Saturday Kitchen 1.2

(by susie)

Despite the soggy weather, Chinatown was bags of fun for this shoot, gearing up as it was for Chinese New Year. And our kitchen was full of the scents of fine Chinese cooking as we prepped the dishes. A belated happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

Wine for Ching-He Huang’s steamed sea bass with seasonal clams and sizzling oil:

• Finest Picpoul de Pinet 2012 (£7.99, Tesco)

Susie’s comments: this is a really wholesome and delicately flavoured dish. Its earthy flavour profile works brilliantly with Picpoul – though we also found Albariño worked well when we tried it at home.

Wine for Ken Hom’s crispy fried pigeon:

• Brancott Estate Pinot Noir 2012 (widely available from £8.48, inc Majestic)

Susie’s comments: the gamey pigeon works brilliantly with Pinot Noir. Ken’s salt and pepper dip needs the extra fruitiness that a New World Pinot delivers – and this Marlborough one hits the nail on the head. ‘Fantastic’, was Ken’s verdict.

Recipes, details and links

Maimie McCoy was this week’s studio guest and her heaven and hell dishes, cooked by James Martin and with my wine matches, were as follows:

Caramel and coffee cake with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream: Torres Floralis Moscatel (from £8.49, widely available)

Steamed syrup sponge with custard: Anthemis Muscat of Samos 2005 (£9.99, Waitrose)

I promise that the Anthemis Muscat, which James didn’t manage to open, is delicious! Wine clips are as below. You can find all the recipes via the BBC Food site. Thanks to James, Ken, Ching-He, Maime and all the brilliant folk at Cactus TV. And thanks for reading!