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Jumbo Shrimp With Pernod - Peanut Butter Fudge Quickies - Wine Choice 4 oz. golden raisins 4 oz. dark raisins 24 jumbo shrimp 1 cup oil 2 oz. diced shallot 2 oz. butter 2 cups orange juice 3 oz. diced red pepper 4 small fennel bulbs, wedge cut 1 1/2 cups Pernod liquor Combine raisins and Pernod in a small bowl and set aside. Clean and devein shrimp. In a very hot pan add half of the oil. Saute shrimp with shallot. Add fennel and continue to saute until translucent. Deglaze pan with the Pernod and raisins. Add orange juice and reduce by half. Stir in red pepper and butter. Set aside. Shrimp may be served under white or brown rice. Serves 4 2 cups sugar ½ cup peanut butter ¼ cup cocoa ¼ tsp. vanilla ¼ cup butter ½ cup milk 3 cups quick cooking oats In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, butter, cocoa and milk. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute, stirring slowly. Remove from heat and add peanut butter and oats. Mix thoroughly. Pour into wax paper lined pan(s). Chill until it sets and cut into pieces.
Now this, I have to admit, had me scratching my head.
The Jumbo Shrimp with Pernod had me completely stumped. Pernod? Raisins? Orange juice? Butter and oil and all the rest? What wine could possibly go with that?
Fumbling for a direction, I decided I at least knew what Pernod was even if I didn't have any at hand. It turned out I didn't even know that very well. A quick Internet search told me that Pernod was a brand name for a pastis, a liqueur related to Greek ouzo. The Pernod brand came about after absinthe was banned in France in 1915 and the manufacturer switched to the anise-based liqueur that we see in stores.
Having settled that, I began trying to figure out what to serve with this dish. My first thought was water, to tell the truth. There will be a lot of sweetness in this sauce and a riot of competing flavors.
That led me a little further. Faced with unknown situations and wine choices, I fall back on the most food-friendly wines I can. Sauvignon blanc, I said to myself. Nothing with a big flavor will stand up to this; the wine should be there to cleanse and refresh your palate for the next bite, to cut through the haze of tastes and re-awaken your tongue.
Since I needed to find the Pernod anyway, I dropped by my local wine store and had a nice discussion of all this with the salesman. He had his ideas and I had mine, but in the end I took his suggestion and came away with a Chateau Ste. Michelle Sauvignon Blanc Horse Heaven Vineyard Columbia Valley.
Another choice might be an Italian Pinot Grigio. If you are thinking Chardonnay, I personally would stay away from the big, buttery toasted-oak variety so popular in recent years and look for a drier wine that spent more time in steel.
On the Peanut Butter Fudge Quickies -- well, I have had those before. They are not as sweet as you think they are, and they have a tendency to disappear very quickly when Karen brings them out in a group. If you plan on having them with wine, think about the way tasting rooms serve you chocolate with the sweeter reds at the end, the dessert wines and the port-style wines.
Enjoy!
Jumbo Shrimp With Pernod - Peanut Butter Fudge Quickies - Wine Choice |
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Last modified: August 07, 2007 |
