This Father’s Day we are cooking a mouth-watering green bean stew and crispy pork belly with Niël Groenewald, the managing director of Nederburg Wines, and two of his winemakers – and you stand the chance of winning six bottles of red wine.
Groenewald, who is also the winery’s head winemaker, says despite it being Father’s Day tomorrow, he will be doing most of the cooking. On the menu is a South African favourite.
“I’ll be spoiling my family with a very traditional dish known as groenboontjiebredie, or in English, green bean stew. This heart-warming dish is an absolute favourite of ours, especially during the cold winter months,” he says.
To accompany this dish he has selected Nederburg’s Heritage Heroes The Young Airhawk, which he describes as “a barrel-fermented Sauvignon blanc that’s bold with generous grapefruit and flint aromas. It’s crisp, dry and yet succulently tangy. For those who prefer reds, I have selected both the full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon from The Winemasters collection, as well as Nederburg’s Edelrood, which is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.”
Groenewald learnt from his father, JP, that blood is thicker than water. “He taught me that family comes first, and that learning and acquiring knowledge can never be taken away from you. These teachings are so important to hold onto. In fact, I’m teaching these same valuable lessons to my son, Phillip.”
Niël’s green bean stew recipe
Serves 6 to 8.
Ingredients
25 ml butter or oil
1,5 kg lamb on the bone (such as lamb rib and/or lamb shanks)
2 onions, chopped
1 green sweet pepper, pitted and chopped (optional)
2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped into blocks
10 ml salt
500 ml boiling water
750 ml green beans, carved
4 potatoes, cut into blocks
5 ml salt
2,5 ml freshly ground black pepper
2,5 ml nutmeg
15 ml corn flour or sauce powder (more or less)
Method
- Heat the butter or oil in a large pan on the stove and brown the meat in batches. Set aside the meat once all browned.
- Add the chopped onion and sweet pepper to the pan and fry for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and stir fry for another few minutes.
- Add the meat, salt and boiling water, cover the pan and let it cook for 1½ hours.
- Add the green beans, and let it stew for another half an hour.
- Add the potatoes and some more salt. Combine well and leave it to stew for another half an hour.
- Add the black pepper and nutmeg, as well as the corn flour or sauce powder mixed with a small amount of water to form a smooth pasta. Stir well and let it simmer until the sauce thickens.
- Serve with rice and your wine of choice.
While Groenewald chose a hearty stew for Father’s Day, the family of Zinaschke Steyn, assistant red winemaker at Nederburg, can look forward to a crispy pork belly that will be prepared on the fire.
She says, “Needless to say, we’re hoping for a sunny winter’s day! Also on the menu is none other than Nederburg’s popular The Motorcycle Marvel Rhône-style red blend featuring some interesting red grape varieties such as Carignan, Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvèdre and Cinsaut. It’s a wine with soft floral and berry aromatics followed by succulent blue and black fruit in the mouth.”
Steyn describes her father, Herby, as “a bit of a diamond in the rough”. “I love him for that because despite his sometimes harsh exterior, he is a God-fearing man, a gentle soul with the smallest heart. He would do anything to see the ones he loves, happy – and I do believe that some of these qualities he has passed onto me.”
Her father helped her become fiercely independent. “He made me work really hard for my pocket money, but this has taught me to truly appreciate and value what I have, and when I got my first car he literally showed me once and then made me change a tyre to make sure that I can do it on my own!
Zinaschke’s recipe for crispy pork belly
Ingredients
2 kg pork belly
100g coarse salt
2 lemons (zest)
2 limes (zest)
½ bunch fresh thyme
2 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp allspice
Method
- Score the skin part of the pork belly in a cross-hatch pattern.
- Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
- Rub the pork belly with the mixture, and let it rest for 24 hours in the fridge (get most of the salt on the skin and leave the skin side facing up)
- After 24 hours, remove some of the excess leaves, undissolved salt and course spices, leaving most of the finer ones and citrus zest on the meat.
- Over a low fire, cook the belly for 2 to 3 hours standing at an angle and turn often. Make sure the meat cooks evenly and very slowly.
- When the meat is hot in the centre (you can check this either by thermometer or by placing the tip of a knife into the centre of the meat and checking if it’s hot), go ahead and crisp up the skin side by cooking it very carefully for a minute or so over hot coals.
- Serve, along with Nederburg The Motorcycle Marvel and your preferred side dish.
Meanwhile Samuel Viljoen, a colleague of Groenewald and Steyn, fondly remembers his childhood days. “Some weekends the two of us went to our holiday home on the south coast to cut the lawn and do necessary maintenance before the holidays. We would leave our hometown early on the Saturday morning so that we could get freshly baked bread from the bakery in the nearby town. At lunchtime we would braai and have some of the freshly baked bread with our grilled meat.”
Viljoen’s late father was a preacher. “He had such a great sense of humour and passion for history, nature, sport and spending quality time with family and friends. He absolutely loved to read Louis L’Amour Westerns and watch James Bond movies.”
Nothing was ever too much trouble for him when it came to his children. The Nederburg red winemaker adds, “He did not mind driving nine hours on a Friday, all the way to the Karoo, where my sisters had started their teaching careers, to collect them to spend a weekend at home with the family.
“Or to drive all the way back there on a Sunday to make sure they arrived safely. I sometimes accompanied him on those trips. I was too young to assist with the driving but I remember some of the conversations we had. The topics varied from Formula One (he was a keen Michael Schumacher and Ferrari fan) to rugby, his first Citroën, and experiences in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) where he had his first congregation.”
My dad grew up on a farm, surrounded by vineyards. He appreciated good quality red wine. – SAMUEL VILJOEN
Like his father, Viljoen also studied agriculture at Elsenburg in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. “He studied agriculture before starting his theology studies. He had such a keen interest in my university studies and even bought me my first and only pair of pruning scissors that carries my initials. He taught me to do a job properly, to see the lighter side of life, to enjoy time in nature and to help others whenever you are able to.”
And if he had the opportunity to have one more braai with his late father? “I would throw some Karoo lamb chops and boerewors on the fire to enjoy with freshly baked bread, and open a bottle of Nederburg Heritage Heroes The Brew Master Bordeaux-style red blend, with Rodger Whittaker’s Mexican Whistler playing in the background.”
Win a special Father’s Day treat with Nederburg
Head on over to Food For Mzansi’s Facebook for details on how to win this special collection of red wines from Nederburg, carefully selected by red wine-maker, Samuel Viljoen!.
The selection of wines are available at R1 000 on the Nederburg online wine shop, and includes two bottles each of:
- Heritage Heroes The Motorcycle Marvel 2017, a gently appealing five-way Rhône-style red blend displaying ample berry, black cherry and plum ripeness with dry spicy counterpoints.
- Heritage Heroes The Brew Master 2017, a complex Bordeaux-style red blend with understated nutty oak notes supporting plush, rounded blackberry fruit succulence and a rich spicy palate.
- The Winemasters Shiraz 2018, elegantly structured with a palate packed with plum, black cherry, a touch of leather, dried herbs, fynbos and some oreganum notes.
PLEASE NOTE: The competition is strictly for 18 and over. Read the terms and conditions are available here.
