PROJECT PRESERVATION AT BEAU
Winter is a time of slowing down, particularly in Cape Town restaurants. After the craziness of the season, the Beau kitchen gets busy in a different way: using that extra time to bulk up on house-made preserved, fermented and smoked ingredients for the months ahead.
“Winter is a quieter time that actually allows for the most creativity,” says Ivor. “We have more time to experiment and that leads to some exciting results in the kitchen. The whole team gets involved in our preservation projects: it can be quite a great learning and collaborative experience for them with new ideas and techniques, as well as tastings with their peers. It’s a bit of fun too.”
The hard benefit of all these preserves comes during the busier months of the year, when the kitchen can rely on preserves at hand to help create beautiful dishes without having to search far and wide for ingredients.
These are some of the pantry projects from this winter’s Beau preservation list…look for them in future dishes at Beau:
Num num berries – locally foraged Indigenous berries that will be pickled
Horseradish - 10 kg of horseradish will be peeled, pickled and dried. Once ready, it will be shaved over dishes for a light and lovely bite.
Parmesan – the rinds from a busy summer will be brined in a gammon brine and then smoked, to grate over dishes.
Lemon – 40 kg will be salted and preserved.
Lime atchar
Ras al hanout – a mix of over a dozen spices (it literally means ‘head of the shop’ in Arabic) that pack a powerful flavour punch
Jerusalem artichokes – they will be pickled and preserved
Elderflower cordial