THERE is a fundamental rule about party food and it is this food and wine must compliment one another. Put this double-act, together, and you are going to have a room full of wild party animals in no time flat. Hand someone a plate of reviving, zappy food, and a glass which positively flirts with festivity, and your party is going to be the party of the season.
So, how do you do this? Well, with food the answer lies with cooking that can be eaten with the fingers - so much more informal, so much more fun - and with flavours that are immediate and unapologetic. This is neither the time for restraint, nor for elaborate cooking which causes those party animals to come over all reverential for your efforts.
So, let's start with something that will have them instantly at their ease and lickin' their fingers after 10 seconds. That's right: we're talking chicken wings, which we have adapted from Marlena Spicler's The Classic Barbecue and Grill Cookbook (Dorling Kindersley).
Texas BBQ Wings
25-30 chicken wings
She-Devil Barbecue Sauce:
1 onion, coarsely grated
3-5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
250g (8 oz) ketchup
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2-3 dried chillies
275ml (9 fl oz) beer, plus extra if needed
250ml (8 fl oz) water, plus extra if needed
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon mild red chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin salt and black pepper
4 tablespoons cider vinegar
Galveston Dry Rub:
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon mustard powder
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon crumbled dried bay leaf
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
To make the barbecue sauce mix together the onion, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, sugar, chillies, beer, water, mustard, chilli powder, cumin, salt and pepper and half the vinegar. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes, or until it forms a thick sauce. If the mixture sticks or threatens to burn, add more water or beer. When the sauce is thick and flavourful, add the remaining vinegar and taste for seasoning. Remove from heat.
To cook the wings: mix together the dry-rub ingredients. Rub, the mixture over the chicken wings and leave for at least an hour, or overnight in the fridge.
Turn your oven up to max and when hot place a couple of roasting trays in to heat. After five minutes put the chicken wings into the trays on one layer and roast for 15-20 minutes, checking that they don't get too brown. Test with a skewer: the juices should run clear.
Take the wings from the oven and brush all over with the barbecue sauce and cook again for a further five minutes, or until the chicken chars lightly and the sauce coats the wings.
Party food needs anchovies, because the saltiness of the sacred little fish is just the thing to match with some zingy white wine, even with beer. Pissaladie is one of the great Mediterranean standby's and, if you make a couple of trays of it, you can feed an army.
The name comes from pissala (anchovy paste).
Claudia Roden, whose recipe this is, says "you may find the larger quantity of onion given in the recipe excessive but this is the way the Nicois (and I) prefer it". It's from her book Mediterranean Cookery (BBC).