People often eat out when on holiday in Spain and love Paella but would be horrified about the thought of trying to re-create it when they get home but this simple video shows you that it is actually a great dish that can actually be put together in one pan and requires minimum washing up which is always a winner. What I also love about a dish like this is that it encourages the family or your group of friends to come together as you plonk (nice wine pun for good measure) the dish into the center of the table and everybody just gets stuck in and helps themselves. So all the great dish really needs is a lovely bottle of wine to compliment it and you will be able to transport yourself mentally back to that holiday in Spain…..

Mike’s wine match:

Well this has topped it for me, Niall’s most enticing dish so far on the Curious Blog!

To be honest, there’s any number of white wines would go beautifully with this dish, all you want to avoid is something too strong that could overpower the delicate flavours in the shellfish. So, you want something crisp and dry, preferably with a bit of acidic bite to it, and maybe a nice touch of fruit.

Anyone following this series, or other wine-with-food posts I’ve written, will know that my first rule of wine-matching is to take the country and preferably region of origin of the food, and start with wines from there. Now paella originates from the Valencia region of south-east Spain, and whilst white wine production does exceed red, there’s not that many make the export market. So, I’m going to stay Spanish but move up to Rueda in the north-west of the country, partly because it was the subject of my article for Look and Taste last week but mainly because I think their whites are outstanding and perfectly suited to paella.

In the Curious stable, try this Sauvignon from Castello de Medina – prominent confectioned apple with nettle and gooseberry, and great fruit/acidity balance – or this classy Verdejo/Sauvignon blend from Mantel Blanco, with ripe peach/passion fruit and silky texture.

Now Niall, next week I want you to put on a Rafa Benitez goatee and say “pae-eya” for us again

Those keeping an eye on us in the last couple of weeks will have seen my contributions to the new wine blog on Look and Taste. I’m absolutely delighted to announce that Niall Harbison, the star of the show on the leading food video site, has agreed to return the compliment, with a regular contribution to our blog’s second love!

I met Niall for the first time in person on Saturday night at the Irish Blog Awards. It was a bit surreal, having spoken on the phone, emailed, Twittered, and seen him upteen times in his food videos. But the overwhelming sense was of a guy absolutely on top of his game.

Just as Curious was established to raise, and constantly push higher, the bar in online wine retailing in Ireland, Look and Taste look set to do the same for online food and cooking on a global basis. Whilst high-end goals may differ, shared objectives of a top-class product, dynamic content and best-in-class user experience ensure exciting times ahead for both companies.

This is a brief note of thanks to Niall and the team at Look and Taste, and a look-out to you to enjoy the content in the weeks and months ahead.

Cheers and bon appetit.

We were absolutely thrilled to follow the launch of Look and Taste this week, surely one of the most exciting, innovative and universally-appealing websites to come out of Ireland. We were even more delighted a few weeks ago when Chief Spud Peeler and rising internet-marketing demigod Niall Harbison invited us to write for the site’s Wine blog, in the esteemed company of Robert Francis Wine, Sour Grapes and our Cork neighbours Bubble Brothers.

So in place of our regular food and wine post, here’s our first post for the splendiferous Look and Taste. What better place to start I figured, than a few pointers to matching two of life’s greatest pleasures.

The first thing we’ll do is dismiss the notion that food and wine pairing is an exact science, or something to get too het up about. Barring disastrous but mostly obvious mismatches, like red wine and ice-cream, most wine will add to the enjoyment of most food. However, it is equally true that a well matched wine can turn a good meal into an exceptional one.

So here are five quick tips to make every meal that little bit more special:

1. Match strengths. This is simple, strong-flavoured foods need strong-flavoured wines, so a Chenin Blanc will be lost on a Beef Bourguignon. Likewise, delicate foods need light wines, so a full flavoured Merlot will just overpower a lemon sole.

2. Use reverse logic. Rich, buttery dishes don’t need rich, buttery wines, in fact they need the opposite – something acidic to cut through the richness. Similarly, spicy foods are well matched with light, off-dry or medium wines to counter the heat.

3. Consider complexity. Again using the opposite rule, pairing a complex wine with a complex meal will provide too many competing flavours. Pair complex food with simpler wines, and vice versa.

4. Match price. This sounds crass but the logic is sound. An expensive wine would be wasted on pizza, whereas a cheap supermarket wine will do little to accentuate a carefully prepared fine meal with expensive ingredients.

5. Often the best guide of all, match country of cuisine with country of wine. This is obvious when you think about it as wine-making and cooking evolved side-by-side, whether it’s Coq au Vin and red Burgundy, or a steak on the barbeque with a peppery Aussie Shiraz.

So there you go. Now try and get away with one bottle for a three-course meal for two in a restaurant.