Food Pairing | Grass Roots Shiraz with Spiced Cauliflower Steak

2023 Grass Roots Shiraz with Spiced Cauliflower Steak

Down to earth in the truest sense. A whole vegetable treated like the main event, and a wine grown close to the soil. No fuss, nothing to prove.

2023 Grass Roots Shiraz

Spiced Roasted Cauliflower Steak with Black Olive Tapenade, Tomato Sugo and Fresh Herbs

Serves 4 (vegan)

Ingredients

• 2 large cauliflowers
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper
• A handful of flat-leaf parsley and basil, roughly torn

For the sugo

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 800g tinned whole tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar

For the tapenade

• 150g pitted kalamata olives
• 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220C. Trim the cauliflower leaves and stand each head upright. Cut two thick steaks, about 3cm, from the centre of each. Keep the offcuts for another day.
2. Mix the oil with the paprika, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. Brush both sides of each steak generously.
3. Roast on a lined tray for 25 to 30 minutes, turning once, until deeply charred at the edges and tender through the stem.
4. Meanwhile, make the sugo. Heat the oil in a pan, soften the onion for 8 minutes, add the garlic for 1 minute, then the tomatoes and sugar. Crush the tomatoes with a spoon and simmer gently for 20 minutes until thick. Season.
5. For the tapenade, pulse the olives, capers, garlic, oil and lemon juice to a coarse paste. Leave it rough.
6. Spoon the sugo onto warm plates, sit a cauliflower steak on top, add a spoonful of tapenade and scatter with the herbs.

Why it works: the char and the earthy spice meet the savoury spice and earth on the nose, while the tomato's acidity keeps the wine's black fruit sweetness in balance.

Not cooking tonight? Lamb shawarma with hot chips

Meat off the spit, wrapped in flatbread, eaten with your hands. There is nothing pretentious about it, which is the whole point of this wine. The char and the warm spice line up with the savoury, earthy notes in the glass, and those gentle tannins do not need a fancy plate to make sense of them. Get the chips in the wrap. That is not negotiable.