quite special - a strong flavour that we recommend with equally strong meats and cheeses. Especially good with venison and other robust meats. We have used raisins and the taste is both savoury with a bit of sweet. Enjoy also with a strong, mature cheddar.

The jelly is the best looking of all of our products. We use arrow root (natural stabiliser/thickener) as our thickener and this translates to a clear almost translucent red jelly. The taste is quite superb and can be enjoyed with meats - think replacement for a mint jelly as well as cheese.

Membrillo - this is a fruit cheese made without dairy. A bit of a confusing description, a better way of explaining this product is that it is quite a bit more solid than a standard jelly. It should be sliced and enjoyed with cheese - in fact a great accompaniment to a cheese platter.

We have bought some lovely cocoa powder from NoMu and will be cooking up a batch of our highly successful chocolate chilli sauce. Use it as a marinade for steak, chicken or fish - this sauce is a very loosely based on a Mexican mole sauce with Oded's interpretation.

Pop into the shop for a visit and a taste - we are open Mon-Fri from 8am to 6pm and Saturdays from 9am to 2pm.

April Newsletter

We hope you are all well and have been eating some good food...please let us know where as we would like to share this info with others. April already...where has this year gone?! It feels like just the other day we were planning our Christmas range – on that note, our Cranberry relish proved to be such a hit that we are now making it available all year round.

The good news:

Fridge – we have a deli fridge in the shop now so that means we have a lot more refrigerated products. Our mayonnaise (free range eggs and olive oil) and Baonnaise (baobab flavoured, eggless mayonnaise) are now available every day of the week. Tannie Zelda’s pickled gherkins, preserved lemon dressing, chocolate chilli marinade, hummus, baba ganoush & mahammrah as well as several other products will also be available on a daily basis. We are proud to announce that we now also stock Rudi’s Sausages (http://www.urbansprout.co.za/?q=node/3265) – if you have never had them before, get yourself into the shop for a taster. We know Rudi from the various markets we do and have always swapped a jar of preserves for a pack of his sausages.

Classes – our next class will be on Sunday 17 April and it will be a traditional Jewish cooking class. The menu will include chopped chicken liver (starter), Holishkes (main course - stuffed cabbage leaves with wild and cultivated mushrooms), potato kugel, carrot tzimmes and for dessert Oded’s famous cheese blintzes. The class will run from 11am to around 3pm on Sunday and will be R400 per person - we do have two slots still available, but the class is filling up quickly. Please note: Although we do not follow the rules of kosher, we do not use any pork/shellfish during the cooking process.

Quince – quince season is upon us again and we will soon be doing a batch of quince jelly, quince chutney and membrillo.

Twitter/website/Facebook – if you would like to follow us on Twitter, our screen name is OdedsKitchen. We have started a Facebook group (called Oded’s Kitchen) and are in the process of updating the website.

The bad news:

Markets – we will be trying to do as many markets as we can, however, the Franschhoek market is closing down for winter quite soon and the Tokai Porter’s Estate market is entering its winter trading times and will be closed if it’s raining.

Highlights since last mail:

Taste of CT – we had a very successful Taste of CT – hard work, but very rewarding. To all of you who came, thanks for stopping at the stand and for your various comments. As a result of the success of our new range of dips (hummus, baba ganoush & Mahammrah) we have decided to keep them on the menu for the foreseeable future. To all of you who took us up on our offer of free tickets for the show, hope you had a good time. The food was of an exceptionally high standard and we ate very well as a result!

Slow Food Talk – on Saturday we hosted a lecture on preserving for the Slow food movement (http://slowfoodmothercity.co.za/salt-and-vinegar/). The talk lasted around 90 minutes and included a lecture from Oded on the history of preserving, the techniques and applications thereof and finally a Q&A session and tasting of the range,. A big thanks to Michelle Matthews (http://www.michellematthews.co.za/) & Dax (http://www.relax-with-dax.co.za) for organising and publicizing the event as well as Jack Black (http://www.jackblackbeer.com/) for sponsoring the beer (a great accompaniment to the range).

Preserving Course – our course on preserving went down very well last month. Thanks to those who attended and we hope you have been trying out the various techniques learnt since then. Each participant assisted in the making of 3 preserves which highlighted 3 different techniques. A great intro to the world of preserving and an excellent grounding in the basic techniques.

Looking for a job?

We are looking for fun-loving; food-savvy people to (wo)/man a stand for us at markets. If you are interested please contact me - details can be found at the bottom of this mail.

Where to find us this week?

Markets:

Wednesday – Earth Fair (3pm to 8pm)

Saturday – Biscuit Mill; Stellenbosch; Tokai Porter’s Estate & Tokai Earth Fair

Tastings: (lunch time – between 12 & 2pm)

Tues – Food Barn (Noordhoek) & Organic Living (Constantia Village)

Wed – Spar (Somerset West)

Thurs – Spar (Woodstock & Cape Quarter)

Fri – Tokara (Stellenbosch) & Joostenberg (R101 between Paarl & Stellenbosch)

Eat, drink and be merry

Oded & Lewis

Cooking Classes - Preserving

Thank-you for visiting our shop/market stand and showing an interest in our cooking classes. Our next class is going to be a preserving course - Oded's speciality.

Oded will run participants through a brief introduction to the world of preserving and conduct a tasting of the current Oded’s Kitchen range (don’t eat before you come!). Participants will then take a walk to the local produce market where Oded will discuss the various items of produce that he will be using during the class.

Participants will then roll up their sleeves and don an apron and prepare and cook 3 preserves – which will highlight 3 different preserving techniques. The preserves will consist of a pickle, marmalade and salsa.

Each participant will be able to take home the preserves they have prepared during the class.

We have 4 complimentary tickets to give away for the Taste of Cape Town which takes place on 24-28 March to the first 4 people to sign up for the class.

Date: Monday 22 March (public holiday)

Time: 11am – 3pm

Cost: R400

Venue: Oded’s Kitchen (The Old Biscuit Mill, 373 Albert Rd, Salt River, 7925)

What to bring: Just yourself and comfortable clothing/shoes as you will be cooking for 4 hours. We will provide aprons, ingredients and all cooking implements (bring your favourite knife if you have one!)

Please book early to avoid disappointment as class sizes are limited to 11.

For bookings please contact Lewis on:

lewis@odeds-kitchen.co.za or tel: 021 447 0400

Regards,

Oded & Lewis