#NWTW Week 8: Food Pairing With Pinotage from South Africa

February 28, 2014

In yesterday’s post I mentioned that there are roughly (and bear in mind I’ve just said “roughly”….twice!) two different styles of Pinotage. A lighter one and a heavier one. So it makes sense that we have a look at two different pairings. To be fair, both are pretty much meat driven, so if we’ve got any veggie readers knocking around, please feel free to let me know what you’re going for.

Food Pairing with the Lighter Style

So it looks like my Morrison’s Signature Pinotage is one of the lighter styles. For this one I’m going for spiced lamb kebabs. For this I’m going to try and buy a piece of lamb that’s known as the chump. It’s one of the cheaper cuts of lamb, but in terms of taste, it’s about bang on what I’m going for.

Really worth knowing where the cheap cuts on any animal is, and what you can do with them, usually they're only cheap cos no one else knows what to do with them! — Really worth knowing where the cheap cuts on any animal is, and what you can do with them, usually they’re only cheap cos no one else knows what to do with them!

Marinade the lamb steaks in a small splash of olive oil and season with salt, and plenty of pepper. I might even pop on a bit of cajun spice rub, only a touch mind, but just to give it a lift.

From there it’s pretty easy I think. If you’re lucky enough to live in a country where it hasn’t been pissing it down for the whole of 2014, then get it on the BBQ. Otherwise, sear the steak in a hot pan, then pop in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Take out, let it rest for 5 minutes, then slice thinly.

I’m going to serve it up with some flatbreads, lettuce, and tomato, with a touch of mayonnaise. I’m a bit worried the mayonnaise will be wrong, but I’ll give it a go and see.

Food Pairing with the Heavier Style

I’m off to Barrett’s the Butchers again, and I dipping into their sausages for the Kanonkop from Sainsbury’s and the Barista from Majestic. A heavy venison sausage, or even burgers if they have them.

One of the great things about sausages is that…how do I put this?…they’re really hard to mess up! By that I mean you’ve got to be really making a concerted effort to overcook them. They retain a lot of moisture, so if you get the meat and spice matching right, they tend to go great with wines.

So chances are I might even just have a couple of sausage sandwiches. Not exactly glamorous, right? If that’s a bit too low key, then maybe a game-meat ragu might be in order. You just need to make sure the flavours are heavy enough to cope with the heavier style of pinotage.

Hope this helps and have a top weekend trying your Pinotage out!

Cheers

Other posts in NWTW Week 8:

#NWTW Week 8: Pinotage from South Africa (includes voting poll)

#NWTW Week 8: An Intro Into South Africa