Pairings | Beetroot

The best wines to pair with beetroot

Posted by Fiona Beckett on May 23 2022 at 06:33

Beetroot is one of the few vegetables that pairs better with red wine than with white - not only for the colour though that tends to put the brain on auto-suggest - but its rich, earthy sometimes sweet flavour.

True it’s often partnered with other ingredients that can affect the wine match - it goes well with rare game like pigeon, duck and venison, for example, but that’s still red wine territory (pinot noir in particular for me). Other fruity reds that generally work include dolcetto, blaufrankisch and mencia.

Good pairings for beets

Beetroot risotto

Beetroot makes a deliciously rich, flamboyantly pink risotto, better made, as you can see from the recipe below with red wine than with white. Pinot noir or dolcetto would be a perfect match for this.

Beetroot and pinot noir risotto

Beetroot tarte tatin

Beetroot can also be cooked until it caramelises when it acquires a more intense sweetness that can handle a richer, more full-bodied red from, say, the southern Rhone or the Languedoc (the classic grenache/syrah/mourvedre blend, for instance). But malbec would work too.

Borscht (beetroot soup)

More of a beer dish than a wine one, to be honest. A good pils would be perfect. Or even a shot (or two) of frozen vodka

Beetroot salads

Beetroot salads often include some kind of sharp-flavoured cheese such as goat’s or feta cheese or yoghurt and herbs such as chives or dill. Although a fruity red like pinot would still be fine if that's what you fancy the cheesy element would steer me in the direction of a crisp white wine such as a sauvignon blanc or an albarino, as I discovered a while back in this match of the week. Especially as you might have other white wine-friendly ingredients such as asparagus broad beans, peas or salad leaves in the dish.

And beets, of course, are not always red. With stripey chiogga or yellow beets you might want a richer white like a white Côtes du Rhône.

Beetroot dips, spreads and purées

Often part of a selection of different Middle-eastern-style mezze. Dry rosé is a good all-rounder with this kind of spread.

Beetroot cured salmon

Sometimes beetroot is used to cure salmon in which case it becomes more about the salmon than the beet. A couple of years back I found a very good match in furmint, a versatile dry Hungarian wine that can take a number of dishes in its stride. You can read about the pairing here. On another occasion it was Godello from the north of Spain that scooped the prize. Dry riesling would work well too.

Tags: sauvignon blanc dolcetto pinot noir beetroot-cured salmon beetroot salad food:veg & salads beetroot beetroot risotto beets
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The best pairings with red burgundy

Posted by Fiona Beckett on January 12 2022 at 06:03

As with white burgundy there’s a world of difference between a simple village burgundy and an elegant premier or grand cru - most of which need 5 years at the very least to show at their best but the dividing line when it comes to pairing wine with red burgundy is age.

Is it a light wine you’re dealing with or a more mature, intensely flavoured one? Duck is almost always a winner but here are some other options.

Basic red burgundy (Bourgogne rouge)

Best thought of as a companion for simple French meals, even picnics. My number one choice would be charcuterie - simple saucisson sec, paté, rillettes and terrines

Mild cheeses such as goats cheese and creamy but not too mature brie (but stinkier cheeses such as Epoisses will overwhelm them)

Seared tuna especially with an Asian accent such as a sesame crust

Chicken or rabbit with a creamy mustard sauce

Good quality youthful red burgundy 2-5 years old e.g. Marsannay, Mercurey and Santenay

You don’t want to overwhelm this with heavy sauces so think simply cooked rare meat rather than heavily charred or sauced. (You can also, of course, pair them with the dishes above)

Rack of lamb with a herb crust

Seared duck breast particularly accented with red fruits like cherries or blackberries

9 great wine matches for duck

Offal - liver, especially calves liver, kidneys and sweetbreads

Mushrooms - as with white burgundy mushroom risotto works particularly well but a mushroom sauce will frequently kick a pairing into touch. Think mushroom stroganoff too

Beetroot (particularly roast beetroot but avoid vinegar) Good with riper fruitier styles from warm vintages (like 2015 at the time of writing)

Peas - weirdly but they almost always enhance a pinot match

Light umami-rich broths such as you find in sukiyaki (see this very successful pairing)

Weightier, more serious red burgundies such as Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin

A great foil for meats of all kinds - even richly sauced dishes like boeuf bourguignon and coq au vin

