Freixenet Cordón negro with Lacquered prawns
Freixenet Cordón negro
Winery Freixenet
D.O.: Cava
Grapes: 40% Parellada, 35% Macabeo, 25% Xarel·lo
Ageing: 18 months in stacking
Price: 7€
Excerpt from the book “Pairings of spanish wines with exotic cuisines”.
Click to see the preparation of these dishes, in Asian recipes.
This wine is one of the largest selling classics, so every Spanish consumer may have his own tasting notes, at least in memory.
It is important to remark that the technology of cava, as it happens with all the other Spanish wines, has progressed amazingly in recent years and anyone who has not tasted this wine for some time will be surprised at how much it has improved. Now it exudes more fruity aromas, typical of Perellada grapes, and above all it leaves a fresh sensation in mouth, with nuances of baker’s yeast and persistent thin bubbles that make it more lively and penetrating.
A change in colour can also be noted: now it is more straw-yellow, bright and steely, no doubt as a result of the technical improvements quoted.
Lacquered prawns
This is a speciality from Shangdong, one of the seven great Chinese cuisines, whose most remarkable feature is the use of seafood from Bohai, that wide gulf fed by the Yellow Sea where people have lived from fishery from ancient times.
It is a delicious dish that has been abused by wedding caterers, so if you have tried it before, forget that bad experience. This is a delicacy in which the prawn meat has to remain almost raw to counterbalance the natural bittersweet flavour from the fruit it is lacquered with.
As it often happens in great ancient royal cuisines, this dish is usually part of the assorted starters which are put on the table so that each guest can help himself from one dish or another.
Pairing.jpg "Langostinos lacados")
As said above, this dish is usually served as part of a varied assortment of specialities which are served simultaneously, that’s why it is difficult to find a particular pairing for each one of them. The best option in these cases is always to resort to cava, a solution which grants both pleasure and success.
This time we have a classic, characterized by the Perellada grapes and by a price that makes it very attractive to the catering industry, therefore it will be easy to find in many Eastern restaurants, even with several bottles available if the length of the meal requires them.
Regarding this dish, it goes without saying that cava is one of the best travel companions of decapod crustaceans. If a sweet and sour sauce is available, then it becomes unbeatable.