With 20% off Spain in January and February, I thought why get a good paella recipe up and pair it with a few great value wines. For best results, use real chicken stock here. It’s a handy recipe you’re bound to use again and again.

Chicken & fish paella (serves 4-6)

Ingredients
25g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
8 free range chicken thighs, skinned
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
225g of long grain rice
1 tsp saffron strands
1 pint of warm chicken stock
1 bay leaf
225g frozen peas
1 red pepper, seeded & diced
2 tomatoes, quartered
100g peeled prawns
100g shelled mussels
8 unpeeled prawn
lemon wedges to garnish

Method
Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan or paella dish. Add the chicken and fry until lightly browned. Remove and set aside. Fry the onion and garlic until golden and then add the rice and cook for a minute, stirring. Return the chicken to the pan with the saffron, stock and bay leaf. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more stock if necessary. Stir in the vegetables, heat for a few minutes and remove the lid, adding the mussels and prawns to heat through. Serve up with lemon wedges and a nice bottle of Spanish white!

The wine match

In my previous post I said that Spain is doing inexpensive wines well. As an example the Mont Marcal Blanco made its own way into our top 10 whites last year without us really having to push it. The feedback has been terrific. It would be a lovely little everyday wine to pair with Paella.

I’ll stay with white because I do think it goes better with this dish, although if you do go for red probably the lighter unoaked Spaniards (San Pedro Rioja) would work best. Pazo de Monterray Godello or the Valdamor Albarino are my two mid-range choices. Outside of Spain, but staying with the Spanish varietals, Bleasdale’s Pott’s Catch Verdelho has been earning great praise recently. A touch of savouriness will work well here.

An incredible tasty, easy and speedy meal to put together. If you’ve leftover chicken from the Sunday roast, this will solve the Monday night dinner dilemma. Make chicken stock from the chicken carcass on Sunday evening and pop it into the fridge. If you’re not doing Sunday roast, buy a free-range chicken anytime during the week and boil it whole the night before. From this you’ll have the meat, the stock and, from a small bird, enough to feed six comfortably.

Chicken broth with noodles, mint & cabbage (serves 2)

Ingredients
egg noodles
chicken stock (one litre – preferably the real thing)
cooked chicken (leftovers from a roast)
cabbage, chopped (a half is more than enough for 2 people)
small bunch of mint leaves, chopped
small bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
juice of 1 lemon

Method
Start to gently heat the chicken stock in a large, deep saucepan, lid on. Half fill another saucepan with boiling water, season with salt and ease in the dried noodles. Cook for 2-3 minutes and then drain and add cold water. Set aside.

Bring the chicken stock to boil and then simmer. Shred in enough chicken for however many you’re cooking for (in this case 2), with the cabbage, cook for one minute and then add the mint, coriander and lemon juice. Simmer for another minute or so – the cabbage needs to have a really good bite, so try as you go if you’re unsure. Serve up in large bowls.

The wine match

With the addition of fresh herbs and lemon juice, this is quite a fresh, zesty soup. It is therefore a good idea to go with a fresh, crisp white. Initial thoughts – Sauvignon Blanc. But a restrained Sauvignon. New Zealand might be too lively. Something like the Santa Alicia Sauvignon Blanc or the Grandiose Sauvignon Blanc.

Better again, perhaps, my picks this week are two Spanish whites, Blanc Planell and Pazo de Monterrey Godello, not only for their value for money at the moment, but I think they both strike that balance of crispness and freshness without being too dominant. They should marry well with the herbaceousness of the soup.

Leave those jars of yellow stuff on the supermarket shelves. This recipe will save you a ton of calories and help keep those sodium levels down no end. Sometimes it’s hard to beat a mild Korma. It’s great comfort food. Try making your own naan bread. We started doing this a few years ago and haven’t looked back since. Quite often we’ll just have the bread with it and a curried salady thing on the side. Jamie Oliver does a good one which you can see reproduced on his forum.

Chicken korma (serves 4)

Ingredients
25g butter
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled & grated
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
275g natural yogurt
4 free range chicken breasts, cubed
50g cashew nuts
2 tbsp fresh chopped coriander
basmati rice and/or homemade naan to serve

Method
Melt the butter in a large saucepan and fry the onion and garlic until soft. Add the ginger and spices and cook for a few minutes before gradually stirring in the yogurt, chicken, nuts and half the coriander. Cook on the low heat for around 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through but still tender. Garnish with the remaining coriander and serve up with basmati rice or homemade naan.

The wine match

Notice not a single chilli in the ingredients above. That’s not like me, I know, but Korma is generally a mild dish anyway and that makes it a better suit to wine than many other curries. Try with a New World Riesling and you’d be surprised how well wine can go with curry. Take your pick between a dry style and an off-dry style. Ant Moore’s dry Riesling and that crazy off-dry Riesling from the Punks – Monsters Monsters Attack! are my two picks.

