Pairing wine with Szechuan (or Sichuan) cuisine

Just as you think you might have got to grips with matching wine with Chinese food along comes a regional cuisine like Szechuan which is twice as challenging, as I discovered at a wine dinner at Flinty Red in Bristol. Flinty Red has closed since I originally wrote this post in 2012, but the wine pairing lessons remain.

Pairing wine with Szechuan cuisine

I had already had a go at trying to find wines that would go with the fiery flavours of Szechuan cuisine at Bar Shu in Soho alongside the formidable Fuchsia Dunlop, author of Sichuan Cookery and the recently published Every Grain of Rice. I seem to remember we concluded that fruity rosé and a soft ripe Bordeaux without too much tannin were good options but it wasn’t easy.

The talented team at Flinty Red - Dom Harman, Rachel Higgens and chefs Matthew Williamson and Claire Thomson - took a different direction with the wines which were paired with the home-style dishes of Lily Wang of the Szechuan capital, Chengdu, who happens to be Claire's stepmother. What was notable about the meal was its striking changes of pace - from the delicate herb broth and fragrant scallop dish in which you caught every nuance of the scallop meat to the fiery 'multi-flavoured chicken' and hot and sour noodles - a real switchback ride for the palate.

The standout matches included two rieslings - the 2010 R3 Riesling trocken from Stefan Breuer and slightly sweeter 2010 Riesling spätlese, Gut Hermannsberg which were paired with three dishes - sweet and sour spicy cucumber with stewed ox tongue (which had apparently been braised for a day and a half in 18 different spices), some fragrant pork dumplings with Chinese chives and the spicy multi-flavour chicken. The drier R3 worked best with the intensely aromatic tongue - a wonderful dish - while the spätlese coped better with the heat of the chicken. I think the fact that both were recent vintages helped.

Interestingly they switched back to a drier white with the scallops - a 2009 R & A Pfalll Grüner Veltliner Hundsleiten - which had a refreshing herbal edge that perfectly suited the delicate, cooling dish.

The big surprise of the evening however was an intensely aromatic 2011 Zohar Torrontes from Susanna Balbo in Argentina’s Salta region which was an outstanding wine pairing with a tricky to match dish of cold ‘hot and sour' noodles with Szechuan pepper and chilli oil which somehow enhanced its own floral character. But it didn’t work with the next dish of Mapo Dofu (a very spicy tofu recipe also known unflatteringly as ‘old pock-marked woman’), rice and Szechuan pickles.

Nor on the other hand did a very pretty raspberryish 2010 Framingham Pinot Noir though it possibly might have done if it had been chilled for longer. It was the only match that didn’t come off through the whole evening though a Bruno Sorg Crémant d’Alsace struggled a bit with a very peppery dish of spiced potato. Sichuan pepper is particularly hard to handle as it’s not only hot but leaves your mouth tingling.

The final intriguing pairing was a semi-sparkling gamay called Boisson Rouge from Domaine Montrieux, a natural wine that hit it off surprisingly well with the dessert - a sticky rice ball with nuts and sugar - and also provided a palate-cleansing finish to the meal.

All credit, I must say, to Lily and the guys at Flinty Red for an incredible meal and some inspired matches - and for proving how well Szechuan food can lend itself to a tasting menu. It would have been hard to find one wine to go throughout the meal though if I’d have been forced to chose I would probably have gone for the spätlese riesling.

Note: Sweet wine obviously has an affinity with the fiery heat of some Szechuan dishes as you can read from Margaret Rand’s write-up of an earlier dinner with Tokaji here.

You may also enjoy: 

• Pairing wines with Chinese cuisine
• Wine pairings for a Chinese stir-fry
• Beer pairings for Chinese food

Photo by Engin Akyurt

 

How to host a wine pairing dinner

Ollie Couillaud’s inaugural wine dinner at The Lawn Bistro in Wimbledon, west London yesterday was a masterclass in how to get it right.

First of all he only had four courses. Too many wine dinners these days have multiple small courses, challenging for the kitchen and sommelier, wearying and unsatisfying for the customer (particularly male customers, it has to be said) who want a ‘proper’ meal - and are entitled to have one for the money they’re paying.

