Saturday quickies

Florida Jim

Florida Jim

Florida Jim
2005 Louis Michel, Grenouilles: More open and approachable than expected and a beautiful, harmonious and bright grand cru Chablis. Years to peak but oh so appealing now.

2002 Valentini, Trebbiano: corked

2005 Valentini, Trebbiano, bright, crisp, fresh lively and earthy - all at the same time. Not as complex as I had hoped but very pretty and interesting.

1996 Lynch Bages, this wine, at release, was as CA as it could be - no longer. All Paulliac with pencil box, leather, red fruit and earth tones, woven into a package that is more terroir driven then fruit; good balance and length although the depth here is less than I'd like.

2005 Williams-Selyem, Rochioli Riverblock, quintessential Russian River pinot with finesse and a lovely texture. 14% and nothing here to indicate anything overdone. Maybe a touch more oak than is my preference but not so that it intrudes. Nice.

All this was served with cheeses, seared halibut on greens with mussels and fresh berries.

Livin' large.
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Our red+fish experiments have not had happy outcomes.
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Surely you exaggerate!

For what it's worth, halibut is quite the fleshy fish and can stand up to sturdier preparations. I would find it stranger to match these wines with sole. But I don't shy away from halibut and red wine just because of colors.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Our red+fish experiments have not had happy outcomes.
Click to expand...
For what it's worth, halibut is quite the fleshy fish and can stand up to sturdier preparations. I would find it stranger to match these wines with sole. But I don't shy away from halibut and red wine just because of colors.
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I still can't quite see a simply prepared halibut (e.g. steamed with ginger and scallions, brushed with oil and lemon and broiled) as a nice match with red wine, Bordeaux in particular. Rub it with tapenade, or serve it with a tomato-caper-olive sauce or Romesco, and I could changed my mind.
 
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
seared halibut on greens with mussels...
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This wasn't based on the Spanish recipe from Penelope Casas' book by any chance? That one uses clams, and has been spectacular with aged Chablis IMHO.
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I really don't know as someone else was cooking.
The fish was seared, placed on top of the greens, mussels on top of the fish and a mussel reduction/sauce drizzled about.
We drank the Chablis and the Valentini with that part of the meal.

The Bordeaux was with cheese and the pinot was after the berries.
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM): Rub it with tapenade, or serve it with a tomato-caper-olive sauce or Romesco, and I could changed my mind.
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These are exactly my core techniques for bringing white fish into red wine territory, although I must admit I generally avoid the more tannic wines (i.e. Bordeaux) with such dishes, and it appears Jim does as well!
 
Or mushrooms in general, no? Depending on which mushrooms look good they are another of my core techniques for fish and red wine.
 
Sure. But I've certainly had luck with a wider range than just shiitakes and porcinis. In recent months I've been doing white fish (often halibut) with chanterelles, black trumpets, oysters, criminis, maitakes, morels. The specifics definitely depend on the dish, wine, etc but I often start with whichever mushroom looks best and then work out the rest from there.

But yes, there are mushrooms that probably wouldn't spring to mind for fish with red wine. Enokis for example.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
Sure. But I've certainly had luck with a wider range than just shiitakes and porcinis. In recent months I've been doing white fish (often halibut) with chanterelles, black trumpets, oysters, criminis, maitakes, morels. The specifics definitely depend on the dish, wine, etc but I often start with whichever mushroom looks best and then work out the rest from there.

But yes, there are mushrooms that probably wouldn't spring to mind for fish with red wine. Enokis for example.
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Lactarius fragilis.
Amanita caesaria (tecomate, etc.)
Amanita velosa
Amanita
Hydnum repandum
Hydnum umbillicatum
Psilocybe cyanescens

I'm not so sure about your oysters.

I don't want to be too dogmatic about this, I have red wine with fish with some regularity, even with recipes where maybe I shouldn't.

But there isn't a flavor called "mushrooms," any more than there's a flavor called "wine" that takes in albarino and madeira and Lafite.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
But there isn't a flavor called "mushrooms," any more than there's a flavor called "wine" that takes in albarino and madeira and Lafite.
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Ok, fair enough.

Didn't mean to imply that there was.
 
I learned to drink red wine with fish in sicily. Cerasuolo di vittoria works particularly well with fresh fish from the ocean. on the other hand, there are few working combinations with red wine and sweet water fish imho. apart of maybe reds from jura or savoie, or some dle.

generally, i tend to keep fruit from the woods and fruit from the water on two plates.

oh, and talking about morels: sounds familiar, is this a fish?
 
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