The fishy aperitif


Our friend Chris, with whom I cook regularly and dine almost weekly, has a serious allergy to any seafood. Rather than risk killing a dear friend, I’ve learnt to avoid fish products in my aperitif foods. However, when he's not dining with us, I love to go all out with a full spread of fishy nibbles.

Pintxos Gilda

I think it was Escoffier who advised to serve all fish or no fish at all on canapés. I wouldn’t be so strict as that, but it does seem to make some sense. I can’t imagine potted crab or smoked salmon tasting right alongside cured beef or chicken liver parfait. A mix of fish and vegetable dishes can work beautifully, though. The advantage of serving a selection comprised only of seafood dishes, of course, is that you know for certain they’re going to complement each other.

Octopus on chicory leaves and bottarga eggs
When deciding what to serve, think about balances and contrasts. Try mixing two fish and one shellfish or one smoked, one soused and one plainly cooked. Consider how you will mix bolder flavours with milder ones. You can also play with different surfaces to serve them on, too: toasts, pastry cases, bruschette, baby chicory leaves, cherry tomato shells or sliced and served with cocktail sticks to pick them up. You can establish a visual uniformity very easily by garnishing each plate with wedges of juicy, fresh lemon.

Get used to trying out cured fish of different sorts. They have that intensity you need in a good aperitif. Salted anchovies are the obvious place to start. One of my favourite aperitif foods is Pintxos Gilda, a popular Basque dish of anchovy, picked chili and an olive, all served on a cocktail stick. Eat them in one bite for a real flavour explosion! Pickled herring in a jar make a really good stand-by if you find yourself needing to serve something at short-ish notice. If you can find it, real bottarga is amazing. It’s pressed, salted mullet roe that has been very lightly smoked. It has a lovely, burnt orange colour and a firm, almost waxy texture. I serve it simply sliced, dressed with parsley and a squirt of lemon juice, but it’s also great pounded with butter and served on toasts.

Salmon roe blinis & Champagne
If your budget allows for caviar, I wouldn’t recommend serving anything else alongside it. You don’t want to spend that much money, only to have other foods distract from the star. Salmon roe, however, is much more affordable and looks pretty spectacular in its own right. Try serving it on blinis with a VERY thin smear of wasabi paste. I’m not a fan of  ersatz caviars like lumpfish roe. Better to serve something else altogether, something that isn’t trying to be something it’s not and tastes as good as it looks.

If we’re thinking about drinks to go with all this fish, you don’t want something to drown out those lovely flavours. Prosecco makes a good accompaniment to a fish-focused aperitif, especially if you’re including something as sweet and lovely as octopus, say. Manzanilla sherry is another, almost perfect partner for fishy dishes, or you could drift a little further west and introduce your guests to a chilled white port. There aren’t many cocktails I’d really enjoy with seafood, but I have found the Queen Mother’s old favourite, the gin & Dubonnet (sometimes called a ZsaZsa) goes well, and of course a well-made Martini simply sings with anchovy toasts.


Next time: Roses are red, violets are blue...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fine food with fine beers

Image
We've been drinking beer with food for centuries, but it's only in the last couple of decades that people have begun to give serious thought to matching food with beer. In the English-speaking world, especially, beer used to be seen as a working man's drink, and therefore unworthy of respectful consideration; wine was the drink of sophisticates. Working men were not expected to have discerning palates and an interest in what makes food taste good. As wine has become more popular, though, so too has to wine-drinkers' interest in food matching. I wouldn't have a blog if that cultural shift hadn't happened. Regardless of cultural class, these days there can be few drinkers unfamiliar with the idea of serving certain drinks with certain foods to enhance the appreciation of both. With the growth of interest in craft ales and micro-brewing, beer, too, has positioned itself as a drink for discerning and sophisticated drinkers, and sophisticated drinkers like to...
Read more

Spritz and more

Image
Aperol Spritz About fifteen years ago, the Beloved and I visited Venice on holiday. Every guidebook recommended we try the local aperitif drink. In Venice at the time, spritz was made with still wine and a little soda and flavoured with one of several bitter liquors. Our guidebook noted that, while Campari was generally the preferred flavouring south of the Grand Canal, most bars in the tourist north served spritz with Aperol, then virtually unknown at home. Perhaps the students and celebs on the south islands like the higher alcohol content of Campari! It was served in a straight-sided glass (usually a high-ball), filled with ice, fruit and olives. How times have changed! I've just done a quick Google image search, my search-term being simply "spritz." Most of the images show bright orange Aperol spritz in large wine glasses, although there are some old fashioned glasses. Orange slices are frequent, and there are a couple of raspberries and blueberries to be ...
Read more

Absinthe - Madness, Murder and Misinformation

Image
Drinks, like most other things in life, have a cycle of fashions. Cocktails have come and gone several times since their 1920s heyday. When I started buying wines, riesling was the white wine of choice for most drinkers. That was replaced by chardonnay, then pinot grigio, and now it's sauvignon blanc, with a suggestion that riesling might be the next big thing. Some drinks become so fashionable that their popularity can be described as a craze. Think of the current wealth of gins available and the almost insatiable appetite for new gin experiences, new flavours, new mixers. Between the 1860s and 1914, that same crazed appetite was seen in much of Europe in relation to absinthe. Absinthe is a high-alcohol, herb-flavoured spirit (anywhere between 55% and 74% ABV). It is usually green in colour, due to it being subject to a second maceration of herbs after distillation. Three herbs in particular are used to give it its characteristic look and taste: green anis, fennel and wormwood. An...
Read more