Óscar Tobía with Thanksgiving Turkey

June 6, 2015, 2:44 am

≪ Previous: Marqués de Cáceres with T-bone steak

Winery Tobía
www.bodegastobia.com
D.O.C: La Rioja
Grapes: 90% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano.
Ageing: Malolactic fermentation in French and Hungarian oak barrels, 25-month ageing in them.
Price: 18 €

Despite their strict orthodoxy and typical features, all the wines designed and made by Óscar Tobía have a feature of progress, of going beyond tendencies and established rules to get very personal, easily identifiable wines. This reserva has got the highest marks from critics, mainly international, undoubtedly due to that great personality.

In nose, ripe black fruit is clear, together with the aromas from ageing in that peculiar Hungarian oak, with nuances of coffee, toffee and tobacco. It surprises in mouth for its perfect balance in spite of the great complexity of tastes.

It is a fleshy wine, although that silkiness and seriousness make it not seem so moreish as it really is, and its mineral notes, like ink, make it more powerful.

Thanksgiving turkey

This is undoubtedly the great American meal, their signature dish since this day was declared national holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. The early settlers, known as the Pilgrims, celebrated this day as far as in 1620 with turkey, which is a native of this continent, and they must have stuffed it with fruit, since it is a very dry, even quite tasteless bite.

There are a thousand recipes, as usual with traditional dishes, from those involving a microwave oven, frozen turkey and all types of industrial preparations, to the most sophisticated ones, which seem taken from a medieval recipe book but within the limits of a gourmet’s decency. All of them are suitable for this pairing, and when people in America try it, they will certify it as compulsory as corn cobs and cranberry sauce.

Pairing

This is a classic pairing, not only for the correspondence between the wine and the food but also for the festive character of the day, when we are supposed to roll out the red carpet and enjoy a great Rioja wine such as this one.

Virtually all the ingredients go well with this wine, excepting the cranberry jam, which can make it drier and override the aromas of ripe fruit, but it will not affect the whole dish as long as it is consumed in small amounts.

I usually advise consuming red wines, even vintage ones, at cellar temperature, that is, about 15ºC, but in this case I would go up to 18ºC, since many delicious aromas must be perceived and this food does not warm up the mouth much.

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American recipes

June 6, 2015, 3:24 am

≫ Next: Abadía de San Quirce with Bluefin tuna sushi

≪ Previous: Óscar Tobía with Thanksgiving Turkey

The ingredients are calculated for 4 people

BBQ Ribs

2 slabs baby back pork ribs
1 can fried tomato purée
1 white onion
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon hot paprika
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 glass molasses (or honey)
1 glass apple cider vinegar
2 spoonfuls Perrins sauce
Extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

My favourite recipe for pork ribs includes macerating overnight in porter beer with thyme and heather honey. That is a true delicacy, but we are talking about traditional American dishes, so let’s cook real “Ribs”.

Many BBQ restaurants use industrial sauces or a simple mix of ketchup, cider vinegar and Perrins sauce, or even soya sauce, but we are going to be orthodox and cook a high-level BBQ sauce.

Start by making a traditional stir-fry with the onion, finely chopped, and the garlic cloves. When it goes brown, add the can of fried tomato and the vinegar. It must boil for a while so that the acetic acid evaporates from the vinegar (it feels itchy in the nose). Then, add the spices, Perrins sauce, honey or molasses, salt and pepper. Don’t be shy with the salt, as it is the only salt the ribs will have at all.

That blend is a suggestion, but personal variations can be made. For example, you may use Tabasco sauce instead of paprika, or even chilli peppers –chipotles, serranos or others. You may also add chutney or some fruit, either fresh or canned, such as tamarind, mango or orange peel.

Bring the mix to the boil and check the texture –it must be a bit like syrup.

Pass the mixture through the blender and leave to stand.

Dip the ribs in the sauce and leave it overnight, moving it from time to time so that it gets totally seasoned.

The ideal way of roasting the ribs is on a wood barbecue, turning them over regularly and painting them with a brush dipped in the sauce.

If there is no barbecue available, they can be roasted in the oven at 170ºC for a couple of hours, putting sauce on both sides every thirty minutes.

California Roll

100grs. sushi rice
100 grs. spider crab meat
1 ripe avocado
1 cucumber
1 can flying fish roe
Toasted sesame

Fusion food? It was, originally, since it was created by a Japanese cook living in Los Angeles, Mashita Ichiro, who designed this maki-sushi adapted to Californian tastes in his restaurant Tokyo Kaikan. It has become a universal dish: even in Shanghai there is a restaurant specialized in California Roll.

The mise en place is very important: everything we are going to use must be carefully placed as if on an operating table.

Prepare some gohan (white rice dressed for sushi) and reserve it on a bamboo basket, covering it with a wet towel.

Lay out some nori seaweed leaves on the working table, the clean crab meat in a bowl, the cucumber, cut in strips in a bowl with icy water, sliced avocado, sesame and flying fish roe on small trays.

Cover your rolling mat with plastic wrap to prevent the rice grains from getting stuck to the bamboo sticks.

Lay out a seaweed leaf on the working table, place some gohan rice on it and, with your hands wet with warm water, spread it on the leaf until you get a layer about 1 cm. thick. It is useful to have a bowl with warn water at hand to keep your hands wet.

If you have compacted the rice with your hands well, you will be able to manipulate it without any risk. Place it on the rolling mat but upside down, that is, with the seaweed facing top. That is the most difficult step, but it can be made easier if you place the mat on it before turning it upside down, or by placing the seaweed and the rice on a piece of plastic, paper or aluminium wrap.

Put a strip of shredded crab meat on the seaweed (some people use surimi, but that is rubbish), together with a strip of cucumber from end to end and avocado slices, so that you can see the centre of the seaweed fully covered with these ingredients.

Now you will undergo the next skill test. Roll this with the aid of the mat, holding it tight but not letting it come out through the extremes. When you feel it compact enough, place the roll on the table, cut it in halves and put some roe on them –some cooks make them roll on the hoe to cover them completely, but I think that a bit is enough. Place the halves side to side, sprinkle toasted sesame on them and cut each piece in halves, and then in halves again, so that there will be eight pieces. Keep in mind that they must be bite-size pieces.

Chiles en nogada

8 green peppers (Italian or from Málaga)
50 grs. almonds
50 grs. walnuts
4 eggs
Wheat flour
½ litre liquid cream
100 grs. fresh goat cheese
1 onion
5 garlic cloves
50 grs. currant grapes
50 grs. dried peaches
1 apple
1 pear
200 grs. meat, 50/50 pork and beef
1 pomegranate
Fresh leaves of parsley, coriander, mint or any other herbs you may like.

This is one of the most valued dishes by Mexican gourmets, and they are quite right because it is a haute-cuisine dish with delicious results.

This dish has got history in it, as it is said to have been designed by the nuns at Santa Mónica convent on September 27, 1821, to welcome Emperor Agustín de Iturbide in Puebla and so celebrate the independence of Mexico.

This dish is difficult to cook; the ingredients list may seem exaggerated, but it is actually a lighter version. The original recipe has got three times as many ingredients as this one.

Firstly, roast the peppers in the oven or, even better, over hot coals. Once singed, cover them with oven paper, allow them to cool, peel them, remove the pips, split longitudinally and set aside.

For the filling, sauté the chopped onion with the garlic and add the fruits and the meat. Allow to sweat to eliminate excess water.

For the sauce, crumble the cheese and heat it with the cream and the nuts, previously fried and crushed –use a mincer or a chopper, as they must be hardly seen.

Beat the egg whites until they are stiff and beat the yolks separately. Stuff the peppers and secure each one with a toothpick. Dip them in the yolks, then in flour, then in the whites and fry in plenty of oil until they become gold coloured.

