Traditional tomato bredie the way gran made it

The heavens opened on Monday here in the Cape, our first rain for many months. It’s early for rain, but it’s a little nudge from nature to let me know that the first official month of autumn is only days away. The signs are all around – crisper mornings, earlier sunsets, the trees lining the streets starting to turn brilliant shades of ochre. I think of different food as summer comes to an end, dishes like comforting pies, baked sponge puddings and mom’s melkkos are on my mind.

A while ago the folks from Perdeberg Cellar in the Agter Paarl sent me a few bottles of their Vineyard Collection Grenache Noir to play with. Being high summer – when honestly I am more of a salads and Sauvignon girl – it took me some time to find inspiration for the perfect dish to pair with this wine. The early autumn rain sorted that. Paging through one of my greatest treasures, gran’s handwritten recipe book, her traditional tomato bredie caught my eye.

With it’s prominent red berry, cherry and especially spice notes, I thought that Perdeberg’s Grenache Noir would be more than bold enough to stand up to this dish. Like any halfway decent traditional bredie it’s not shy on spices – think ginger, cloves, cinnamon and coriander – but nothing dominates. Instead you get a perfectly elegant marriage of spice with tomato and lamb. So I made gran’s tomato bredie, and raised a glass of Perdeberg’s Grenache Noir to toast the coming season – autumn, my absolute favourite time of the year.

All you need is…

1,2kg lamb knuckles
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups finely diced onion
1 garlic clove, finely minced
1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
3cm ginger, finely sliced and then sliced into very thin strips
6 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
6 coriander seeds
1 x 410g tin tomato puree
6 large tomatoes, diced
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp Mrs Ball’s Hot Chutney
2 fresh bay leaves
4 potatoes, peeled and quartered

Brown the lamb knuckles in vegetable oil in a large thick-base saucepan. (Gran would have used lamb fat instead, and if you have any handy by all means rather go that route, it’s ever so much nicer!) Remove the meat and set aside. Add the onions to the same pan and sweat over low heat until soft – it must not brown! Add the garlic, chilli, ginger, cloves, cinnamon and coriander and fry for a further minute or two.

Add the tomato puree and tomatoes to the pan along with the salt, pepper, sugar, chutney and bay leaves. Add the meat along with any of the resting juices. Place a lid on and simmer over very low heat for forty minutes. (If your heat is low enough, the tomato puree and juice of the fresh tomatoes will provide more than enough moisture. That’s the whole idea with a good bredie – you don’t water it down!) After forty minutes add the potatoes and continue simmering until the lamb is soft and the potatoes cooked.

Set a festive table with your best crystal, light a candle or two and serve this tomato bredie with white rice and a generous glass or two of Perdeberg Cellar Grenache Noir!

ABOUT THE PERDEBERG CELLAR VINEYARD COLLECTION GRENACHE NOIR 2021

Made of 100% Grenache Noir grapes from 8-year-old vines, Perdeberg’s 2021 Grenache Noir is made in an elegant New World style. The grapes were hand-picked early in the morning while it was still cool. Forty-eight hours of cold maceration of the skins followed to ensure maximum colour and flavour extraction. The wine was aged for 12 months in 500L second and third fill French oak barrels. Dark red in colour, it’s fresh and vibrant and a brilliant food wine, pairing well with not just red meat, but also roast chicken and even duck. You can order it online from Perdeberg.