Match of the week

Tempura Jersey Royals and Jersey Royal vodka

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on April 7 2025 at 14:47

You probably wouldn’t think of pairing wine - or any other drink - with Jersey Royal potatoes but then you probably wouldn’t be having them as the central feature of a five course tasting menu as I was at Pêtchi in St Helier in Jersey last week.

Of course there were other ingredients that influenced the pairings which were mainly wine-based but the two I was particularly struck by were the first two courses that were devised by chef Joe Baker: a Jersey Royal tempura and a fermented potato bread (below).

We’d been served a Seaweed Martini consisting of Fluke Jersey Royal Vodka, sake and kombu to kick off which I still had in my glass. It went surprisingly well with both dishes, which despite the other ingredients on the plate - the tempura was accompanied by a salted egg yolk and chill and the bread with dulse (another kind of seaweed) butter - were really all about the potato.

Later I tried another vodka, the luxuriously creamy Jersey Royal Mash which is made from larger potatoes that would otherwise go to waste which I sipped as a shot and reckon would have worked really well too. They produce one for M & S which sells for £30 in store and online from Ocado though you can also buy it from Amazon.

Maybe it would even go with chips!

For other vodka pairings see the best food to pair with vodka.

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