Roast cauliflower with preserved lemon dressing and Assyrtiko

A similar type of salad to last week’s match of the week (as you can see I’m already not getting out much!) from Claire Thomson’s excellent Home Cookery Year

It was a roasted cauliflower and red onion salad with a punchy lemony dressing made from preserved lemons, garlic, lemon juice and fresh coriander to which I added some extra chickpeas

What was interesting about the match was that the Assyrtiko, a 2019 Gavalas from Santorini, was quite citrussy itself. I don’t normally go for lemony notes in wine with a lemony dish as it strips the flavour out of the wine but this survived admirably, probably to do with it’s searing acidity. Or maybe the preserved lemons whose saltiness heightened its own lemony character. Or, maybe the most likely explanation, the fact that it was an outstandingly good wine (it costs £29 from Kudos wines from a vineyard that is claimed to be the oldest in Greece)

You can find another one of Claire’s recipes here.

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.

Sweetcorn, feta and green chilli waffles and pink grapefruit juice

Soft drinks don’t often feature in my weekly pairings but this combination of an inventive savoury breakfast waffle and some lovely fresh pink grapefruit juice at The Modern Pantry last week was spot on.

The waffle, which contained sweetcorn, feta, green chilli and curry leaf and was topped with crisp maple-cured (I think) bacon had that sweet/sour/spicy character that features in so many of chef Anna Hansen’s dishes and the pink grapefruit juice with its own sweet/sharp notes was the ideal match.

I think pink grapefruit juice is perhaps the easiest citrus to pair without the tartness of lemon and lime which frequently needs a correcting dose of sugar but fresher and less filling than orange juice. (Incidentally it was interesting that they’d filtered out the ‘bits’ or shreds of fruit pulp that so many people dislike)

It was also great with the sugar prawn omelette that my breakfast companion Signe Johansen ordered, one of the signature dishes at the restaurant.

Langoustine cannellonis and citrus with Pacherenc de Vic Bilh

It's always a challenge to pick a single wine with an elaborate tasting menu but the Jardins de Bouscassé 2008 Pacherenc du Vic Bilh sec from Alain Brumont we ordered with our meal at La Renaissance in Argentan last week hit the spot with almost every dish.

My favourite match by a whisker was an intricate dish of 'cannelloni' formed from pieces of squid, wrapped round some beautifully fresh langoustines and served with an intense seafood broth flavoured with pomelo and dots of mandarin and basil (I think) pure. I'm not normally that keen on the French obsession with 'sucré-salé' but the combination of fish and citrus worked perfectly with the light, lush, tropical fruit-scented wine. (There was also a hint of Sichuan pepper in the dish.)

It also went brilliantly well with the next course of John Dory with small, sweet crevettes grises (shrimps) and carpaccio of pigs trotter, an extraordinarily intense surf'n'turf combination.

I'll be writing a bit more about the restaurant in due course but it was an outstanding meal. Bizarrely it doesn't have a Michelin star.