Welsh rarebit and a glass of organic milk

This week's pairing is for all those of you who are having a dry January this month (although here’s why I’m not).

You may think of milk as a kids' drink, especially with food but actually it can be delicious with certain foods especially biscuits (think of that all-American treat milk and cookies), boiled eggs and, as I discovered last week, Welsh rarebit.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the dish it’s basically cheese on toast. Grated cheddar, mixed with a little milk or beer and a dash of Worcestershire sauce, spread over toast and flashed under the grill until it’s golden and bubbling*.

The milk makes a smooth creamy accompaniment and one which makes total sense when you think about it. It heightens and complements the flavour of the dish just as it would if you were drinking the wine you had used in a sauce or a stew. I do urge you to use organic milk though which has a much better flavour. It doesn’t really matter if it’s full cream (whole) milk or semi-skimmed which is what I used. Up to you.

I grant you beer (a good British bitter) is the more conventional pairing but if you’re not drinking at the moment - or generally - milk will hit the spot.

*There are, of course, many versions. Other cheeses than cheddar, mustard instead of Worcestershire sauce etc, etc ...

Image © Monkey Business - Fotolia.com

Clams with rice and Verd Albera

What do you drink with tapas? My immediate go-to is sherry but having indulged that whim the other day in the form of a glass of tangy manzanilla amontillada from Lustau’s almacenista collection I unusually followed it up with a glass of white.

We were in one of my favourite tapas bars José in Bermondsey Street - named after its engaging proprietor José Pizarro. After working our way through the usual suspects (pan con tomate, jamon, croquetas* and patatas bravas) we had a couple of seafood dishes - garlicky prawns and clams with rice - that went brilliantly with a glass of 2012 Verd Albera, a blend of grenache blanc and muscat from Spain’s Costa Brava.

Despite the significant amount of muscat (30% I later discovered from importers Indigo Wine) it wasn’t overly perfumed but fresh, crisp and slightly smokey - a deliciously unusual fish-friendly white at a very good price.

*their croquetas are to die for. Some of the best I’ve tasted in or outside Spain.

Soft cheese and onion spread and a natural sparkling Vouvray

This week’s pairing is a short (and I imagine welcome) respite from Christmas fare - a wine we enjoyed with a number of small dishes yesterday lunchtime at a natural wine bar, Toast in East Dulwich.

The wine which is made from biodynamically produced chenin blanc grapes is made by Catherine Breton and is called La Dilettante - a reference to the fact that she claims to play a less full-on role in the winemaking than her husband Pierre. The wine is unfiltered and although dry has a beguiling touch of sweetness and some lovely soft peach and apple fruit.

It was the perfect bottle for a light pre-Christmas lunch - a selection of small dishes which included crushed avocado on toast, roast beetroot and yoghurt and some this curd cheese, dill and onions, scattered with toasted crumbs - a stylish riff on the old cheese and onion dip.

It makes me think that La Dilettante would be ideal for a Boxing Day (or any other) brunch or in fact a light vegetarian meal.

You can buy it from Les Caves de Pyrène, Ellis Wharton or, if you’re lucky enough to be living in Dulwich as I am this week, Toast.

Wine and cheese: Zamorano and Sandeman 30 y.o. tawny port

Given that it’s the run-up to Christmas I’ve been tasting (yes, tasting, not drinking!) a lot of port recently so have had some indulgent bottles to hand when the cheese comes out.

This was a chance encounter between a piece of Zamorano cheese, a Spanish sheeps’ cheese I found in El Comado, a very good new deli in Bristol's Gloucester Road and a glass of Sandeman’s 30 year old tawny port .

I normally find tawnies of this age a little on the austere side but this was indulgently sweet with flavours of ripe peach and quince along with the characteristic nuttiness. It comes in a handsome wooden box* so would make a great gift for any port-lover.

You can find it for £60 in Majestic, £61.95 South Downs Cellars, £65.99 Corks Out and £89.99 from Amazon which shows you shouldn’t assume Amazon has the discounts on wine that it does on books. A more modestly priced 20 y.o. tawny would probably give equal pleasure.

Zamorano is a hard sheeps cheese from the province of Zamora, similar in style to a Manchego but rather nuttier and fuller flavoured than most of the Manchegos you’ll find in the UK. There’s some useful background about it on the Cheese from Spain site.

I also tried it with an interesting alternative to Stilton a Wrekin Blue which I blogged about in a general moan about the cost of cheese yesterday. I don’t think it went quite as well interestingly. The Zamorano definitely had the edge.

Zamorano would, of course, go well with sherry too - a dry amontillado I suggest - or a Rioja reserva or gran reserva.

* To be fair I'm not sure that all these prices include the box. But even if Amazon's does it's still a lot to pay for a wooden box!