Match of the week

Pedro Ximenez and ice cream

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on February 15 2010 at 08:15

The highlight of last week was undoubtedly the Emilio Hidalgo sherry lunch I attended at the Spanish tapas bar Dehesa. But which of the outstanding pairings to pick?

In the end I’ve gone for the one that’s the easiest to recreate rather than the one I was most impressed by (which was the duck and old amontillado - because not all duck dishes would go with all amontillado sherries. It was a match that depended on clever execution and the brilliance of the accompanying sherry.)

Pedro Ximenez on the other hand is almost always a good match for non-fruity icecreams, particularly vanilla, caramel, brown bread icecream and chocolate. It’s the sweetest of Spanish sherries with an intense raisiny flavour and can simply be poured over ice cream or sipped with it.

This particular PX - as it’s called for short - was drier, and to my palate, more balanced than most and a fantastic foil for the dark chocolate sorbet and muscovado ice cream that was served with it (see the rather blurry picture above). It also tasted great when a cup of espresso coffee was brought into the equation - a three-cornered match that was truly delicious.

For the full write-up of the lunch see here.

If you’d like be able to check out all the food and wine pairings on the site you can buy a bundle of credits here to access my premium content.

And/or for regular updates on what and where I’ve been eating, drinking and travelling sign up for my weekly newsletter Eat This, Drink That, Live Well.