Two wines (all burgundies) were served with every course - except the aperitif and the dessert. That gave the presenter, Master Sommelier Gearoid Devaney of Flint Wines something interesting to talk about and the attendees a chance to learn more about this complex and confusing region. They were also from different producers and vintages.

The menu was well chosen. That should go without saying but sometimes the chef’s ego gets in the way of showcasing the wines to best effect.

We kicked off with some clever ‘amuses’ including the most wicked, silky-textured chicken liver parfait I’ve ever eaten which were served with a glass of 2009 Domaine Ballot Millot Bourgogne Blanc from vineyards which border Meursault, showing how impressive basic burgundy can be in the hands of a good producer.

Next a sound choice of seared scallops and black pudding with Granny Smith apple purée and lentil and hazelnut vinaigrette - a great foil for two lovely white burgundies, a 2009 St Aubin 1er Cru Charmois from Domaine Paul Pillot and a 2010 Chassagne-Montrachet from Domaine Moreau. The Moreau was still incredibly young but opened up beautifully in the glass.

The main course of roast squab pigeon with foie gras, Jerusalem artichoke purée, fondant potato and port and orange sauce looked challenging on paper but worked amazingly well with both the 2005 Aloxe-Corton Domaine Lebreuil and 2008 Beaune 1er Cru Les Sizies Domaine Guiton that were served with it, the lighter, more elegant Beaune, surprisingly, having the edge over the richer, earthier Aloxe-Corton.

And the dessert was served simply on its own - a croustade of caramelised apples with vanilla ice cream with a show-stopping crisp pastry cone which covered it like a witch’s hat as it was brought to the table. No accompanying wine as burgundy doesn’t do sweet wines. We didn’t miss it.

The numbers were kept low (25) to give the kitchen a chance to adjust to serving banqueting style rather than the normal restaurant service and the price was a fair £95 for the quality and amount of food and drink that was served.

The guests went away asking when the next dinner would take place. Couillaud clearly has a ready-made fan base for future events.

I attended the dinner as a guest of The Lawn Bistro.

Photo by fauxels

Pairing Pinot Noir and lamb

A report on the fascinating food and wine matching workshop that was held at the International Pinot Noir Celebration in Oregon last month which showed that you can find a pinot pairing for almost any kind of lamb dish.

I was lucky to land on a subject so close to my heart as the seminars at the IPNC are often more technical in nature and this was apparently the first time they’d run one with food.

The tasting was based on four Pinots: a 2004 Domaine de L’Arlot Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru Clos des Forêts, Pegasus Bay Prima Donna 2006 from Wairapa, New Zealand, a 2007 Dutton Goldfield Freestone Hill from the Russian River Valley in California and another 2007 Pinot Noir, the St Innocent from the Momtazi vineyard in the McMinnville AVA in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

We tasted the wines blind, then, once their identity had been revealed, the winemakers talked about them. We were presented with four different dishes to try with them which had been created by local NW chefs from different cuts of lamb and a suggested list of ‘secondary’ ingredients. These were all cooked dishes but served at (warmish) room temperature.

• The Nuits-St-Georges was paired by Kevin Gibson of EVoE in Portand with a poached sausage made from shoulder of lamb and seasoned with dried persimmon and thyme. This worked really well. The wine was the most mature of the four, delicate, subtle but intense with a fine silky texture and a delicate touch of cooked strawberry fruit: the dish quite classically French in flavour with a slight fattiness that was offset by the wine’s minerality and acidity.

• The Pegasus Bay Prima Donna was also mature for a New Zealand red but still had much more primary fruit than the burgundy and a touch of spice, matched very cleverly by chef Rene Erickson of Boat Street Caf, Seattle with some lean loin of lamb, rubbed with Herbes de Provence and served rare with a plum and preserved lemon relish and some earthy Puy lentils. This was a brilliant touch which brought out all the brightness and complexity of the wine. (Interestingly she said she’d originally thought of using blackberries or tayberries as an accent but found them too similar to the flavours in the wine)

• The third dish, from Jason Stoller-Smith of the Dundee Bistro, was leg of lamb, which I think from my rather scrawled notes had been smoked over Pinot Noir vine cuttings. It was again served rare (but had slightly dried out) and was accented with olives, mint and cherries. In my view it just slightly unbalanced the very lush Dutton Goldfield Pinot, accentuating its sweetness and oak at the expense of its acidity. (Probably the olives and the smoking) It worked better with the Pegasus Bay Pinot.

