J'AIME SEPTEMBER 2019

Cured meats
The continental staple of salty and spicy cured meat
offering of chorizo or salami are being joined by
biltong and British reared charcuterie with good
quality olives transporting you to the continent, and
the spiritual home of juniper, Tuscany, or Barcelona
for the birthplace of the modern gintonica. Try
www.madefordrink.com for some premium bar
snacks.
COLSTON BASSETT STILTON
IS A PERFECT PAIRING WITH
SLOE GIN
Indian starters
Gin’s botanicals lend themselves very well to being
paired with the variety of spices used in Indian
cooking including three Cs: coriander, cardamom
and Ceylon Champagne aka cinnamon. Try
tandoori prawns, pakoras, samosas and dusted
masala popcorn or, for the more adventurous,
mango and chilli paneer or, as served at a Passage to
Gindia event recently, lamb nargisi kofta, an Indian
style scotch egg made with a quails’ egg and spicy
lamb, served with pickled onions and chutney.
Cheese and crackers
Gin and tonics pair well with cheese (so much so I’m
running several gin and cheese evenings later in the
year) especially strong-flavoured varieties that hold
their own on a nice charcoal cracker, so here’s a few
combinations to wet the appetite:
Slingsby Gooseberry and Fevertree Elderflower with
sliced pear, a flavoured honey, walnut and goats
cheese/chèvre: this combo also works great with
citrusy G&Ts or pick up some Joe & Sephs goats
cheese popcorn for something moreish.
Whitley Quince and Lamb & Watt Cucumber tonic
with the fragrant hybrid apple and pear’s partner in
crime, Manchego.
And referring back to sloe gin as a poor man’s
Port from last months article, Chase Sloe Gin and
Mulberry or a Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz is a taste
revelation with Pedrino Port tonic and the Rolls
Royce of stilton - Colston Bassett - available from
Anderson & Hill in Birmingham’s Great Western
Arcade.
TEAM SLINGSBY
GOOSEBERRY WITH FEVER
TREE ELDERFLOWER TONIC
AND GOATS’ CHEESE
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