Away from Riesling, you could look at Gewurztraminer which will usually cope with a little heat if you like a kick to your curries. Otherwise, I would consider Tabali’s Viognier. Despite being a dry wine, it has a touch of fruit sweetness coming through, as well as a slight creaminess and a lick of spice. Undoubtedly a great wine match to mild Korma.

I always like to preach the benefits of shopping local. When it comes to what I eat and drink, I’m the sort of person who likes to go slightly out of my way for the better things in life. Particularly when it comes to meat, the supermarkets won’t get my business. I prefer local, high welfare, preferably free range, organic meat from a passionate farmer or butcher. It’s better for the animal, it’s better for Ireland, and it’s better for me.

That’s why as soon as I saw how passionate Tipperary butcher Pat Whelan was about his offering, I just had to ask him for the lend of one of his food prep videos. This is the proper way of cooking pork belly, which makes for a seriously gorgeous alternative to the standard roast. Feel free to add additional side dishes.

The wine match

Merlot gets a hard rap these days, but I would encourage anyone who is still not convinced to keep experimenting, first with blends and then a few single variety Merlots. This slow cooked pork belly is proper Sunday food for me, so Merlot dominated Bordeaux reds spring to mind.

Again, if you’re not convinced, keep trying. Now more than ever, Bordeaux has more accessible and modern styles available at great value, the vast majority going terrifically well with food, even if it has all the trimmings in terms of root vegetables and so on.

First up, 58 Guineas Everyday Claret does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a solid everyday wine that suits any occasion, whether it involves food or not. Secondly, Château Les Deux Cèdres is one I believe is built for food as you might find it a little restrained and too dry without it. It would really come into its own with this type of food.

Lastly from Bordeaux, I can’t neglect one of our most popular wines, Château Bauduc Clos des Quinze, which has a pretty tasty price tag at the moment. The tannins are very mellow and beautifully integrated with the right balance of acidity. Enjoy with or without food.

Pat is one of the pioneers of online retailing in Ireland. Shop online: www.jameswhelanbutchers.com

This was the first week since before the summer that the heat lamp behind my desk had to be switched on. Autumn is well and truly underway and that signals the start of soup season. So here is a surefire soup recipe to heat the belly through on a cold afternoon, or to be enjoyed as a starter to any meal.

Potato & Cauliflower Soup (serves 6)

Ingredients
60g butter
2 onions, chopped
1 leek, sliced
1 large potato, peeled & chopped
1 cauliflower, cut into florets
1.25 litres of chicken or vegetable stock
100g grated cheese
fried bacon, croutons, chives to garnish
salt & pepper to taste

Method
Melt the butter in a large pan and cook the onion and leek until soft. Add the potato and stock and bring to the boil, cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender. Blitz in a food processor until smooth and bring back onto a medium heat in the original pan. Stir in the cheese to melt through and serve up garnished with a choice of bacon, croutons and chives to garnish.

The wine match

I think autumn is the season for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. That could be something to do with the time I visited New Zealand. It was in the depth of autumn, and as that trip got me started on NZ Sauvignon, I associate the fresh acidity of the wines with the crisp, cool autumn air.

I think this soup will go well with The Ned Sauvignon Blanc or the more restrained, leaning towards Old World in style, Fairhall Cliffs Sauvignon Blanc. French Sauvignon Blanc would work well also, Grandiose Sauvignon Blanc or La Clochette Sancerre. I’d even stretch to an Old World Chardonnay on this one – some might think this would be a better match than Sauvignon – Cuvée à l’Ancienne Mâcon Charnay.

This is the basic white risotto recipe I use – but don’t be fooled into thinking just because it is basic that it doesn’t taste good. In fact, it tastes awesome. It’s great comfort food, and once you’ve mastered it (not that there is much to master), you can play about with it and add different flavours and vegetables, like mushrooms and tomato. It’s a keeper, no doubt about that.

Risotto bianco (serves 5-6)

Ingredients
2 pints of chicken or vegetable stock
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, peeled & finely chopped
5 sticks of celery, trimmed & finely chopped
400g risotto
2 glasses of dry white wine
70g + a knob of butter
100g (or so) Parmesan
sea salt & pepper

Method
Heat the stock. In a separate pan add the oil, butter, onion, garlic and celery. Cook very slowly without colouring for about 15 mins. Add the rice and turn up the heat. Fry and keep stirring for a minute or so and then add the wine.

Once the wine has cooked into the rice, add a ladle of hot stock and a good pinch of salt. Turn the heat down to a simmer and keep adding some more stock as each ladle is absorbed by the rice. When about 15 minutes has past check to see if the rice has been cooked through. The grains should be firm without being chalky in the middle. Season to taste.

