Match of the week

Spicy paneer pancakes and a ginger-turmeric soda

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on January 14 2019 at 09:02

Although I’m not doing Dry January I am trying to take a break from booze on at least a couple of days a week so when I went to Romy Gill’s pop-up at Carousel last week I opted for the alcohol free options.

I started with a really good cocktail (hate the word mocktail) called a Tea Total Sour which was made with lapsang souchong tea, rhubarb cordial, lemon and egg white but the punchy ginger and turmeric soda they called A Sip of the Sun I had with the meal that was the real find from a pairing point of view. It was brilliant with Romy’s second course, a spicy Panch Phoran Chilli paneer pancake and also with the pan-fried Amritsari Masala hake with moilee (a Goan style fish and coconut curry) and tamarind spiced octopus that followed it (yes, the food was as exciting as it sounds)

The restaurant manager Matt Varonaangan told me he made the base cordial with cold-pressed ginger and turmeric juice, adding 25% of the volume of the resulting juice in sugar and a little citric acid then topping up with tonic or soda. The turmeric really chimed in well with the paneer and fish dishes - proving again that alcohol-free drinks are just as good, if not better than alcoholic ones with spicy food.

I attended Romy’s Carousel pop-up as her guest. Her own restaurant, Romy's Kitchen is in Thornbury, Gloucestershire.

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