• The St Innocent Momtazi Pinot - like the burgundy from a biodynamic vineyard - was more evolved and quite funky with what winemaker Mark Vlossak described as a ‘sauvage’ character and a fresh acidity. It made sense pairing it as Cathy Whims of Nostrana in Portland did, with a braised dish of lamb shank and beans cooked with white, wine, olives, toasted cumin and cinnamon but the addition of tomato threw the pairing making the wine taste unexpectedly sweet. It was however lovely with the L’Arlot Nuits-St-Georges.

So the stand-out pairing for me was the Pegasus Bay Pinot and the loin of lamb with its original and fresh-tasting salsa which proves that contrast is sometimes better when you’re pairing than attempting to mimic the flavours in the wine.

I was also struck by the fact that the age and style of the wines was as important as their provenance. As Dan Goldfield of Dutton Goldfield put it “If it’s wild mushroom season you’re not going to be thinking about the current vintage.”

Some of the most interesting insights and tips came from the chat around the pairings and observations from the moderators, Ray Isle of Food & Wine and wine educator Evan Goldstein. For example:

• As you are cooking have a glass of the wine you’re planning to drink beside you. First it makes the process of cooking far more fun but it allows you to make adjustments along the way. Everyone’s palate is different. (Evan Goldstein)
• At table don’t hit the seasoning without tasting the food first. Salt and pepper both accentuate alcohol. (EG)
• Your cooking medium is important. Serving food raw or steaming, boiling or poaching it is not going to have as much impact as grilling or smoking it. (EG)
• Adjust your pairing to the top note in a dish. Acidity is one of the great underrated characteristics of wine and food. (Ray Isle)
• Let one thing be the star. If that’s the wine serve it with something simple. (RI)
• One of the problems in restaurants is that young cooks tend not to drink wine - they drink cocktails and beer and so don’t develop a wine palate. (Cathy Whims)
• Chefs at winemakers dinners tend to dumb down the food (Brian O’Donnell of Belle Pente. That certainly wasn’t true of the lunch we had at his winery which was cooked by the team at Beaker and Flask).
• For winemakers, there may be something in the vineyard that gives you a clue to a pairing. For instance thyme which goes great with rabbit. (Dan Goldfield)
• Pairings are seasonal. If we were doing this tasting in February it would be a very different story. (Jason Stoller Smith)

A really fun session and, for those of you in the trade, a good model for conducting a food and wine tasting.

You may also enjoy these posts: 

• The best food pairings for Pinot Noir
• Top wine pairings for lamb

Photo by Andrei Marina

 

Is there a scientific basis for wine and food pairing?

I went to a really interesting seminar last week on matching champagne with food. It was based on the chemical compounds flavourist Danny Hodrien of F & F projects had identified in Mumm champagnes using gas chromatography, solid phase micro-extraction and mass spectrometry (No, I don’t know what they are either). Based on those findings Iain Graham, the executive chef at the Caprice had devised a range of canapes that incorporated the flavours rather than seeking to complement them

The technical side I found slightly difficult to follow - we were encouraged to sniff a series of phials on the table which contained the different compounds then taste the champagnes then try them with food. Given the session was packed out it all got a bit chaotic but it threw up some fascinating combinations which I’ve now had the chance to analyse in a bit more detail:

THE FOOD PAIRINGS:

G.H. Mumm de Cramant
Style: Blanc de Blancs
Flavour compounds: Ethyl-2-Methyl Butyrate (apple, tropical fruits), Ethyl Isobutyrate (fruity, light, strawberry, tropical fruits) and delta-Decalactone (creamy, butter, coconut, peach)
Match: seared Orkney scallop served with cauliflower cream on a taro crisp
My verdict: A terrific match for this champagne which accentuated its freshness though one which oddly didn’t mirror the highlighted tropical fruit flavours.

