What's in season: August

Tom's wine recommendation
Lager is not the only partner for chilli hot food, and it certainly does not provide the answer for too hot a mouthful. For that, you need lassi, a mild yoghurt drink. But to really enjoy chilli and spices, the secret is not to overdo it, keep it subtle, as in Frances? recipes, and that way you can enjoy some decent wine.

The more we eat food prepared with chilli, the more convinced we are that there is one particular style of wine that suits it to near perfection. Forget about fruity young red wines and wines with soft tannins, forget about the often recommended 'spicy' Alsace Gewurztraminer and the New World Chardonnays loaded with tropical fruit.

Instead, match hot food with cold wine. And match the prickle of chilli on your taste buds with the prickle of carbon dioxide bubbles. California sparkling wine, Cava, Cap Classique from South Africa, sparkling `methode traditionelle' from Australia and the Loire and elsewhere, non-vintage supermarket Champagnes at home, and house Champagnes in restaurants are excellent with chilli-based food, whether Indian, Thai, Moroccan, or their fusion offspring. Good food from these regions does not rely for effect on the sledgehammer of large doses of chilli, but the subtle combination of spices, of which chilli is but one.

So for this month's menu, I recommend a good bubbly right through the meal, as simple as that.