Match of the week
Turkish coffee cake and espresso
I was casting around for a dessert to make for friends on Saturday when I remembered this fantastic coffee cake from chef Margot Henderson’s book You’re all Invited. I suppose it’s more of a mid-morning or tea-time treat but I sometimes prefer cake to a full-blown pudding at the end of a rich meal.
It’s not as intensely coffee-flavoured as it sounds from the name. There’s a shedload of soft brown sugar - and sour cream - in the recipe which makes it taste quite fudgy (did I say it was light? Er, hem…) but you get that nice dark rich coffee taste without it being at all bitter.
I paired it on the night with a Noval 10 year old tawny port but it would also have been delicious with an Aussie port drinkalike like the D’Arenberg Nostalgia Rare Tawny or with a sweet oloroso sherry, madeira or marsala. But I enjoyed it most the following morning when I scoffed a piece for breakfast with a cup of espresso (which I always dilute with a bit of hot water). A black Americano would also hit the spot.
I do urge you to get the book which full of equally lovely recipes and quite delightful. You can read about Margot who happends to be married to Fergus Henderson of St John here or visit her restaurant Rochelle's Canteen which I'm ashamed to say I've so far not managed to get to.
Pedro Ximenez and ice cream
The highlight of last week was undoubtedly the Emilio Hidalgo sherry lunch I attended at the Spanish tapas bar Dehesa. But which of the outstanding pairings to pick?
In the end I’ve gone for the one that’s the easiest to recreate rather than the one I was most impressed by (which was the duck and old amontillado - because not all duck dishes would go with all amontillado sherries. It was a match that depended on clever execution and the brilliance of the accompanying sherry.)
Pedro Ximenez on the other hand is almost always a good match for non-fruity icecreams, particularly vanilla, caramel, brown bread icecream and chocolate. It’s the sweetest of Spanish sherries with an intense raisiny flavour and can simply be poured over ice cream or sipped with it.
This particular PX - as it’s called for short - was drier, and to my palate, more balanced than most and a fantastic foil for the dark chocolate sorbet and muscovado ice cream that was served with it (see the rather blurry picture above). It also tasted great when a cup of espresso coffee was brought into the equation - a three-cornered match that was truly delicious.
For the full write-up of the lunch see here.
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