Chocolate brownies, vanilla ice-cream and PX sherry

This was by far the most popular pairing at a chocolate and wine tasting I did for the West of England Wine and Spirit Association in Bristol on Friday night. We didn’t actually have the ice cream but I think it would have made it even better.

The brownies, which were particularly squidgy and chocolatey, were made by local brownie queen, caterer and supper club host Elly Curshen of Pear Cafe and apparently contained half a kilo of dark chocolate. They obviously overwhelmed our lighter wines but even proved a bit of a handful for our sweet reds including an LBV port. However they were sensationally good with an intensely sweet, deeply raisiny, Pedro Ximenez sherry from Sanchez Romate Hnos (£22.50 in a very handsome bottle from Great Western Wine) - the best PX I’ve tasted.

You might think it’s gilding the lily but I can think of a way of making the combination even yummier: serving the brownies just warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. PX is often recommended poured over vanilla ice-cream so why not serve it with the brownies and a small glass alongside? An easy and indulgent dessert.

Incidentally I do hold food and drink tastings (not just wine) regularly - usually in London, Bristol or Bath but will consider going further afield. (I was recently asked to do one in Australia!) Contact me at fiona AT matchingfoodandwine DOT com or check out this page if you’d like to know more.

10 year old tawny with bitter chocolate and malt tart with salted caramel ice cream

I was hoping for an interesting pairing from the last meal of the year and wasn't disappointed. Like last year we went to a New Year's Eve dinner at Montpelier Basement supper club where we were treated to an amazing 8 course feast which lasted into the early hours of the morning.

There were some other good matches (I could have recommended a creamy cauliflower and Stichelton soup with a 2009 Felton Road Chardonnay) but this one struck me as the outstanding pairing of the night.

Truth to tell I'd hoped a beer would do the job (I had a bottle of the Bristol Beer Factory Glenlivet aged Imperial Stout that went so well with my Stichelton the other week) but it proved too bitter with the salted caramel ice cream. The bottle of rich, nutty Tesco Finest 10 year old tawny we'd taken as a back-up worked much better - as I should have known. Tawny port is very good with both chocolate and caramel.

I also tried a sip of my neighbour's PX sherry which also paired really well with the ice cream - as it does with vanilla.

A good way to start the New Year. Happy 2012!

Image © Mariusz Blach - Fotolia.com

Molten chocolate pudding and Bristol Beer Factory Ultimate Stout . . .

Chocolate is generally considered a tricky ingredient to match but it's not that hard - unless it's a hot fondant pudding.

The usual suspects (sweet red wines) just don't seem to work as well so it occurred to me that maybe I should turn to a beer. The perfect candidate turned up in the form of the Bristol Beer Factory's Ultimate Stout a really delicious sweet malty brew with just a hint of espresso. It provided a refreshing counterbalance to a seriously sweet Waitrose Seriously Chocolatey pudding (with an added dollop of vanilla ice cream I have to confess) - for me the perfect match.

I'm conscious though it might not be for everyone and as I don't have a very sweet tooth I tried another couple of drinks with it - a Blandy's Duke of Clarence Madeira and a Barbadillo PX sherry. The Madeira was fine but the PX was better still, complementing the warm oozy chocolate with the rich taste of boozy raisins. I guess for most people that would be the star match though I'm still rooting for the stout which I also enjoyed recently with Stichelton (an unpasteurised version of Stilton cheese).

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.