Recommendations
Sea bream from the oven with P. Rodriquez e Hijos Manzanilla
Out of the oven comes a sea bream on a bed of potato slices and confit pearl onions, drizzled with hot oil in which garlic and lemon have steeped. The manzanilla sets a pale, salty wine against it that is exactly as light as the fish.
From the shelf
The bottle
P. Rodriquez e Hijos Manzanilla comes from Sanlucar de Barrameda, the only place where the Consejo Regulador permits manzanilla. Our own bottle page states that this wine is made using the centuries-old method of criaderas and soleras and ages three years under the flor yeast. That flor is a living layer of yeast that seals the wine off from the air, keeps it pale and converts alcohol into acetaldehyde; in doing so it consumes glycerol, sugar and acids, making the wine drier and sharper. The microclimate at the mouth of the Guadalquivir keeps that layer thick all year round, and that gives manzanilla its lighter, saltier character. The bottle is at 15 percent alcohol and comes in one litre.
The combination
Why this works together
Dorade is a lean, delicate fish with little fat of its own and a flavour that quickly disappears under a wine. That is why weight is the first criterion here, and a manzanilla is the lightest of all sherry styles: biologically aged, pale and without residual sweetness, at 15 percent alcohol, and it therefore lies alongside the fish instead of over it. The second criterion is salt: the fish goes into the oven salted and the refrito adds lemon to that; because the wine itself is saline and bone dry, those two reinforce each other rather than fighting each other. Research into flavour interactions with sodium chloride shows that acidity lowers the threshold for salt perception, and that is what the lemon in the refrito and the acidity in the wine do together. Finally there is the cooking fat in which the potatoes were pre-fried and with which the fish is drizzled: that is carried away by the acidity and the alcohol. For manzanilla, the Consejo names everything from the sea.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 45 minutes
- Type main course
What you need
- 1 kg sea bream, cleaned and butterflied (or two smaller fish)
- 4 medium potatoes
- 20 pearl onions
- 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
- the juice of 2 lemons
- 1 dried red chilli
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt
How to make it
- Heat plenty of olive oil in a frying pan. Peel the potatoes, cut them into thick slices and fry them lightly without letting them colour. Lift them onto kitchen paper.
- Cook the silverskin onions in oil over very low heat for about fifteen minutes, almost like a confit. Lift them out of the pan.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, top and bottom heat, without fan.
- Lay the potato slices and onions as a base in an oven dish. Place the butterflied sea bream on top, sprinkle it with salt and drizzle it with olive oil.
- Put the dish in the oven for about twenty minutes, until the fish comes away from the bone.
- In a small pan, fry the garlic slices with the chilli until golden brown. Take the pan off the heat and pour in the lemon juice.
- Pour this hot refrito over the fish as soon as it comes out of the oven and serve immediately.
In the glass
Serving
Serve this manzanilla very cold: 6 to 8 degrees according to the Consejo style page, 5 to 7 degrees according to the manual, and preferably from a bucket of ice and water. Use a catavinos or white wine glass of about 200 millilitres and fill it one third. An opened manzanilla keeps only briefly, about a week in the fridge with the bottle closed. This bottle holds a litre, so pour it at a table where it will also be emptied.
All about P. Rodriquez e Hijos ManzanillaBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje
Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18