Stir-fried pork with Thai basil and Australian riesling

This week’s match of the week doesn’t come as a big surprise but it’s sometimes good to be reminded of tried and tested pairings rather than ones that come totally out of the blue.

The dish - Pad Krapow Moo - was from Kay Plunkett-Hogge’s Baan which I can strongly recommend for first-timers to Thai cooking, the recipes being both authentic and relatively simple.

Wimpily I scaled down the bird’s eye chillies to two - along with a large red chilli - rather than Kay’s 4-6 and think it could probably have done with another one and also added a good dash of fish sauce which was suggested in the alternative version. It also included a good handful of fragrantThai basil which you can now conveniently find in Waitrose.

The riesling was a 2016 Pacha Mama riesling from the state of Victoria which wasn’t quite as limey as the ones from the Clare and Eden Valleys but still with a strong citrus character that went with both the pork and the accompanying green mango salad. Given the wine is Australian it is somewhat bizarrely named after an Inca earth goddess so they also jocularly recommend it on the back label with llama cheese and barbecued guinea pig “or, for the less adventurous, pan-seared barramundi.”

Majestic used to stock it in the UK but I can’t now find it there on-line but it is still available Down Under. Similarly citrussy rieslings would obviously work too.

For other suggestions as to what to pair with Thai food see Which Drinks Pair Best with Thai Food