Match of the week
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Tempura Jersey Royals and Jersey Royal vodka
You probably wouldn’t think of pairing wine - or any other drink - with Jersey Royal potatoes but then you probably wouldn’t be having them as the central feature of a five course tasting menu as I was at Pêtchi in St Helier in Jersey last week.
Of course there were other ingredients that influenced the pairings which were mainly wine-based but the two I was particularly struck by were the first two courses that were devised by chef Joe Baker: a Jersey Royal tempura and a fermented potato bread (below).
We’d been served a Seaweed Martini consisting of Fluke Jersey Royal Vodka, sake and kombu to kick off which I still had in my glass. It went surprisingly well with both dishes, which despite the other ingredients on the plate - the tempura was accompanied by a salted egg yolk and chill and the bread with dulse (another kind of seaweed) butter - were really all about the potato.
Later I tried another vodka, the luxuriously creamy Jersey Royal Mash which is made from larger potatoes that would otherwise go to waste which I sipped as a shot and reckon would have worked really well too. They produce one for M & S which sells for £30 in store and online from Ocado though you can also buy it from Amazon.
Maybe it would even go with chips!
For other vodka pairings see the best food to pair with vodka.
Radicchio, almond and pecorino salad with Soave
Soave, as I’ve pointed out before, is an incredibly versatile food wine but it rarely goes as well with anything as it did with this salad at one of my favourite Bristol locals Sonny Stores the other day
It was based on a selection of radicchio leaves and almonds both of which echoed the nutty tones of the 2022 Pieropan Soave we were drinking by the glass. The other ingredients were pecorino and balsamic vinegar which offset the characteristic bitterness of the leaves.
But it also went very well with the farinata (chickpea pancake) and speck we’d also ordered and with the ravioli stuffed with La Tur (an Italian triple creme cheese) and hazelnuts that followed it.
The wine is quite widely available although the current 2023 vintage is considerably more expensive than it was last year although Abingdon Fine Wine has the ‘22 on offer for £13 which is a bargain considering it’s generally selling for £19-20 now. And Hennings has half bottles for £10.63.
Own label Soave is still good value though. Tesco has a good one in its finest* range for £8.50.
For other salad pairings see Which Wine Pairs best with Salad?
Roast squash with sage and Crozes-Hermitage
I generally think of chardonnay when I’m pairing squash or pumpkin but this dish at the excellent wine bar and shop Cave in Bristol at our freelancers’ Christmas get-together last week suggested another good option.]
It was a dish of roast squash with goats curd, crispy sage and ample quantities of brown butter which, yes, would have gone with chardonnay but was also brilliantly good with a slightly wild, almost natural 2021 Crozes-Hermitage from Jean Louis Chave
While chardonnay would have complemented the sweet buttery flavours the Crozes-Hermitage picked up on the bitterness of the sage which chimed in perfectly with the wild briary edges of the syrah. A mellow middle-aged wine rather than a vibrant young one.
The wine, which is called Silène is from Chave’s Sélection range which is designed to be drunk earlier than his top wines. You can buy the 2021 from AG Wines for £27.95 while Yapp Brothers have the 2022 for £22.
What else to drink with squash and pumpkin
For other insights into the effect herbs can have on a wine pairing see What wine (or other drinks) should you pair with herbs
Aubergine (eggplant) tart and Chianti Classico
It’s more common to think of pasta, roasts and grills as natural accompaniments to Chianti Classico than vegetarian dishes but I had a tart at Terra di Seta that turned out to be a perfect match.
It was an upside down tart, also including sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts, with a rich concentrated flavour - with maybe a dash of balsamic vinegar - that gave it a sharpness which worked really well with the 2019 riserva we were tasting.
Terra di Seta is a family-run organic kosher winery in Vagliagli in the south of the Chianti region. You can visit their estate for food and wine tastings. It also has an agriturismo with a stunning infinity pool.
You can buy the wine in the UK from The Grapevine for £36.99 though it doesn’t specify the vintage and in the US from Brighton Liquor in Brooklyn amongst other suppliers.
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Sake and truffle fries
As I discovered when I visited Akashi Tai in Japan last autumn* sake is coming out of its shell, no longer a niche product to drink in Japanese restaurants but a versatile beverage to pair with food.
Last week I had it with several umami-rich dishes at a fancy restaurant called Dalloway Terrace in Bloomsbury - a preview of their forthcoming sake menu which included a mushroom soup and a dish of chicken breast with mushroom and truffle sauce.
I went full truffle by also ordering their Twineham Grange and truffle fries which actually proved an even better match with the full-flavoured Heavensake Junmai 12 sake I was drinking and a combination you could easily replicate at home (less expensively than at Dalloway Terrace where the chips are £8 though that isn’t out of the way for London these days.) Twineham Grange is a vegetarian parmesan-style cheese which is made in Sussex.
You can buy the sake, which is made in collaboration with Regis Camus, the cellarmaster at Piper Heidsieck champagne for £29.99 from simplywinesdirect or from Laithwaites for £33
* See also 8 foods you might be surprised to find pair brilliantly with sake
I ate at the restaurant as a guest of Heavensake
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