Wine time: Seeing food decides ‘seafood Saturday’
For us, Saturdays have become “seafood night.” Our day starts early, and we go to the Charlotte Farmers Market on Yorkmont Road.
Our first stop is always Fish On Seafood located at the near end of building ‘C’ (think in the sea) where we hook up with Kevin Clapp. He always has a wide and interesting selection of fresh seafood and shellfish available. You can count on him having fresh shrimp, scallops, salmon and tuna but he also will have types of fresh fish that vary from week to week.
We’ve found Pompano, Sablefish, Tilefish, Trout, Grouper, Swordfish, Amberjack, Bluefish, Calamari and others.
He also has clams, and on occasion Stone Crabs and Conch. We’ve also found whole Red Snapper and Corbino.
His crab cakes are the best we’ve found and are a regular Saturday night appetizer with us.
We arrive with an open mind and let our eyes decide on the dinner menu. If we see something that looks interesting but we’re unfamiliar with, Kevin will gladly tell us how to prepare it.
The other merchants at the Farmers Market can supply the fresh, vegetables, fruit, herbs, spices or just about whatever we might need to prepare our seafood and side dishes.
Kevin has some great recipes, but we got this one from our friend Vern at Toulouse Vineyards in Mendocino. He recommends it be paired with Gewürztraminer.
Seared Tuna Steaks with Citrus Soy Sauce
4 4oz. Tuna steaks, 1” thick
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Mirin (rice wine)
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
2 Tbs. grapefruit juice
1/2 Jalapeno seeded & chopped
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs. coconut oil
Lemon zest
Salt and pepper
In a small saucepan combine the: soy sauce, Mirin, shallots, jalapeno, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, and coriander. Simmer over moderate heat until reduced by half, about 8 minutes. Strain the sauce. In a large nonstick skillet heat the oil until shimmering. Season the tuna with salt and pepper and cook in the oil over high heat for one minute per side. Transfer the tuna to a platter and let it rest for one minute. Thickly slice and serve with the citrus sauce.
Wine recommendations
▪ Artesa Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2013 Carneros, Napa Valley, Calif. – about $39. Chardonnay is a great wine to pair with a wide array of fresh fish. This estate-grown wine has pleasant citrus aromas of vanilla and lemon with well integrated flavors of stone fruit, honeycomb and nectarine. It’s well balanced and well crafted.
▪ Kim Crawford – Small Parcels, 2015 Spitfire Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand – about $26. Sauvignon Blanc wines, especially those from New Zealand are out favorite wines to pair with shellfish. This one is really great. It’s extremely crisp and clean with well defined aromas and layers of tropical fruit flavors: passionfruit, gooseberry, along with citrus notes of grapefruit and a long lingering finish.
▪ Paul Culver 2014 Gewürztraminer, Western Cape, South Africa – about $15. Gewürztraminer is the perfect wine to pair with Asian dishes like the one above. This one opens with aromas of rose petals and tropical fruit. You get lovely flavors of fresh litchi, melon and mango mid palate with nuances of lime on the finish.
Jim and Marie Oskins live in the Lake Wylie area. They can be reached at winetime@comporium.net.
Newgrass Brewing wins N.C. Brewer of the Year
Gravity Magazine and the North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival announce dthat the North Carolina Brewery of the year is Newgrass Brewing Company. Attendees of the 6th Annual North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival at Historic Rural Hill in Huntersville, N.C., voted the Shelby, N.C., based brewery.
Newgrass Brewing is a fairly young company and Cleveland County’s first brewery. Located in a 107-year-old structure and featuring reclaimed wood from a historic mill nearby, Newgrass Brewing takes pride in its local history. Featuring a stage for live music, a beer garden, and full kitchen for a well founded experience with friends.
The staff of Newgrass Brewery will be awarded a plaque by the producers of the North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival at a later date and join former award-winning breweries such as NoDa Brewing, Free Range Brewery, Primal Brewing, and Ass Clown Brewery. This was the first year that the North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival teamed with a partner organization to facilitate the vote. “Working with Gravity Magazine was great, they were very involved and dedicated to making sure each and every attendee of the festival knew how and where to mark their ballot” said Jeff Fissel, Executive Director of Historic Rural Hill where the festival was held, “it’s a relationship I hope we can continue in the future.”
The North Carolina Brewers and Music Festival is a fundraising event for Historic Rural Hill, a non-profit historic site and center for education, which serves over 3,000 students annually with low cost field trips and family oriented programming. For more information on how you can participate in future events at or donate to Historic Rural Hill, please visit www.ruralhill.net.
Celebrating more than 250 years in history…Rural Hill is the former homestead of Major John and Violet Davidson. The 265-acre site is maintained and promoted by Historic Rural Hill Inc. and features annual events such as the Loch Norman Highland Games, the Rural Hill Amazing Maize Maze, the Rural Hill Sheepdog Trials, and the NC Brewers and Music Festival. Historic Rural Hill Inc. is a non-profit organization supported through membership and donations, and with proceeds from its events utilized for the preservation of Historic Rural Hill and its education efforts. For more information on events or for financial support accepted securely online, please visit www.ruralhill.net.
This story was originally published May 16, 2016 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Wine time: Seeing food decides ‘seafood Saturday’."