Sukiyaki Wagyu and red burgundy

I’d have been hard pushed to explain exactly what sukiyaki was before I had it this week at Jason Atherton’s swish new restaurant Sosharu in Clerkenwell.

But it’s a real showstopper of a dish that arrives at the table sizzling away in a cast iron dish over a burner, borne in this case by an improbably good-looking chef who looks as if he’s stepped straight off an advertising shoot

The ingredients seem quite simple - glass noodles, shitake mushrooms, tofu and heavily marbled wagyu beef and at first you don’t think it’s going to pack much of a punch but then The Handsome One returns to your table to toss the ingredients together and there’s this great waft of a deeply savoury umami-rich sauce.

With nothing in my glass I was thinking wistfully of burgundy so was gratified when the sommelier produced a bottle of Domaine de Trapet’s 2012 Marsannay which struck exactly the right note. Not cheap at £15 a 125ml glass but a chance to try something really delicious. If I’d been drinking sake that woud have worked well too as, I suspect, would a dry amontillado sherry.

If you’re inspired to try this at home I found a similar-looking Wagyu sukiyaki recipe from chef Masaharu Morimoto on the Food Network website. And here’s an interesting post about the difference between sukiyaki and shabu shabu if you’re as confused as I was.

I ate at Sosharu as a guest of the restaurant.

Mackerel and artichokes with Mademoiselle rosé

As I’ve been down in the Languedoc for the past week most of my food and wine combinations have been classic. Picpoul and oysters (always great), a rich grenache/syrah/mourvedre blend called Cascaillou* with a beef daube (spot on) and my wine of the week, Mas des Chimères Oeillade (a cinsault) with grilled lamb and herbs.

But the most intriguing pairing was, on the face of it, the trickiest. What do you pair with mackerel, artichokes, brandade and aioli? Answer, it turns out, a dry rosé.

The dish was a somewhat fancy one from Le Bistrot d’Alex, the restaurant attached to the enterprising co-op at Florensac but tasted better than it perhaps sounds. A roughly crushed brandade (salt cod purée), served with grilled lisettes (baby mackerel) accompanied by grilled artichokes topped with aioli. The artichokes were the most dominant flavour which is always fine by me.

The wine, which is made by the co-op and sells for around 6€ is a remarkably good one despite the girly label and being called Mademoiselle. Well worth picking up a case if you’re in the area. My friends, who are taking a car back loaded up with 10!

* from Domaine La Croix Belle. Unfortunately they only make it in limited quantities - it doesn't even feature on their website.

Lamb mechoui and 2007 Chateau Musar

This, I think, was the standout pairing from our Honey & Co wine club on Sunday and a great illustration of the difference a dish can make to the way a wine tastes.

The wine was the 2007 vintage of the legendary Chateau Musar from the Lebanon, a wine which was showing its age when we tasted it on its own but was utterly transformed by the spicy, slightly gamey meat which revived the lovely sweet mellow fruit in the wine and made it taste velvety and delicious. The dish also included pulses in the form of a broad bean & mint mashawsha or hummus - another factor in the success of the match. Pulses can be as flattering to wine as meat.

We have one more Honey & Co event on May 8th which will focus on Southern Italian and Sicilian food and wine* then break until the autumn but I hope to be doing another couple of events at other restaurants over the summer. if you’d like to be on my events mailing list email events@matchingfoodandwine.com

*currently a sell-out but do call Honey & Co and ask to be put on the waiting list in the event of any cancellations

Tacos and tamarind agua fresca

It’s always good to come across a soft drink that pairs as well with food as an alcoholic one and the Mexicans have a particularly refreshing one in agua fresca.

It can come in different flavours - hibiscus is a common one - but I particularly liked the tamarind flavoured one they served at the newly opened Santo Remedio the other day. It might not have been the most prepossessing of colours (a muddy brown) but its sour, faintly citrussy flavour was the perfect match for the punchily flavoured tacos and flautas we were eating.

It’s not the first time I’ve enjoyed this combination as you can see from this old post on margaritas, tacos and tostadas but it’s good to be reminded what a good combination it is.

You could of course serve agua frescas with other styles of food, not just Mexican. I think I’m going to be experimenting with them over the summer. There’s a really good selection of ideas for different flavoured agua frescas on The Kitchn website.