Salmon, apple, dill and cider

You’d think having come to Norway to judge the World Cheese Awards my pairing this week would involve cheese but we were tasting it in a competitive environment rather then enjoying it as part of a meal. And by the time we’d tasted 45 of them we were pretty well cheesed out.

So it was a bit of a relief to be offered a cheese-free meal at the Awards dinner at the Britannia hotel particularly when the pairings were so good.

The standout one for me was a cured salmon ‘mosaic’ or ballotine with pickled apple and a dill ‘emulsion’ which went brilliantly well with a 2021 pet nat (semi-sparkling) cider from Hardanger which picked up beautifully on the apple in the dish.

Having just written about how we need to put cider on the table it was good to see the Norwegians doing just that. They also served a sparkling cider as an aperitif. Norwegian ciders tend to be lighter and more delicate than ones of British origin as they generally use dessert rather than cider apples.

The main course pairing with reindeer and lingonberries was also excellent with a 2020 Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage and the dessert of a light milk chocolate bavarois with blackcurrant cream and ice-cream with a raspberry mead.

Impressively innovative pairing for such a big gathering (there were over 250 people present)

I attended the dinner as one of the Cheese Awards judges.

Smoked mackerel salad and 'ancestral' cider

Last week was mainly about cider - I went to the Cider Salon in Bristol at the weekend where I enjoyed a succession of English ciders with a five course feast prepared by Native Vine.

Although the pairings were spot on - especially a superb dish of belly pork with a fennel and peach salsa - none of them came as a surprise (which is what I try to focus on in this slot).

That honour went to a smoked mackerel potato and pickled cucumber salad I had at Café Deco in Store Street in Bloomsbury which was just brilliant with an ‘ancestral’ Spanish cider called Fuente Guijarro from Andalucia. (Interestingly the south of the country rather than the cider-obsessed north but made 2000m above sea level)

It’s basically a pet nat so the cider was cloudy and slightly funky but not to the extent that it overwhelmed the pure apple flavour which was the element that went so well with the smoked fish, sweet-pickled cucumber and pea shoots which were part of the salad too.

There was another salad on the table - made from green bean, basil and parmesan - which also worked really well.

Cider, even artisan cider like this, tends to be a cheaper option than wine so is definitely worth exploring if you find it on a drinks menu.

You can buy the Fuente Guijarro ancestral for £15 from Native Vine in Bristol and from Crouch End Cellars in north London for £16.

For other cider pairings see my Top Food Pairings for Cider.

Pet nat and pizza

I’ve been on a road trip visiting wineries in Kent for the last few days but the highlight from a food and wine pairing point of view was the pizza and pet nat combo we had at Westwell, a ‘low intervention’ (aka natural) wine producer just southwest of Canterbury.

Like many other English wineries now they produce a ‘pet nat’ or pétillant naturel which is an deliciously fruity semi-sparkling wine that is bottled while it’s still undergoing its first fermentation (as opposed to champagne which is aged on its lees). There’s a good explanation here. Westwell’s, which is rather charmingly called Naturally Petulant Pink, is particularly appealing

We got the chance to try it with pizza as they had a truck from Alkham Valley Pizza dishing it out on the Friday evening we were there. I'm not sure the toppings made a huge difference - maybe the Spicy was a tad challenging but the Margherita was a cinch and I loved the garlicky, cheesy ‘Nutty Blue’ (above) which had Stilton and confit garlic on it. Pet nat basically works just like a beer with pizza - thirstquenching and refreshing. (And yes, beer is cheaper but pet nat is more fun!)

You can buy it direct from their website for £24 a bottle.

You can see their other upcoming events here.

For other pizza pairings see the best wine and beer pairings for pizza

I visited Westwell on a press trip.

Beetroot and goat cheese macarons with a pet nat rosé

In a week of pretty amazing wine pairings (it’s not every day you get to taste five different vintages of Harlan Estate* over dinner) there was one really interesting match I wouldn’t have predicted - and that’s what this weekly slot is all about.

It was at a new(ish) restaurant called Osip in Bruton I’ll be writing about shortly and was with one of the initial snacks of the set price menu: beetroot and goat cheese macarons. Not having a particularly sweet tooth I’m not generally big fan of macarons but these were satisfyingly savoury with a really good beetroot flavour which chimed in perfectly with the Les Quatre Pétillant rosé brut nature we’d ordered as an aperitif.

Although it’s made from southern grapes - grenache, syrah and carignan - it’s produced in the Loire and is available from Uncharted Wines for £18.89. I particularly like the explanation on the label: “The Les Quatre philosophy is to make the best wines possible with a style they like to call ‘Paris Wine Bar’. We take that to mean totally drinkable, accessible and fun, all whilst being brilliantly made.”

That’s totally true.

See also The best wines to pair with beetroot

* It only didn't make Match of the Week because it was paired, fairly conventionally with a fillet steak!