Serve the ingredients hot, covering the peppers with the sauce and garnishing them with pomegranate grains and green leaves (I love the fresh and spicy taste of spearmint, but in Mexico it is customary to use coriander or curly parsley), trying to reproduce the colours of the Mexican flag as those nuns did.

Chili

½ kilo red beans
½ kilo minced pork meat
2 onions
2 red peppers
2 carrots
6 garlic cloves
6 red chili (chipotles)
2 large tomatoes, very ripe
6 chiles chipotles (fresh or canned)
50 grs. black chocolate (70% cocoa)
Coriander, cumin and oregano

In that difficult border that unites or separates Texas and Mexico, we have this Mexican-style recipe, but it does not come from Puebla, Oaxaca or Veracruz, but from the border states, because nobody can be certain if it belongs to one country or the other. In cooking terms, pure Tex-Mex. If we take into account that California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, the four southern border states, were first Spanish then Mexican until the middle of the 19^th century, we can understand this blend of cultures.

A thousand brands of canned chili con carne can be found in the American market, as it is a usual meal in USA, but it is worth taking the trouble to cook this stew. You will enjoy it.

As required, soak the beans overnight in mineral water. It must be low in calcium so that they do not peel off.

Prepare a stir-fry with the onion, the garlic, the carrot and the red pepper. When it gets tanned, pour it in the pot with the beans and their water. It is advisable to cook them in a pressure cooker for fifteen minutes, then leave it to cool until it can be opened and continue cooking at atmospheric pressure.

Prepare a similar stir-fry in a large frying pan (it can be the same, using a half for the beans and the other half for the meat). When it gets tanned, add the tomatoes, peeled and without the seeds, the chilli peppers and the spices. Either fresh or canned chilli peppers can be used but be careful with how spicy they are; the stew must be hot but not too much. The stir-fry must be slightly sweet, so add a spoonful of cocoa, mole or black chocolate.

Once the water excess is eliminated, add the meat, season it generously and stir.

Add the mixture to the beans when they are soft and allow it to boil until it gets creamy.

Do not add any more salt until it is done, because there is no going back if you put too much in it. Taste it for spice, taking into account the diners’ tastes. If necessary, chopping some canned chipotles and serving them as a side dish for those more used to spicy food is a good solution.

It is customary in most TexMex restaurants to put a layer of Cheddar cheese on top and grill it for a few seconds. Some cornbread chips can be seen in the picture.

Grilled lobster

2 lobsters about 1 kg./1,5 kg.
100 grs. salted butter
Corn oil
Chive
Parsley
Sorrel
Savory
Lemon verbena
Spearmint

The picture shows a clawed lobster, not what we would call a lobster, but Americans do not difference between them, they are both usually called lobsters.

Tons of lobsters are consumed across the USA, not only in the coast areas where they are reared in culture but everywhere. For example, the most famous restaurant in Cincinnati, 700 km. from the sea, is called “Red Lobster”.

It is an eminently French recipe, what they call Homard au beurre persillé - fines herbes, herbes de Provence, perfumé… The difference is that this recipe does not have garlic in it, since this ingredient is not customarily used in American haute-cuisine.

It is advisable to know the diners’ tastes before you prepare the butter, because many delicious and aromatic herbs can be used, such as fennel, dill, tarragon, cumin or coriander, but if someone finds any of them unpleasant, take it off or you will spoil his/her meal. An ideal blend would be chive, sorrel, coriander and tarragon, but some people may dislike it.

The butter must be malleable but not liquid, at about 20ºC. Chop finely the herbs (always fresh), mix them with the butter until the mixture is homogeneous and keep it in the fridge.

When the grill embers are ready, split the lobsters in two halves and place them on the grid, with the open side facing up. You may spray some corn oil on them, but it is not essential. When the meat gets white, turn them upside down so they get the taste from the embers and get marked by the grid rods.

Serve them facing up, with some little balls of the prepared butter on them. It will melt immediately but it will reach our mouth with all the freshness from the herbs.

Grilled tamales

For the tamales
1/2 kg. corn flour for tamales
1/2 kg. lard
1 spoonful baking soda
1/2 litre warm chicken bouillon
Salt
1 package corn leaves
1/2 kg. fresh manchego cheese
For the "mole"
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 carrot
2 ripe tomatoes
1 red pepper
50 grs. fried peanuts
1 spoonful cocoa
1 clove
1 cinnamon stick

This is a very complicated dish to cook. On practically every corner in any street in Mexico you can find women with a couple of buckets full of homemade tamales, wrapped in leaves. They are sold cheaply and are delicious as they are, but you can also take them home and give them a more sophisticated preparation like this one, with mole and melted cheese.

There are preserved tamales in the market, both canned and in metalized envelopes with inert gas, but they are not easy to find in all provinces in Spain, so we are going to cook homemade tamales.

It is essential to get corn flour for tamales: make sure that it is specified in the package because it is impossible to get this preparation at home -it even contains some kind of ashes and lime that I could not describe.

Beat the lard as if you were whisking egg whites to form stiff peaks. It will take quite a long time, even with an industrial mixer, so if you use a wire whisk your arm will suffer until the lard is transformed into foam. It is a bore but it is essential.

The corn leaves must be soaked for quite a while to make them flexible. If not, we will not be able to wrap the tamales.

Mix the flour with salt and baking powder in a bowl -baking powder is the most similar thing to tequesquite, impossible to find in Spain.

Stir well the mixture and mix it, little by little, with the lard foam. It must be totally homogeneous. Then add the chicken bouillon, which must be at the same temperature, and beat until the dough gets uniform.

Now let's make the stuffing.

Tamales can be stuffed with anything we like: guajolote (turkey) mole, chicken with green mole (chilli), even what is called there rajas" which can be jalapeños or poblanos chilli. The latter are the tastiest, but we are going to use them to finish the dish, so we can use chicken in green sauce -this is made by boiling green pepper with jalapeños, but it can be purchased readymade. The meat can be the leftovers from a roast chicken, or you may simply boil a chicken breast.

Spread a portion of the dough on a corn leaf, add some shredded meat and put some green sauce on top. Wrap it with the leaf, folding the empty part on the stuffed one. Make as many as you can and place them in a steamer. Put a couple leaves on the bottom and place the tamales on them so that they support one another. Put two more leaves on top and cover with a wet napkin. Close the steamer and cook for one hour. Take one tamal out and check that the dough has set. The tamales are now made.

For the sauce, make a stir-fry with the vegetables, very thinly chopped - in mirepoix as it is called-, with the spices. Once it is done and quite dry (a bit of bouillon can be added), sprinkle the cocoa and stir well until it is completely dissolved. Take out the cinnamon stick and pass the sauce through a Chinese strainer.

To finish the dish, spread some mole on the baking tray, put the tamales on it –without the leaves-, cover them with mole and sprinkle the cheese on top –crumble it with your fingers. Bake in a hot oven (220ºC) until the cheese starts to brown and serve.

Hamburger

¾ kilo beef meat
¼ kilo pork meat
2 eggs
Spices

It may sound like a truism, but the world of hamburgers in USA is a whole culture, almost a way of living. Not only are there large chains of restaurants that specialize in them –not synthetic McDonald’s-type but quality ones- but every family has got their specialties cooked on their garden barbecue at weekends, holidays and family gatherings.

The three key ingredients are the quality of the hamburger itself, the fire and the side dishes.

The ideal fire is a grill with dry holmoak or mimosa wood, but the possibilities in each home are limited.

Each side dish is a recipe itself, but my favourites are baked potatoes with sour cream and the cabbage salad called coleslaw.

In Spain, quality products for hamburgers are already available. In fact, it is easier to get a good quality red meat hamburger already prepared than to find this meat in butchers’ shops, since it is usually reserved for restaurants.