Remove from the heat and add the butter and Parmesan, stirring well and leaving to sit or a few minutes. It should be thick and creamy. Serve neat, or with roasted root vegetables. And a glass of wine. Naturally.

The wine match

Back in July we did risotto with fresh mussels. It was tomato-based, so it worked well with light reds, as well as whites and rosés. Although I think risotto bianco is better with white wine, there’s no reason you can’t go for a red. The lighter the better probably, like Farnese’s Montepulciano.

A wine that will really sing with risotto bianco is the Borgo Magredo Friulano. It’s one of my favourite food wines, but even without food, it is very clean, crisp and refreshing. A super little number. For something a little different, I would recommend Ant Moore’s dry Riesling. For some, Riesling is too much of a risk, but it really shouldn’t be. This is the kind of wine should be a staple in anyone’s fridge, anytime of the year. IMHO.

I like Chinese food. On occasion. Maybe once a year. Or every two years. You see, I’m not quite sure a lot of Chinese restaurants really do Chinese food justice. Sometimes I regret eating it afterwards. It can be too sweet, too sticky, too gloopy and too stodgy. The better restaurants will do more justice. They prepare food from very fresh ingredients and seem to make it more fragrant and lighter on its feet.

This week, my wee brother (he’s actually bigger than me) @curiousdavide, did exactly that and cooked a fantastic chinese meal that had balance. It was certainly one of the best I’d ever had, if not the best. It might be worth heading to an Asian store before you get stuck into this. Like any cuisine, once you’ve acquired some of the basics, you should get good use out of them and most items will keep well.

Sichuan chicken with peanuts (serves 4)

Ingredients
4 high welfare/free range chicken breasts
6 cloves of garlic, peeled & finely chopped
(equivalent measure in ginger, thinly sliced)
6 spring onions, sliced (approx 1.5cm)
4 tbsp groundnut oil (or olive oil)
4 dried chillies, crushed (or as much as you want)
2 tsp ground Sichuan pepper (or ordinary pepper)
150g roasted peanuts (or cashew nuts)

For the marinade
1 tsp salt
4 tsp light soy sauce
2 tsp Shaoxing wine
3 tsp cornflour
2 tbsp water

For the sauce
1 and a half tsp cornflour
2 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp light soy sauce
6 tsp black Chinese vinegar (or balsamic)
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp water

Method
Cut the chicken breasts into small cubes, place in a bowl and mix well with the marinade ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine the sauce ingredients – have a sneaky taste – gorgeous!

Add 4 tbsp of the groundnut oil to a wok on a high heat and add the chillies and pepper until fragrant, but don’t burn them. Add the chicken cubes and cook until white before adding the ginger, garlic and spring onions.

When the chicken is cooked through, add the sauce until it becomes thick and then add the peanuts. Serve with steamed rice, or you could be a bit different like us and enjoy with seasoned quinoa livened up with a good grating of lemon zest.

The wine match

Chinese food goes quite well with Chenin Blanc and Gewurztraminer. I would go for a drier style for this dish because it’s not as sweet as a lot of the take-away Chinese food. The dry Paarl Heights Chenin Blanc is great everyday drinking wine for this kind of food. A richer style of Pinot Grigio would also not look out of place – try Ant Moore’s Pinot Gris. The small amount of residual sugar in this wine will do no harm.

If you prefer red, Pinotage will go well, even if you decide to spice it up with a few more chillies. Pinotage can handle some spice and quite complex flavours, so check out the Long Neck Pinotage. There are two Californian Pinot Noir’s, which recently landed with us and I think they would also work. Crane Lake Pinot Noir and Fat Cat Pinot Noir. Meeeeow!

Back to a classic, quick, mid-week recipe, or even a Saturday night over a bottle of red and a few beers. This is the kind of food that just makes you want to pick it up with your hands and eat like you’ve been starved for the last week. In fact, that’s the only way to eat it. Animal style.

Chorizo & red onion tacos (serves 2-3)

4 tbsp olive oil
tacos, enough for 2-3 people
butternut squash, deseeded & cut into 2cm cubes
1 clove of garlic
1 chilli, finely chopped
250g chorizo
2 shallots
1 small red onion, finely chopped
small tub of tomato salsa
Small block of Pecorino cheese
1 tbsp oregano, chopped
salt & pepper

Method
Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Crush the garlic and rub in half a tsp of salt. Mix together in a small bowl with 3 tsbp of the olive oil. Glaze the squash in the mixture and toss on a roasting tray. Bake for 20 minutes or so until soft and starting to blacken.

