Book your seats: Keenwa Food & Wine pairing

Tiradito especial

 I recently went to my very first Food & Wine pairing evening at Keenwa. They take place on the last Thursday of each month and include a five-course meal paired with five-wines from a particular wine estate. It's super-fun, informal and quite popular, so if you want to get in on the action for this month's event, I'd recommend booking as soon as possible.

I know it was only a month ago that I posted about my first dinner at Keenwa, in which I said I hoped to make the Wine & Food pairing evening. Having only been recently introduced to the exotic flavours of Peruvian food, I was intrigues to see how they would pair off with various wines. And now, it's only fair of me to give a report back on how it all went.

We started with a Tiradito especial - thinly sliced fish with mushrooms and two types of corn - one imported from Peru and one local. This was paired with Clos Malverne's Sauvignon Blanc, which we found absolutely delicious. The Sauvignon Blanc is currently voted as one of the top 20 in South Africa, with soft tropical notes and not too much acidity, we thought it went excellently with the meal.

Secondly, we had the Papa Rellena - mashed potato with deep-fried prawns, served with Clos Malverne's Devonet Chardonnay. The wine was lightly wooded and fruity (oaked for 3 months).

Papa Rellena

Arroz con Mariscos

Our first main was the Arroz con Mariscos - a Peruvian-style Paella that's more similar in texture to an Italian risotto. It was paired with the lightly-wooded Devonet Merlot Pinotage blend 2009.

The second main was a Quinoa con Pollo escabechado - a chicken breast dish with quinoa and a sweet-sour onion sauce. This was paired with an awesomely delicious, Cabernet-Shiraz blend, which complemented the dish very nicely. It was my favourite wine of the night.

Quinoa con Pollo escabechado

suspiro a la limena

For dessert, a suspiro a la limena - which basically means 'a lady's sigh' (or so we were told). It's a traditional caramel cream caramel meringue, served with Cafe Pinotage. The coffee-flavoured pinotage is so easy drinking, and paired well with the pudding.

This month's Keenwa wine-and-food-pairing evening – taking place on Thursday 29 November – may be the last one for the year. It will include: five wines from Rickety Bridge Wine Estate will be accompanied by five traditional Peruvian courses. R250 per person.
Visit: http://www.keenwa.co.za
021 419 2633