Skate Fin with Sauerkraut and Black Rice

Skate Fin with Riesling Cabbage and Black Rice (Serves 4 People)

The visit of Hubert Trimbach at Amelio's in the fall of 1997 had me dig into my Alsatian background to match the Trimbach Riesling. Skate fins (The French ailerons de raie cannot be translated by wings) and cabbage cooked in wine seemed to be logical for this magnificent wine.

Tools: - 1 qt sauce pan with lid -5 inch round plain pastry cutter - baking pan -boning knife - pastry pin

Ingredients:- to convert -2 skinned skate fins of 2o oz. each -1 green cabbage -1 C. white wine -4 oz. Chinese black rice -2 oz butter -1 pinch cumin -4 oz. olive oil -Salt, black pepper to taste

Steps: Filet the skate fins or ask your seafood supplier to do so. 1) Cook the black rice for 15 minutes at low heat. Once cooked, add salt and pepper to taste and reserve. 2) Cut the cabbage in quarter and remove the core. Shred the cabbage. Add the wine Cumin and salt. Cook at low temperature for 30 minutes. Add the butter at the end. 3)Season the skate filets and sauté them golden brown, skin side down, in a non-stick pan, with olive oil at high temperature for about 2 minutes on each side. Reserve. 4)Make a little mount of sauerkraut in each plate; top each mount with the black rice. Arrange the skate around that it looks like a little skirt. 5)Use the remaining juices from the sauerkraut and the rice making decorative swirls. 6)Garnish with carrot daisy and asparagus

Chemistry: (to be developed)

wine recommendation: Kremser Wachtberg Gruner Veltiner A deep, brassy gold, with a light green glow. An open-plus nose; ripe apricot and baked-apple aroma has a honied mineralality, some orange rind. An exotic and succulent bouquet. In the mouth the mineral flavor makes a subtle but persistent impression, with a touch of fleshy white fruit. There's a little spice underneath, but the background is largely an insistent mineral taste. Medium-good body, rich and round, with an aggressive acidity counterpoint.