Recommendations · Wine and food

Fried calamari with Phebus Torrontés Mendoza

Squid rings in a thin coat of flour, fried until just golden, with aioli and lemon. Torrontés is the white grape of Argentina: fragrant as a flower garden and yet dry.

Back to the recommendations

Bottle of Phebus Torrontés Mendoza, wine

From the shelf

The bottle

Phebus Torrontés Mendoza comes from Mendoza in Argentina and is made from torrontés. The wine is at 14 percent by volume and the bottle contains 75 centilitres. The colour is light yellow, with very delicate aromas of white flowers, lychee and notes of lime on the nose. The taste is elegant and well balanced.

Phebus Torrontés Mendoza

The combination

Why this works together

Fried food calls for acidity, otherwise the fat lingers in the mouth; the lime note and the fresh taste of torrontés do that job. But there is more going on. Squid is mild and almost neutral, and precisely for that reason a wine with a lot of aroma can go alongside. Where an aromatic wine would get in the way of an outspoken dish, here it complements: the floral, slightly exotic aroma gives the calamari the aromatic layer they lack themselves. The garlic in the aioli finds in that aroma a counterweight rather than being flattened by it.

At the table

The dish

  • Before 4 people
  • Ready in 35 minutes
  • Type starter

What you need

  • 700 grams of cleaned squid
  • 150 grams of flour
  • 50 grams fine cornmeal
  • 250 millilitres whole milk
  • 1 litre sunflower oil for frying
  • 150 millilitres of mayonnaise
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2 lemons
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika powder
  • 20 grams flat-leaf parsley
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

How to make it

  1. Cut the squid into rings of one centimetre and soak them in the milk for half an hour. Milk makes squid more tender and ensures the flour mixture sticks later.
  2. Press the garlic and stir it into the mayonnaise with a dash of lemon juice, salt and pepper to make an aioli. Keep it cold.
  3. Mix the flour with the cornmeal, the paprika and a generous teaspoon of salt in a roomy bowl.
  4. Heat the oil in a deep pan to 185 degrees. Use a thermometer; oil that is too cold makes the rings greasy, oil that is too hot burns the coating before the squid is cooked.
  5. Let the rings drain, dredge them through the flour mixture and shake off the excess flour.
  6. Deep-fry them in handful-sized batches for one and a half minutes until golden. Longer than two minutes and the squid turns tough; that is the whole art of this dish.
  7. Let them drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle them immediately with a pinch of salt.
  8. Roughly chop the parsley, sprinkle it over and serve with the aioli and lemon wedges.

In the glass

Serving

Pour the wine at 9 to 11 degrees into a white wine glass with a slightly wider bowl, so the floral aroma is released. At 14 percent by volume this wine warms up quickly in a hot kitchen; keep the bottle in a cooler.

Everything about Phebus Torrontés MendozaBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje

Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18