Shellfish, citrus and tequila

I went to an absolutely brilliant citrus dinner last week at Toklas in London, at which almost any one of the pairings could have been my match of the week.

The meal was cooked by Elena Reygadas of Rosetta in Mexico City who was voted World's Best Female Chef at the 50 Best awards last year using citrus from the Todoli Foundation just outside Valencia.

However I’m going for the first course of langoustine and scallop aguachile with Rangpur lime and Spanish sweet limetta and paired with a shot of Casa Dragones Joven tequila with clam lime.

Aguachile is a similar preparation to ceviche as explained here though made with chile-infused water but it was almost as if the shellfish has been lightly cooked in its own juices. It certainly wasn’t overly spicy in this case, more sweet and slightly smokey which really picked out the agave and other herbal flavours of the tequila.

It's not an easy pairing to replicate at home especially without access to specialist citrus though you do seem to be able to buy rangpur lime - a cross between a mandarin and a lime - online at a site called myexoticfruit.com. Sweet limetta is a cross between citron and bitter orange, according to Wikipedia.

The Casa Dragones Joven which was the most delicious, fragrant tequila I’ve ever tasted unfortunately turns out to be around £300 a bottle so I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to try it.

It's definitely an incentive to experiment more with tequila and seafood.

Another match I’d single out was a red pepper tamal with tarragon buttermilk and kumquat which was sensationally good with the ‘Cool Moon’ IGP Côtes Catalanes Les Enfants Sauvages - a blend of grenache gris, grenache blanc and macabeu which you can buy from Dynamic Vines in the UK for £42.

Again extrapolate from this that sweet red pepper and kumquat - or orange - is a flavour combination that works with white grenache or a white Grenache blend.

For other tequila pairings see Some Great Food Pairings for Tequila

I ate at Toklas as a guest of the restaurant

Rainbow trout ceviche and Western Australia riesling

I can’t actually believe I’ve never tried it before but I made some ceviche as part of a Zoom masterclass organised by the Bristol Food Union, a collaboration of local restaurateurs and food producers to raise money for those who have been most affected by the COVID 19 crisis.

The fish was a super-fresh rainbow trout from my local Bristol fish restaurant Spiny Lobster which we marinated with lime juice, red onion and chilli in a brilliantly simple recipe from from Elliott Lidstone of Box E (though I did have to fillet it first!)

I paired it with a 2019 Rocky Gully riesling from the Franklin River region of Western Australia which produces a slightly softer, richer style than the Clare and Eden Valley. It’s relatively high in alcohol, for riesling, at 13.5% but you do want a dry riesling with this type of dish and it offset the freshness of the ceviche beautifully. You can buy it from Berry Bros & Rudd for £15.25.

For other riesling pairings see The best food pairings for dry (or off-dry) riesling

Ceviche and sauvignon blanc

It’s rare that you keep on coming across a wine pairing that impresses you but my 10 days in Chile over the past couple of weeks have finally convinced me that sauvignon blanc is the perfect match for ceviche which seems to have become Chile’s national dish.

You might wonder why I hadn’t hit on it before. Well, previously I’ve found that the citrus that is generally used in the marinade tended to cancel out the flavours of the wine but in Chile I think they make it with slightly different type of fruit more like a cross between lemon and lime and also don’t use quite so much of it. Also the fish is fantastically fresh which makes seafood the top note rather than the base. (It doesn’t seem to matter much whether the fish is salmon, tuna or rockfish but their ceviche often includes raw onion another element that kicks sauvignon into touch)

Chilean sauvignon is also very fresh and sometimes saline without the powerful grassy or gooseberry character of sauvignons from countries such as New Zealand. Definitely better without oak and the younger the wine the better (so 2018 at the time of writing works just fine along with fresh 2017s)

Scallop and mango ceviche with Montes Cherub Syrah Rosé

Given Chile’s proximity to the coast, this week’s match couldn’t be anything but seafood but I’m going to pass over the more obvious pairings with sauvignon blanc in favour of this wildly brilliant combination of scallops and rosé.

It was served on the last night of our trip last week overlooking the vineyard where the syrah grapes were grown in the Colchagua valley (how cool is that?) It’s a strong (13.6%) dark rosé which gives an impression of sweetness but tastes much drier with food.

I didn’t expect it to work with the citrus in the ceviche but the fresh mango and chilli in the marinade make it a stunning match.

Other pairings Montes recommends are sushi (especially more innovative sushi such as that served by Sushi Samba, I’d venture), salmon with mushroom sauce, paella and “shrimp scampi” pasta, cannelloni and lasagne. I reckon it would also be good with barbecued chicken and pork.

(Infuriatingly having written all this I’ve discovered that the most recent vintages of Cherub Syrah are not available in the UK but a) I couldn't resist the label b) loved the pairing c) haven't got time to rewrite the post and d) it's well-distributed in the States (see wine-searcher.com) so at least some of my readers will be happy

Other strong fruity syrah rosés will obviously work too...