College Uncorked: ¡Sauv Blanc and Ceviche!

We've been away for a while and we hope you've been drinking lots of wine (learn by doing)! This week we picked up a bottle of Save Me, San Francisco Wine Co "Bulletproof Picasso" Sauvignon Blanc. Though the bottle ran for a little more than our usual price range, with our Ralphs card we were able to get it for $13 rather than the $16 it usually goes for. While looking at the endless sea of white wines, this green tint bottle caught our attention. The Painted Ladies of San Francisco are showcased on the label and this is all inspired by Jimmy Stafford from the band Train. Though the price and the fancy celebrity endorsement would usually be a turn off, we ranked this sauv blanc at an 8/10. This fresh and crisp wine screams summer!

2013 "Bulletproof Picasso" Sauvignon Blanc

California

13.5% alcohol

All stainless steel

Sight

Clear straw color-pale gold with a slight hint of green.

Low color concentration.

Very artistic and colorful label with the Painted Ladies

Aromas

Strong aromas of grapefruit and citrus, with undertone of grass and lemons. Very similar to the usual profile of New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs

Taste

The wine tastes super grapefruity and grassy, almost like drinking a milder form of grapefruit juice at times. Potent acid structure but despite of this the wine is still quite smooth with a very light body and mouthfeel.

Strong notes of minerality on the draw. No oak or evidence of malolactic fermentation.

This wine is really reminiscent of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc with a bit more nuance and minerality. Though we splurged a little this week, we highly recommend drinking this wine solo or with some fresh fish or, like we did, some ceviche! (Recipe detailed below). This is a great bottle if you're looking for a fresh crisp white for a summer's day or if you're on the quarter system (like we are) and you still have a few more weeks of school you can class up your Friday afternoon before the weekend begins. Worth bringing with you to a get-together if you need a nicer bottle of white or just want to class up your day-drinking. We gave it an 8/10 for being a pretty solid wine, even if it is a tad pricey at $13.

Check out our little photo story of Paul's family ceviche recipe and enjoy some wine :)

Cheers,

A&P

Ceviche

So, when we tasted this wine on Friday we were trying to think of what food it could go with (since it's a great standalone wine) and I'm always trying to justify buying seafood/prove to Alejandra that I'm more Mexican than her so we had the idea to mix up a batch of ceviche on Memorial Day and try it out with the wine!

What you'll need:

Snapper (or if you're on the West Coast, Rockfish)

Scallops

Calamari (tubes)

White onion

Limes. Many limes.

Tomato

Cilantro

Jicama

Salt

Avocado

I also diced in about half a jalapeño, which I think it adds a really nice little kick. The flavor is almost imperceptible if you don't know it's leaves a refreshing tingle in your mouth. A serrano would also work for this.

You're going to want the freshest possible fish for this, both for quality and food safety reasons. I opted to get my fish at Whole Foods.

First you'll get your squid ready. These will need to be boiled until soft, about 10 minutes.

Delicious, delicious tubes

Boil for ~10 minutes or until soft

A stray tentacle worked its way into my tubes!

Tentacle Buddy

Once the tubes have been boiled, slice into strips

Place the strips of calamari into the bowl that you will be marinating in.

Next up comes the snapper or rock cod. You'll need to separate the the skin and avoid the couple pin bones.

On a fattier fish one slice on the end will do and you can easily peel the rest of the skin off

The skin did not want to cooperate

After skinning the fish you'll slice the meat into ~1/2" chunks. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of this but you can see them in the pictures of the marinade. Place the chunks into the marinade bowl with the calamari.

Next comes the scallops. I opted for bay scallops, as they're a little bit smaller than sea scallops and you can just cut them in half, instead of the multiple cuts you would need for the larger sea scallops.

Gold is worth its weight in scallops

Slice each scallop in half and add to the marinade bowl.

Dice up your white onion and add it to the marinade bowl.

Guest appearance by our tentacle buddy

Now slice and dice the (optional) jalapeño, and add to the marinade bowl.

Remove the ribs, you only want the flesh of the jalapeño

Now it's time to get marinating! Pretty simple, just fill the bowl with lime juice until all of the fish is covered. You're going to need a lot of limes!

Squeeze like you've never squeezed before!

Just kidding. Pick up a bottle of lime juice, your forearms will thank you later. I grabbed two but the one bottle ended up being the perfect amount.

Fill bowl until fish is covered

Mix evenly and ensure all parts of the mixture are submerged in lime juice.
Add a pinch of salt.

This mixture is going to marinate for about an hour and a half.

When you start geting close to hitting the end of the marinating time, it's time to make some totopos!

Cut corn tortillas into quarters (homemade or store bought tortillas work fine for this) and get some vegetable oil up to frying temperature in a pan. Drop sliced tortillas into the oil and fry them to your desired crispiness (it'll take a few batches to get your fry timing down).

No ceviche can be enjoyed without totopos

Once your chips are fried, pull them out of the oil and place into a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Salt the chips at this point (I use a mixture of salt and chili powder).