What dishes do you find difficult to pair with wine?
This recipe for Vietnamese Beef and Broccoli is one of my favourite weeknight meals, but it is challenging to pair with wine. The beef makes you want to reach for a red wine, but the umami flavours of fish sauce, broccoli and peanuts draw you towards a white. I don’t usually have off-dry, red wines, but in this case, it absolutely does the trick.
2019 Periquita $10.99
This wine is produced by José Maria da Fonseca and it is a blend of 58% Castelão, 39% Trincadeira and 3% Aragonez (or Tempranillo). This wine spent 6 months in both French and American new oak.
The 2019 Periquita has aromas of cherry, plum jam, ripe blackberries, vanilla and hints of baking spice. This wine is off-dry and medium bodied with medium tannins and acidity. The palate offers cherry, vanilla, ripe black plums, tobacco and black pepper with a short finish.
Vietnamese Beef and Broccoli
Serves 4
Ingredients
1/2 Pound Thinly Sliced Beef
1 TBSP Sesame Oil (divided)
4-6 Cups of Broccoli Florets
1 TBSP Grated Ginger
3 Cloves of Garlic (minced)
2 TBSP Fresh Lime Juice
2 TBSP Fish Sauce
1/2 Cup Chopped Cilantro
1/2 Cup Chopped Mint
1/4 Cup Chopped Salted Peanuts
1/3 Cup Finely Chopped Red Onion
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
Cooked Jasmine Rice
Directions
Heat two teaspoons of sesame oil in a frying pan, over medium heat. Sauté the broccoli florets, seasoned with salt, until they are tender but still crisp; set broccoli aside on a plate. Heat one teaspoon of sesame oil in the frying pan and sauté beef until almost cooked through. Add salt, to taste, along with the garlic and ginger and continue to sauté until beef is cooked through. Add the lime juice and fish sauce and cook until almost all of the sauce has evaporated. Add the cooked broccoli to the beef mixture and stir to coat. Turn off the heat and add the cilantro, mint, peanuts and red onions. Stir until combined. Serve over jasmine rice. Enjoy!