Feathered game - particularly with elegant wines such as Vosne-Romanée or Chambolle-Musigny: roast grouse, pheasant, partridge as well as high quality farmed meats such as guineafowl and goose

The best wine pairings for partridge

Lean red meat such as venison, fillet steak and lamb

Simply roasted white meats like rare breed roast pork, roast veal or a good roast chicken

Dishes with a sauce based on red burgundy such as coq au vin and boeuf bourguignon

Four favourite matches for coq au vin

Dishes with black truffles and porcini

Cheese - though I say this tentatively. They would definitely serve the best red burgundies with cheese in France and more traditional dining rooms in the UK but I personally think the wines struggle, particular with pungent washed rind cheeses such as L’ami de Chambertin and Epoisses. Even the official Burgundy wine site favours white wines with cheese!

What food to pair with Malbec

Posted by Fiona Beckett on April 16 2021 at 07:49

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)

The best food to pair with vodka

Posted by Fiona Beckett on October 4 2020 at 09:01

Vodka may be primarily thought of as a base for cocktails but in vodka-loving countries like Russia and Poland, vodka is enjoyed neat and is almost always accompanied by food (as I learned in this visit to Leonid Shutov’s restaurant).

The best food pairings for vodka are often smoked, pickled or cured with blinis being a popular delivery device.

Read on for my list of top foods to serve with vodka, and if you’re feeling particularly ambitious, read my post on how to host a vodka party.

Top food pairings for vodka:

* Caviar or lumpfish roe (If the latter use to top sliced or stuffed eggs or mini baked potatoes with sour cream)

* Smoked fish of all kinds - smoked salmon, smoked mackerel and especially smoked eel

* Blinis with smoked fish toppings

* Pickled herrings, especially with warm potatoes

* German and Polish style sausage, especially smoked sausage

* Smoked hams or pork tenderloin

* Dried or smoked beef

* Steak or venison tartare

* Pierogi (Polish-style dumplings) - there’s a recipe here

* Beetroot in all guises - borscht, beetroot salad, beetroot pickle

* Cucumber, ditto - in a salad (especially with dill) and pickled. Those big sweet-sour cucumbers are especially good.

* Russian salad (carrots, peas and potato) or the more elaborate Salad Olivier

* Creamy or salty cheeses, especially with dill

* Radishes, especially pickled

* Capers

* Dark breads like rye and pumpernickel

Vodka would also go with the sort of dishes you serve with other white spirits such as aquavit, ouzo or raki so if you fancy taking it in another direction try Greek or Turkish-style meze.

What to drink with Scandinavian food

Posted by Fiona Beckett on October 17 2009 at 09:32

If culture and ‘terroir’ are a basis for deciding which drinks bestmatch a particular cuisine then beer must have a strong claim to bepaired with Scandinavian food.

Certainly London’s newest Scandi restaurant Madsen believes so offering a matching beer with every course for their recent menu for the London Restaurant Festival.

It was a nice idea that didn’t quite come off because of the quantities of beer involved. I ordered an Aer India Pale Ale from Denmark which was fine with my main course of ‘Hakkebøf med bløde løg’ (aka Danish beef burger with beetroot) but much less good with my ‘curry-marinated herring with green apples’ and a delicious smoked salmon dip, both of would have been better with a light lager or pilsner. Ideally you’d be able to order 250ml (or smaller) glasses so that you could match each course. 500ml is a lot of beer to drink for lunch (for girls at least ;-)

The food though was lovely - a modern take on smørrebrød with slightly larger helpings than you would get in Denmark but smaller than a standard main course - perfect for lunch. I also got to taste (though didn’t order) a fantastic baked crème caramel made with Svaneke ‘Choko’ Chocolate Stout so they’re obviously playing around with the idea of beer in food too.

There are other drink options, obviously, with this style of food though beer almost always scores better than wine with anything pickled in my opinion. A pan-fried fillet of Irish plaice with steamed broccoli tossed in oyster remoulade I also tasted would have been excellent with a minerally Sauvignon Blanc and my beefburger would have gone well with a Bordeaux or any similar Cabernet Merlot blend.

I like Madsen. It has a friendly, café-style design and atmosphere (very Scandi) and offers something genuinely distinctive to the London dining scene. They’re apparently thinking of putting on beer dinners so keep an eye on their website and on Twitter where they tweet as MadsenLondon.

Madsen is at 20 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3DL. Tel 020 7225 2772.

I ate at Madsen as a guest of the restaurant.

Photo by Nextvoyage

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