Inder's Kitchen at Cambridge Food and Wine Society

Nick and Inder Bull formed Inder's Kitchen just under two years ago; London professionals with a young family, they moved out of the Big City to somewhere more genteel and, frustrated by the lack of a decent Indian take-away in Cambridge, decided to set up their own.

Now selected as one of just three finalists in this year's BBC Food and Farming awards, their order-takings have suddenly gone through the roof and they are looking at the next stage of development in what Nick described as having been a hard slog so far.

Fortunately for the Cambridge Food and Wine Society, Nick was able to take time out from running the Inder's twitter account and washing up pots and pans to present some of their foods along with wines matched by Jamie Harrison of Noel Young Wines with whom the have already run a number of joint events.

Indian food and wine are not natural bedfellows - whilst aromatic Thai and Vientnamese dishes often work well with well-structured Big Whites such as oaked Chardonnay or Riesling, the traditionally oily, sweet and hot dishes of an Indian take-away are often better suited to beers.

However, things are a little different at Inder's Kitchen and the food, whilst recognisably from a curry house, is made to a much higher standard and is more gastropub than Mill Road.

The challenge with matching these foods to wines, then, is that they need to be big enough to stand up to the food, with high acidity to cut through the richness of the sauces, good aromatics and (for the reds) low tannins in order not to clash with the bitterness of the spices; a touch of residual sugar also helps.

Furnished with a copy of the evening's menu, Jamie picked out a great set of wines that met all the criteria and matched perfectly with the dishes.

The Starters

Lentil cakes with shallots and fresh ginger, served with a tomato chutney - matched with St.Clair Riesling 2011, Marlborough, New Zealand £13.49

Chicken tikka bites served with a mint and coriander chutney - matched with Emiliana Adobe Gewurztraminer 2011, Rapel, Chile £8.19

The Mains

South Indian chicken curry with mustard seeds and curry leaves - matched with Running With Bulls Tempranillo 2011, Barossa, Australia £11.29

Mysoor tomato dal - matched with Planeta 'La Segreta Rosso' 2011, Sicily, Italy £8.75

Desserts

Coconut and raisin flapjack and gulab jamun - Paul Cluver Noble Late Harvest Riesling 2010, Elgin, South Africa £13.95

You can read Heidi Sladen's account of the evening on The Moving Foodie Blog.

Links

Cambridge Food and Wine Society - website, Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn
Inder's Kitchen - website, twitter, Facebook
Noel Young Wines - website, twitter, Facebook

Other related articles:

More on the Cambridge Food and Wine Society generally.
More on Noel Young Wines generally.