Wines - and other drinks - to match recipes from the Ottolenghi Cookbook

The book I’ve been looking forward to most so far this year has just started being serialised in the Guardian today. It’s by Yotam Ottolenghi who founded two exceptional London restaurants and is simply called Ottolenghi: the Cookbook. l love Ottolenghi's food - it’s so generous and big-flavoured, piled high on bright, colourful platters - you can't fail to be tempted by it. It also lends itself perfectly to entertaining for large numbers at home.

Char-grilled asparagus, courgettes and manouri
Manouri, Yotam explains, is a Greek semi-soft cheese - you could substitute goats cheese or halloumi. Normally the asparagus would be the dominant flavour but the vegetables are dressed with a very rich home-made basil oil (which I can't wait to make) that makes me think that a dry Italian white such as a Gavi di Gavi or a Soave would be a better option.

Radish and broad bean salad
Another fresh-tasting salad with a very punchy dressing made from tahini paste, lemon juice and garlic. The salad also has a lot of lemon juice and some preserved lemon in it which makes for a lot of acidity so I’m not sure you need wine on top of all that. Personally I’d be drinking this with sparkling water or fresh fruit juice and water mixed (pomegranate would be nice) but if you’re serving it to friends you will probably want a bottle to pour. The best bet, I think would be a dry French or Spanish rosé.

Seafood, fennel and lime salad
An exotic seafood and fennel salad, seasoned with garlic lime and chilli. I think I’d go for a classic seafood white such as a Picpoul de Pinet or Albariño with this. Or even a Greek Assyrtiko.

Kosheri
An Egyptian dish of rice and lentils topped with fried onions and a spicy, sharp tomato sauce. Lentils normally lead to red wine but there’s quite a lot of chilli heat and vinegar in the sauce that makes it a slightly tricky dish to match. If you do go for red I’d make it a rustic one without too much obvious oak, something like a Côtes du Rhône Villages. But I actually think you’d enjoy a beer better. A good pilsner, I’d suggest.

Harissa-marinated chicken with red grapefruit salad
Wow! Here you have everything. Hot chilli, bitter/acid grapefruit and a sweet and sour dressing of grapefruit, lemon juice and maple syrup. The only thing I can think of that would work wine-wise is a big fruity ros - something like Charlie Melton’s Rosé of Virginia from southern Australia or an Argentinian or Californian Syrah rosé. Whatever you do you don’t want tannin. Otherwise I think you’d be looking at something like a pitcher cocktail - something like a Seabreeze (vodka, cranberry juice and grapefruit juice).

Macadamia and white chocolate brownies
Interesting that Yotam has put coffee in these brownies. I’d be looking at coffee too - an espresso or black Americano - to counteract the intense sweetness but that’s probably because I haven’t got a sweet tooth. Cold milk is great with brownies too.

Which wines - or beers - pair best with cooked cheese?

Cheese and wine is a notorious minefield but is it any easier when the cheese is cooked? See my suggestions to match Mark Hix's delicious recipes in the Independent today:

Angel hair fried halloumi
Mark sees these as a deep fried snack with drinks or possibly served with pickled peppers as a first course - a slightly tougher proposition wine-wise with which I think you’d need a sharp white like a Greek Assyrtiko. Otherwise fizz is always good with deep-fried nibbles. I’m not thinking Champagne at this time of year, more an inexpensive sparkler. Cava would be fine.

Sprouting broccoli with garlic fondue
The broccoli won’t cause you any problems here - the key element to the dish is the fondue which is traditionally accompanied by a very dry white wine like a Swiss Chasselas. This is pretty hard to find so I’d go for something like a Muscadet or a very dry, simple country white vin de pays from southern France based on one of those neutral grape varieties like white Grenache or Terret. Avoid reds and don’t even think of serving iced water which makes fondue indigestible.

