Hello again, hungry bloggers. For Christmas Eve, my dinner companion and I made a special treat. We made seared mahi-mahi topped with chopped zucchini, drizzled in a delicious, rich sauce. This recipe came, again from Rick Bayless’ cookbook: Everyday Mexican.
This was a very simple dish, by definition. Though, when all the flavors blended together, this basic dish created quite a luscious sample of tastes for the palette on such a special night.
The recipe called for fish as the main ingredient. Rick suggested fresh snapper. Since it was Christmas Eve, we splurged and decided to purchase our fish from the Fresh Fish Company in Ballard. For reference, Ballard is one of the neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington.
The snapper looked good behind the counter. Though, the mahi-mahi looked better. It was pinker in color and just generally looked fresher. We purchased about a pound and a quarter of their fresh mahi-mahi. We also bought a pound of fresh zucchini, some garlic cloves and a couple limes that we intended to use as a garnish. All of our ingredients were fresh and we were willing to pay a bit more for better quality. Usually the price is worth it.
When deciding what wine to pair this dish with, I scanned online briefly to look for recommendations to pair with seared mahi-mahi. We struggled a bit finding a good pairing, because all of the recommendations were white. My dinner companion and I are not a fan of white wine, we usually opt for red wine. White wine tends to give me a terrible headache from all the sugar the next day. In the past, my dinner companion has admitted to dealing with the same problem.
However, we finally found a happy medium and decided on a Torrentes called Alamo from 2009. According to hellovino.com, “[Torrentes is] an aromatic white with lychee, honey, and exotic fruit aromas and lemon zest flavor.” Torrentes is a white wine—yes. Though, it didn’t taste too sugary to me and had a very complex finish, not too sweet. It paired quite well with the fish.
Another wine recommendation for pairing with mahi-mahi is Gewürztraminer, pronounced: guh-VURTS-trah-mee-ner. I have drunken Gewürztraminer in the past. Although, I did not pair it with fish. I find it to be very sweet and usually too sweet for me to drink in large quantities. Sauvignon Blanc was a third option to pair with mahi-mahi. From hellovino.com, “[This is] a light white wine with passion fruit as a match.”