- Catfish fillets, one for every two people (they tend to be large and easily divided down the center). A note on catfish – many people are squeamish about bottom feeders, and many others about farm-raised fish. But unlike most farm-raised salmon, farm-raised catfish are both sustainable and guaranteed a healthy diet, thus belying both prejudices. Try this and tell me if you don’t like it. Even our three-year-old loves this dish, though she has somehow learned to like it without the wine accompaniment)
- 3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- Coupla Tablespoons of olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Coupla shakes of ginger powder
- 1 Tbsp butter
- Red and Green sweet peppers, seeds removed and sliced into strips
- Several green onions, cut into 3-inch sections
- Half of one lemon
- Sesame Oil – I know this is not an ingredient found in every kitchen, nor is it an inexpensive one, but sesame oil LOVES being paired with wine, and a few drops on each filet assures happy diners!
A rosé by any other name would be as, um, dry.
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No question, summer is nigh. Baseball season is in full swing. Summer attire is in short supply. A new wave of graduates is taking the job market by storm. And grapevines are in a frenzied growth phase that will last until harvest. Ahhhh, summer. The perfect time for rosé wines!
Just now, upon reading the words "rosé wines", many readers left to find an article on "serious wines", probably doing so while whispering some derisive comment under their breath. These poor souls go through life operating under the mistaken notion that all rosés are like the White Zinfandel they tried that one night in College.
That's OK - more for us!
And since good rosés are produced in quantities barely sufficient to exceed the Winemaker's own consumption requirements, this is an important consideration. I find it difficult to imagine a happier summer experience than a bottle of chilled rosé, a cold roast chicken and a shaker of sea salt. This is simply heaven, and I'm afraid I lose any vestige of manners when this combination is set before me. Consider yourself warned.
But such was not always the case. I vividly recall my own rosé epiphany. It occurred long ago at a harvest party hosted by a well-respected winemaker. The thermometer was pushing 100 and frankly, I craved an ice-cold beer over the robust red wines this winemaker was known for.
As the party made its inevitable migration into the kitchen – the center of every party no matter how hot it is – the winemaker suddenly appeared with four well-chilled bottles of PINK WINE which he proudly introduced as his rosé of Sangiovese. I was shocked and disappointed – a winemaking hero lost to the dark side.
What would you do in my situation? Turn up your nose and say “no thanks” to a cold glass of rosé offered by a respected winemaker you’d been dying to meet? Or do as I did, accept his offer with feigned enthusiasm, then slowly approach the pale pink stuff with great trepidation? If so, you’d likely have been as surprised as I by the pleasure this glass provided, and then banishing your White Zinfandel nightmare to your closet of outgrown phobias, begun to realize the number of years it had prevented you from enjoying dry rosé.
The winemaker, seeing he had just served his rosé to an avowed “anything-but-pinkster”, was happy that his wine had been a..., let’s see..., “surprise” is too tame a word, “flabbergast” too flippant, but he could tell his wine had deposited me somewhere in that range of disbelief. This was really good wine! And the perfect wine to serve on a hot summer evening.
I have found that, as with mot professions, Winemakers come a wide variety of personalities. I tend to gravitate towards those who make interesting wines AND feel that wine is an enthusiasm to be shared. This was just such a winemaker, and he spent no small amount of time sharing with me his enthusiasm for dry rosés while his party guests mingled behind us.
He explained that White Zinfandel rode to popularity on the back of a 7% residual sugar level, appealing to a nation raised on soft drinks and Kool-Aid. But dry rosé (with sugar levels generally between 0% and 2%) had long been the summer wine of choice in the fashionable South of France. He then described the multiple ways one can produce a rosé – the most common being Saignée – the French word for the act of bleeding off a percentage of red wine juice after minimal skin contact – but that the best rosés come from grapes grown and harvested specifically with rosé in mind - that is, an earlier harvest when the acidity is still mouth-watering and the sugars still low.
Recommended Recipe!
This is one of the recipes included in our June shipments to subscribers and also complements richer white wines. It is dead simple, inexpensive and easily prepared in about 30 minutes. It is contributed by our friend Mabel Galdamez, to whom we will die indebted for her unending kindness.
Ingredients: