eat like a girl

The Bisol Jeio Prosecco Food & Wine Matching Competition has closed, and we’ve had some wonderful and interesting recipes submitted as matches for Bisol Jeio Prosecco. I had lots of visitors to the stall over the last few weeks who sampled the prosecco and described the range of flavours they experienced. They then went home and put a lot of thought into how that would work well with food. It’s been an education for me to observe and it’s been so lovely to meet everyone and chat about food & wine, two of my favourite topics.

There’s been some really inspiring recipes, and the competition even inspired Kathy of Bemused Bouche to start blogging. What a compliment! Our original plan, was to choose 5 finalists and give them passes for The Wine Show on in London this weekend. We didn’t bank on the interminable Royal Mail strike, so we’ve had to review as we were not able to post the passes out to the winners. Maybe it’s not such a bad thing, the quality of the entries is so high, it’s good to have more time to choose the finalists. We’ll be in touch this week with details of the new arrangements.

For now, here’s those lovely recipes for your perusal. Which ones do you think would be the best match?

Pork Belly Tortellini with Prosecco Poached Pears, Pecorino and a Sage Brown Butter from Neil at The War On Cookbooks. “The cheese and the brown butter give the perfect kind of nutty vibes with the pear complimenting the fruitiness. The addition of the prosecco itself into the menu doesn’t harm the combination either but the effect is a subtle undercurrent.”

Carnitas with a spiced apple and lime salsa from Carla at Can Be Bribed With Food. “I know my likes and dislikes and tend to go for fairly generic matches, so this is the perfect occasion to test myself. After much thinking and trying I have decided that the Jeio would go quite nicely with this dish.

Chicken steamed in Sake with Bok Choi and a Soy Dressing, first blog post from Kathy at Bemused Bouche. “My first thoughts were either something involving fruit, maybe using figs or incorporating the membrello I have left over from last years quince season or where the main component has a salty flavour, seafood or pork perhaps. And then I thought about a soy dressing, giving the salty element and a definite attempt at a non-italian match.” Welcome to the blogosphere and well done!

Pork Chop with prosecco and tarragon cream sauce, goats cheese and olive crushed potatoes, parsnip puree from Dan at Essex Eating. “I’m pleased to report, it did appear to work, very well in fact – the prosecco didn’t grate alarmingly against the dishes ingredients, in fact they seemed to compliment each other nicely….I like to put it down to my bulging analytical brain and amazing palette, stressing categorically that it’s absolutely not more luck, than judgement.”

Danny at Food Urchin matched Warm Winter Salad with Pheasant, Pear, Pomegranate and Walnut. Dedicated to the cause he did this at 9am. “There are many reasons for drinking sparkling wine at 9 o’clock this morning son. Mostly poor ones but I’m going to stick by them. I’ve left things to the last minute you see. I need daylight for optimum photographising conditions and I have to test out this recipe that I’ve been formulating in my head for the past two weeks, by tomorrow. Deadlines, son.”

Rebecca from Fresh-Lee submitted Salmon-Mango Ceviche Snack. “As soon as I had a taste of the Bisol, the amazing fusion food of Miami Beach came to the front of my mind, and I thought I’d try some variations on a Mexican ceviche – fish ‘cooked’ in citrus juices.”

Claire from The Hungriest Hippo submitted Smoked Garlic Risotto with King Scallops and Prosecco. “I loved the idea of having a glass of chilled, sparkling Prosecco to sip along with a sumptuous treat of a supper dish – and once this seed of thought was planted, I could not get the idea of a rich, creamy risotto out of my mind, delicate in flavour and accompanied by a trio of the freshest king scallops, simply panfried.”

Ailbhe of Simply Splendiferous made sea trout fillets with a fresh rocket, spinach and watercress salad and a tartare based sauce. “After much to-ing and fro-ing I’ve settled on the combination of sea trout fillets with a fresh rocket, spinach and watercress salad and a tartare based sauce.”

Linda, of With Knife & Fork, matched her autumnal sort of salad, “a little bit of googling and reading and a few thought came to mind…..pears…well they go well in salads with blue cheese and often walnuts. Pears and peaches…sometimes served with air-dried hams. A sweetish fruit and salty theme was emerging. I’d also got a hankering for something autumnal, earthy…”.

Pete submitted a recipe for seed cake with a bit of a chilli kick. He kindly brought some down for me to try and it was delicious, I loved the chilli in there. It’s a nice match too.

Mia, of the Urban Foodie, submitted Chilli Crab Spaghetti, “a delicious store cupboard favourite for when the fridge is bare”.

Emma, blogger behind The Little Welsh Eats the Big World, and avid twitterer, submitted Oriental Duck Risotto.

Denise, of The Wine Sleuth, loves Bisol with strawberries, and matched it with her childhood favourite Strawberry Shortcake.

Spaghetti a la Putanesca from Dino at The Epicurean. “The perfect match with Bisol Jelo Prosecco before during and after – eating the dish that is :-)”.

Pork with apple & walnut with a spinach & salsify gratin from Martin at What I Would Rather Eat Today.

Jeanne, from Cooksister, submitted a lovely seasonal Blackberry and Prosciutto salad. “all the crunchy goodness of a green salad, the silken saltiness of the Prosciutto, offest nicely by the sweetness of the rich, ripe berries. “

And finally, Biggest Jim submitted a Goat’s Cheese Souffle. “Not having cooked a soufflé and being in one of my particularly ambitious cooking moods, I thought I’d try a Goat’s Cheese Souffle combination with Prosecco.”

So, that’s it folks! Very impressive submissions, it makes our job quite difficult. Thanks so much to all who entered. I’ll be back soon with a shortlist of finalists.