The proportion of meat indicated must be respected because pork meat provides fat that gets melted when cooked, making the piece juicier.

Each cook has got a favourite blend of spices, usually a family secret. This is my suggestion: smoked salt, sweet paprika, chilli powder, white pepper, celery seed, ground ginger, dry mustard and dill. It is very orthodox blend and none of the spices can be perceived individually, it just enhances the flavour of the meat spectacularly.

Mix the meat with the spices and the beaten eggs, leave the dough to stand for a couple of hours and shape the portions according to each diner’s taste: some people prefer them one pound in weight, almost raw inside, others like quarter pound burgers, like the industrial ones.

Huajuapan mole

2 kg. kid rump meat or 1 kg. paschal (older) lamb
1 can piquillo peppers
2 spoonfuls ñora meat (spiced red peppers)
1 chilli pepper
1 onion
2 lemons
1 head of garlic
1/2 kg. green beans
1 can black beans
1 can fried tomato sauce
1 bay leaf
1 spoonful hot paprika
1 spoonful sweet paprika
1 bunch of fresh coriander

Also known as “Mole de caderas” or “Mole de chivo” (young goat), this dish is a matter of rivalry between the states of Puebla and Oaxaca, specifically the cities of Tehuacán and Huajapán de León, where there are multitudinous festivals in which more than 30000 animals are slaughtered, which gives us an idea of the magnitude of the event.

This dish is very different from what we usually know as “mole”; it is almost a meat soup with vegetables but with surprising flavours.

As you can see, the list of ingredients is huge, however we have had to make some changes because the traditional recipes have some ingredients that can only be found there, for instance "ejotes", which had to be replaced by green beans - the most similar ingredient we found.

The first step will be to season the meat, which will be paschal lamb as I suppose Oaxaca kid will not be available. Season the meat in pieces with both paprikas and the juice from the lemons, and leave to marinate overnight.

The following day, put the meat in a large pot together with the canned peppers, the ñora meat, the garlic, the tomato sauce and the bay leaf. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Once it is boiling, lower the flame to medium intensity (6/10) and cook for more than one hour, until the meat is reasonably soft.

Leave it to stand for one more night so the flavours can blend and some ingredients get oxidized, achieving a deeper and warmer taste.

The following day, add the black beans, the onion in slices and the green beans (previously washed and split). Cook until the beans are edible (not too soft). Chopped fresh coriander can be either sprinkled when the dish is served or served on the side in case somebody does not like this spice.

Mixed Ceviche

½ kg. clean sea bass
4 scallops
4 raw prawns
2 limes
1 red onion
1 bunch coriander
2 spoonfuls yellow chilli pepper

Ceviches have become fashionable in our capitalist, gourmet, Western world. Every day we can see creations that take the word to absurd extents, such as the “Tomato and onion ceviche with extra virgin olive oil”, that is, simple tomato and onion salad.

Real Peruvian ceviche is made with “corvina campera” (Scianea gilberti), one of the most valued fish in that coast for its fine and soft meat. In Europe we have another species (Argyrosomus regius), a bit different but also delicious.

An orthodox variation is the mixed ceviche with sea bass and seafood, which is usually used in ceviches, especially some large prawns called “camarones” there. It is important to check their freshness or, if they are frozen, their traceability, since they are going to be consumed raw.

A usual mistake is to cut the fish into thin slices carpaccio-style. It is essential in ceviches to be able to taste the raw fish differentiated from the dressing, as well as its texture; you have to feel the bite.

Watch the fish carefully when you cut it in case it has got anisakis. To prevent this, it can also be frozen for a couple of days, which will hardly affect its texture.

Only the white part of the scallops –the muscle- must be used. Splitting each one in four pieces will help taste its sweet flavour.

Take the dorsal cord off the prawns. It may contain sand and even bacteria.

Once the three ingredients have been prepared, squeeze the limes and mix the juice with the yellow chilli pepper and the chopped coriander (this is optional as some people can’t stand it). Pour this sauce on the fish and seafood, stir up and serve immediately with thin slices of red onion, julienne-style.

Some cooks leave it marinating for some minutes or even hours, but the dressing is so strong that it will override the taste of the fish and seafood.

Snow crab salad

4 snow crabs
1 lettuce
4 sticks green celery
½ litre mayonnaise
Dijon mustard
1 lemon

The tradition of consuming crabs in USA dates back to the first settlers, who used them in soups and stews, or simply grilled over hot coals. Nowadays, it is an industry that moves thousands of tons of crab meat, there are specialized restaurants and multitudinous gastronomic events are held, such as the famous Chesapeake blue crab feasts, immortalized by great Jack Nicholson’s movie As Good as It Gets.

Among the hundreds of varieties that are consumed in both coasts, the one with a highest quality is the Snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) –not to be confused with Royal crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus), also fished in the Bering Sea, larger but less fine and tasty.

Snow crab salad is a dish with a clear influence of French cuisine and most appetizing but expensive. Anyway, it does not reach the level of our Galician Spider crabs.

Only cells and legs are commercialized, boiled and deep-frozen, so you only have to leave it to defrost as slowly as possible to keep the meat smooth. Then, break the shell with a hammer and put the meat in a bowl. The biggest pieces of meat must be set aside to garnish the finished salad. Mix the rest with mayonnaise, scented with Dijon mustard and some drops of lemon juice.

Make a bed with the lettuce cut in julienne strips and little celery sticks. Put the mixture of mayonnaise and crab on it and garnish the dish with the bigger parts of the meat from the legs to make it more attractive.

Thanksgiving turkey

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Abadía de San Quirce with Bluefin tuna sushi

June 6, 2015, 3:45 am

≫ Next: Astrales with Hamachi Kama

≪ Previous: American recipes

Winery Bodegas Imperiales
www.bodegasimperiales.com/
D.O.: Ribera de Duero
Grapes: 100% Tinta fina
Ageing: 4 months in the vat, 14 months in French and American oak barrels.
Price: 15€

This Denomination of Origin covers a range of 120 km., therefore we can expect significant differences among its hawthorns.

The grapes from Gumiel de Izán, north of Aranda de Duero and 800 m. above sea level, will not be alike those from Quintanilla de Onésimo, next to Valladolid. Anyway, they are small, robust grapes which have suffered harsh winter conditions, so the wines obtained from them are dense, powerful, almost creamy. Ripe fruit mixes with ageing aromas, resulting in that profile of spices, cocoa and balsamic hints.

It is a long wine that hits the tongue winning over our senses but it remains for a while changing sensations, therefore it is not advisable to pair it with dense dishes because the wine deserves tasting.

Red tuna sushi

It is needless to explain what sushi is at this stage, but it is advisable to remark that it is not a raw fish dish; it is a rice dish, although there is usually raw fish in it -especially when it is a nigirizuhi, like this one- and not other ingredients such as Japanese omelette, meat, grilled vegetables, seafood, roe…

Several fish can be placed on top of sushi dishes, but the most appreciated one is red tuna, the tastiest one together with salmon, delicious when paired with a red wine with great aromatic power like this Ribera de Duero.

If there is no red tuna available, “bonito” (white tuna from the Cantabrian Sea) can be used in summer, as long as it is guaranteed to be freshly fished.

Pairing

The irruption of Japanese cuisine in Western countries has raised controversy on what wines should be paired with sushi. Nearly all French sommeliers restrict themselves to white wines, including champagne. This is sometimes right, as it happens with Le Figaro, which advises a 1996 “S de Salon”, but at a price of 1000€ a bottle it is a bit excessive.

