Recommendations

Arroz doce with Kopke 40 Years Old

On the table are small bowls of arroz doce: rice that has simmered for three quarters of an hour in milk with cinnamon sticks and lemon zest until creamy, with cinnamon powder on top. Opposite it the port places a forty-year-old tawny, which smells of walnut, raisin and fig and gives the pudding depth.

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From the shelf

The bottle

Kopke is a port house from the Douro, founded in 1638. This is a tawny with an age statement of forty years: a blend of wines in oak casks whose average comes out at forty years. The bottle is at 20 percent alcohol and comes in 75 centilitres, with 147 grams of residual sugar and a total acidity of 5.36 grams per litre, at a pH of 3.57. With those 147 grams it sits above the limit of 130 grams that the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto uses for very sweet. The house describes a deep amber colour with a greenish rim, aromas of walnut, raisin and fig with vanilla and honey, and a dense, silky palate with a long finish; it serves it at 14 to 16 degrees.

Kopke 40 Years Old

The combination

Why this works together

Arroz doce is a modest dessert, and that is exactly why it suits a very old tawny. A forty-year-old port has so much about it that a powerful dish alongside would fight it; a pudding of rice, milk, cinnamon and lemon peel lets the wine do the talking. Even so, it is more than staying out of the way. In the milk the cinnamon sticks and lemon peel set down a spice note and a touch of citrus, and the house points to vanilla and honey in this bottle alongside the walnut, raisin and fig; those lines meet. Sweetness counts too: with 147 grams of residual sugar per litre the port is very sweet, and a pudding with 225 grams of sugar in the pan is sweet enough not to disappear beneath it. And the milk fat coats the tongue, which lets the 20 percent alcohol arrive softly; the 5.36 grams of acidity in the glass then keeps the whole thing fresh.

At the table

The dish

  • For 4 people
  • Ready in 50 minutes, plus cooling
  • Type dessert

What you need

  • 100 g short-grain rice
  • 400 ml water
  • 700 ml milk
  • 225 g granulated sugar
  • a strip of lemon peel
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • a pinch of salt
  • cinnamon powder for sprinkling

How to make it

  1. Put the water, the lemon peel, a cinnamon stick and the salt in a medium saucepan and bring everything to the boil over high heat.
  2. Take the cinnamon stick out as soon as the water boils and turn the heat down low. Add the rice, stir and let it cook for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  3. In a second pan, heat the milk with the second cinnamon stick over medium-high to high heat. Take the cinnamon stick out as soon as the milk starts to boil.
  4. Pour the hot milk into the cooked rice. Stir and let everything simmer gently over medium-low heat for 20 to 25 minutes until creamy, stirring occasionally.
  5. Remove the lemon peel, stir in the sugar and let the pudding cook for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  6. Spoon the pudding into small bowls and sprinkle it with cinnamon powder. Let it cool to room temperature before you serve it.

In the glass

Serving

Serve this forty-year-old tawny at the 14 to 16 degrees the house uses, or at the 10 to 14 degrees the institute names for tawny. Use a generous glass: for very old port the institute recommends a large glass in which the aroma can develop. Fill it no more than a third and take small amounts. Decanting is not necessary. An opened bottle of tawny with an age statement keeps for one to four months according to the institute; store it upright in a cool place.

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Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18