Saturday Night - Going a little coco-NUTTY

This Saturday it was my turn to cook again and sticking to my New Year’s resolution to keep trying new dishes, I went with coconut shrimp with a spiced honey dip as the starter.

"Turned out OK for a first attempt"

As the dish had both coconut and honey, this was something that wouldn’t be at all happy with a dry wine. Looking for a wine that was off-dry or sweet, I picked a Markus Molitor Kabinett Riesling as my pairing.

"Just can't get enough of Rieslings these days!"

The shrimp were quite a bit of work to prep as they had to be hand dipped in a beer batter and then shaved coconut and then refrigerating for at least 30 minutes before frying. I have not done a lot of deep frying on the stove before so this was something new to me as well. I got the oil nice and hot and working in small batches cooked up the shrimp. I didn’t want to over cook the shrimp so each batch got two minutes in the oil before I pulled them out.

The shrimp coating was a nice light golden brown but will make the oil hotter next time so the batter is more crispy.

The Riesling had a nice nose of lime, peach, pear and lychee that you didn’t have to work to hard to find. Tasting the wine on its own it seemed very sweet. The wine was also paler in colour then I’d expect for a Riesling. With the food the wine became less sweet and the citrus and nectarine flavours came more to the forefront. It was light with good acidity and a lingering finish. It was a very drinkable wine that all of us were disappointed to see the bottle finished and empty.

Here is the group rating for the wine – Mick - 86, Mark - 88, Kathy – 88, Amy - 88, Overall – 87.5

"This was so good with the wine!"

Here are the LCBO details for the wine -

MARKUS MOLITOR RIESLING KABINETT 2007
VINTAGES 115634
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 20.65
Wine, White Wine,
11.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : M
Made in: Moselle/Saar/Ruwer, Germany
By: Markus Molitor Vineyards
Release Date: Jul 18, 2009

Description - A true visionary, Markus Molitor is driven by an uncompromising devotion to quality at all stages of the winemaking process and believes that each vineyard and vintage should express itself through his wines. In the Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard, only organic materials are used, yields are kept low, and grapes are hand-picked. Keeping with his philosophy of authenticity, Molitor ferments his wines using only wild ambient yeasts. This world-famous vineyard site is known for producing wines that are impressive for their juicy fruit, unique balance, nuance interplay and piquant acidity.

"You will want this on your wine rack"

For the main course I did a veal scaloppini with a side of fettuccine alfredo. This was paired with a Louis Jadot Chardonnay. I won’t be reviewing it again as we have had this wine a number of times. I add that this wine is staple on my wine rack. It is solid good value Chardonnay that you can never have too much of. The wine was a very good pairing for this dish.

"St. Agur and St. Paulines"

For dessert we had a cheese tray which was a nice change from a sweet dessert.

It was a fun evening and a nice mix of new wine and food and some old favourites as well. I’m already looking forward to next Saturday to see what yummy dishes Mick will be making.

Cheers!

Mark