Experiment

A cold but beautiful day yesterday so Scott and I managed a long walk by the river in the morning and we spent the late afternoon at a local park making sure the squirrels were in the trees where they belong.

During a market trip on Saturday morning there was a new item on the shelf. It's the first time I had seen bamboo rice. It is a wonderful pale green, short grain rice from China. Reading the labels on the package it turns out to be a white short grain rice that is soaked in bamboo juice to produce the unique green color. There was a recipe on the package that intrigued me so we tossed a couple of other ingredients into the cart.

The more I looked at the recipe the more it needed to be tinkered with so I added an item or two. Basically I sauteed shallots, garlic and minced ginger in olive oil, added a diced, sweet, red pepper and one finely diced Serrano pepper for effect and heat. Once the peppers softened I added the rice and vegetable stock. I brought everything to a boil and added the shrimp, then covered it and let everything simmer for 20 minutes over low heat. I removed it from the heat and added a chopped fresh mango, recovered the pan and let it sit for five minutes. The results are pictured above.

The dish was quite tasty but it had a problem or two that I will solved the next time. I prefer my shrimp less well cooked so I will not add them the next time until much later in the cooking - basically just letting them steam over the top of the rice mixture for the last several minutes. The dish also needed a slightly less ripe mango as it seemed to dissolve into the rice. I loved the taste of the green rice and mango together and the mango went great with the shrimp, but I would have just preferred that it be a little more crisp. I liked the slight kick from the Serrano and the taste of the ginger in the dish.

I opened two wines and while both were good, one was better with the shrimp. The first was a 2005 Chrismont, King Valley, Victoria dry Riesling from Australia. It is one of the few available in this area and I was anxious to try it. Dry, crisp and minerally with lots of limes in the nose and taste. There were some lemons and totally fresh peaches in the taste as well. Easy wine to drink and I liked it with the shrimp. It's $17 in this area.

The second wine was a 2007 Wilhelm Bergmann Bernkasteler Kurfurstlay Riesling Kabinett from the Mosel. There was a hint of kerosene in the nose with limestone and limes and spring flowers. Very ripe fruit in the taste with citrus overlaying a sweet, young grape taste. There was some residual sugar and that just married beautifully with the Serrano pepper and the ginger in the shrimp dish. This was as close to a perfect pairing as I've had for awhile. The amazing thing is that this wine is only $8 in the local market. That's an outstanding bargain.

I ordered a half case of the Leitz Trocken Riesling discussed below and I will add six of the Bergmann to make up the case, and that of course gets a discount and lowers the price on this wine to $7.10.