#14: wine x food pair | FIANO x JHINGA KARI 🍤

Southern Italy meets Southern India with my debut pairing on how to impress, without going to all that much of an effort. Enjoy!

Happy Friday!

Here was my actual first crack at getting inspired by a particular grape variety, and what recipe I tailored to it. Hope you enjoy it!

I’ve tried to keep these simple, not too expensive but appearing to be fairly fancy schmancy at the same time. Most portions are for 2-3, but you can double up for a dinner party. Oh, and tasting notes for the wines that you’re going to have to dazzle your loved ones, NATURALLY.

Without further ado, I bring you - Fiano with Jhinga Kari (a prawn curry, madras style) If this isn’t ringing any bells, all will be revealed soon. A little infographic on what you’ll need to get this one sorted and on your merry way:

A rough summary of everything you need to know here. You should be able to snatch everything you need from a cornershop and the wine at a good offy!

The wine 🍷

I’ve gone for a Fiano here, a Southern Italian grape variety. It’s grown just North of Naples in a hilly patch most classically (known as Fiano di Avellino), but also in other parts such as Sicily.

Fiano makes a white that has more flavour than a Pinot Grigio, but not quite so much as a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. If you like a Sancerre, Viognier or an Albarino, I’d hedge fairly good money that you’ll like the vibe of this one. It’s zesty with a spritz of lemon and an apricot (pineapple if you’re lucky). It won’t be oaky or toasty for anyone panicked by the thought of a Chardonnay. Although it can have a bit of nuttiness to it.

It’s something you’ll find in a good Italian restaurant, but it might be tricky to catch in a supermarket. A bottle or two might be bobbing around, depending on the store and season.

Dosage Pick: Palaleo Fiano del Salento, Waitrose, £7.99. Grown in Italy’s heel, this is a steal for a Fiano - typically, it’s one of the pricier whites comparatively in Italy.

The grub 🍟

I’ve matched up the Fiano to a Madras style curry with prawns. Anyone new to Madras or South Indian style this is a mild, coconutty curry that’s far more about the aromatic flavours rather than any heat so to speak. It’s a lovely base for seafood, a doddle to make and gives rich flavours with low effort. I chucked half a bag of frozen prawns in as A) love prawns me and B) they save on having to precook the fish, or needing to prep it. Simples!

I’ve adapted this recipe from a great little book I grabbed second hand by Charmaine Solomon. A Sri Lankan-Australian cook, one of her first books ‘The Complete Asian Cookbook’ is one from the seventies originally. While the cultural appropriation of some dishes have not aged well, she’s made some Asian recipes dead simple that would seem otherwise complex, and made some styles of cooking really accessible to get into. I admit, I’m much more of a continental cook than one for exotic flavours so it’s been a great aid to learning more.

Why they go well together 🧪

I don’t have a magic formula for any of my recommendations, other than where I feel they’re going to go well together. All Sommeliers and Chefs basically work in the same way too, and it’s always a suggestion - never the this-or-nothing pairing. So feel free to tweak these to your liking!

Fiano is a nice vibrant and fruity white, that will go well with the warmth of this curry which isn’t quite as hefty on the spices. As a rough rule of thumb, with more aromatic or spicy dishes, it’s generally a good idea to try and heighten that up with a little bit of sweetness and aromas in the wine itself - otherwise either will seem a bit too flabby together as they call it in the trade. You could go for a lovely zingy white like Picpoul or a Chablis here as it will cut through the prawns nicely, but it might start to interfere with the gentle spices that are working in the background here too. So this is my attempt to bring you into something a little more exotic.

The Recipe 👨‍🍳

This serves two to three, and you can whip this one up in about 40 minutes max depending on how zippy or chilled you want to take it. Not too much chopping here, it’s a pretty quick jump into the pan - and a food processor will really help out here too!

The Final Product! I’ll get better at food styling as I go, promise.

What you’ll need:

200g (ish) fresh or frozen prawns defrosted, dealer’s choice

1 tablespoon of desiccated coconut or coconut chips

1 tablespoon rice to set aside

1 can of coconut milk (light if you’re that way inclined)

1 tablespoon ghee or butter

10-12 curry leaves

1 white onion, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1.5 inches of ginger, peeled and grated on the finest setting you can

2 tablespoons of a good curry powder/garam masala

2 teaspoons of paprika (I used a sweet Hungarian one that was lovely)

A good handful of spinach leaves or two

2 wedges fresh lemon to squeeze in

Salt and pepper

1 teaspoon chili powder, if you want more of a kick

Rice - to serve. Follow the packet or if you have a Crock Pot, even better!

What you’ve gotta do:

1. Start by gently toasting the coconut in a dry pan with constant stirring. This should be about a medium heat and the coconut should start to get fragrant and go an orange-brown. Take out of the pan, change for the tablespoon of rice and toast it very gently.

2. Pop the toasted rice and coconut into a food processor or blender, and blitz as a pulse about 10 times until you’ve broken it down into a powder. Chuck in half the coconut milk and let them blitz together, and make sure to get everything out that’s sticking at the sides.

3. In the pan, gently heat up the ghee or butter and once it’s warm, fry off the curry leaves for 1 minute. They should be gently sizzling and crisping up a tiny bit, but it shouldn’t be guzzling like a deep fat frier.

4. Bring the onions, garlic and ginger to the party, and turn down the heat until you have a nice gentle sizzle, and keep going until the onions are starting to go a little clear. This is the part you want to be most careful with, as overdoing it here will completely cock up the flavours and spice later on.

5. Add in the dried spices, bringing the temperature down a cinch while allowing them to fry off for about 30 seconds. Then, add in the mix you have in the blender, the rest of the coconut milk and a good bit of salt to season.

6. Bring the mixture up to a gradual simmer on a medium heat, and let it keep going for about 5 minutes until the mixture is just about starting to reduce - it’s important not to use a cover here.

7. Add the prawns, stir and allow them to cook without the cover for another 10-15 minutes. Make sure that the prawns are cooked through when they’ve changed colour if you’re using raw prawns. Toward the last five minutes, you can chuck in Spinach if you want as, well, health.

8. The sauce should be starting to thicken up a little like a gravy, and that’s when you should be in the sweet spot. Stir in the squeeze of lemon juice that should give it a lovely lift, and give it a taste. If you’re not getting much, add salt until it’s you’ve a very subtle, warm and hearty curry on your paws.

9. Serve this on top of rice, and grab the Fiano from the fridge to enjoy. Also goes lovely with poppadoms and mango chutney if you felt like having some snacks on the way!

Tried this recipe, or have a proposal for a future post?

Be my guest! Pop a comment in the thread, and let’s start chatting.