Savour summer with The Table Bay hotel’s new menu, which is available from 1 December 2021 to 31 January 2022. The establishment has also unveiled their new summer lounge and in-room menu, inspired by seasonal, fresh ingredients.
Wesli Jacobs, Executive Sous Chef at The Table Bay, has kept current food trends of vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free to mind when developing his new menu, offering a vegan cheese salad, crammed with pickled baby beetroot, crispy avocado, grilled apple, walnuts, rocket, and spring onion and served with mint dressing, as well as a variety of meat and vegetarian sandwiches on a choice of white, brown, ciabatta, rye, seed, or gluten-free bread.
“We are using tapioca and corn flour instead of wheat where possible, as these are gentler on the digestive system,” Jacobs says.
Favourite dish
Starters include two soups to warm guests during cooler evenings – a classic French Vichyssoise and a truffle mushroom soup with mushroom crisps and crème fraiche. Jacobs’ dessert pick is the Summer pavlova made with free range eggs and served with vanilla Chantilly and fresh berries.
Perhaps Jacobs’ favourite dish on the menu is one which encapsulates his Indian heritage and his food philosophy; cumin roasted lamb cutlets. “Cumin is a beautiful natural seed which is so fragrant, and we are really getting beautiful, top quality lamb at the moment.” The lamb is trimmed French-style, cooked sous vide in a water bath with fresh herbs and garlic. It is seasoned with roasted cumin, grilled over hot coals before being finished in the oven.
“It is served with a barley and fava bean salad which is something different but still fresh and seasonal. The preserved baby beets and carrots provide the dish with a touch of acidity and speak to our sustainability efforts.”
The Table Bay’s meat is all free-range, sourced from local suppliers from within a 20km radius.
For those who’d like to try their hand at making Jacobs’ cumin roasted lamb cutlets at home, he has shared the recipe. But for those who’d rather leave MasterChef efforts to those on TV, Jacobs and his team at The Table Bay are waiting to cook for you.
Cumin Lamb cutlets served with barley
(Serves 4)
Ingredients
Lamb cutlets French trim – 800g
Cumin seeds toasted – 10g
Cumin powder – 10g
Thyme – 30g
Olive oil – 300ml
Salt – 10g
Pepper – 10g
Garlic crushed – 10g
Mint – 60g
Barley – 320g
Fava beans precooked – 80g
Radish – 40g
Carrots sliced – 40g
Cherry tomato – 40g
Red onion – 20g
Green peas precooked – 40g
Lemons – 20ml
Lemon zest – 5g
Baby carrots peeled – 120g
Parsnips peeled batons – 80g
Candy beetroots peeled – 120g
Micro herbs – 10g
Method
Lamb cutlets
Marinate lamb cutlets with cumin seeds, cumin powder, thyme, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and mint, lemon zest. Vacuum seal and sous-vide for 20minutes at 65’C. Allow to rest for 5 – 10 minutes. Remove from vacuum seal bag and pat dry. Season cutlets and grill skin side down till crispy, then finish off the sides till the cutlets reaches the desired temperature.
Barley
Soak barley for 1 hour in cold water. Cook barley in salted vegetable stock till al dente and cool down. Add Fava beans, radish, carrots sliced, cherry tomatoes, red onion, green peas, lemon juice, lemon zest, mint, olive oil and season to taste.
Roasted vegetables
Blanch baby carrots and candy beetroots separately till tender. Pat dry blanched vegetables and preheat pan. Add blanched vegetables plus parsnips to dry heat pan and cook for 1 minute till you get caramelization on the vegetables. Remove pan from heat and then add olive oil and season to taste.
Plate up
Stack up cutlets in a fan direction. Spoon barley down the centre of the plate and add vegetables on top of barley. Garnish with micro herbs.
What: Table Bay Summer Menu
Where: The Table Bay V&A Waterfront Cape Town
When: 1 December 2021 – 31 January 2021
News: Facebook: @TheTableBayHotel, Instagram: @tablebayhotelsa
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