I have long ago found that seafood goes better with “crianza” red wines than with white ones, so I decided to try it with this sushi (just this one, it may not work with a bass sushi), and the result was surprising, not spectacular but friendly, we could say that it fits like a glove. Without stridencies, the wine respected the dish highlighting the iodized hints of the fish, while it was reinforced in that generous, dense, aromatic profile we have commented upon.

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Astrales with Hamachi Kama

June 6, 2015, 4:27 am

≫ Next: Carchelo with Sukiyaki

≪ Previous: Abadía de San Quirce with Bluefin tuna sushi

Winery Astrales
www.astrales.es
D.O.: Ribera del Duero
Grapes: 100% Tinta fina
Ageing: 22 months in barrel
Price: 25€

This winery was born at the beginning of this century, when the streets were paved with gold in Spain. It had very presumptuous ideas, like making just a great “reserva” wine, the best of Ribera.

The “Mauro” family (“García” sounds poor) abandoned the sinking ship in hard times, but another classy winemaker came, none other than Pepe Hidalgo, and Luis Delgado, the owner, can relax in the knowledge that the 97/100 score given by Proensa on its 2015 guide will not be just a memory.

Little-known as it is, Astrales is one of the greatest in Ribera de Duero. Located in the harsh lands of Anguix, in the Burgos region, and using its own grapes, harvest after harvest the wines are gaining harmony –they were powerful from the beginning. Very ripe fruit and unbeatably toasted wood dominate, but minerality must also be tasted, because it is really surprising.

Hamachi Kama

In many respects, this is a gourmet dish that is served only in grill restaurants specialized in fish, and never outside Japan, unless you know the owner of some Japanese restaurant in Europe and trust him as to order this dish in advance.

It is not an expensive dish; in fact that grouper collar shown in the picture was a present from my fishmonger because it is hardly marketed. Few restaurants buy whole pieces nowadays, so they do not offer that cut, unless they specialize in Hamachi Kama, of course.

In Japan it is usually prepared with the collars of a farming perch called yellowtail. The fish is served alive on the table and dissected in the customer’s view (they are like this), then the collars are collected and grilled as explained in the recipe.

Pairing

Dealing with a wine like this one, one of the best in Spain, is a big responsibility for anyone. Nevertheless, it was Luis who drew my attention to this unusual pairing he had tried at the other side of the world. I felt that a door was opened, but I could not imagine what I would find at the other side.

When I sat at the table I understood that this would be one of the star pairings in this book. Something like this happens with every book I write, the miracle of pairings, a combination I would have never thought of.

It is easy to find explanations after the event: the collar being the most gelatinous and greasy part of the fish, the toasted flavour from the grill, the clean tastes and so forth. I strongly advice you to do the test; you will be flabbergasted by an experience you will not forget. You may even try it with other similar preparations.

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Carchelo with Sukiyaki

June 6, 2015, 4:34 am

≫ Next: Casal de Armán with Salmon tartare

≪ Previous: Astrales with Hamachi Kama

Winery Carchelo
www.carchelo.com/
D.O.: Jumilla
Grapes: 40% Monastrell, 30% Syrah, 15% Tempranillo, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon
Ageing: 12 months in French oak barrels.
Price: 9,50 €

Located in the Sierra del Carche Regional Park, with maximum heights up to 1371 metres, this winery has been a pioneer in Jumilla and all the Murcia region for many reasons, being the most remarkable one its policy of new quality wines, with the inclusion of foreign varieties which, when arrested with must from little known ones such as Monastrell, gave birth to some dazzling wines, vigorous, dense in colour, aroma and body, a new dimension in Spanish wine.

Step by step, the vineyards have reached their highest level and the wines are becoming sharpened, more elegant, always with that torrent of aromas of ripe black fruits, enhanced by the malolactic fermentation in barrels and the ageing in well-toasted new oak, which leaves balsamic aromas to complete that awesome range of nuances.

Sukiyaki

In the sixties, long before Japanese cuisine boomed in our society, a singer called Kyu Sakamoto got a hit with a ballad entitled “Ue o muite aruko”. Since nobody knew what it meant, a British producer called Louis Benjamin released it with his record label Pye Records as “Sukiyaki”. We did not know what it meant, either, but it was a success and that is how this vegetables and beef stew became a famous dish worldwide.

Traditionally, it was a festive dish which used to be cooked on a bonfire in the open country and the whole family ate from it, but since it became famous restaurants have developed sophisticated techniques to cook it on the table in customers’ view. Although it is not as well-known nowadays as it used to be, it is still very pleasant and tasty.

Pairing

The first time I tried a sukiyaki there were no wines like this in Spain, so I had to confine to one of those reserve red wines that were so fashionable in the seventies.

That was the idea, accompanying this complex stew with an aromatic red wine, but Carchelo has opened many doors I could not imagine of, since its fragrance turns every sip into a garnish of the dish, another ingredient in it.

It is such a powerful taste that I was concerned about the flavour of the vegetables, but they actually stayed untouched, perhaps because of the slight cooking in light soya sauce, which keeps vegetable flavours.

Despite the ageing, I advise consuming this wine at cellar temperature, about 15º/16º.

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Casal de Armán with Salmon tartare

June 6, 2015, 1:04 pm

≫ Next: Finca La Emperatiz with Fried rice with prawns

≪ Previous: Carchelo with Sukiyaki

Winery Casal de Armán
www.casaldearman.net
D.O.: Riberiro
Grapes: Treixadura 90%, Godello 5%, Albariño 5%.
Ageing: 9 months rest in the vat
Price: 10 €

This winery is somehow the figurehead of the new Ribeiro, the resurgence of what was already a flourishing wine region a thousand years ago, with a Denomination of Origin dating from 1932, but which was condemned by Franco’s dictatorship to make cloudy bar wines for forty years, plus a similar lap of inertia.

This is an amazing wine, cared from the vineyard by means of the most advanced and sophisticated methods of biodynamic farming (it is not sold as organic wine, but it is elaborated that way), which brings to our cup a set of aromas of hay, white flowers and fennel with balsamic hints, as well as clean fruit, ripe but fresh, with citric notes (grapefruit) and memories of mint.

Bottles three or four years old must not be undervalued, since the wine changes for the better.

Japanese salmon tartar

Salmon is still among the mythical fish of Japanese cuisine. It is therefore unusual to find a good assorted sashimi where the intense red colour of Hira-Zukuri fillets is not present.

It is also customary to use the trimmings resulting from the preparation of blocks for cutting and to dress it separately as with sashimi, which recalls those hundreds of tartars that have become fashionable and are presented as local in many menus, even in Japan.

It can also be dressed European-style, which is much more complex but equally tasty, and this wine will carry out its mission brilliantly.

Pairing

I was looking for a dish to enhance the virtues of this wine, because it really deserves it, but this wine is much more versatile than that. If we prepare a Japanese table of raw fish, you know, sushi, sashimi, tataki…, this wine will take the level of the gastronomic experience to its highest point. Respecting the subtle flavours of the fish, the wine will bring a levitating blast of flowers and fruit with every sip.

One of the points of conflict in these preparations is the soya sauce, together with wasabi and yakumis, so I concentrated on how the wine behaved after such aggressions, but it remained unmoved, so there is no risk of spoiling a bottle which is not easy to get, especially in Japan.

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Finca La Emperatiz with Fried rice with prawns

June 6, 2015, 1:10 pm

≫ Next: Cigales rosé with Tandoori chicken

≪ Previous: Casal de Armán with Salmon tartare

Winery Finca La Emperatriz
www.bodegaslaemperatriz.com/
D.O.C: La Rioja
Grapes: 94% Tempranillo, 3% Garnacha, 2% Viura, 1% Graciano
Ageing: 23 months in oak barrels (70% American, 30% French).
Price: 14,50 €

Nearly twenty years have passed since the Hernáiz brothers started their "crazy" project, but the results are silencing many critical voices that foresaw a multi-million failure.