G.H. Mumm Cordon Rouge
Style: non-vintage
Flavour compounds: Dimethyl Sulphide (vegetable, crab, seafood, sweetcorn, tomato) Hexyl Acetate (pear, sweet, fruity) Caproic acid (sweaty, cheese-like, strawberry)
Match: steamed Atlantic prawns served with grilled corn.
My verdict: A match I suspect you wouldn’t have arrived at without the flavour analysis. Apparently grilling the corn was key - according to Iain it didn’t work as well with steamed corn. I found it slightly accentuated the dosage in the champagne though not unpleasantly

G.H. Mumm Rosé
Style: light, elegant, tasted of wild strawberries
Flavour compounds: Ethyl-2-Methyl Butyrate (apple, tropical fruits), Ethyl Isobutyrate (fruity, light, strawberry, tropical fruits)
Match: The shell fish and tropical fruit flavoured molecules of the ros were paired with yellow fin tuna sashimi and served with green mango and papaya salad seasoned with chilli, sugar and soy
My verdict: Another combination I wouldn’t have instinctively gone for but which worked very well. Interesting though that these components were also found in the Mumm de Cramant which I don’t think would have worked quite as well with the canap. Apparently Iain tried it with seared tuna but that didn’t work as well.

G.H. Mumm 2002
Style: mature vintage champagne
Flavour compounds: Diethyl Succinate (apple, tropical, star fruit, Cognac), Penyl Ethyl alcohol (rose, fermented, yeast, bread), Ethyl Crotonate (rum, sweet meat, pork, licorice) 2-Nonanone (blue cheese, yeast)
Match: Pork belly, dolcelatte and pain d‘epice: the yeasty, blue cheese and liquorice-like Mumm 2002 were paired with roasted pork belly served with macerated blue cheese and spiced bread crisp
My verdict: Like Iain I would never have put these ingredients together but they were surprisingly delicious. Would you serve them at a dinner party though, or, as a chef, in a restaurant? Can imagine them making a good burger . . .

G.H. Mumm R. Lalou 1998
Style: mature prestige cuve
Flavour compounds: Dimethyl Sulphide (vegetable, crab, seafood, sweetcorn, tomato), Furfural (almond, sweet macaroon), Furfuryl Alcohol (Sweet, grilled fish, Mushroom)
Match: Iain paired the R. Lalou’s mushroom and caramelised sugar flavours with roasted black cod served on crisp lotus with sweet miso marinade
My verdict: a bold but successful match which accentuated the richness of the champagne. (Can imagine it being good with something like lobster and vanilla too)

G.H. Mumm Demi-Sec
Style: off-dry
Flavour compounds: Ethyl-2-Methyl Butyrate (apple, tropical fruits), Ethyl Caprylate (cognac) Diethyl Succinate (apple, tropical, star fruit, Cognac), 5-Methyl-Furfural Caramel, sweet
Match: Apple and caramel millefeuille with cognac poached apple and crisp burnt sugar
My verdict: a stunning match. Interesting that there’s a scientific basis for the champagne cocktail!

Interestingly six molecules were found in all the champagnes: Ethyl Acetate which contains fruity, ethereal, sweet tastes and flavours, Isoamyl alcohol (fermented, whisky, harsh), Ethyl Caproate (pineapple and strawberry), Ethyl Lactate (rum), Ethly Caprylate (Cognac) and Ethyl Caprate (waxy fruity, apple, grape)

“There’s no one molecule that smells of ‘champagne’,” said Hodrien. “They are each like instruments in an orchestra. And orchestras containin the same instruments sound different depending on the music being played, or even the conductor”

A few thoughts:

• All the pairings worked which is unusual in an exercise of this kind though there was a bit of a ‘you could but why would you?’ aspect to a couple of the pairings such as the pork belly and blue cheese. A bit like Heston’s white chocolate and oyster pairing which was similarly scientifically based.

• Subjecting a wine to this kind of analysis certainly throws up combinations that you might not arrive it otherwise. And suggests that working with three or more flavours may be more successful than trying to match just one.

• It’s possible this exercise worked as well as it did because champagne - like beer - is a good carrier of flavour. I’ve found in the past that if you mimic the flavour of an ingredien with a still wine it tends to mask the flavour in the wine - like orange muscat with an orange-flavoured dessert.

• It still needs the skill of a chef. Not all the pairings Iain tried worked to start with.

• But even if you aren't a chef there are still some interesting ideas to take away - for example that rose champagne might match sashimi and a fruity salsa and that vintage champagne might be a good match for blue cheese.