AKAROA SALMON AND WINE

AKAROA SALMON WINE MATCHES

AKAROA Harbour is home to AKAROA SALMON.

Akaroa Salmon have been farming in the cold, clean waters of Banks peninsula for nearly 40 years. Over that time, they’ve mastered the art of raising King Salmon without any antibiotics, hormones or other nasty chemicals. If you’re over that way you can get their salmon straight from the wharf as the boat returns- the freshest salmon possible to pair with your favourite tipple.

Here are Vic Williams wine matches with Akaroa Salmon.

HERB AND SPICE CRUSTED BAKED

An easy way to cook salmon for a group, simply place on the table and share

Ingredients

■ 1 salmon fillet around 800g, skin removed ■ 2 ripe tomatoes ■ 1 small red onion finely diced ■ A little salt and pepper to season

Slice tomatoes and lay them on a baking dish roughly the same shape as the salmon fillet.

Sprinkle over the chopped onion and season with a little salt and pepper.

Season the base side of the salmon then place onto the onions and tomatoes rounded side up.

 Serve with a salad, new seasons vegetables etc.

SALMON STEAKS WITH VIETNAMESE STYLE CARAMEL

 Serve with steamed rice.

This style of cooking combines the refreshing fragrance that gives Vietnamese food its fame, the use of caramel probably introduced by the French Colonialists. The sauce can be made ahead of time and the dish finished as required.

4 salmon steaks or fillet pieces The Caramel

■ 5 tablespoons white sugar ■ 5 tablespoons water plus 2 cups water

The crust

■ 2 slices toast bread ■ 1 teaspoon Spanish paprika (plain or smoked) ■ 1 teaspoon ground cumin ■ 1 teaspoon chilli flakes ■ ½ cup chopped fresh green herbs such as parsley, fennel, dill, thyme, mint etc. ■ 2 teaspoons salt flakes ■ A good grind of black pepper ■ 2 tablespoons olive oil

In a food processor make breadcrumbs with the bread. Place them in a bowl. Add and mix in the spices, salt and pepper, then the herbs. Lastly add enough of the olive oil until the mix is a sandy texture.

Place the mix evenly over the salmon, pat down a little, gently to keep them in place. Keep aside, and heat oven to 200˚c.fan bake. Place the salmon in the middle of the oven

Cook for 10 minutes, turn oven down to 150˚c.cook another 10 minutes, turn the oven off, open the door to cool and leave the salmon tto rest until ready to serve.

When ready to serve, using two flat spatulas transfer the baked fillet to a serving platter.

Method

Place the sugar and 5 tablespoons of water for the caramel into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil rapidly until it begins to colour, firstly to a sandy colour then to a deeper brown. As soon as it reaches a golden syrup colour, take off the heat and pour in the water. Bring back to the boil then keep aside.

Fry the onion in the oil until nicely coloured, add ginger and garlic, fry a little more then add all remaining ingredients including caramel, cook rapidly for 5 minutes. Keep aside.

Heat a little oil in a pan, place in the steaks, cook them a little, then turn them and pour over the sauce, simmer to complete the cooking, around 5 minutes.

Sprinkle over the garnishing coriander, spring onions and tomato.

NAUTILUS MARLBOROUGH ALBARINO 2021

Albarino, widely grown in Spain’s Galicia grape-growing region, is little-known in New Zealand, but local viticulturists and winemakers believe it has exciting potential. This impressive example has an appealingly herbaceous edge that ties in nicely with the breadcrumbbased coating on the salmon, while its oily texture is echoed by the fish itself. Lively but nicely integrated acids give each mouthful a moreish zing that perfectly complements the fish.

■ 1 tablespoon sunflower oil ■ 1 small red onion diced

■ 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger ■ 3 garlic cloves fresh garlic crushed and diced

■ 3 tablespoons Vietnamese or Asian fish sauce

■ 1 tablespoon soy sauce ■ 4 tablespoons lime or lemon juice ■ 1 teaspoon salt ■ ½ red chilli finely sliced ■ 2 tomatoes, blanched, skinned, seeded and finely diced ■ 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

To garnish

■ A handful of fresh coriander

■ 4 spring onion greens sliced ■ 8 cherry tomatoes or one diced tomato

VIOGNIER 2017

Checking the ingredient list for this Asian-inspired dish suggested that it should be partnered with either Gewürzrtraminer or Pinot Gris, both of which often feature a hint of ginger in the bouquet and on the palate. Both worked well, but we found the happiest symbiosis when we poured a glass of Tony and Kaye Prichard’s tastefully balanced Viognier. Gently floral on the nose, the wine expands on the palate to suggest ripe Beurre Bosc pears edged by a savoury note reminiscent of Chinese five-spice powder. One of those traditional spices is cinnamon, a suggestion of which can be spotted in the wine’s finish. This lovely wine brought the match to a whole new level.