In a frying pan over a low-medium heat, add the remaining olive oil and fry the chorizo and shallots. When the shallots have softened, add the squash and oregano, stir and season with salt and pepper. Serve up with the tacos and dive in. Sprinkle the raw red onion over the top with some salsa and grated Pecorino cheese.

The wine match

Without chilli I’d be happy enough to go New World Cabernet Sauvignon on this one, although maybe not too much of a hard-hitter, like some Barossa Valley Cabernet can be. The Santa Alicia Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon would do well, or even Woodstock’s McLaren Vale Cabernet, which has quite a youthful style, but still medium bodied with tremendous poise and structure.

Leave the chilli in, and I might be looking for a little more restraint again. The Cabernet Merlot blend from Fonty’s Pool in Western Australia is more what I’m thinking. And a couple of nice, light and inexpensive options, the Gassac Classic Rouge or the Santa Gloria Merlot.

Although hailing from Greece, this is like Lamb Moussaka with an Italian twist. The picture below just doesn’t do it justice unfortunately. If you’re a dab hand at the white sauce bit, your preping time should be minimal, but give yourself a few hours, including baking time, from start to finish.

Greek Pastitsio (serves 6)

450g rigatoni pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
900g ground lamb
1 onion, chopped
small handful of parsley, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled & chopped
225g passata
half tsp ground cinnamon
small glass of wine red
60g butter
3 eggs, beaten
100g grated Parmesan
750ml white sauce (easy to follow recipe here)
Side salad (to serve)

Method
Put the olive oil into a deep frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and fry until they begin to soften. Add the lamb and brown whilst breaking it up with a wooden spoon, and then throw in the parsley, cinnamon, tomato sauce and wine. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C. In a separate pot, boil some water, add salt to season and cook the pasta until it is almost al dente little. Transfer to a large bowl. Add butter, eggs and half the Parmesan. Toss well. Prepare your white sauce.

Place half the pasta in the bottom of a large casserole dish. Top with the meat sauce, then place the remaining pasta on top and pour the white sauce over the top before sprinkling over the rest of the Parmesan. Bang in the oven to bake over almost an hour and the top is golden. Serve up with a simple salad.

The wine match

Pastitsio, like Moussaka, goes well with Sangiovese, a traditional Italian red grape variety. It’s got the big acidity we all love Italian wines for, and when enjoyed with food like this, it should work well with the richness of the sauces. Check out the Farnese Sangiovese and the Gregorina Sangiovese.

Staying with Italy, an earthy Barbera is worth considering. We’ve only had BBQ Barbera and Barbera da Vine for a few weeks now and they’re flying for us. If you’d prefer New World, the Squid’s Fist would be a super match also.

It was the New Zealand green lip mussels that I grew to adore on my trip around the world a few years ago, but I think the mussels farmed off our own shores are superior. Smaller, yes, but they have a better flavour. This risotto with mussels dish was enjoyed a few months ago after a trip to Cork’s English market.

Risotto with fresh mussels (serves 5-6)

900g fresh mussels
2 cloves of garlic, peeled & chopped
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley
2/3 tin of chopped tomatoes
120ml white wine
200g shallots, finely chopped
400g risotto rice
1 litre of vegetable stock (homemade if possible)
4-5 tbsp olive oil
sea salt

Method
First off, clean and prepare the mussels. In a pot, heat two tbsp olive oil over a medium-high heat and add the garlic. When it starts to colour add the tomatoes and season with sea salt. Simmer for a few minutes to reduce down before adding the wine and mussels. Cover and cook until the mussels open. This should only take a few minutes. Take off the heat, remove the mussels from the pot, leaving aside 10-12 in their shells and discard the shells of the remaining.

Ensure the hot vegetable stock is prepared and ready to use. Separately, in a large pot, heat the remaining olive oil over a medium heat and add the onion. When soft, add the rice and cook for about two minutes. Add the tomato sauce from the other pot and simmer for a few minutes until the liquid has been absorbed.

Start adding a ladleful of the hot broth, just enough to cover the rice each time. The risotto should be bubbling with the heat. The rice should become al dente around 20 minutes. The grains should be firm without being chalky in the centre. The overall texture should be creamy, not stiff or like soup. Taste to see if it needs more salt, and then add the chopped parsley and return the shelled and unshelled mussels to the pot. Serve straight up in bowls.

The wine match

Whether you love red, white or rosé, you’re in luck because there’s a lot of wine you could pair with this. If it is to be red, go for something light and fruity that isn’t overly tannic. The new Solonio Fontanapiana is made from the Montepulciano grape and has a very fresh, youthful style.

Take your pick with the white. Keeping with the Italian theme, another couple of new additions that would work well are the Borgo Magredo Pinot Grigio and the Goccia Lison Classico. For rosé, keep it pale, clean, crisp and dry – Château Bauduc Bordeaux Rosé.