Match of the week
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.
Spaghetti and meatballs and Nerello Mascalese
Spaghetti and meatballs is a really rich pasta dish you need to wash down with a refreshing red - preferably Italian.
In my broader post on meatballs I recommend a Sicilian red and found it again hit the spot at a preview for a new Italian restaurant Bosco in my neighbourhood this weekend.
It was a simple, young (2015) Nerello Mascalese (the name of the grape) from Cantine Paolini which despite its modest 12% cut through the rich tomato sauce perfectly and was great value at £5 a glass. You can buy it locally in Bristol from Corks of Cotham for £8.49 and from Bottle Apostle in London for £8.10 a bottle.
Although I didn’t drink it right through the meal - I confess I kicked off with a negroni! - it would also have paired well with the salume (cured meats) and cheese.
Faggots with onion gravy and Mas Belles Eaux Vieux Carignan
Faggots, which are basically a rather gamey British meatball made with pork belly and offal, are a bit of an acquired taste along the lines of the French sausage andouillette but well made, as they are when supplied by our local butcher, they can be very tasty. They need to be accompanied by onion gravy which normally leads one in the direction of a robust ale but the other night we had them with a bottle of Mas Belles Eaux Vieux Carignan 2006 which actually worked very well.
Carignan, as I’ve mentioned before, is not my favourite grape variety but well-crafted examples like this do have an appeal especially with robust gastropub dishes (braised lamb shanks and steak and kidney pie would be other apt examples).
Mas Belles Eaux is a Languedoc estate just north of Pezenas that was taken over a while ago by insurance giant AXA Millsimes who also own Quinta do Noval and Chateau Pichon-Baron.
The agency is now handled by Gonzalez Byass in the UK (+44 1707 273188) though the wine is currently in limited distribution*. At a retail price of £18-20 it may strike you as a an extravagant partner for offal of any kind but oddly it’s often the simplest dishes that show off good wines to best advantage. And there are of course less expensive Carignans and Carignan blends around to test the combination.
FromVineyardsDirect sells the less expensive Mas Belles Eaux Les Coteaux.
Image © Igor Klimov - Fotolia
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