Match of the week

Salmon, apple, dill and cider

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on November 2 2023 at 08:44

You’d think having come to Norway to judge the World Cheese Awards my pairing this week would involve cheese but we were tasting it in a competitive environment rather then enjoying it as part of a meal. And by the time we’d tasted 45 of them we were pretty well cheesed out.

So it was a bit of a relief to be offered a cheese-free meal at the Awards dinner at the Britannia hotel particularly when the pairings were so good.

The standout one for me was a cured salmon ‘mosaic’ or ballotine with pickled apple and a dill ‘emulsion’ which went brilliantly well with a 2021 pet nat (semi-sparkling) cider from Hardanger which picked up beautifully on the apple in the dish.

Having just written about how we need to put cider on the table it was good to see the Norwegians doing just that. They also served a sparkling cider as an aperitif. Norwegian ciders tend to be lighter and more delicate than ones of British origin as they generally use dessert rather than cider apples.

The main course pairing with reindeer and lingonberries was also excellent with a 2020 Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage and the dessert of a light milk chocolate bavarois with blackcurrant cream and ice-cream with a raspberry mead.

Impressively innovative pairing for such a big gathering (there were over 250 people present)

I attended the dinner as one of the Cheese Awards judges.

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