It's a bit of what we currently love and last night fell right into that vein, maybe more than any previous meal.
Garlic shrimp isn't particularly finicky with wine as long as you follow certain guidelines. A crispness, substantial enough body and especially a nice minerality is vital. Albariño typically has all those traits and we've loved the combination in the past. Lively and spritely is the order of the day, something to contrast the oily, garlicky shrimp keeps things balanced. This recipe of shrimp has a certain smoky richness to it and it needs something with a certain energetic or effervescent quality to work.
We returned to a similar pairing we liked a year ago that showed why bubbles are lovely with food.
Food: Spanish-style garlic shrimp, Ethiopian hummus, Syrian bread and mint snap peas
Same Cook's Illustrated garlic shrimp recipe from last June. One head of fresh garlic, one head of black (fermented) garlic, dried thai chilies, bay leaves and extra virgin olive oil cooked up together with the shrimp and served at the table in the cooking pan. Great smoky, deep oil in the pan that demands bread for dipping, hence the Syrian, sesame seed-inflected bread. This is great stuff, easy to make and can be whipped up for about $20 total. We wanted shrimp and got shrimp in a form we like most.
Black beans found in the freezer puréed with cooked carrots, extra virgin olive oil, tahini and "berbere" spice blend from the Middle Eastern Market on Foster. Deliciously weird, tasting almost like chocolate and cinnamon were involved but never fully dark and heavy-ish. Dark-er but light in taste. A blend of chile peppers, garlic, ginger, dried basil, korarima, rue, white and black pepper, and fenugreek, the traditional blend used in Ethiopian cuisine and played wonderfully with the sesame seed bread.
