Indian seafood and Sollasa Mumbai

Deciding what to drink in an Indian restaurant if you don’t go for beer is always a bit of a challenge but now there’s a new option in the form of Sollasa, a delicious aperitif-type drink that has been created to go with Indian food.

I met up with its young founder Vishal Patel and tried it out with several dishes at our local Indian restaurant Nutmeg (he turns out to live in my neighbourhood in Bristol).

At 20% it’s a bit like a cross between a gin and a ‘bianco’ vermouth - you can drink it with tonic or soda or as a cocktail (they suggest a Sollasa Collins or a Sollasa sour)

It’s actually really nice on its own too, quite fragrant - almost floral. I picked up passionfruit which proved not to be in it (what do I know? 🙄) but you will find orange, lychee, lime, mint, basil, coriander seeds cardamom and a pinch of sea salt. It's a bit like having a cocktail without having the bother of making one.

The two dishes I thought it went best with were some crispy Koliwada king prawns seasoned with smoked paprika and ginger and the Allepey Moli, or molee, a Keralan fish stew (on this occasion based on monkfish) in coconut sauce with mustard , fenugreek, curry leaf and tamarind. But it was surprisingly good with some Punjabi lamb chops too.

It’s only just been launched so it’s not widely available but you can buy it for £28.95 at 31dover.com, and £29 from Master of Malt or from their website sollasa.com

See also What wine to drink with curry - my top 5 picks

I tried the pairings at Nutmeg as a guest of Sollasa.

Roast chicken and ‘Saison’ cider

Even though we might enjoy a glass of cider down the pub it’s not often, I suspect, we open a bottle for friends but given the number of interesting ciders around and the fact they’re bottled in full-size sharing bottles we really should.

I took along this bottle of Find & Foster’s Saison Pomme which is made in the rich saison beer style out of Devon apples when I heard my mate Kate was cooking roast chicken and it went perfectly.

Find & Foster specialise in making ciders from ‘forgotten’ orchards and in a natural wine style. The name Saison, they explain, “refers to the seasonal farmhouse ale brewed by farmers to quench the thirst of their workers during the harvest. Historically iit underwent a long slow fermentation fuelled by yeasts that were native to the farm.”

This version too is made with wild yeasts and unfiltered which gave it a slightly cloudy appearance and preserves its deep apple flavour.

It would be great with roast or grilled pork or a good cheddar too.

You can buy it for £9.40 from Native Vine, £9.95 from wineandgreene.com and £12.95 from Hop, Burns & Black though at some of these it appears to be temporarily out of stock.

See also 8 great wine (and other) matches for roast chicken

The photo above isn't of Kate’s chicken as we were eating outside by candlelight and it was too dark to get a shot!

Country-style paté with Gamay

This week’s pairing isn’t rocket science, more a reminder of just how good charcuterie and a juicy red like gamay can be.

The paté was a very well seasoned rough country paté from Coombeshead Farm in Cornwall where we spent the weekend.

As we were in their cottage rather than the main buildings we took our own wine including a bottle of the La Madone Côtes du Forez gamay I’d just bought from the Wine Society (for £12.95). It had that particular live quality you often find in biodynamic wines (it’s also organic), particularly young ones. It's from the 2020 vintage and although it will age I love the way it tastes right now. Its fresh acidity which comes from the volcanic soils in which the vines are grown perfectly offset the fatty paté and rough sourdough bread we had with it. It was great with their air-dried sausage too.

It’s also available at Haynes Hanson & Clark (for £16 or £14.25 if you buy an unsplit case) who add a bit of background about the wine.

The Côtes du Fôrez lies on an ancient geological fault line near the source of the Loire Valley, in France`s Massif Central. The Gamay grape thrives in the volcanic soils here, and it is this potential that Gilles Bonnefoy saw in the mid 1990s, when he set up his estate ` Les Vins de la Madone.` He now cultivates 8 hectares, which he converted to organic farming in 2001, and biodynamics in 2009.

See also 10 good wine pairings with paté

Chicken katsu and Feteasca Regala

I’ve been wondering lately what the best wine pairing for chicken katsu curry is, a dish you suddenly find everywhere and I’ve found a bottle where I least expected one - from Romania!

It’s actually a very recommendable wine in its own right called Fetească Regală - an aromatic white with a hint of passionfruit. Quite similar to gewürztraminer but lighter and fruitier. It’s part of the Asda ‘Wine Atlas’ range and costs an immensely affordable £5.

Katsu is a mild curry sauce made with curry powder and generally served over a breaded chicken fillet. A light lager would be the most obvious pairing but aromatic whites like riesling and viognier would work too.

Reassuringly Feteasca regala is pronounced more or less as it’s spelt - fet-ay-asca regarla

See also What wine to pair with curry: my top 5 picks