Red wines are suitable for pairing with some seafood

Grill weather has readers turning to red meats and wines. Lower Slower folks are adept at seafood on the barbie. Crab goes well with wine. However, avoid drinking full-bodied reds with crab. Tannins and crab’s protein may upset your stomach. You can learn more here: inf.news/en/health/464149dd5fe7b4b7d403e98bc29aafb4.htm.

Easy directions for us barbarians to serve up soft crabs. Remove aprons and feathery lungs from crabs. Cut their little faces off, pop floater. Immerse in your favorite Italian dressing (preferably homemade, but well-shaken Wishbone works), for less than an hour. Avoid leaving marinade on too long; acid will seviche them, making them mushy. Over ashy coals, cook ‘em up. Watch carefully, prevent burning by moving them around on grill. Use tongs, not fork. Serve one big fatty as an appetizer. Don’t forget to wipe crab detritus from grill. Add wet wood chips and toss on some salmon or tuna steaks. For some, two big fatties make dinner.

The following was paraphrased from Dreamthief online: With crab you have three options: go to the expensive seafood place for overpriced, soggy and bland crab; ruin it yourself at home; or follow this recipe and have crab so good you will never eat it any other way. Dear Dreamthief, properly cooked crab stands on its own backfins. Their delicate deliciousness doesn’t require any strong flavor additives. Go to better restaurants found on Delmarva; follow directions. Peeps been eating crabs forever; olive oil, butter, garlic on grill was likely invented by Italian or Greek hunter-gatherers. I moved here in 1972 and still don’t get slathering crab in mayo or overwhelming spices on carapace. Probably spice use was imagined by wily old restaurateurs to increase beer consumption and pay the bills back when crabs were dirt cheap and you could catch AUCE off your back porch with a net, a string and a few chicken necks.

Few wines complement grilled or spicy steamed crabs better than German Moselle or Sake (Japanese, Seishu). Nik Weis provided a wonderful sampling of his St. Urbans-Hof Rieslings. The region was established in the third century by Roman occupiers. Piesporter Goldtropfchen (golden droplet) enjoyed a wonderful reputation for many years. Unfortunately, some winemakers decided to add sugar to Elbling or Muller-Thurgau juice to raise alcohol and residual sugar levels for export only. This practice placed some insipid wine on the market and damaged the reputation of high-quality Piesporter Goldtropfchen. Those who didn’t closely follow the wine biz and searched for bargain instead of value wine were disappointed. Nik’s family kept the faith. The 2018 Kabinett, 90 McD, is a great value around $26. Drinking well now thru 2027. Nik’s dad, Hermann Weis, began producing dry Riesling in the ‘70s, well before most. The Nik Weis Goldtropfchen GG  2018s are lovely drier Rieslings. Those who prefer sweeter Riesling should choose the Kabinett, Spatlese or Auslese labels. The GG employs old-vine, low-yield grapes worked manually on steep terrain. They are hand selected over time, ensuring best quality and ripeness, fermented with indigenous yeast, allowed to rest in the tanks, no fining other than settlement. Look for trop fruit, black currant and citrus with spicy herbs and smoky minerality. Nik told me as these age, the flavor will move from this fresh, fruity profile toward structured minerality and spiciness. Well crafted from the ground to the bottle, 91 McD now thru 2030, $31. More on these in the following weeks.

Since Sake has somewhat limited availability in our area, here’s one which works well with most shellfish and is findable – Yasaka Tsuru Kame No O Jumai Ginjo with 55% rice polishing. Kame No O is a type of rice; polishing (Sei-mai Buai, Jap.) refers to amount of bran husk stripped prior to fermentation, to remove the protein and oil the grain contains. Junmai-shu, Ginjo-shu, Daiginjo-shu, Honjozo-shu and Namazake are five primary Sake types. They are brewed in slightly different ways and make use of diverse percentages of Sei-mai Buai. I rarely review Sake. It is more an alcohol and millers’ expertise than a rice growers’ product that provides variety; pure alcohol is often added for a variety of reasons; processes providing its many renditions are complex; and finally, few have expressed interest. If several readers take time to email me, chjonmc@yahoo.com, I will be happy to explore Seishu in more detail.