hot, white, and red

It's hard to pair wine with fiery, spicy foods. The easiest thing to do is to choose a white wine that has a little sweet to it, something like an off-dry Riesling or a Gewürztraminer. But what if you are eating a meaty dish with red chile heat? Sure you can drink whatever you like with it, but white wine seems a little too delicate. In their book What to Drink with What you Eat, Dornenburg and Page quote Jill Gubesch (the sommelier at Frontera Grill in Chicago): "green chiles tend to work best with white wines, while dried chiles work best with red".

Dave made a very meaty chili on the weekend with homemade chile powder from ground, dried chiles and we and wanted a red wine with it. Our options were either light, acidic and fruity, like Beaujolais, or  deep, full and fruity, like Zinfandel. We went the way of the French.

A good value wine ($10.95) with lots of red cherry fruit, perfumy lilac aromas, and something like candy apple; this simple wine didn't overpower the complex flavours of the chile and, slightly chilled, it balanced out the heat nicely. It has an acidic finish that would work well with lots of food. Charcuterie? Grilled ribs?

Chile Powder
-adapted from America's Test Kitchen

2 dried ancho chiles
2 dried habanero chiles
2 dried cascabol chiles
2 tsps cocoa
2 tsps dried oregano
2 tsps cumin seed
1/4 cup cornmeal
salt
-de-stem and de-seed the chiles and slice them into large strips
-toast the chiles, turning frequently, in a sautée pan for about 10 minutes
-throw everything in a blender or food processor and grind until powdery

NOTE: you can use any dried chile that you like; in Ottawa there isn't always a great selection, but check out the Mercado Latino store on Montreal Road (if you go on Saturday morning they have homemade tamales on offer and they are delicious).