Salmon, apple, dill and cider

You’d think having come to Norway to judge the World Cheese Awards my pairing this week would involve cheese but we were tasting it in a competitive environment rather then enjoying it as part of a meal. And by the time we’d tasted 45 of them we were pretty well cheesed out.

So it was a bit of a relief to be offered a cheese-free meal at the Awards dinner at the Britannia hotel particularly when the pairings were so good.

The standout one for me was a cured salmon ‘mosaic’ or ballotine with pickled apple and a dill ‘emulsion’ which went brilliantly well with a 2021 pet nat (semi-sparkling) cider from Hardanger which picked up beautifully on the apple in the dish.

Having just written about how we need to put cider on the table it was good to see the Norwegians doing just that. They also served a sparkling cider as an aperitif. Norwegian ciders tend to be lighter and more delicate than ones of British origin as they generally use dessert rather than cider apples.

The main course pairing with reindeer and lingonberries was also excellent with a 2020 Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage and the dessert of a light milk chocolate bavarois with blackcurrant cream and ice-cream with a raspberry mead.

Impressively innovative pairing for such a big gathering (there were over 250 people present)

I attended the dinner as one of the Cheese Awards judges.

Cider and cheddar

Cider and cheese are natural bedfellows.

You may have had a pint of cider with a ploughman’s but if you want to elevate the combination to another level try this.

It’s a collaboration between one of our best cider makers, Tom Oliver and Sam Wilkin aka Cellarman Sam who came up with the idea of crafting a cider to go specifically with cheddar - called, appropriately, Cheddar on my Mind.

It’s a rich fruity cider that tastes almost like a tarte tatin and is just perfect with a mature farmhouse cheddar such as Montgomery’s, Keen’s or Pitchfork - and with other cheeses as I discovered to my cost.

Tom paired it with a Teifi gouda style cheese in the second round of our Battle of the Beverages at the Abergavenny Food Festival (me on wine, Tom on cider and Pete Brown on beer) and it won hands down despite my fielding a really good Ribera del Duero, the 2108 Pradorey Crianza from Finca Valdelayegua.

He also showed it at a 'cheese and cider summit' last week - an initiative to link cider with cheese in people’s minds. I certainly don’t have a problem with that!

For other cheddar pairings click here and for other food pairings with cider here 

Smoked mackerel salad and 'ancestral' cider

Last week was mainly about cider - I went to the Cider Salon in Bristol at the weekend where I enjoyed a succession of English ciders with a five course feast prepared by Native Vine.

Although the pairings were spot on - especially a superb dish of belly pork with a fennel and peach salsa - none of them came as a surprise (which is what I try to focus on in this slot).

That honour went to a smoked mackerel potato and pickled cucumber salad I had at Café Deco in Store Street in Bloomsbury which was just brilliant with an ‘ancestral’ Spanish cider called Fuente Guijarro from Andalucia. (Interestingly the south of the country rather than the cider-obsessed north but made 2000m above sea level)

It’s basically a pet nat so the cider was cloudy and slightly funky but not to the extent that it overwhelmed the pure apple flavour which was the element that went so well with the smoked fish, sweet-pickled cucumber and pea shoots which were part of the salad too.

There was another salad on the table - made from green bean, basil and parmesan - which also worked really well.

Cider, even artisan cider like this, tends to be a cheaper option than wine so is definitely worth exploring if you find it on a drinks menu.

You can buy the Fuente Guijarro ancestral for £15 from Native Vine in Bristol and from Crouch End Cellars in north London for £16.

For other cider pairings see my Top Food Pairings for Cider.

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!