Match of the week

Turron and sweet sherry

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on December 17 2007 at 09:24

One of the nicest Christmas traditions I've picked up along the years is the Spanish habit of serving a platter of sweetmeats at the end of the meal or on other occasions when you want something sweet. It usually includes different kinds of turron, the Spanish version of nougat which comes in soft and hard versions, some with whole almonds, some without. To that you could add some polvorones (delicious almond cookies) large Moscatel raisins, figs and dates and even a few chocolate truffles if you like.

If you don't have a shop that sells authentic Spanish turron you can probably find French nougat (especially if you stop at a service station in the Rhône Valley as we did at the end of last week. I've never seen so much nougat in my life!)

With it I suggest you offer small glasses of genuine sweet oloroso sherry - my favourite being Gonzalez Byass Matusalem which is made from sherries that have an average age of 30 years. It's also wonderful with mince pies and Christmas cake and even as an alternative to port with stilton.

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