Fried red gurnard and chips and Devon red cider

It was a bumper week for food pairings last week a number of which I’ll be flagging up elsewhere on the site and my Facebook page but I’ve gone for this very straightforward combination because its so simple to replicate at home

It was served at Mitch Tonks’ Rockfish seafood restaurant in Dartmouth this weekend where I was down for the food festival. Red gurnard isn’t normally a fish you find fried - it’s more commonly used in a Provençal-style fish soup or stew but this was obviously super fresh.

The cider, which I didn’t know either, is made by Sandford Orchards near Crediton and is incredibly refreshing and fruity - just on the dry side of medium dry. You can buy it from their farm, online and from various local stockists.

It worked so well, I think, because the sweetness of the fish mirrored the slight sweetness of the cider. Or maybe it was the dash of Padsters Lemon Vinegar - another find.

Perfect Friday night drinking anyway!

Click here for other good fish and chip matches.

 

Roast monkfish and chips with Tonnix

There’s a long story behind this week’s match but it’s a good one so bear with me . . .

Two good mates - two of Britain’s most high profile chefs, Mark Hix and Mitch Tonks, agree to go on a wine trip to Portugal. (Chefs do this all the time when they get the chance.) Just before setting off for the airport Hix remembers he hasn’t got his passport. Tonks, who lives in Devon, drives up via Hix’s home in Dorset to pick it up, can’t find the key, has to wait a couple of hours for the builder to arrive, gets to the airport in the nick of time then finds he’s picked up the wrong passport himself. Hix sets off, Tonks misses the plane and has to send a taxi down to Devon to pick it up at a cost of just under £300.

After all that stress it’s maybe not surprising that our heroes let their hair down by deciding to bottle a wine under their own name which they would sell in their restaurants. Hence the birth of the Tonnix range which sounds curiously like something out of Asterix but as you may have already grasped is an amalgamation of their two names. (I’ve come up with mad ideas like that on wine trips myself.)

The icing on the cake was to get Hixy’s friend famous Britpop artist Tracey Emin to design the label and so you have the perfect marketing story . . .

So what of the wine? Well, it's produced by Quinta de la Rosa, classifies as a Douro Branco and is a blend of Codega, Rabigato, Gouveia and Malvasia Fina (no wonder they called it Tonnix).

I tried it the other night at Tonks’s new Bristol restaurant Rockfish Grill and very nice it was too - lush and smooth, with a lick of oak - a good wine to take you through a meal. It went brilliantly well with some roast monkfish (and chips) which Tonks cooked on his much prized new oven/grill which simulates a barbecue without the smoke and smell.

It also went well with the fritto misto that preceded it - surprisingly more so than a Prosecco which I would have expected to be the better pairing. But it didn’t quite work with the very good oysters we kicked off with, some of them Colchester natives (oysters on the whole don’t like oak in wine).

So there you have it. It costs £25 on Tonks’s (and presumably, Hix’s*) winelists and £12 from the adjoining fish shop which is slightly less good value but it’s always tricky to retail a wine next to a restaurant. And besides there’s that taxi bill to offset . . .

* I’m going to his new restaurant Hix in Soho this week and will tell you if it is . .

Oysters and oyster stout

I was at the opening of TV chef Mitch Tonks' new fish restaurant in Bristol last week, Rockfish Grill. Normally they serve you bubbly on these occasions and there was some - an appealing Prosecco - but what caught my eye was an oyster stout that Mitch and a mate who owns the Albert Inn at Bridgetown, near Totnes had brewed up between them.

It had been deliberately designed not to be too bitter: it was very smooth and velvety with a flavour reminiscent of espresso coffee. It didn’t apparently contain oysters (some oyster stouts do have oysters infused in the brew) but was simply a tribute to the times when working men would drink their stout with them (oysters being a cheap food).

As expected, it was a terrific match with the oysters that were served on the night (with shallot vinegar) though less so with some of the other fishy eats. They included crab crostini, prawn cocktail on lettuce leaves and deep fried sole goujons with tartare sauce, all of which paired rather better with the Prosecco. It would be good with fish, chips and mushy peas though - especially if the chips were sprinkled, traditional British seaside style, with malt vinegar! And I’ve enjoyed oyster stout with a creamy fish chowder.