Currently, they often get international awards and are reaching new markets all around the world, which is not surprising having tasted the wine and taking the price into account.

The traditional "coupage" from Rioja, the great care of the vineyard and the grape harvest and the new barrels have achieved a mixture of aromas of ageing with cocoa, cedar, tobacco and vanilla, which do not overshadow the primary aromas of ripe fruit. This, together with an structure of polished but powerful acidity, make this wine a prototype of what the new great Riojas are.

Fried rice with shrimps

In the East there are two main groups of rice dishes: those made of round grain, usually consumed as bread, and the ones of long grain, which are usually sautéed in a wok with different vegetables, meats, fish or shellfish.

This dish belongs to the second group. If you have a look at the recipe, you will see that the principle is very simple, just boiled rice cooked in a frying pan about to be served, together with anything available, with an amazingly tasty result. Even such different ingredients as chicken, prawns and fresh vegetables can be mixed.

It is common in all Eastern countries, including India, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Malaysia or Indonesia, so you may order it anywhere in the world.

Pairing

In this occasion we were more concerned about respecting the wine quality than about getting an outstanding pairing, because some wines require a leading role on the table, but, as it sometimes happens, the result exceeded expectations, since the high quality of this "reserva" was enhanced by the dish, in my opinion because of the rice starch, but mainly every time we ate a prawn.

I have long found that crustaceans go better with "gran reserva" wines from Rioja than with white ones, so this was not surprising, but it is always a pleasure to find a pairing which goes beyond expectations. Coriander and peppermint may have also reinforced the combination, but take care to find out what spices are in the dish, as the wine can be ruined if there are chilli peppers in it.

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Cigales rosé with Tandoori chicken

June 7, 2015, 2:38 am

≫ Next: Finca Montepedroso with Duck wings in orange sauce

≪ Previous: Finca La Emperatiz with Fried rice with prawns

Winery CRDO
www.do-cigales.es
D.O.: Cigales
Grapes: Tinto fino / Tinto del país
Ageing: No
Price: 4/6 €

Spanish winemakers seem to have fallen into the apathy of losers and have given up on rosé wines. I find this attitude incomprehensible on the basis that these wines are certainly perfect to go with exotic cuisines, with the added benefit of their excellent price and a quality that has reached maximum levels over recent decades.

This wine has no commercial trade mark; it is the one that has been chosen by the Regulatory Council for its promotional events. We must thank them for their good work, otherwise we would not have had a rosé wine in this book.

They are fresh, fruity, young, clean wines that invite to chatting and good mood, and can be paired with the most difficult dishes, including asparagus and artichokes.

Tandoori chicken

“Tandoori” means “clay oven”, but also all the dishes cooked in it, so this is basically a roasted chicken.

When you see the ingredients list in the recipe you will understand that it has nothing to do with those roasted chickens we buy in the supermarket. This one requires a long marinating process in yoghurt with lemon juice and spices, but, as it usually happens in India, there are a thousand variations according to the composition of the “Garam Masala”, that is, the blend of spices used.

It is a very popular dish in India and in other nearby countries, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, even Thailand, Singapore or Malaysia, but with different features in each of them

Pairing

I have chosen this dish, so common in the Indo-Asian area, not only for how well these wines go with those spices, but also as a point of reference in a kind of cooking characterized by flavours so strong that very few wines can withstand.

Curry, spiced rice, salads with spicy and exotic fruits, a variety of presentations that seem to have been designed to spoil the best wines... it is not surprising that wine had not been consumed in these countries until the Western costumes arrived.

These wines have primary fruity, sometimes flowery, flavours, but with an acidity structure that is capable of cleaning and restoring balance in our mouths after such hot bites.

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Finca Montepedroso with Duck wings in orange sauce

June 7, 2015, 2:42 am

≫ Next: Freixenet Cordón negro with Lacquered prawns

≪ Previous: Cigales rosé with Tandoori chicken

Winery Finca Montepedroso
www.familiamartinezbujanda.com
D.O.: Rueda
Grapes: 100% Verdejo
Ageing: 5 months on its lees.
Price: 7,30 €

The tradition of winemakers from Rioja in Rueda is not new; in fact it was a Riojan who started the production of quality table wine and laid the foundations for what would become the verdejos of the 21^st century.

These last years perfection has been carried to its highest level, with a state-of-the-art winery placed in a 25 Ha. farm at 750 m. over sea level. This Montepedroso is already in the podium of the best wines in the region, showing that, despite the conflicts with the Administration, they keep producing exciting wines.

Sharp fruits (grapefruit, green apple), even some stone fruits (peach, lychee), sweet spices (anise, fennel) and those grassy notes so typical of verdejo grapes, the maximum expression of this grape in each glass.

Orange duck wings

The first thing that comes to mind when speaking about orange duck is Escoffier’s French cuisine, but this delicious combination already used to be cooked by the Chinese in the sophisticated Zhou dynasty’s court.

Oranges come from that country and they have an ancestral liking for duck and for mixing sweet and sour flavours, so this dish was ancient long before Catalina de Medici took it to France, attributing it to Tuscany.

Nowadays it can be found in every Chinese restaurant in the world, but you may enjoy it in full if you follow my recipe, making it easy, cheap and exquisite.

Pairing

This is a popular dish but with haute cuisine profiles, since the contrast between the orange sauce, slightly sweet-and-sour, and the powerful duck meat might seriously jeopardise the wine.

This time we have a wine that has a balanced but powerful acidity; therefore it has a good attack in mouth, clean from the cloying caramel flavour, and leaves a long aftertaste, slightly anise-like, fruity, herbaceous, even mineral. As a result, the wine holds high its banner without spoiling the complex flavour of the dish.

Chinese meals are usually long and complex, but it is most unlikely to find a dish in them that does not go well with this verdejo.

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Freixenet Cordón negro with Lacquered prawns

June 7, 2015, 2:48 am

≫ Next: Fulget with Sweet and sour pork

≪ Previous: Finca Montepedroso with Duck wings in orange sauce

Winery Freixenet
D.O.: Cava
Grapes: 40% Parellada, 35% Macabeo, 25% Xarel·lo
Ageing: 18 months in stacking
Price: 7€

This wine is one of the largest selling classics, so every Spanish consumer may have his own tasting notes, at least in memory.

It is important to remark that the technology of cava, as it happens with all the other Spanish wines, has progressed amazingly in recent years and anyone who has not tasted this wine for some time will be surprised at how much it has improved. Now it exudes more fruity aromas, typical of Perellada grapes, and above all it leaves a fresh sensation in mouth, with nuances of baker’s yeast and persistent thin bubbles that make it more lively and penetrating.

A change in colour can also be noted: now it is more straw-yellow, bright and steely, no doubt as a result of the technical improvements quoted.

Lacquered prawns

This is a speciality from Shangdong, one of the seven great Chinese cuisines, whose most remarkable feature is the use of seafood from Bohai, that wide gulf fed by the Yellow Sea where people have lived from fishery from ancient times.

It is a delicious dish that has been abused by wedding caterers, so if you have tried it before, forget that bad experience. This is a delicacy in which the prawn meat has to remain almost raw to counterbalance the natural bittersweet flavour from the fruit it is lacquered with.

As it often happens in great ancient royal cuisines, this dish is usually part of the assorted starters which are put on the table so that each guest can help himself from one dish or another.

Pairing

As said above, this dish is usually served as part of a varied assortment of specialities which are served simultaneously, that’s why it is difficult to find a particular pairing for each one of them. The best option in these cases is always to resort to cava, a solution which grants both pleasure and success.

