Cauliflower popcorn and a Seedlip and pineapple cocktail

Most pairings focus on alcoholic drinks but it’s equally intriguing to see how a similar synergy can be achieved with an alcohol-free one.

Last week I tried out the new vegan menu at the Ravinder Bhogal residency at The Perception bar at the W hotel and wasn’t really in the mood for wine so we chose the ‘soft’ option on the cocktail menu, a cocktail called Naked which was based on the non-alcoholic ‘spirit’ Seedlip Spice 94. It wasn’t actually vegan as it contained egg white but wasn’t billed as such either (there were vegan wine options). Other ingredients were lemon juice, pineapple juice, peach purée, ginger & lemongrass and a walnut garnish.

Being refreshingly fruity and not too sweet it actually paired well with almost all the dishes we tried but particularly with what has already become the most talked about dish on the menu - the cauliflower ‘popcorn’ with Thai basil tempura and a black vinegar and chilli dip. Appropriately enough as it's the perfect bar snack.

I also particularly liked it with the summer rolls, the beetroot and walnut kibbeh and the tempura inari. (Ravinder, who owns the restaurant Jikoni, is playing with a wide palette of Asian flavours not just Indian ingredients in this pop-up).

You can eat her vegan menu at The Perception which is just off Leicester Square until the end of June. I ate there as a guest of the W hotel.

Lamb biryani and grand cru gewurztraminer

Sometimes it’s worth revisiting your prejudices. I’ve never been a huge fan of gewürztraminer with Indian food although it’s an established pairing. It always seems to me slightly jarring, especially with tomato-based curry sauces. But this week I changed my mind.

I took an open bottle to an Indian restaurant* on Friday night and it actually went incredibly well (as did a Brundlmeyer grüner veltliner brought by my mate Martin).

Two possible reasons struck me - the fact that the food was relatively dry - a biryani with dal and saag paneer on the side - rather than several disparate wet curries and that the gewurztraminer was a really good one, albeit incredibly well priced from Lidl. (The 2012 Grand Cru Seinklotz from J P Muller which comes into store in 10 days time on the 26th and which you should snap up if you’re a gewurztraminer fan.) Tasting a really good example of a wine in a style you don’t normally go for can win you round.

I think it comes down to the fact that gewurz, as it’s known for short, is a bit of a Marmite wine. If you love it, you’ll like it just as much or even more with curry; if you don’t spicy food won’t make it taste any more appealing. But give it another try.

* Actually the restaurant itself is a bit of a find. It's called Vittles Curry Nights and is a cafe during the day, up the Filton end of Gloucester Road in Bristol. Nothing fancy but the food rocks!

Photo © H L Photo at fotolia.com - not, obviously, of our meal but a typical Indian spread.

Steak with an Old Fashioned

Red wine is such an established go to with steak that it’s hard to consider anything else as a pairing but it struck me this week after a few days tasting rum with Philippines producer Don Papa (yes, it’s a hard life … ) that dark rum might also be an interesting match.

Don Papa is a rich dark small batch rum that I thought would go well with the caramelised surface of a grilled steak - and so it proved when we tried it at Elbert’s Steak Room in Makati - the upmarket CBD of Manila. It was especially good on the rocks but I reckon an even better pairing would be an Old Fashioned cocktail made with the same 7 year old rum.

Would you actually order it at a steak restaurant though? I don’t see why not if it’s a drink you enjoy. If you didn’t feel like having it during a meal it would also be good with a bar snack of a couple of sliders, a burger or a steak sandwich

*If you want to run up the cocktail yourself the Don Papa team call it the Don Fashioned and it’s 50ml (2 shots) of Don Papa, 1/2 a bar spoon or teaspoon of agave syrup and 2 dashes of Angostura bitters. Pour the ingredients into a tumbler filled with ice, stir and garnish with an orange twist - and a maraschino cherry, if you fancy it though the version I tried was excellent without one.

My 5 top wine and steak pairing tips

I visited the Philippines as a guest of Don Papa rum.

Pork and pistachio terrine and old vine Brouilly

This isn’t the first time I’ve remarked how well Beaujolais pairs with a terrine but sometimes it’s worth being reminded what really, really works. And both were particularly good in this case - as indeed you’d expect at one of London’s best wine bars, Noble Rot.

The wine was a 2015 Domaine de la Grand’Cour Brouilly Cuvée Vieilles Vignes from Jean Louis Dutraive that reminded us just how great gamay (the grape from which Beaujolais is produced) can be. Beautiful, pure - but not in the least bubblegummy - fruit, quaffable but elegant and well structured despite quite a hefty level (for Beaujolais) of alcohol (14.5%)

And the terrine was the sort of rustic recipe you used to routinely find in French bistros but now all too seldom do. The only aspect of the presentation I’d quibble with was that it came with a generous dollop of onion marmalade which would have taken the edge off any accompanying wine and did no favours to the Brouilly. But 'chapeau' for the properly good sourdough toast.

For other suggestions see

10 good wine pairings with paté