Saturday Kitchen 3.12.11

(by susie)

We’re slowly catching up with our Saturday Kitchen backlog, as Peter mentioned – and here’s a pre-Christmas edition of my own, recommending wines for two chefs with three Michelin stars between then: Nigel Haworth of Northcote Manor in Lancashire and Phil Howard of London’s The Square.

The great news is that the nice people at Cactus TV, with the kind permission of the BBC, have let us have the clips of the show, so you can see the fantastic dishes, beautiful wine – and me! – in glorious technicolour below.

By way of background, I was packed off to a blustery Southampton, just down the road from us.

Nigel was rustling up a delicious French partridge in a bread blanket with butternut crush and Brussels sprouts.

To accompany this I chose Asda’s Extra Special Dão 2010 (£5) – fresh and fruity but also wonderfully herbal, peppery and savoury, not to mention fantastic value.

It went down well in studio. Nigel described it as, ‘great: I love Portuguese wine, and that’s terrific’. According to James Martin it was a ‘bargain’ while Phil Howard termed it, ‘the very best accompaniment’.

You can see this clip here:

For Phil’s fillet of turbot with smoky celeriac purée, buttered cabbage and hazelnut pesto, something rich, nutty and white was required. Step up the very fine Tesco Finest Sonoma County Chardonnay 2009 (£8.99).

Phil liked it. ‘A great match – for a fish dish, this has punchy flavours and that Chardonnay goes fantastically well: a top choice.’

James noted it was ‘a bit of a bargain’ while Nigel termed it, simply, ‘beautiful.’

All in all, a very good day’s work. You can find the recipes for these delicious dishes – as well as others including monkfish tikka massala, spiced fried beef ribs and passion fruit delice – by clicking through to the BBC iplayer site.