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Sally Oldaker visits the Jinney Ring Craft Centre for an unusual evening of food and wine.
When you think of the Jinney Ring at Hanbury, you picture the Craft Centre where many of us have spent time browsing over the past couple of decades.
Recently under new ownership, it continues to offer a host of unusual hand-made wares, but what some may not realise is that The Jinney Ring is also a great place to go for an evening meal.
Ring’s Restaurant, housed in one of the wonderful converted farm buildings that make up the centre, is keen to spread the word that it’s far more than a country cafe where visitors can enjoy tea and scones (although they can do that too).
Open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, Ring’s changes its menu on a weekly basis and provides excellent food in picturesque surroundings, with superb views over the lake and nearby fields.
The restaurant is also holding a series of themed evenings to showcase its capabilities and encourage new diners. Acting on feedback from existing customers, Ring’s decided to combine its successful wine tasting nights with a foodie theme.
The result was the Indian Food & Wine Tasting Evening featuring food created by local chef Anita Sharma-James with Ring’s head chef Shirley Jenkins, and wine chosen by Clive Platman, wine correspondent for The Birmingham Post.
Having sampled Anita’s delicious food on a previous occasion, my colleague Louise and I were looking forward to trying more – and we were in for a treat, as the menu had been designed to represent the diversity of Indian cuisine.
With the event fully subscribed, Anita and Clive began by explaining how the food and wine had been chosen. Anita told us that the food would be from the north of India, full of different flavours, and Clive had picked wine to bring these out.
For everyone present, but especially for those who know next to nothing about wine, Clive’s talk provided a fascinating insight – he admitted that matching wine to food was a trial-and-error process, and that visiting his local unlicensed balti house had given him the chance to try out different combinations.
He told us that contrasts are important, for instance matching sweet wine to salty foods, and pointed out that the flavour of a wine changes when tasted with food.
We would be tasting five wines that evening (two red, two white and a rose) to accompany the menu of three starters and two main courses. After we’d tasted a couple of wines by themselves – the fresh Gascony Dry White VdP des Cotes de Gascoyne and the velvety Trivento Syrah Mendoza – the first course arrived.
This was mini pappadums with aubergine pickle, and was my favourite dish of the night: reasonably mild, the chutney was amazingly tasty despite containing only slow-cooked aubergine and a mixture of curry powders.
I thought the white wine went best with the dish, as it did not detract from the taste, while Louise preferred the red.
The next course was the intriguing Sev salad with crispy noodles, which turned out to consist of chopped noodles, red onion, tomato and coriander – the dryly spiced noodles made it rather like eating a less crunchy but equally tasty version of Bombay Mix.
By this time we had moved on to two more wines, the Alto Pampas Viognier Mendoza (white) and the Chateau Ste Eulalie AC Minervois (red). The former, with its sweet, apricot flavour, was the perfect match for the salad, although the smooth red also worked well.
This was Clive’s personal favourite, and he explained that both reds tonight had been chosen for their lack of tannins – wines high in tannins should generally be avoided if eating curry, which works best with fruity flavours.
The Eulalie proved ideal with our next dish, vegetable pakora with mint and apple chutney. This was another hit; the refreshing, cooling sauce a perfect partner to the spicy pakora.
Next up was Karai chicken, which Louise reported to have a very fruity taste and an unusual kick from the various spices.
I moved straight on to the final dish, an aubergine and potato curry, served with fragrant basmati rice (as was the chicken). This was the spiciest of the five, as the food had been getting progressively hotter throughout the evening, but it was just right; not so spicy as to strip out the flavours.
Louise said the Alto Pampas wine suited the chicken, and I found that the fruity fifth wine, Marques de Caceres Rioja Rosado, blended well with my dish – and so did the Eulalie, which I was enjoying another glass of.
Delicious naan bread arrived with Louise’s aubergine and potato (I received an additional small portion since I’d missed the chicken) to round off a fantastic evening of food and drink.
If this evening is anything to go by, Ring’s seems to be dedicated to giving customers what they want, capable of organising an entertaining and informative event, and happy to bring in experts for a top quality experience.
Don’t worry if you missed this event, as the Jinney Ring has plans for more in the coming months – and remember that Anita offers catering for private dinners and parties, as well as home demonstrations, through her own company, The Spice Trade.
She is currently holding Indian cookery classes at Tardebigge Community Hall and has limited places available – ring her for further details on 01527 873303 or 07764 686119.
Ring’s Restaurant
Jinney Ring Craft Centre Hanbury B60 4BU
01527 821272
https://www.jinneyring.co.uk