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Sherry and food
The ignorant consider sherry as an aperitif or a drink for in-between meals. In fact, a sweet sherry matches best with a dessert or in place of a dessert. Sherry is a versatile wine or a category of wines and can complement a variety of foods.
Sherry can be bone dry (like Manzanilla or Fino) or very sweet PX (Pedro Ximenez). Of course, there are many styles in-between of the two extremes. First, exists only bone dry sherry, and then winemakers transform it to satisfy market demand.
Other types of sherry are Amontillados (that is off dry), Olorosos (medium sweet), Pale Cream and Cream (very sweet) and PX (extremely sweet).
Manzanilla sherry go well with marinated scallops on Japanese vinegared (rice wrapped in seaweed), lightly salted and roasted almonds, potato salad and sushi.
Fino sherry has been usually paired with beef consommés but goat cheese stuffed ripe tomato wedges seem to be a more satisfying match. You can enjoy chilled Fino sherry as an aperitif. The good news is that is no end to successful matches here.
Amontillado is a full bodied sherry matching flavorful dishes like pan-seared chicken satay with fresh thyme and red currant jus, or grilled chicken breast with a piquant mayonnaise. Blue cheeses such as Gorgonzola, Roquefort, Stilton or Cabrales are excellent with Amontillado sherry.
Oloroso sherry by definition are full-bodied and best matched with duxelles stuffed filet of beef, beef teriyaki, thick soups, or puff pastry wrapped filet mignons stuffed with goose liver pate.
Off-dry sherries are excellent matches with smoked salmon stuffed pyhlo pastry purses and honey mustard sauce. You can invent your own specialty of interested in cooking and inventing new, exciting food and wine combinations.
Pale cream sherry represents specialties and only few houses produce them. Croft’s pale cream sherry, in a recent tasting, went extremely well with arugula crumbled Gorgonzola, fresh pear slices, toasted pine nuts and raspberry vinaigrette. You can always replace Gorgonzola with Cabrales, a superb Spanish blue cheese, or Roquefort, Stilton or Danish blue.
Cream sherries like Harvey’s Bristol Cream, are by definition sweet, and meant for desserts. Espresso-infused custard in chocolate shell, cream sherry parfait, or compote of dried fruits is good matches. You can try dried apricots, apples, pears, figs and dates with cream sherries and see for yourself how well they complement one another.
PX is an extremely sweet, raisin-tasting sherry requiring appropriate accompaniments. Dark chocolate wafers, or dried fruits, or biscotti dipped in the wine go well with this type of sherry.
Feel free to experiment and enjoy the excitement of new flavor combinations, but remember this - drink Fino, Manzanilla and Amontillado sherries cool, drink Oloroso medium at 65 F (14C) and sweet sherries at 8 F (16 C).
And, when you open a bottle of sherry, try to consume it within a week and two days for dry sherries.
[Author]
Alexandra Popa