Vic Williams has been writing and broadcasting about wine and food for more than 40 years. For three consecutive years Vic joined a panel of international wine and food luminaries including Britain’s Robert Carrier, the USA’s Fred Ferretti, Thailand’s Ken Hom and Australia’s Terry Durack and James Halliday to judge Hong Kong’s best restaurants, and for 15 years he was New Zealand wine consultant for Cathay Pacific Airways. At home, he acted as Cellar Director for the New Zealand Wine Society for the 28 years from its inception until its closure in 2019. Vic’s contribution to the wine and food scenes in New Zealand has been rewarded with a Lifetime Achievement award from the hospitality industry’s Lewisham Foundation and the Sir George Fistonich medal as a ‘Legend of New Zealand Wine’ from the International Wine Show.

BUY DIRECT FROM AKAROA SALMON

AKAROA SALMON BARBECUED WITH SUMAC AND PEPPER

These are Middle Eastern inspired flavours, all preparations of the recipe can be prepared in advance. Perfect for a summer evening.

 SERVE with cous cous, labna and pomegranate molasses dressing.

Ingredients

4 x 150-170g salmon fillets 2 teaspoon sumac 2 teaspoon crushed peppercorns (black or mixed) 50m good olive oil

Labna

■ ¼ tsp sea salt ■ 150g Greek unsweetened natural yoghurt ■ 1tablespoon lemon juice

Cous cous

■ 1 cup cous cous ■ 30ml olive oil ■ 1 cup onion and carrot cut into fine dice ■ 3 garlic cloves crushed ■ Rind of 1 lemon finely grated ■ 250ml boiling water ■ ¼ cup chopped parsley ■ 50g butter A few salad greens or green

HOT-SMOKED AKAROA SALMON WITH GAZPACHO AND AVOCADO

The gazpacho can be made a day in advance so an easy one to put together.

Ingredients

■ 40g Hot Smoked Akaroa salmon ■ 2 ripe Hass avocados

Gazpacho

■ 1 red capsicum, charred and peeled ■ 4 small tomatoes blanched and peeled (250-280g) ■ ½ telegraph cucumber ■ 3 teaspoons New Zealand olive oil ■ 2 teaspoons Spanish sherry vinegar or good wine vinegar ■ 1 teaspoon Spanish paprika ■ ½ a teaspoon of salt ■ Couple of pinches of white pepper ■ A pinch of cayenne pepper

A slice of lemon and a few freshly picked garden herbs Blend the capsicum, tomatoes, cucumber, olive oil, vinegar and paprika to a smooth consistency, pass through a fine sieve and add ½ a teaspoon of salt, white pepper and cayenne pepper. Adjust to your own taste. To serve place some gazpacho onto plates, then using a teaspoon scoop out small avocado portions, and place natural broken pieces of the smoked salmon onto plates. Garnish with fresh herbs (chervil is excellent) along with a slice of lemon.

Dressing

2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses mixed with 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Labna

Mix together the yoghurt, lemon juice and salt

Salmon

Sprinkle a little salt over the skin side of your salmon fillets and keep aside

Cous cous

Heat the olive oil, add the diced vegetables, garlic and salt, cook until softened, take off heat, add cous cous, mix in boiling water and lemon rind, cover with a lid or cling film and leave for 5 minutes.

To finish and serve

Place the salmon skin side down on your barbecue plate, sprinkle the sumac and pepper spice mix onto the flesh side. When the skin is crisp, around 5 minutes, turn the fillets over for just 30 seconds or so. Take off the heat. Warm the cous cous and spoon onto plates, place a salmon fillet onto each, then add a few small spoons of labna and a generous spoonful of dressing. Serve the snow peas or vegetable of your choice and sprinkle over a little more sumac and pepper mix to spice the dish up a little.

TE KAIRANGA JOHN MARTIN PINOT NOIR 2020

We like to partner red wine with salmon whenever the opportunity presents itself, as it definitely does here. It doesn’t work if the wine is tannic, but open a bottle of something fleshy but softly spoken and all the right boxes are ticked. This instantly appealing Pinot has the variety’s classic dark berry and spiced cherry aromas in abundance, but it is the richly textured taste profile that seals the deal. Enjoy!

 Serve as a light lunch or an appetiser dish around the festive season.

TE MATA CAPE CREST

SAUVIGNON BLANC 2020

Capsicum, tomato and cucumber are three fresh-faced, upfront ingredients that play nicely with our most famous wine style, Sauvignon Blanc. So far so good, but factor in the mouthcoating attributes of the salmon and oiliness of the avocado and we realise we need something extra. Enter Cape Crest, made predominantly from Sauvignon Blanc but also containing Semillon and a little Sauvignon Gris. The big point of difference, however, comes from the wine’s fermentation in new and used French oak, and it is the resulting faint smokiness behind the rich, fruit-filled primary aromas and flavours that help make it a standout with the salmon.