This time we have a classic, characterized by the Perellada grapes and by a price that makes it very attractive to the catering industry, therefore it will be easy to find in many Eastern restaurants, even with several bottles available if the length of the meal requires them.

Regarding this dish, it goes without saying that cava is one of the best travel companions of decapod crustaceans. If a sweet and sour sauce is available, then it becomes unbeatable.

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Fulget with Sweet and sour pork

June 7, 2015, 2:55 am

≫ Next: Gramona III Lustros with Yaki Sake

≪ Previous: Freixenet Cordón negro with Lacquered prawns

Winery Maior de Mendoza
www.maiordemendoza.com
D.O.: Rías Baixas
Grapes: 100% Albariño
Ageing: No
Price: 9€

Maior de Mendoza is a very particular winery in that big world that the Denomination of Origin Rías Baixas has become.

They only elaborate top level albariños and do not compete in price, assuming that their policy is to make the best possible wine with the best possible quality that can be extracted from the grapes in each hawthorn.

If you visit the winery website you will see how carefully the care of the vineyard, the harvesting and the winemaking are carried out (I would need the whole page to describe them).

The result of all this work is a very fresh, fruity wine, with the features of this variety so present and notes of white flowers, even some balsamic memory characteristic of the Salnés Valley (the big eucalyptus plantations in this area are said to be responsible for that peculiar hint).

Sweet and sour pork

This dish can be found in the menus of all Chinese restaurants around the world, but its origins are not in that monstrosity so-called “Chinese-American cuisine”, but it is a famous ancient dish from the Han court in Jiangsu, in the Canton region, from where it spread to all China, producing a thousand variations. For example, in Taiwan it is called “Gulao Rou” (“ancient pork”) because the recipe is considered to have come from Canton centuries ago.

Nowadays, industrial sweet-and-sour sauce is made of glutamate and sugar, real rubbish, but a well-made sauce, with caramel, orange and ginger, is delicious.

As indicated in the recipe, the vegetables must be left almost raw to contrast with the meat and the sauce.

Pairing

This is a good example of how difficult it can be to pair a Chinese dish, because it is itself a mosaic of very different flavours: battered pork meat, sweet-and-sour sauce and almost raw vegetables with their load of vegetable flavours.

Among this complexity of flavours, the dominant factor is the warmth of the dish. Although the vegetables refresh every bite, the sauce enfolds everything and our mouth gets cloyed, asking for a very refreshing wine. This is one of the most remarkable features of this Fulget: its freshness, its aromatic load but also its acidity structure, which will dissolve the sugars of the dish with a sip and leave our mouth clean but with a thousand aromas that will invite us to keep playing with this Galician-Cantonese combination.

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Gramona III Lustros with Yaki Sake

June 7, 2015, 3:04 am

≫ Next: Kripta with Prawn Tempura

≪ Previous: Fulget with Sweet and sour pork

Winery Gramona
www.gramona.com
D.O.: Cava
Grapes: 70 % Xarel·lo, 30% Macabeo.
Ageing: 5 years on its lees.
Price: 21,50 €

This is one of the mythical cavas, one of the classic “Gran Reserva” wines, which observes ancient customs strictly, using aged wine from local grapes and submitting it to the process of ageing in stacks on its lees for at least five years.

The bubble is therefore extremely fine, and very complex reduction aromas are developed with smoky and toasted notes, together with wild flowers, undoubtedly from the yeasts.

In mouth, its mature and silky nature must be highlighted, but it also shows a remarkable freshness which makes it bright and happy. The dominating tastes are confectionery, dried fruit, some green spice like rosemary, grains… in brief, a complex range of flavours, so integrated that several minutes must be devoted to the tasting so that we can enjoy to its fullest extent a different cava, one of the greatest.

Yaki Sake

The fear of anisakis has made many customers discover that Japanese cuisine does not consist only of sashimi and sushi but there is a vast repertoire of delicious dishes, from comfort meat and vegetables stews to preparations of roasted or sauced fish like this one, generically known as Shioyaki, which is prepared by grilling fish that has previously been marinated, dressed, salted or pickled.

This Yaki Sake is salmon that has been marinated in sake, mirin and soya sauce, which gives it a lacquered, tempting look and a delicious taste in which the flavour of salmon, one of the most appreciated fish in Japan, contrasts with the shiny outer layer.

Pairing

We have chosen what could be called a noble dish, a preparation that is never absent from the most select restaurants of Japanese cuisine, because this is not any wine but a distinguished, venerable wine that must be tasted calmly, step by step.

Generally speaking, cavas go well with Japanese food, but there are great differences among cavas and among the dishes, so this pairing required an appropriate set-up to take it to its full extent.

Obviously, this wine can also accompany the rest of the meal, since you know that a Japanese formal table requires the presence of pickles, soups, assorted starters tempura style… all the tastes from the wine that we have noted will be framed and enhanced by this delicious dish of lacquered salmon.

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Kripta with Prawn Tempura

June 7, 2015, 3:19 am

≫ Next: Mar de Frades with Sashimi

≪ Previous: Gramona III Lustros with Yaki Sake

Winery Agustí Torelló Mata
http://www.agustitorellomata.com
D.O.: Cava
Grapes: 45% Macabeo, 35% Parellada, 20% Xarel-lo
Ageing: 48 months in stacking
Price: 47€

This is one of the greatest cavas in Spain, a “Gran Reserva” (over 48 months of ageing). It offers a diversity of flavours: long-ageing wines, vanilla, toasted, butter… together with the fresh aroma from refermentation in the bottle and those classic reminiscences of yeasts, bread dough, even fresh grass.

Its fine bubbles stand out since they can only be found in the best sparkling wines, but its most remarkable feature may be its character of classic cava, like those which surprised us during the eighties, most of which have gradually become more commercial, less important.

As it happens with most cavas, this one is an excellent table companion that allows pairing with any kind of dishes, from starters to meat, but its exceptional quality advises trying it by itself previously, as if it was a tasting, because there are nuances that can be lost when consumed with the food.

Prawns and vegetables tempura

Curiously enough, this dish has become one of the icons of Japanese cuisine but is has a Spanish origin (some used to say it was Portuguese, but the Jesuits from that country hardly ever reached this country, while St. Francis Xavier did). Its name comes from the ember days (“témporas” in Spanish), whose vigils those Jesuits observed.

It is like an Andalusian-style fried dish, but it is elaborated with very fine wheat flour, which enables us to get a crispy outside while the interior remains almost raw, a very pleasant finish -specially with vegetables.

Tempura is usually included among the starters, even at the same time as tsukemonos, those pickles that must be present on every protocol table -a very varied and enjoyable way of eating.

Pairing

If an Andalusian “fritura” (fried dish) tastes glorious with a cava, just imagine how this pairing can be, much more subtle and fine, with the tastes from the raw material almost intact and one of the most complex cavas in the country. The combination is really spectacular because each bite, either of prawn or carrot, green bean… will build a mosaic of tastes and aromas which will strengthen this cava thanks to the fine batter.

It is important to remark that Japanese cuisine is so varied, and if tempura is served, it is serious business and the pairing of the different dishes is difficult, so the best way to success is to resort to cava. In this case, as we have already said, there are a lot of long-ageing wine nuances, so no dish will overshadow it. Even a sukiyaki as a main course will combine perfectly.

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Mar de Frades with Sashimi

June 7, 2015, 3:26 am

≫ Next: Martín Codax with Chicken yakitori

≪ Previous: Kripta with Prawn Tempura

Winery Mar de Frades
www.mardefrades.es/
D.O.: Rías Baixas
Grapes: 100% Albariño
Ageing: No
Price: 14 €

This winery offers guided visits with wine tasting, and I strongly advise everyone to seize the opportunity and visit Monte Valiñas, where, apart from admiring a beautiful avant-garde winery, you will enjoy the exciting spectacle of the Mar de Frades at your feet, where the first Albariño plants are said to have been landed.

