Match of the week
Seared diver-caught scallops and mature white burgundy
I was trying to think what food and wine match I would most like to be presented with on Valentine’s Day. I’m off foie gras. Caviar is horrendously expensive and very un-PC. Smoked salmon is nice, certainly, but no longer quite the special treat it once was (unless it’s wild). And I must be one of the few people in the world who isn’t anyone’s for a gooey chocolate pud.
So far as wine is concerned I rarely turn down a glass of Champagne but it would be nice to be offered something a little less obvious. A great red? Tempting, but I’m not sure Valentine’s night is the night for a large hunk of meat.
What I would really like - and I hope my husband is reading this - are a few fabulously fresh diver-caught scallops just seared on the grill, accompanied by a small salad of freshly picked leaves and a really gorgeous bottle of white burgundy (which we would obviously share . . . ) In my romantic fantasy it would be an old Corton-Charlemagne but I’d happily settle for a Chassagne-Montrachet or a Pernand-Vergelesses.
There’s something about aged white burgundy - and other top Chardonnays - that goes sublimely well with the umami taste you get in seared scallops (and foods such as roast chicken and mature parmesan which we could nibble for afters). Hard to beat as a Valentine’s treat.
Image © fkruger - Fotolia.com
Apricot pancakes and apricot (or peach) beer
Pancakes and beer might not sound like the most obvious of combinations but as with other flour-based foods such as sandwiches or pies they work together remarkably well. Especially, as I discovered when I was writing my food and beer book An Appetite for Ale last year, fruit-filled pancakes and fruit beers.
You could have a cherry-filled pancake with a Belgian Kriek beer for example but my favourite was an apricot filled pancake with a apricot or peach-flavoured beer. There is (or was. I haven’t seen it lately) an English apricot beer made by Melbourn Brothers but I prefer the Belgian peach-flavoured beers such as Timmermans Pèche or even Floris Mango or Passionfruit.
The interesting thing about beer, unlike wine, is that you can pair beer and food with a similar flavour profile. The carbonation in the beer refreshes the palate so that you can pick up the fruit flavours in both the food and the drink.
I’m not sure that I’d pair the classic British pancake day pancake with sugar and lemon juice with a beer though. In the past I’ve found a glass of Asti works reasonably well though I’m not sure, being comfort food, that they aren’t nicer just on their own. Or with a cup of tea.
Kedgeree and Western Australia Semillon
I realised the other day that there’s a marked French bias to this site. Partly because I spend a fair bit of time in France but also, I have to admit, because I do enjoy drinking French wine. So here, in an attempt to redress the balance and to celebrate Australia Day is an unusual but highly successful Aussie pairing.
Kedgeree, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is an Anglo-Indian dish that dates from the Raj. Originally based on lentils and rice it is generally made with smoked haddock or other smoked fish and hard boiled eggs. It’s very mildly spiced - not hot at all - and is a popular, brunch dish in the UK.
That, you might think, would make it a good partner for a sparkling wine which is what I would generally advise as a match but the other day we tried it with a 2006 Brookland Valley Semillon from Margaret River which had that characteristic gooseberry herbaceousness that characterises that region. It was a lovely wine: crisp, refreshing and almost spring-like, despite being fermented in oak, and a very good match for the smoked fish. You can find it - the wine not the fish - in Oddbins for £12.99.
Image © Martin Turzak - Fotolia.com
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A Viognier-dominated Languedoc white and a Chinese/Thai takeaway
The first thing we do when we get back from France is to eat some kind of spicy food. It’s not impossible to eat ethnic down in the Languedoc (there are a couple of Vietnamese restaurants locally) but it’s not good.
This time we were staying overnight with friends who also have a house down there so they ordered in a takeway and put a full-bodied Languedoc white on the table - no 7 from Domaine la Croix Belle - the ‘7’ representing the seven grapes in the blend - Viognier, Chardonnay, Grenache Blanc, Sauvignon, Carignan Blanc, Muscat à petit grains and Chasan.
It’s one of my favourite local Languedoc whites but I wouldn’t have thought that spicy food was its natural register. But it was surprisingly good, especially with a Thai red curry and a spicy dish of noodles. The aromatic character of the wine isn’t immediately obvious when you taste it on its own but really came to the fore in the pairing.
It would be worth trying similar Languedoc whites that include Viognier with this style of food, provided it’s not too searingly hot.
Duck confit and Madiran
The two days I spent in the Gers region of the south-west of France last week (members can see a full report here) reminded me just what a strong terroir-based match the local Tannat-based wines are with duck confit. I tried it both with a Madiran and a humbler Côtes de St-Mont which uses the same grape varieties.
Duck confit, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is made from duck legs which have been salted and then cooked in duck fat. It’s consequently, as you’d expect, both salty and fatty which sounds unappetising but the meat develops a wonderfully rich flavour and fall-apart-texture that makes it quite a delicacy.
The effect of the saltiness and fattiness also has the effect of subduing the tannins in the appropriately named Tannat and making the wines taste softer and more supple. I don’t know if it would be as good a match with Uruguayan Tannat which tends to be riper and more alcoholic. It’s the refreshing astringency of these south-west French wines that works so well - as you’d expect them to.
Madiran also pairs well with the great French bean dish cassoulet which contains duck or goose confit.
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