Can Can chicken

Continuing with our series of South African Braai recipes to celebrate the World Cup, here’s winemaker Paul Cluver’s version of beer-can chicken made with apple juice rather than beer.

This is a fantastic way of cooking chicken for any of you who haven’t tried it. You need a barbecue with a domed lid like a Weber.

Serves 4–6 (You can double up the recipe for two chickens)

One large free-range chicken, giblets removed

For the marinade
100g butter
125ml red wine vinegar
100ml olive oil
Handful of Italian flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
3–5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
Freshly ground salt and black pepper
1 can Appletise (or any unsweetened sparkling apple juice or good cider)

Melt the butter, then add all the other ingredients except for the Appletise. Marinate the chicken in a large bowl – leave it for at least an hour. This will also give you time to prepare the barbecue. You need to place the charcoal on the sides and make sure you have a drip tray in the middle. Open the can of Appletise, pour off half the contents, put the chicken over it and place it in the middle of the barbecue. It takes about an hour to cook.

You can obviously cook this on a gas barbecue too FB

Wine note: Paul recommends the Paul Cluver Pinot Noir with the chicken but you could also drink a Chardonnay - or, obviously, apple juice or cider if you don’t want to drink wine.

This recipe comes from Cape Wine Braai Masters published by Wines of South Africa

Warm smoked eel with carrots, marjoram and apple sauce

Smoked eel is not so difficult to find but most retailers sell it vacuum packed*: the problem with this technique, whilst keeping the fish admirably, is that it tends to express the oil from the meat. It is worth drying the fillets on kitchen paper before slicing. Most people don’t peel young baby carrots: I prefer to because I like to see them look smooth and glossy but I see the point of those who don’t.

1 large cooking apple
1 lemon
Cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, nutmeg
500 grams bunched baby carrots
750 grams smoked eel
1 teaspoon chopped fresh marjoram
2 tablespoons olive oil

Peel and core the apple, chop coarsely and mix with the juice of the lemon in a small saucepan. Add a small piece of the cinnamon stick, the crumbled heads of the cloves and a grating of nutmeg. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and simmer on a gentle heat until the apple disintegrates. Remove the cinnamon, blend in a mixer until completely smooth, adding a little water if necessary to produce a light and smooth puree.

Wash the carrots and remove all but an inch of the stalks. Peel the carrots with a fine peeler and place them in a saucepan with just enough water to cover, a generous pinch of salt, likewise of sugar and a tablespoon of the olive oil. Cover with greaseproof paper and simmer briefly until the carrots are tender and enrobed in a syrupy glaze. Keep warm.

Slice the eel thinly and distribute, without overlapping on six plates. Place them in a warm oven or plate warmer just long enough so that the eel is warm but not hot. Distribute the carrots on each plate and dribble the apple sauce (no more than a dessertspoon per plate) artfully over each dish. Mix the marjoram with a tablespoon of oil and spoon a very small amount over each dish, equally artfully. Serve.

Suggested pairing: a German Kabinett Riesling

* If you can't find smoked eel locally you can order it online from the admirable Brown & Forrest which specialises in smoked eel FB

Rowley Leigh is chef at Le Cafe Anglais and cookery writer for the Financial Times in which this recipe was first printed.

3 things to remember about making the perfect pot of tea

By chance I had two tea tastings last week with Henrietta Lovell of the Rare Tea Company and Kate Gover of Lahloo. I’m still trying to digest all the information they gave me but three things stand out as making the difference between making an ordinary cup of tea and a great one. Apart from using loose leaves rather than teabags which I knew (though confess I don’t always put into practice).

1. Don’t use too much tea
Two reasons: it’s expensive and it’ll result in an unnecessarily strong brew. It helps to use a teapot that suits the number of people you’re serving. While you need a couple of generous pinches - or heaped teaspoonfuls - for two people you don’t need to add a pinch for every extra person you serve

2. Don’t use water that’s too hot
While black teas can take water that’s just off the boil but green and white teas benefit from cooler temperatures. Which means boiling the kettle (from freshly drawn water) then letting it sit for a minute or two. Old fashioned kettles seem better for this purpose than modern ones many of which switch off too quickly and don’t hold their heat well.

3. Don’t infuse the tea for too long
This was perhaps the most useful thing I learnt. Once you’ve infused the tea, pour it then refill the pot. But don’t then leave the pot standing for 7 or 8 minutes while you drink your first cup. Strain off the tea into a jug (or another teapot) then pour more water on the leaves again. You can reinfuse the leaves a number of times, depending on the tea (another reason for making a small pot rather than a huge one.)

Both the Rare Tea Company and Lahloo have more detailed information about making tea on their websites but these were the three points that really struck me.

More on tea later this week.

Pigeon breast and chocolate mole with red currants and parmesan mash

Signe Johansen’s winning recipe from a recent bloggers' food and wine matching event which required her to create a dish to pair with a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon

Serves 4

For the pigeon and the jus reduction:
Allow 2-3 pigeon breasts per person, ideally with the skin still on
4 tbsp crab apple jelly or redcurrant jelly
1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
4 tsp grated cacao (I used Willie’s Venezuelan Black - don't use a sweetened chocolate for this)
Salt & pepper
Oil for frying the pigeon
A little chilled butter for finishing the dish
A sprig of redcurrants for each plate

For the mash:
4 large King Edward potatoes, peeled and cut into even-sized pieces
200ml double cream
75g butter
50g grated parmesan
pinch of nutmeg
salt & pepper

First bring the potatoes to a boil in salted water. Cook until tender, drain off the water and shake the potatoes in the hot pan to dry them out. In a separate pan reduce the cream by half, add the butter and blend together. Mash the potatoes to break them up, then add the parmesan and the reduced cream and melted butter. Season to taste and set aside to be re-heated just before serving.

Next put a tablespoon of oil in a medium saut pan (or 2 tbsp in a large one) and saute the pigeon breasts skin-side down over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes, rendering the fat to make it crispy, then turn the pigeon over for a further minute. Remove the pigeon breasts from the saute pan and keep covered in a low oven (100°C or less). Add the red wine to the saute pan and reduce by two thirds, until a deep crimson colour and a viscous consistency. Add the crab apple or redcurrant jelly and warm through to melt the jelly. Finally stir through the grated cacao, and check the seasoning. Finish the jus off with a piece of cold butter to give it extra gloss

Re-heat the parmesan mash, serve on a plate and surround with sliced pigeon, a generous drizzle of the mole jus and garnish with the redcurrant sprig

For more of Signe's recipes visit her blog Scandilicious