Gin and tonic with peppered smoked mackerel

Gin isn’t just an aperitif, it’s also a surprisingly good match for food as I’ve already suggested in this post. Last week I discovered yet another way to enjoy it - with peppered smoked mackerel.

It was an impromptu picnic on the hottest day of the year with temperatures (uncharacteristically for Bristol) well up into the 30s. Having slogged away clearing the kitchen for a major refit this week we took two large G & Ts down into the garden below, then realising what a brilliant idea that was, had another, this time with an impromptu fridge picnic of smoked peppered mackerel with a few tomatoes, a squirt of mayo and some crunchy Spanish olive oil crackers called regañas. (No it wasn’t particularly elegant but like most things eaten outdoors tasted sooo good)

Gins are sometimes flavoured with peppercorns these days so I think that was why it worked so well. I’m now on a mission to find other interesting gin pairings.

Six pairings for gin that might surprise you

Photo © Richard Griffin @fotolia.com

Aubergine parmigiana with Nero d’Avola

I’d already flagged up southern Italian red wines as a good pairing for aubergine (or eggplant) but it was good to be reminded just what a great match nero d'avola can be, especially with aubergine parmigiana

If you’re not familiar with the dish it’s a fabulous baked dish of fried aubergines layered with passata (tomato sauce) and cheese (this is Guardian writer’s Felicity Cloake’s ‘perfect’ version based on testing a number of different recipes)

The one we had at Planeta’s Buonivini estate in Noto was based, I think, on the one in their cookbook Sicilia which was compiled by Elisia Menduni from family recipes belonging to founder Diego Planeta’s two sisters Anna Maria and Carolina and was served at the ambient temperature of a warm July evening rather than hot.

We drank three vintages of their flagship Santa Cecilia wine which is made from Nero d’Avola with it - the 2005, 2007 and 2009 of which I enjoyed the 2007 most. It’s an elegant wine you wouldn’t necessarily expect to go with such a rustic dish but it set off the wine to perfection.

It was also, of course, a case of the right dish, in the right place at the right time.

You can buy the current 2011 vintage of Santa Cecilia from Great Western Wine for £23.50. (They're also selling the basic but very enjoyable Planeta Segreta Rosso 2014 for £8.76 at the time of writing.)

Other wine matches for aubergines/eggplant

Saint-Nectaire with Domaine Matassa Cuvée Alexandria 2012, Côtes Catalanes

While orange wines are becoming more common I’m still not sure most people know when and with what to drink them so here’s a pairing that worked really well from a dinner I hosted for Bar Buvette, one of my favourite Bristol haunts, last week.

The wine (which gets its colour from leaving the grape juice in contact with the skins, not from actual oranges) came from Domaine Matassa in the Roussillon and is made from Muscat of Alexandria, hence the name. The estate is run organically and biodynamically so it’s very much a natural wine though with an exotic taste of grapes and quince (so delicous and not scary at all).

I have to hand it to the bar’s owner Peter Taylor for suggesting we drink it with the cheese - I’d have probably gone for the main course of lamb which also tends to work well with orange wine (think lamb and quince) but it was a real winner with the aged Saint-Nectaire.

You can buy it for £20 from Les Caves de Pyrène though I suspect other orange wines would work well too.

See these other good pairings for Saint-Nectaire

Pike and crayfish pithivier with white burgundy

If you’re looking for a match for a serious white burgundy you couldn’t do better than this elaborate pike and crayfish pie or tourte de brochet, bisque écrevisse as they billed it at the Château de Montreuil last week.

It was basically a pastry-filled version of the French classic quenelles de brochet, sauce Nantua but even more delicious as the pike and crayfish were not pulverised into a mousse. The kind of food that reminds you just how dazzling top French cooking can be.

It was actually paired with a 2012 Chateau de Tracy 101 Pouilly Fumé but I personally thought went better with the 2013 Olivier Leflaive rich, creamy Oncle Vincent that came from the Wine Society’s fine wine stocks in Montreuil. (We were hosted by the Society). The wine comes from older burgundy vines that are grown just outside the Puligny Montrachet appellation.

The Society sells the current 2014 vintage for a very reasonable £15.50 though if you wanted to pick it up from the Montreuil showroom you’d have to order it a minimum 8 days in advance. (And you’d better take advantage on your next trip. This week they announced they were closing their showroom at the end of the year.)