Lifestyle

Seaside-inspired seafood spoils

Whether you're fortunate enough to stay at the coast or living hundreds of kilometres from the beach, doesn’t matter … you can still indulge in these sea-style dishes.

Well-known foodie and author of the cookbook West Coast Wander Georgia East has teamed up with Krone MCC to create two West Coast seafood dishes that seamlessly pairs with Krone Borealis Cuvée Brut.

Mussels with samphire and seawater pasta

Serves: 4

You’ll need: 4kg fresh mussels, cleaned; 2-3 shallots, finely chopped; Olive oil; 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped; 250ml Krone Borealis Cuvée Brut; a handful of samphire, thoroughly rinsed; zest and juice of a large lemon; fresh fennel fronds, finely chopped; 500g spaghetti

How to: In a large casserole over medium heat, sauté the shallots in a little olive oil until soft and golden. Add in the garlic and fry for a minute before deglazing the pot with the MCC. Add the mussels and the samphire and steam for 8-10 minutes or until all of the mussels have opened. Discard any mussels that don’t open.

Set a pot of salted water to boil. Once boiling, pour in a glug of olive oil and add the pasta. Cook the spaghetti until al dente. Without removing the pasta from the pot, drain out the seawater and add in the steamed mussels and samphire. Zest and juice the lemon over the mussels and scatter over the chopped fennel. Gently combine the pasta with the mussels and serve on a heated dish with an extra drizzle of olive oil over the top.

The saline complexity of Krone’s Borealis Cuvée Brut makes it the ideal pairing for the simplest of seafood with notes of green apple, white blossom and citrus.

Salt-rubbed harders with a wild green pesto

Serves: 4

You’ll need: 

8-12 fresh harders or sardines, scaled and gutted; 500g coarse West Coast sea salt; large sprigs dune sage (Salvia Africana-lutea) or flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped; large sprigs wild rosemary or regular rosemary, finely chopped; 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped; zest and juice of a large lemon plus an extra lemon for squeezing over the fish; olive oil

How to: Combine a tablespoon of the dune sage with the coarse sea salt. Rub the salt all over the harders, taking care to not get any into the belly cavity. Set the fish aside. Combine the chopped herbs, garlic, lemon zest and juice with a few generous glugs of olive oil. Season the pesto with a pinch of salt and combine to the desired consistency. Shake the excess salt from the harders and braai the fish over hot to medium coals for 3-5 minutes per side, squeezing over fresh lemon juice. The harders are ready once the skin is golden and the flesh pulls away easily from the bones.

Serve the harders with the wild green pesto, lemon wedges, crusty bread and a chilled bottle of Krone Borealis Cuvée Brut.

Complimenting the harders’ delicate flavour, the saline complexity of Krone’s Borealis Cuvée Brut makes the ideal pairing for this simplest of seafood, while the MCC’s bright acidity of kumquat and naartjie lend zest to the earthy aromatics of wild rosemary and sage. Get the Krone’s Borealis Cuvée Brut for R165 from selected bottle stores or kronemcc.com

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Gareth Drawbridge

Digital content producer
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