Piccata of veal with taleggio and spinach
An Italian trat classic with tomatoes, rich cheese and spinach. The latter two components tend to make it hard for reds though oddly I think the whole dish will get by thanks to the tomato. A case for a classic Chianti: its dryness and acidity will cut through the richness of the cheese and deal with the slight bitterness of the spinach. Equally good would be a smooth dry Italian white like a Verdicchio, dry Orvieto or even a decent Soave.

Chicory salad with gorgonzola and walnuts
A tricky dish with blue cheese and a sweet-sour dressing based on cider vinegar and honey that would be much better with a good artisanal cider (not too dry) or a beer than with wine. I’d go for something like a rich amber ale or Belgian Saison-style beer

Buck rabbit
Another beer-friendly dish given a kick with Worcestershire sauce and mustard. It’s made with Guinness so you might think it a bit wasteful to drink anything else. Personally I think a classic British ale like Timothy Taylor Landlord would work better so save the Guinness for a cracking onion gravy or beef stew.

What to eat with old Côte Rôtie

An irresistible dinner invitation came my way a few weeks ago, to attend a game dinner and tasting of René Rostaing’s Côte Rôties at Emanuel College, Cambridge. Cambridge colleges are famous for their wine cellars but these wines came from the personal wine cellar of its ‘wine steward’ Dr Jonathan Aldred, the fortunate fellow (in both senses of the word) who buys all the wine for the college.

Rostaing is regarded as a modernist in Côte Rôtie but most of these wines dated from the 1990’s before he was using such cutting edge equipment as rotary fermenters. The tasting was based on the outstanding ‘91’s with younger or, in the case of the La Landonnes, an older vintage for comparison. The outstanding wines in my view were his 1991 Côte Rôtie and the 1990 La Landonne which marginally shaded it over the ‘91. The Côte Blondes were a slight disappointment, the first ‘91 being slightly dirty. (The second was much better but not in the class of the La Landonnes)

Dinner was served in the ante-room to the gallery, a splendid crimson-painted room overlooking the courtayard of this 400+ year old college (founded in 1584) It was not a meal for the faint-hearted. It started conventionally enough with a large slab of rich game pat (very good with the ‘91 Côte Rôtie) then went on to an innocuous sounding venison ‘duo’, an exotically dark dish of venison liver and what tasted like braised haunch but which the chef later revealed had been heart. I didn’t have a chance to quiz the chef but I think the sauce was almost certainly made with blood lièvre à la royale style. The Blondes survived intact.

The main course was woodcook, served the traditional way with its entrails, another intensely gamey note that really set off the La Landonnes to perfection. They also matched well with the cheese - sensibly limited by Dr Aldred to three plain hard cheeses, a Beaufort, a Comté and a Gruyère.

The dessert wine was Austrian rather than French: a really lovely Beerenauslese, the 2003 Samling 88 from Helmut Lang, which Aldred had picked to go with a dessert of crêpes suzette (fortunately neither too orangey nor too syrupy otherwise it might well have overwhelmed the wine).

Dinner certainly highlighted even mature Côte Rôtie’s power in being able to stand up to such strong-flavoured game dishes - and also its longevity. The colour on all the wines had remained amazingly intense.

Dinner was jointly organised by Cambridge Wine Merchants who have three shops in the city and organise regular events and tastings.

Image by BlueBreezeWiki - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

A match for pan-fried steak in a creamy mustard sauce

Could you make a suggestion for a pan-fried flank steak with a mustard/cream sauce consisting of shallots, white wine, chicken stock, cream, and Dijon mustard?

You’ve got two things to consider here - the steak which suggests a red wine and the sauce which is creamy and also contains mustard which needs a wine with some matching acidity.

Given that it’s a classic Burgundian sauce I’d go for a fairly youthful, fruity red burgundy though other light to medium weight pinot noirs from New Zealand or California, for example, would match well too. Basically you're looking for a third dimension here - some bright, berry flavours which will complement the lightly caramelised flavours of the steak and contrast with the richness of the cream.

Image credit: cottonbro studio