Attended a wine dinner last night. Can't tell you how unappetizing fish poached in red wine is...

T

traca

Well-known member
ew! The fish was grey and the cut reminded me of a large mushroom. If we truly "eat with our eyes" first, this was on the scale of...revolting.

The wines they were serving approached $100 a bottle and I sat next to a couple who had a 900 bottle cellar in their house--plus off-site storage for 400 bottles. Another person had 7,000 bottles cellared. (Personally, I drink far more than could ever get cellared, but that's another story....)

The wine was fab, the food missed the mark even though the menu was comprised of caviar, scallops, etc. etc. Interesting experience.

 
fish and red wine

Interesting!! I'm curious...What kind of fish was in and what kind of wine was it cooked in? And what wine was served with the dish? Pinot noir, for example, can work very well with some fish dishes. cheers, Bonnie

 
It does seem counterintuitive... Also: 900 bottles?! Wow. Carpe corkscrew. Life is too short. smileys/wink.gif

 
I just can't wrap my brain around poaching fish in red wine. it just seems like it's to

over powering for fish. with expensive wines, it's a shame the food was so poorly done. but, with enough good wine, who cares? '-D

 
The wine was great & I happened to have a lavender sea salt bar from Eclipse

chocolates that I shared with the table. Other than the people, vino & chocolate I brought were the highlights. smileys/smile.gif

 
go figure. I went to one dinner at the aquarium, catered by my fav resturant and the food was just

aweful. went to another on there a few days later and the food beyond excellent. same resturant. good thing you had chocolate!

 
hmmm

I have to admit that sangiovese and halibut in no way makes sense to me (even though sangiovese isn't particularly a high-tannin wine), and the Jerusalem artichoke does nothing to change that for me in the equation. somewhat weird. cheers, Bonnie

 
Last night I watched "The 'F' word with Gordon Ramsey. He prepared brill in red wine and

everyone said it was wonderful. The piece of fish Gordon used was very thick and after poaching only the outside was red while the inside remained white.

 
pinot noir

Not all pinot noirs are created equally. The ones out of California and Oregon (or New Zealand) taste completely different than the ones out Alsace (as referenced in the Saveur recipe) or Burgundy. The European pinots tend to have much less tannin and can work with fish. I wonder if you used a non-Euro pinot and that that influenced the dish's outcome? It's a risky biz, fish and red wine but it can work. cheers, Bonnie

 
I couldn't find an Alsatian one here so used another French pinot noir. Can't remember

which label specifically. The dish overall didn't work, I thought, apart from the red wine/fish combo. But obviously the pairing *can* work. If we can drink reds with fish, surely we can cook the two together. Maybe I should try another recipe.

 
I'd say the photo works because they kept the skin on the fish. IMy issue is less about the

specific wine and more about the red wine coloring the flesh of the fish. Our halibut cheeks, after poaching, were this insipid blue-grey color. Probably one of the most unappetizing things I've ever eaten in public. The look of these sickly pieces of flesh overshaddowed flavor. I couldn't quite get past it enough to enjoy them. And at that point I'd forgotten they were halibut cheeks and the texture is different than your usual piece of fish, so that played a factor in it as well.

I saw an author demo a recipe from his book, Tom Douglas' "Big Dinners." He poached eggs in red wine and in the end, he said, "There's a picture of every recipe in the book...except this one. You know why? It's too damn ugly, but utterly delicious!"

 
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