Seeing where it comes from, we will understand this wine in a minute. Places like O Grove and Cambados are a stone’s throw away, so you may also give yourself a little treat.

This Albariño is no doubt one of the great ones, a serious wine, with no filigree, which fully respects the profile of varietal wine, with those aromas of green apple and white flowers, and that salty, Atlantic hint that can only be understood when contemplating the Arousa estuary from the trained viewpoint of the new winery.

Assorted sashimi

This dish has already become fashionable all around the world because Japanese cuisine has succeeded on all five continents, but not everybody knows that sashimi is a luxury dish which is only consumed in restaurants above a certain level, never at a domestic level, since a sashimi cutter is almost an artist, a surgeon who masters the art of knives and the anatomy of all fish.

Cooking assorted sashimi at home is difficult, not only from a technical point of view, but also because at least six diners must be gathered, otherwise the dish will be miserable.

Personally speaking, I usually cook it at home because in Asturias we have some almost alive fish that are outstanding when uncooked, but I only use one at a time, according to the season: tuna, salmon, mackerel, bream…

Pairing

We have already stated that both this Albariño wine and sashimi are high-level products, and seeing a Japanese table with a multicolour assorted sashimi on it and the blue bottle of Mar de Frades in the middle is a spectacle that justifies itself.

When pairing a sashimi, apart from all the individual flavours of the fish you must take into account the soya sauce and the wasabi. Some wines may go well with the fish but they collapse when confronted to the stream of flavours from the condiment.

That is one of the virtues of this wine: it can withstand anything, due to its great acidity structure, which can endure important challenges, up to rabidly spiced meals, but it is mainly respectful with such delicate products as raw fish and does not interfere with its tasting.

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Martín Codax with Chicken yakitori

June 7, 2015, 3:29 am

≫ Next: Pago de Otazu with Dim sum

≪ Previous: Mar de Frades with Sashimi

Winery Martín Códax
www.martincodax.com
D.O.: Rías Baixas
Grapes: 100% Albariño
Ageing: No.
Price: 10 €

From the terrace of this cellar, located a couple kilometres from Cambados, you can see all the Ría de Arousa, impressive, colossal, but also another sea, the one formed by the vineyards of the 270 partners who form Martín Códax, a winemaking power that is already exporting wine to more than forty countries all around the world, keeping a quality level that proves that quantity is not incompatible with good work.

Salnés Valley is in the heart of Rías Baixas, where the breeze from the Atlantic brings that salty point, casual and cheerful, that characterizes these wines.

This is a very aromatic wine, with hints of tangerine and white flowers like orange blossom. It is not too dry, that’s why it gets drier and more powerful with certain dishes such as this yakitori, which has sweet flavours.

Chicken yakitori

At this stage, nearly everybody knows “yakitoris”, those slightly caramelized Japanese snacks which can be made with a vegetable, generally leek, and any other ingredients such as fish –tuna, salmon, mackerel- or meat –pork, chicken, beef… What is less known is that there are restaurants where only this kind of food is served, called “izakaya”, westernized as Yakitori Bar.

There is an increasing proliferation of these restaurants in Europe, USA and Canada, because it is so enjoyable to see how your table gets covered with these snacks that you eat with your hands while drinking beer, sake and wine. This is especially relevant for our winemakers, since this is a new sector which is going to move millions of bottles.

Pairing

Japanese cuisine boasts of its balance in every dish, not only in tastes but even in nutritional concepts, and this informal way of eating respects those principles in every snack, making the dish delicious but not always easy to pair.

One of the virtues of this Albariño is that it is very versatile, as a result it combines with caramelized leek easily and is unbeatable with the blue fish quoted as well as with pork and of course chicken, one of the star products that go well with this wine.

Moreover, if you go to one of these restaurants you may be served many other snacks, even sushi or tempura, but you will not have to change wine, since this one will work perfectly.

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Pago de Otazu with Dim sum

June 7, 2015, 4:11 am

≫ Next: Pazo de San Mauro with Pekinese style lacquered duck

≪ Previous: Martín Codax with Chicken yakitori

Pago de Otazu
Bodega Otazu
www.otazu.com
D.O.P: Pago de Otazu
Grapes: 100% Chardonnay
Ageing: 7 months in new French oak barrels
RRP: € 19.50

We chose one of the largest in Spain to accompany these curious tidbits, because its diversity requires the presence of a powerful wine which in turn does not eclipse the different flavors of the filling.

This is one of the 14 DOP Pay there recorded in Spain, the maximum range of quality required from the administration and the winery who sets the bar so high that hardly could endure another Regulatory Council.

It is a unique wine, with a limited production of only 4,000 bottles / year, Manual wine in boxes of 15 kilos, barrel fermentation, etc. In short, a very peculiar profiles wine that has been sought (and achieved), the balance between fruit and wood, with herbaceous nuances and light empyreumatic, and the traits of tropical fruit Chardonnay, but not cloying.

Dim sum

This kind of dumpling is a tradition in itself in China, because it is both in the streets, in small street carts, and elegant dining, especially a while now that the Chinese-American cuisine call ( the cheap restaurant on the corner), is giving way to the authentic cuisine of Canton, Chiuchow, Fujian, Hainan, Hakka, Hunan, Jiang-Huai, Shanghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and.

These snacks (Dim sum means mouthful) originate Cantonese cuisine, specifically in Hong Kong, but its popularity has spread so, we can already find amazing variations, like putting foie gras mi-cuit duck with mushrooms, as I tried the Dim Sum Club of Madrid, because there are restaurants specializing only prepare these snacks, yes, a thousand ways.

Pairing

What would a Chinaman of those pushing a cart to sell Din sum through the crowded streets of Hong Kong if we asked him a Payment of Otazu? Obviously not say anything, but if you speak to the sommelier elegant Cantonese restaurant, things change and certainly pray for something left in the bottle and be able to prove himself this marriage.
Tried ten types of Dim Sum and each was diametrically opposed to this, but the result was a dazzling food, not only for snacks, but because the wine is kept elegant and respectful to adversity, that there was.
It is a marriage of high-flying, I admit, and I said that has nothing to do with the Chinese menu of the day, this is the new image of a refined China, with elegant dining asking wines at its height, like this one experience few.

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Pazo de San Mauro with Pekinese style lacquered duck

June 7, 2015, 4:16 am

≫ Next: Ramón Bilbao with Pad Thai

≪ Previous: Pago de Otazu with Dim sum

Winery Pazo San Mauro
www.marquesdevargas.com/es/pazo
D.O.: Rías Baixas
Grapes: 100% Albariño
Ageing: No
Price: 11 €

This albariño comes from the Condado de Tea sub-area, specifically from Salvaterra do Miño, the warmest part of Pontevedra. Moreover, this vineyard is located on a meander of the river and facing south, so the ripening time is considerably shorter and more intense than usual.

The result is an intense wine with aromas and flavours from the grape which are surprising because its richness is brilliant, almost overwhelming.

Flowery and even mineral notes can also be perceived, so this is a complex wine that deserves testing before the food is served; this appetizer will be delicious and most explanatory about this grape that has become well-known in restaurants all around the world.

Peking duck

This is one of the best known and most exquisite dishes in the multi-coloured Chinese gastronomy: in fact, it is difficult to find a Chinese quarter in any Western city where the famous lacquered ducks cannot be seen hanging on hooks.

It is an ancient recipe –it is documented as far back as the 12^th century- and very difficult to cook, as you can see in our recipe, as it was customary in the medieval castles from the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

There are specialized restaurants where outrageously huge bills are charged for this dish, like Quanjude or the fashionable Kerry Hotel in Beijing, where the ducks are roasted on order with wood from fruit trees to scent their skin and the service is a show in which more than half a dozen people take part –cooks, waiters and assistants.

