Eat, drink, be merry

Matching wine and food has, in a few short years, developed into a contemporary aspect of the modern restaurant industry that generates vast interest, writes Hennie Fisher

WINE and beverage producers aim to collaborate as regularly as possible with restaurants to offer food and wine pairing evenings that defy description. So regular are these events that the matching of items such as smoked salmon, beef daube and a strawberry dish with suitable wines could today easily be left to a very junior aspiring cook and sometimes even form part of the school curriculum.

Hugely fashionable and great fun if orchestrated with care and finesse, food and wine pairings usually require the chef and/or sommelier to carefully develop a menu together with the wine production house. The real genius lies in matching wines with dishes that are multi-dimensional, with layered nuances of flavour, aroma and taste, to bring out the best in both wine and food item.

Curry is one such dish that may flummox even the best pairers because of its complexities and subtle use many spices and other flavour-enhancing additives.

Culinary historians are a bit vague about the origin of the word curry and most sources agree that it derived from the Tamil word Kari, meaning sauce, but other sources say it is from the word karahi, which is a wok-style metal vessel in which Indian dishes are prepared. Even the Larousse is a bit imprecise in terms of its description of a curry, claiming that it is a dish flavoured and coloured with a mixture of spices (curry powder) of Indian origin. Perhaps that is all we need to understand about a dish so much part of the South African culinary landscape that all recipe books dedicated to curries will have some reference to South African versions and what makes it different to curries found in places such as Burma, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Fleur du Cap, one of South Africa’s most recognised brands, recently launched its unfiltered range of white wines and accompanied the launch with its cellar master Andrea Freeborough’s favourite curry recipe. Her recipe for a mild chicken curry is adapted from a Pieter Dirk Uys recipe that would work for any of their wide range of white wines.

Their unfiltered wines, on the other hand, are serious wines that require something more than a mild curry to demonstrate their true gravitas and heft. The unfiltered Chardonnay and unfiltered Viognier 2011 individually show so much character and strength that even a highly spiced dish such as the following vegetarian aubergine curry will only enhance the wines depth and multidimensional facets. The Chardonnay will in all likelihood pair well with many other curry dishes, while the slight bitterness from the mustard seeds and fenugreek in the aubergines proved a perfect match for the Viognier.

The aubergines were served as part of a larger curry table, with poppadums, roti and paratha, together with a sweet and sour butternut dish, a tamarind and banana chutney, fresh coconut and lemon chutney, potato curry, fennel and yoghurt salad and a chicken and lentil stew.