Sauvignon Blanc Food Pairing: Plaice with Beurre Noisette
What is the best Sauvignon Blanc food pairing? Originally from France's Loire Valley (it settled in New Zealand a couple of centuries later) it is the perfect partner to all manner of delights from the Pays de la Loire: mussels, anchovies, sardines, corn fed chicken, ham, goats cheese, and Port Salut cheese.
Even if you're opening a bottle from New Zealand, Chile, or South Africa, these Sauvignon Blanc food pairing ideas will work. As the adage has it: "if it grows with it, it goes with it." When wines and foods have a shared history, they are generally ideal bedfellows.
My personal preference is for Sauvignon Blanc wines from the banks of the River Loire. You may be surprised to learn that from time to time I have been called an old world wine snob (most notably by my wife).
Loire valley whites have all the zingy, fresh flavours you expect, but with a tendency to grassy and herbal notes. They also have slightly less of the saliva inducing acidity so common in examples from New Zealand.
The French habit of highlighting the place (rather than the grape), means many people do not realise that the elegant wines of Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé and Sauvignon de Touraine are, in fact, all made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc.
In our house, white fish, cooked simply, is a fast and highly effective Sauvignon Blanc food pairing. Below is my version for a quick, yet refined, midweek supper.
Pan Fried Plaice with Buerre Noisette
We have an excellent fishmongers on Newton Abbot high street, Jacksons, who have a top notch selection of fresh fish landed that day in Brixham. For this recipe, the fresher the fish, the better.
I start with a Plaice, expertly filleted by the fishmonger. This I will pan fry and serve with a Buerre Noisette (literally translated as nutty butter).
Ingredients
- 2 fillets of fresh Plaice
- Salt and pepper to season
- A large knob of butter (plus extra in which to fry the fish)
- A few capers
- A handful of parsely
- 1 lemon
Method
The dish itself is absolute simplicity.
Place a heavy based frying pan over a high heat. Add a little butter. Season the Plaice fillets with salt and pepper. Once the butter starts to bubble, place the fillets, skin side down, in the pan.
Cook for between 3 and 5 minutes (without turning) until the flesh of the fish is just turning opaque. Remove the fillets from the pan.
Now add a large knob of butter to the pan. When it starts to foam squeeze in the juice of one lemon, the butter will change colour from golden yellow to brown (this is where the nutty flavour comes from). At this stage, throw in a few capers and a small handful of parsley, then remove from the heat.
Put the Plaice on to the plates, pour over the Buerre Noisette and add a some sprigs of watercress for decoration.
Pour a large, chilled, glass of your preferred Sauvignon Blanc. Enjoy!
