There’s just something special about a glass of deeply flavoured port, a fireside and the company of good friends (or a good book) that sums up winter comfort.
Port – now we have to call it fortified or “port-style” wine because of European Union regulations restricting “port” to the product of the Douro region of Portugal – is a great partner with after-dinner coffee and nibbles like strong cheeses, nuts and preserved or dried fruits, and even biltong.But it needn’t stop there – port is coming out of the closet and into the kitchen.Globally, and in SA from the tiny Karoo town of Calitzdorp, where the country’s best fortified and port-style wines are produced, port has become a wine to drink with food, to cook with, and to experiment with in pre-dinner cocktails.
Boets Nel, MD of one of the country’s leading port producers De Krans, says port-style wines “go extremely well with food”.
He suggests pairing the robust full-bodied Cape Vintage with Karoo lamb potjie or venison pie and a fruity Cape Ruby with its touch of spice with traditional Cape foods such as bobotie or waterblommetjie bredie.
The dried fruit and nutty flavours of Cape Tawny go well with brown onion soup, a loin of pork stuffed with dried fruit – or even chilled with Malay-style prawns. The concentration of port wines adds depth of flavour to hearty and rich foods, and they stand up well to both high heat and slow cooking, where you might use a splash of wine to deglaze a pan and enrich a sauce, try port instead – pink port with pork or chicken, deeper red ports with more hearty meat dishes.
Forget brandy in your chicken liver paté – try replacing it with a ruby port for a touch of sweetness to complement the earthy flavours. Chef Shannon Botes, who heads up the De Krans Bistro and Deli – a winner in the “farm stall eatery” category at the Klein Karoo Gourmand Awards earlier this year – loves to experiment with port in his dishes for the bistro, and shares some of us recipes with us here.
Espresso Martini
Ingredients
3 parts De Krans Espresso port
1 part cold espresso
1 part vodka
Method
Shake up in cocktail shaker, strain and serve in martini glass, garnish with coffee beans.
With its fruity flavours and coffee notes from maturation in toasted oak, the De Krans Espresso is also great with baked desserts such as like malva pudding, reduced as a sauce for ice cream, used to replace coffee in dessert recipes – or simply served chilled or over crushed ice in summer.
Cape Vintage Port Oxtail
This is a three-day recipe – marinate on day one, cook on day two and if you can wait that long, eat on day three. Totally worth it!Ingredients
2kg oxtail
For marinade:500ml De Krans Touriga Nacional (red wine)
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
4 large carrots, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves,
crushed salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Method:
Place the oxtail in a large mixing bowl. Mix together all the marinade ingredients and pour over the oxtail. Leave in fridge to the oxtail in the refrigerator to marinate overnight.
For cooking:± 1 cup cake flour
± 1 tbsp oil
250ml Cape Vintage port
2 large onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 x 410g tins chopped tomatoes salt and freshly ground black pepper
± 10 stalks of fresh thyme
1 litre beef stock
½ packet large carrots, sliced, diced, or pack of whole baby carrots.
Optional:
500ml (2 cups)dried apricots
2 x 410g tins butter beans, drained
Method :
Preheat oven to 180°C Drain oxtail and discard or keep marinade.
Toss marinated oxtail in the flour. Tap off excess flour. Heat oil over low-medium heat in a large, heavy-based pot and, in batches (don’t overcrowd the pot), brown oxtail for 5-10 minutes, turning regularly so the flour becomes an all-over golden-brown coating, which is what will thicken your sauce. Remove meat from the pan and continue with the next batch.Deglaze pot with the port, then saute onions until softened. Add garlic and tomatoes and cook for a further minute, then return oxtail to the pot and season; add thyme, stalks ‘n all. Pour in stock and when it’s bubbling away nicely, cover and bake in the oven until tender, about three hours. Remove from oven and add carrots (and apricots and beans if using).Return to oven, cook until carrots are tender, about a further 30 minutes. 
Serve with piping hot rice, mash, polenta or couscous.Tawny port pecan nut piePastry:
175g cake flour
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
½ cup butter
30-60ml cold water
Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Easiest way to make the pastry is with a food processor: Blitz the cake flour, salt and sugar to combine. Cut butter into chunks; mix it into flour, on “pulse” function until it looks like rough breadcrumbs.
Slowly add the water or slowest setting, until the mixture pulls together into granules of dough.Wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge while making filling.
Filling:
1 cup dark brown sugar (treacle sugar)
160ml golden syrup
15ml Tawny Port
60 ml (4 tbsp) butter
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
60ml cream
Pinch of salt
1 ½ to 2 cups pecan nuts (toasted and chopped, keep some whole to decorate top)
Method:
Heat brown sugar, syrup, port and butter, starting over medium heat, until boiling point, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and cool until just lukewarm. Whisk eggs in a separate bowl. Mix egg in with the sugar mixture and add salt and cream. Roll out pastry about 3-5mm thick and put into greased tart dish. Add toasted pecan nuts. Cover with syrup mixture.Bake for 45-50 min. (Cover pie lightly with foil if it browns too early – or crunch up foil around crust for first 30 min). Allow to cool. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
Sam Venter’s A Vine Time column returns next week.