Korean meatballs with mango, lime and ginger gin

Oooofff, Korean food is spicy! Even when I toned down the gochujang chilli paste in the meatballs I made on Saturday night they were a challenge for most of the wines I tried with them (a characterful Babylonstoren rosé powered through). But the best match by far was a gin and tonic made from Romy's Edition Mango, Ginger and Lime gin, a collaboration between Bristol-based Six O’Clock Gin and Indian food writer Romy Gill.

I made it up as a G & T with Fevertree Naturally Light tonic, plenty of ice, a couple of slices of mango and an extra squeeze of lime and its sweet fruitiness offset the chilli heat perfectly. I can imagine it going really well with Indian street food like Romy’s addictive samosa chaat too.

Six food pairings for gin that might surprise you

The meatballs were from chef Judy Joo’s new book Korean Soul Food though I used minced turkey thigh meat rather than chicken. It’s a really good recipe - the meatballs were a perfect texture. Judy suggests accompanying them with Gochujang mayonnaise which provides another fiery kick and I made her addictively spicy Korean style cucumber salad to go with them too.

I don’t know nearly enough about Korean food so am looking forward to experimenting more from this book. Hopefully my chilli tolerance will increase!

For more about pairing Korean food and wine read this archive post from Marc Millon.

I was sent the gin as a sample.