Pairing

There is no need to go to Beijing to eat a good lacquered duck; in fact there is a restaurant called Peking Duck House in Chinatown in New York. The best I have tried was at Chen in Paris, on a tragic date (11M).

The pairing was obvious since I have always argued that the most aromatic albariños should always be tasted with pork and poultry preparations. Lacquered duck is so refined itself that if we pair it with this Pazo de San Mauro the experience will be unforgettable.

Be careful with Hoisin sauce, as it is rather cloying and may dry out the wine. It is advisable to try the first crêpe without that sauce, even if it is from the lacquered skin it will combine perfectly, and the meat bites will do even better.

↧

Ramón Bilbao with Pad Thai

June 7, 2015, 4:23 am

≫ Next: Viña Esmeralda with Turkey Curry

≪ Previous: Pazo de San Mauro with Pekinese style lacquered duck

Winery Ramón Bilbao
www.bodegasramonbilbao.es/
D.O.C: Rioja
Grapes: 50% Tempranillo, 50% Garnacha.
Ageing: Malolactic fermentation in new French oak barrels, where its ageing will continue on its lees for 15 months.Price: 12,50€

That “viñedos de altura” (high altitude vineyards) in the name has a logical explanation: this wine is made from the grapes harvested in the hawthorns at Villalba and Tudelilla, the ones placed at a highest altitude among all the vineyards this winemaker has got in La Rioja.

This determines a peculiar character, on the edge of red wines.

The most interesting thing might be the 50/50 blend of Tempranillo and Garnacha, a grape that is getting outstanding results as long as it is well grown, harvested and vinified.

The wine has a very fresh smell of recently harvested fruit, with hints of flowers like lilacs and the characteristic nuances from a complicated ageing on lees which produces those hints of cocoa, tobacco, vanilla… The dominant taste is always ripe fruit, with hints of raspberry and a very elegant and complex mineral sensation of graphite.

Pad Thai

This dish is as common in Thailand as paella is among us, even more as it is consumed both in coastal and inland regions, with a thousand variations more or less sophisticated.

The base is the pasta, a sort of rather fleshy noodles or spaghetti which are sautéed with different vegetables, meat, fish or seafood, often with tamarind pulp and a fish sauce of industrial origin, as popular in Thailand as tomato sauce is in Spain.

The recipe that we have included is more or less orthodox, although with products that can be found in our markets. If you travel to Indochina, remember to ask if it is spicy, because in that case it may leave your mouth burning and spoil the wine, therefore a different pairing would be required.

Pairing

It was very risky to pair a Rioja wine with such a complex-tasting dish as shrimps Pad Thai, with its compulsory tamarind pulp, ginger and oyster sauce, but the result could be awesome. If the experiment failed, well, it could be forgotten, but the wine withstood the aromatic burden of the dish as I had expected and brought seriousness to the combination, as you might expect from great Rioja wines.

If the ingredients are tried separately, the combination really seems suicide, but when all of them are combined that holistic effect that creates a new flavour independently from its components takes place, making us think that we were on the right track from the first bite.

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Viña Esmeralda with Turkey Curry

June 7, 2015, 4:30 am

≫ Next: Yllera Verdejo with Cebiche

≪ Previous: Ramón Bilbao with Pad Thai

Winery Torres
www.torres.es
D.O.: Cataluña
Grapes: 85% Alexandria Muscatel, 15% Gewürztraminer
Ageing: No
Price: 7 €

For us who can talk about the history of Spanish wine because we have personally lived through it, this wine has been one of the pioneers in the line of what used to be called "feminine" wines (that would currently be offensive) and perhaps the best known white wine all around the country, but we have seen its evolution along these latter decades, from the times when it was a dry muscatel to the 2014

Viña Esmeralda, in which the complexity of aromas and strong structure have turned this wine into something much more serious.

It keeps its profile of exotic fruit (passion fruit, green apple, lime), flowers like rose, jasmine and nard -surely because of the Gewürztraminer grapes-, some spices and balsamic hints like thyme and bay leaves.

Turkey curry

In Tamil language, curry means sauce (the real word is "kari" but the British transformed it according to their extravagant spelling), so it is like saying sauce when speaking about French cuisine, that is, nothing.

This word actually refers to different things, from a bush (Murraya koenigii) to an endless variety of dishes elaborated with some sauces which have the same name and are characterized for being prepared with a mixture of spices which receives the same name, although its real name is "Masala".

The curry we present here (see the recipes chapter) is home-made style, as it is usually cooked in Madras (a region currently called Chennay). There are thousands of curry brands, but they usually contain gluten.

Pairing

Hindu cuisine is characterized by overusing spices, and this is especially true in currys and masalas. Even though they may have vegetables, meat or fish and seafood, the sauce overshadows the flavour so strongly that the raw material is of no importance. Even if we use goat meat instead of turkey, the pairing must always be based on the sauce, because a red wine, for example, would be overwhelmed at the first bite.

It is important to choose a fruity wine but with a good acidity structure, since some white wines would be like water when paired with curry. The wine must be like reed: flexible to face wind but with good fibre to stand firm. That is how this Viña Esmeralda is, an ideal wine to confront that flavour hurricane and refresh our mouth after each bite.

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Yllera Verdejo with Cebiche

June 8, 2015, 3:21 am

≫ Next: Terras Gauda with California Roll

≪ Previous: Viña Esmeralda with Turkey Curry

Winery Yllera
www.grupoyllera.com
D.O.: Rueda
Grapes: 100% Verdejo
Ageing: No
Price: 5,10 €

Excerpt from the book “Pairings of spanish wines with exotic cuisines”.

Click to see the preparation of these dishes, in American recipes.

The name ("night harvest") is significant about what we are going to find in the glass, because that kind of harvest allows the grapes to get to the winery with all the cold of the night. Although the harvest festivity takes place in October, grapes are harvested in this area at the end of August, when the temperature in the plains of Valladolid can reach 40º at noon.

We are talking about cutting-edge technology to take the most of the aromatic potential of this grape, which appeared as if by magic in the eighties, when winemakers threw themselves on the modernity bandwagon seeing the treasure they had in their land.

In addition to the fruity notes characteristic of well-made young wines (green apple, grapefruit, lemon skin), the most distinctive features of verdejo grapes are the hints of hay and fennel (anise-like), easily noticeable in this wine.

Mixed ceviche

Peruvian cuisine is booming throughout the world with that Japanese-Peruvian fusion called "nikkei" -the name given to Japanese immigrants-, which is so fashionable nowadays.

As everybody knows, ceviches are preparations of raw fish dressed with lime and "ají amarillo" (yellow peppers from Peru), probably another primitive fusion since citrus fruits were taken to Peru by the Spanish and both the name and the taste remind us of "escabeches" (pickles).

They are usually made with sea bass, but sometimes with some large prawns called "camarones" there. One of the most enjoyable ceviches is this mixed one, in which scallops can also be found, gathering together three types of seafood which combine perfectly with the dressing by providing an elegant contrast among them.

Pairing

There is a superb nikkei restaurant in Avilés, so we were able to try several pairings together with Mario, its pure-blooded Peruvian owner and cook, a master of ceviches and a great gourmet. After trying different Spanish grapes, we chose verdejo for how well it respects raw fish, since a good ceviche must be carefully dressed, the right amount both in quantity and time, so that the individual flavours of sea bass, shrimps and scallops can be appreciated.

In this case, the sour taste of lime and the pungent aroma of ají sharpen those herbaceous and anise-like aromas from the wine and enhance them, which is always the goal of a pairing -of course, apart from respecting the tastes from the raw material.

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