Winter dishes for our top winter wines, from the winemakers

Winter is the ideal time for hibernating and cooking up a storm. Our winemakers have shared their personal favourite winter wines so we thought it would be useful to compile a few recipes that we think would make a great match for these exceptional wines. From aubergine curry to roasted springbok shoulder, who would want to leave the house?

Melanzane Bake

Tyrrel Myburgh’s winter wine selection from his Joostenberg range is Klippe Kou Syrah and he recommends pairing this full-bodied winter red either with hearty oxtail or even aubergine. Here’s our favourite Melanzane recipe courtesy of South African chef Antonia de Luca on Medium’s Greenpeace Cookbook collection, Recipes for a Healthy World and a rich and flavorful Italian Guazzetto Oxtail recipe courtesy of The Spruce Eats.

Ingredients

8 aubergines, large
½ cup spelt flour
½ cup olive oil
2 tbsp salt
1 cup Napoli sauce
¾ cup basil pesto
1 cup vegan cheese

Method

Peel the aubergines, slice them into 1cm thick pieces and lay them in a baking dish. Cover the aubergines with the salt and let them stand for an hour, rinse off the excess salt and water. This process dehydrates the aubergines to make the bake tastier and less watery.
Cover the wet aubergines with the spelt flour and pan-fry them in the hot olive oil until lightly golden. Place the aubergines on a kitchen towel and dab off the excess oil, set them aside.
In a medium sized baking tray, cover the base with a thin layer of Napoli sauce, then a layer of the fried aubergines, then another layer of Napoli sauce, then a layer of vegan cheese, then a thin layer of basil pesto, and then repeat the layers until all of the aubergines has been used.

Sprinkle some vegan cheese or a mix of grated mozzarella and fresh parmesan on top of the dish and bake in the oven for 8–10 minutes or until golden. Serve with fresh rocket.

Italian Guazzetto Oxtail

Ingredients

7g (1/4 oz) dried porcini
2 tbsp. olive oil
340g oxtails
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 onion — finely chopped
1/2 carrot — finely chopped
1/3 cup red wine
1/2 15-oz. can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. anchovy paste*
1 bay leaf
1 whole clove
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 cup homemade beef or chicken stock or 2 cups canned chicken stock

Method

Heat oven to 135 degrees Celsius.
Bring 1/2 cup of water to a boil, remove from heat, and add dried porcini. Allow to rehydrate for 15 minutes. Remove mushrooms and reserve. Strain the water the mushrooms soaked in through a cheesecloth or a coffee filter and reserve.
Generously season oxtails with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a small Dutch oven over medium-high heat and brown oxtails on all sides. Set oxtails aside.
Wrap clove, rosemary, thyme, and bay leaf in a small cheesecloth sack and tie with string.
Reduce heat to medium-low and sweat onions and carrots for 10 minutes with a generous pinch of salt. Increase heat to medium-high, add wine and deglaze the pot. Add all remaining ingredients including oxtails, mushrooms, and mushroom liquid. Add enough stock to just cover the oxtails.
Bring to a boil then immediately cover and transfer to a lower rack in the oven. Cook for three hours, topping up liquid with water or additional stock as necessary. Remove from oven.
Remove oxtails and shred meat, reserving. Place pot on stove top and reduce to about 1 cups over medium-high heat. Add shredded meat and serve over pasta, polenta, or bread.

Beef casserole topped with crispy potato

Alex Dale from Radford Dale selects The Winery of Good Hope Syrah is the most wintery wine out of the collection and recommends that it is best paired with a good old beef casserole. We found this recipe that works perfectly, courtesy of Taste.com.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1kg beef steak, cut into 4cm pieces
6 brown onion shallots, peeled
2 carrots, peeled, coarsely chopped
2 celery sticks, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 cups (750ml) beef stock
400g can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 sprig rosemary
500g potatoes, thinly sliced
20g butter, melted
Steamed green beans, to serve

Method

Place flour on a plate and season with salt and pepper. Heat half the oil in a large oven-proof casserole dish over medium-high heat. Dust beef in flour and cook in batches for 5 mins or until browned. Remove to a plate.
Heat remaining oil in the same dish. Add onion, carrot, celery and cook for 5 mins or until just tender. Add garlic and cook for 1 min. Return beef to the dish along with stock, tomatoes, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, vinegar and rosemary. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 hours or until meat is tender.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200°C. Arrange potato slices over the casserole so they are slightly overlapping and cover the meat completely. Brush potato with butter and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 45 mins or until potato is golden and crisp.
Serve casserole with steamed green beans.

Springbok shoulder with glazed pumpkin

Adam Mason winemaker from Raised by Wolves suggests that a great match for the 2015 Limestone Pinot Noir is an earthy textured dish like springbok shoulder with glazed pumpkin. Recipe courtesy of Crush Magazine.

Ingredients

For the Springbok Shoulder

1 Tbsp flour
Salt and pepper
1 springbok shoulder
1/2 cup orange marmalade
Skin of 1 naartjie
1 packet (250 g) streaky bacon
1 cup (250 ml) ginger ale

For the Glazed Pumpkin

600-800 g pumpkin, sliced
2 Tbsp (30 ml) honey or brown sugar
A handful of pumpkin seeds

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Mix the flour with seasoning. Rub the shoulder all over with this, then spread liberally with the orange marmalade.
Tear the naartjie skin into several small pieces. Cut slits into the shoulder and insert the pieces of naartjie skin into the slits.
Layer the top of the shoulder with the rashers of bacon.
Place the shoulder into a roasting pan and pour the ginger ale over the shoulder.
Roast uncovered for 30 minutes or until the bacon is crispy. Reduce the heat to 160°C.
Cover the meat with foil and roast for further 2 hours until fork tender.
Remove the foil for the last 20-30 minutes to crisp the outside.

Glazed Pumpkin:

Cut the pumpkin into slices.
Drizzle with the honey (or sprinkle with brown sugar).
Bake for 20-30 minutes or until tender.
Scatter with pumpkin seeds.

We hope we managed to inspire you with these delicious winter recipes and if you are keen to try them out, do let us know how it turned out and send us some images too!