16th January marks International Hot & Spicy Food Day! While it’s common to reach for a beer when you’re eating a curry, we encourage you to sip a glass of Fairbourne premium Sauvignon Blanc instead! Our easy drinking wine makes a perfect partner for fragrantly spiced cuisine, such as a mild Indian curry.
Something spicy for the Southern Hemisphere
If you’re reading this in the Southern Hemisphere you’re likely to have rolled out the barbecue, but summer doesn’t have to mean saying goodbye to your curry! How about some spiced Tandoori chicken?
Spiced Tandoori Chicken
Ingredients:
- 4 chicken portions
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 lemon
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 cm fresh ginger, grated
- 1 green chilli, finely chopped
- 200ml Greek yoghurt
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp chilli powder
- 1 tbsp fenugreek
Method:
- Mix the garlic, ginger and chilli in to a paste with the juice of your lemon and oil. Pour over the chicken.
- In a separate dish, mix the dry ingredients (salt, garam masala, ground cumin, chilli powder and fenugreek) with the yoghurt to create a paste. Add this yoghurt paste to the chicken and massage into the meat.
- Cover, refrigerate and leave to marinade for at least 30 minutes, but the longer the better.
- Grill your chicken until cooked through, it should be tender and a little charred.
Serve your spiced tandoori chicken with a green salad, homemade raita (find a recipe here), naan bread and a glass of chilled Fairbourne Sauvignon Blanc.
Something spicy for the Northern Hemisphere
If you’re bedding in for winter, and can’t be tempted to venture out to the local takeaway, why not make your Friday night curry at home. There’s a popular misconception that curries need a whole host of specialist ingredients, but as long as you buy good quality curry powder that’s not necessarily the case. We love this simple chicken curry recipe from BBC Food.
Easy Chicken Curry
Ingredients:
- 6 spring onions, thinly sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp oil
- 200g tinned chopped tomatoes
- 2 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 400g boneless skinless chicken thigh, cubed
- 100ml Greek-style natural yoghurt
- salt and pepper
Method:
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and cook the spring onions and garlic for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, curry powder and ground ginger and cook for 3-4 minutes. If the pan gets dry add a splash of water and make sure the spices don’t burn.
- Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes. Make sure all the chicken is coated and is beginning to brown on the sides.
- Add 250ml water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a medium to low heat and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through with no sign of pink juices in the middle of the pieces.
- Take the curry off the heat, stir in the yoghurt then season with salt and pepper.
Serve your chicken curry with boiled rice, mango chutney, naan bread and a glass of chilled Fairbourne Sauvignon Blanc.
Head to your local Majestic Wines store to buy your Fairbourne Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Or contact us in N.Z.
At Fairbourne we do things a little differently to some other Sauvignon Blanc winemakers. Whenever one considers the great wines around the world, and inevitably Europe, there are some common characteristics, they are style and site specific. From the outset we decided we would hand-pick grapes from a single vineyard and produce a terroir inspired Sauvignon Blanc, the ancient clay gravel soils where the vines grow, define Fairbourne’s unique style.
Bright, light straw-yellow colour with pale green tints, lighter on the edge. The nose has an elegantly concentrated and taut core of aromatic gooseberries and fragrant white florals with an amalgam of fresh herbs, snow peas, unveiling cooler nettle and mineral notes. The aromatics are refined with a mouthwatering and penetrating intensity. Dry to taste and medium-bodied, the palate is sleek and finely concentrated with a heart of gooseberry fruit entwined with fresh herbs, nettles and cut-grass, unfolding white florals and minerals. The palate flows along a fine line with electric tension from the zesty acidity, leading to a lingering finish of gooseberries and nettles. This is a refined and elegantly concentrated Sauvignon Blanc with gooseberry fruit and cool-spectrum notes, white florals and minerals on a racy palate. Serve with seafood and Pacific Rim fare over the next 2-3 years.
