Good Friday Fish and Fizz

I think most associate the consumption of fish with Good Friday and many with Fridays in general. If one is in a Bengali household, this frequency may be more daily! As it is only half of my lineage, this tends to be a couple of times a week in reality with a guaranteed appearance on a Friday or Saturday. As a result, I’ve decided to do a pairing with fish as the main event and taken a punt on some pungent flavours.

My Dad’s Bengali Fish Curry

I may have said before, mustard features loads in Bengali cooking. Oil, seeds, condiments, you name it. In our spin, we used good old fashioned English mustard powder as the base to create the sauce and some white fish fillets of your choice (we used haddock). As we all know, mustard in any form can be a bit of a risk if overpowering, today it was just right making the perfect pairing with the wine, both clean and fresh in taste.

Methi Aloo (Potatoes and Fenugreek)

Probably one of my favourite dishes that today was relegated to a side dish. What is amazing about this is how it tastes so different when you use dried fenugreek versus fresh fenugreek and everyone has a different view on what makes for the perfect potato here also. Once again, because we used fresh fenugreek, it had just the right level of punch for the pairing but had we used dried fenugreek there is every chance that it would have overpowered the wine.

Pairing: Fox & Fox CV (Chairman’s VAT) Brut 2014 Limited Edition
I’ll be honest, I got the idea for a fish pairing with this wine from seeing another one. Only 1018 bottles ever made, and I’ve had 3 of them….

Of course, the dishes above were accompanied by rice – had the flavours been too deep, this would have pacified them somewhat.

Rasgulla or Roshogulla

No wine pairing with the sweet, though there had to be one to end. Another happy little sugary dumpling is a nice way to round off such a meal. Much as I was pleasantly surprised to be able to pair wine with Gulab Jamun, I think there are wines out there to contend with this one. What do you think?

Wishing you all a happy Easter Bank Holiday weekend!

Author: Rupa Datta – [email protected]