The best wine pairings for hachis parmentier

Que boire avec hachis parmentier? Or ‘what wine should I drink with hachis parmentier?’ - the French answer to shepherd’s and cottage pie.

I’ve been down in the Languedoc this week and decided to have a crack at one of France’s favourite comfort foods, not least because we’d rashly bought a huge tray of potatoes from a local grower who turned up at the door. The distinguishing feature of hachis parmentier, which makes it irresistible to potato lovers like me, is that it has two layers of mashed potato, one on the bottom as well as one on the top.

The middle would have traditionally been filled with leftover pot-au-feu or chopped roast meat moistened with stock (I used freshly minced beef) so it has less of a gravy-ish taste than a shepherd’s or cottage pie but is still quite meaty and savoury. There’s usually quite a lot of garlic - there was in mine - and parsley.

The French of course would drink French wine - what else? - but any robust, rustic dry red would do. We drank a rather indulgent natural wine called El Niño from Casot de Mailloles in the Roussillon (the 2011 vintage) which was absolutely delicious but I’d be happy to drink a hearty red from almost anywhere in south or south-west France or an inexpensive Bordeaux come to that. You couldn’t go wrong with a Côtes du Rhône Villages, Côtes du Roussillon or Costières de Nîmes, for example.

Sometimes hachis parmentier is made with confit de canard (preserved duck) with which you could also drink the wines I’ve suggested but also a pinot noir or a Beaujolais.

For my suggestions for shepherd’s pie click here.

6 of the best drink pairings for avocado toast

Judging by my Instagram feed practically everyone is eating avocado toast at least once a day but what do you drink with it?

If you’re not on Instagram - or one of the 10 million people who has apparently searched for avocado toast on Google* - you may even wonder what it is.

Smashed up avocado on toast - or bread. That’s it.

Well, more or less. There are all sorts of fancy variations but purists like to keep it simple

Fans are as likely to have it for breakfast as they are for lunch or supper so my six pairings include 3 non-alcoholic drinks:

Green tea
Not just a colour thing, the slight herbiness of green tea is great with avocado. Better than coffee IMHO. By the way don’t make it with boiling water - that’s why it tastes bitter.

Homemade lemonade or - if you haven’t got time to make it - lemon and lime Juicy Water. Citrus and avocado is a no-brainer

A Virgin Mary (in other words a Bloody Mary without booze)
Tomatoes and avo are also great. This looks a good recipe

Witbier
A well-chilled Belgian-style wheat beer served with a slice of lemon. Much more interesting than lager.

Sauvignon Blanc
Definitely the wine that comes to mind. Great with guac - equally good with avocado toast.

A classic margarita
If you want to pay tribute to avocado’s Mexican origins there can be no better cocktail. Do make it with fresh lime though rather than a Margarita mix

*twice as many as fried chicken, would you believe?

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Good wine pairings for Saint-Nectaire

Having spent a few days in the Auvergne recently and eaten more than my fair share of Saint Nectaire cheese with a variety of wines, mostly natural, here’s what I think works best.

Saint Nectaire is a semi-soft cows’ cheese with a buttery consistency and a crumbly grey-ish brown rind. It can have quite a strong flavour - though not as strong as ‘stinky’ French cheeses such as Epoisses. It’s a well-known enough cheese to have its own website though only in French.

The locals would drink it with a red, most likely gamay or a gamay blend though a crisp white or even a sweet wine could work equally well, depending on whether the cheese is mass-produced or made on the farm by an artisan producer. Here are my top picks:

* Gamay from the Loire, Auvergne or Beaujolais - ‘natural’ wines, made with indigenous yeasts, are a good match with stronger flavoured ‘fermier’ cheeses

* A red burgundy or other traditionally made pinot noir

* A rustic red like Marcillac or a fruity young syrah from the Rhône

* Chardonnay from the Auvergne (leaner, less creamy than burgundy). I reckon a mature vieilles vignes (old vine) Chablis would also work

* Dry or medium-dry (demi-sec) Chenin Blanc from the Loire e.g. Vouvray or Montlouis or richer South African Chenin Blancs. A sweeter Chenin could be good too, particularly if it was a few years old - i.e. honeyed rather than simply sweet

* Savignin from Switzerland or the Jura

* or try a sparkling Breton or Normandy cider.

Other good suggestions from wine writer Victor de la Serna on Twitter: “Asturias/Galicia reds, young bobal, manzanilla” Not sure about the manzanilla but a dry amontillado would be good, as would a tawny port or a dry madeira.

The best food pairings for dry oloroso sherry

The Spanish are more adventurous than us when it comes to matching sherry and food. I remember drinking a dry oloroso with roast partridge a few years back in Jerez. But what else could you pair with it?

Like amontillado dry oloroso is rich and nutty but the flavour is more of grilled than fresh nuts - dark and spicy with rich dried fruit flavours. it goes particularly well with game and dishes with light meat juices and sauces and with mature cheeses. Try:

Aged Gruyère and Comté

Mature Gouda and Mimolette

Roast partridge, pigeon and other game birds - especially served cold

Roast goose - (ditto. Oloroso is brilliant with goose leftovers)

Roast duck and red cabbage or with cinnamon pilaf as at Moro

Smoked venison

Bresaola

Beef jerky/biltong

Venison pie

Hot game pie

Game patés

Braised ox cheek and oxtail

Iberico pork cheeks

Morcilla (black pudding)

Steak sandwich

Mushroom risotto (made with dried porcini)

More food and sherry matches:

• The best food pairings for fino and manzanilla sherry
• The best food pairings for amontillado and palo cortado sherry
• The best food pairings for sweet oloroso and PX sherry

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