Pairings | Beef
What food to pair with Malbec
Malbec has become so popular it may have become one of your favourite red wines but what are the best kind of dishes to pair with it?
Given most of the bottles we see come from Argentina, steak might seem the obvious answer but there are lots of other dishes it would work with too. In the Cahors region of south-west France for example it might well be paired with a cassoulet.
Generally it’s a full-bodied, generous wine which goes well with meat-based dishes but suits grilled and roasted vegetables too. It can also handle a bit of spice - try it with a chilli con carne or a kebab
Food pairings with malbec
Young, fruity malbecs
*Smoky cured beef
*Beef empanadas
*Charcuterie, especially flavourful terrines
*Chilli con carne
*Spaghetti and meatballs
*Spaghetti bolognese (made British/American-style rather than a classic Italian ragu)
*Pasta with blue cheese sauce and broccoli (as you can see from this Match of the Week)
*Fajitas
*Beef burritos
*Burgers (OK, that’s steak, I know!)
*Medium hot lamb curries like rogan josh
*Kebabs
*Roast or grilled aubergine
*Dishes with beetroot such as a salad of smoked eel, beetroot and horseradish.
Heavyweight malbecs (more expensive, full-bodied malbecs of 14%+)
*Steak, obviously and . . .
*Roast beef or venison
*Barbecued lamb, beef or pork - it particularly suits smokey, chilli-based rubs
*Lamb tagines with prunes
*Beef teppanyaki
*Steak and hot game pies
*Aubergine bakes
*Farmhouse cheddar
*Dark chocolate (a controversial one, this but some people argue that a ripe lush Malbec works well with a chocolate dessert. Not totally convinced myself.)
More rustic styles of malbec such as Cahors and Cot
*7 hour braised leg of lamb
*Lamb shanks
*Braised beef stews or shortribs especially with smoked bacon (Malbec’s also a good wine to add to a stew)
*Pot roast pheasant
*Duck confit
*Cassoulet and other pork and bean dishes
*Flavoursome sausages with garlic e.g. Toulouse sausages
*Cheeseboards (barring lighter cheeses like goats cheese and stinkier ones like Epoisses. As Evan Goldstein points out in his excellent book Daring Pairings, Malbec works surprisingly well with more mellow blues like Barkham Blue or Stilton - though not, I think, with Roquefort)
See also 10 Argentinian wine pairings that don’t involve steak
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.
RSS
Most popular
.jpg)
9 great wine pairings for duck (updated)
My latest book
How to Drink without DrinkingNews and views
.jpg)
Fine Wine and Fast Food
About Fiona
About Matching Food & Wine
Work with me
