Mushrooms, mushrooms everywhere

According to Plat du Jour chef / owner, Andy Falk, mushrooms grow best around the new moon and in damp, warm conditions.  With this in mind, Andy set off with his basket to go and pick  Porcini mushrooms in Dullstroom.  It seems his theory about the new moon was correct.  Andy came back with 1.5 baskets of fresh, hand picked Porcini's!

So, now is the time to pop into Plat du Jour and try his speciality starter:  Porcini Mushrooms, sliced, cooked in butter with salt & pepper and then a dash of cream!  DELICIOUS!!!

Steve Hofmeyer performs in Dullstroom

Steve Hofmeyer is performing across the road from Plat du Jour on Thu 31 Mar and Fri 01 April.  Bookings for Plat du Jour's front deck  are in high demand for people who want to listen to Steve's music. 

A bumper long weekend at Plat du Jour

The  long weekend ending on 21 March was the busiest weekend that Plat du Jour has had so far.  Chef / owner Andy Falk says that they were fully booked with weekenders who arrived in their droves in Dullstroom for fishing, sightseeing and a good old fashioned get away weekend.

The current favourites on the menu are the Roast Duck, Lamb Curry and the Porcini soup. 

Plat du Jour even had the pleasure of welcoming cricketer, Paul Harris over the weekend.

Andy is off to pick fresh mushrooms on Friday this week...he says the best mushrooms seem to be avalable at the time of a new moon!  Any comments?

Craft Market

Join me next weekend the 19th of March for our next Craft Market by the Restaurant Gardens, bring the family for a fun filled day from 9:00 onwards, hope to see you there.

Chef's comments

Chef's Comments

The rains are breaking and soon its time to pick wild mushrooms – PORCINIS – or Bolitus Edulus, those fabulous mushrooms that grow under the oak and pine trees. Already I have my basket and a sharp knife in the car, just waiting for the first flush. It's like an addiction, the need to go out and harvest one of natures treats. Its something primeval, the hunter/gatherer in us.

We need some heavy rains, some warm weather, and some more rains, and hopefully the porcinis will emerge from mother earth. It's a half hour drive to my hunting grounds, a good half dozen places, some where there are an avenue of oaks, sometimes just a couple of trees. This will be my fourth year of picking, and I am learning more each year. It seems the 'schrooms' emerge at different spots from year to year. One spot will yield regularly for four months of the season, and next year almost nothing. I normally go two or three times a week, and sometimes it's a jackpot, a full basket or two, and times its only half a dozen. But the joy of finding a mushroom is so rewarding. You bend down to cut the base of the mushroom, and suddenly you see another two growing under the grass nearby, and then more – 'whoopie' – a gift from God.

Sauted Porcinis will soon be back on the menu at Plat du Jour, sliced, cooked in butter and finished with lemon juice and cream – a big favourite. Our Porcini Soup is becoming renowned, made from dried porcinis, and allows us to have it on the menu all year.

Just got in a consignment of Kingklip in yesterday, and my ladies in the kitchen pan fried a portion for me – fabulous – just served simply with a lemon butter sauce, some mash potato and fresh green beans.

New on the dessert menu is Pecan Nut Pie. We do not normally buy in, but one of the local ladies in Dullstroom makes a superb Pecan Nut Pie, so come and try it.

That's all from me now, until next time.

Andy Falk - Chef/Owner

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Review - Country Life – July 2009

Dullstroom Chef With A Passion For Clivias

The road follows the contours of strung-together hills and mountains. S-bends and straights link sweeping curves through hill-top plantations to the rise and fall of the slopes. Up, down, over and around through the crisp mountain air Each curve a new experience. The next, never like the last. Each a blur. Within the blur, trapped like snapshots, the minutiae of awareness: a pebble, a crack in the tar, a splinter of glass; each an isolated fragment of reality.

Overnight in White River, and then on through forest plantations to Graskop and on again until the plantations break into verdant grassland near Blyde River.

Towards evening, Dullstroom. The chilly air nips the peripheries of the day as the BMW flits through the rolling hills. Trout ponds, gullys and rivers criss-cross the landscape. Around the next curve, a ribbon of street lights: Dullstroom, shelter, food and rest.

The Plat Du Jour on the main road: hot porcini mushroom soup and mutton curry

Andy Falk (the owner/chef) cultivates two passions: food and clivias."You know them?" he asks pointing at a burnished red clivia blossom.

I shake my head.

"They're unique; they should be South Africa's national flower"

He sighs. "If the universe has sent me a lesson it is patience. You can't work with clivias if you haven't got patience. It takes four to five years for them to blossom."

Bliss? If it beckons, follow.

Country Life – July 2009

Review -Country Life – November 2009

Food Is One Of The Joys Of Life

"Food," says Andy Falk wiping his hands on a chequered apron, "is one of the continuing joys of life, so it's sensible to make the most of each meal, however simple it might be.”

This elementary approach to food preparation complements Dullstroom's numerous eating establishments, each claiming a’ special or different' culinary enticement; some qualifying, some not.

Andy's `Plat du Jour' makes no highfalutin' claims to pretentious eating. He merely offers good, tasty food in an atmosphere much as you might discover in a provincial French restaurant; the owner defining the meal with fresh, seasonal ingredients.

Were you to order porcini soup off the menu, Andy would serve you one made from porcini mushrooms from under oak trees near Belfast that he picked himself; the exact location of the oak trees only he knows. Should you order roast duck, it will arrive crisp and moist, served with a home-orchestrated ginger and orange sauce. "I make the best roast duck in Mpumalanga”,Andy claims.

Earlier years at the Bistro restaurant in Sea Point consolidated the’ good, simple food' philosophy for
Andy."Food has an enormous range of flavours and textures, so don't overdo your cooking by using too many spices, herbs or ingredients," he suggests. "Keep it simple and let the food do the work. That’s very much the French provincial approach I enjoy.”

An example for a starter: sardines baked in the clay oven with olive oil, lemon juice and oreganum. A main dish might include pot roasted lamb, slow cooked for hours with rosemary, red wine and lemon juice and served on a bed of mashed potato. Or a mild, aromatic lamb curry served on the bone with sambals and poppadoms.

Wine? Le Bonheur Sauvignon Blanc or a Haute Cabriere Pinot Noir/Chardonnay (one of the finest local blends, he claims).

Desert? Tandi's secret recipe for Malva pudding, or Crepes Suzettes, the traditional way, "taught to me by the former maitre d'hotel at the Polana."
Country Life – November 2009