Red Butter Lettuce with Chestnuts, Walnuts & Bacon December 21, 2008

I picked a beautiful head of red butter lettuce at the farmer’s market. I’ve been craving salads at home lately. Sometimes a big bowl of salad is all I need. I came across Paula Wolfert’s recipe for Chestnut Salad with Walnuts and Pancetta and thought “what a great combination”. For my own simpler salad featuring the beautiful lettuce I added toasted walnuts, store-bought steamed chestnuts and crisped up bacon. I dressed the salad with a sherry vinegar and walnut oil dressing and finished it with shavings of parmigiano reggiano. I’m horrible at peeling chestnuts so I defaulted to the Trader Joe’s steamed ones but as soon as I took a bite of the salad I immediately thought of how wonderful it would have been to bite into a freshly roasted and peeled chestnuts along with the crispy smoky bacon, salty parmigiano, nutty walnuts and the fresh and vibrant red butter lettuce. I just might be motivated to cook and peel chestnuts again. Just maybe.

I drank with the salad a white bordeaux from Monsieur Marcel, the little gourmet slash mini bistro at the Fairfax farmer’s market. The wine lady there told me it was “dry and crisp” – sounded like something I would like and I did. It had just a slight acidity that didn’t interfere with the the salad at all. It seemed pretty food friendly as whites tend to go. The wine was under $15 I believe so it’s also affordable too. It’ll be a good everyday wine to have around and perhaps a crowd pleaser too at any holiday parties.

Garlic Sausage December 19, 2008

On with the sausage making, I went for the basic – garlic sausage from the Charcuterie cookbook. The recipe is simple. Basically pork seasoned with salt, black pepper, garlic and red wine. I added just a little bit of rosemary and thyme to this mix, not enough to make it an herb sausage necessarily but a garlicky one with subtle herb flavors. I browned it in a pan and finished it in the oven, turning out a juicy sausage for dinner.

I had a small savoy cabbage in the fridge from my last trip to the farmer’s market. I sauteed it in butter with a bit of brown mustard seeds, salt and white pepper. A few splashes of water went in to help the cabbage steam although some parts came out nutty and caramelized.

The red wine I used in the sausage is Rolling Hills Vineyard’s Pagor Red Table Wine 2007, a California tempranillo wine. It’s pretty tasty with a medium body and light berry flavors. It’s very drinkable on its own even without food. I was looking at the cool bottle the other day thinking that the artwork really looked like Gary Baseman. And it is! Good choice.

Luna Oysters December 13, 2008

Yay today I successfully shucked oysters! I tried this before once and what a fail that was. I picked up a dozen luna oysters from the Carlsbad Seafood stand at the Santa Monica farmer’s market. Luna oysters are similar to Kumamoto oysters – small, delicate and sweet. The oyster guy showed me how to shuck them. The oysters needs to be set flat side up on a surface and held with a towel to protect your hand. The oyster knife needs to be worked in to the hinge where the top and bottom shell are attached. Once the knife is in twist it to pop the shell open and cut through the muscle holding onto the top shell. And success! Well almost – there were still a few I could not get the knife into the hinge. The ones that popped open made a great afternoon snack though with a squeeze of meyer lemon.

Turkey Meatballs with Chestnut, Sage & Bacon in Ale Sauce December 1, 2008

Once again I was faced with an abundant surplus of ingredients with only myself to blame. I overbought ground turkey when I was grocery shopping for the Thanksgiving dinner. Instead of being able to lie around being lazy all weekend I was forced to cook again. A few choices ran through my mind but I settled on turkey meatballs with chestnut, sage & bacon.

I lightly floured them before browning them in olive oil. I tried my hand at an ale sauce for kicks. I sweated diced onion in the drippings and deglazed with Chimay Premiere (the red label) and reduced the mix along with chicken stock. I seasoned them sauce with fresh sage, thyme and black pepper although I forgot to add butter at the end. I cooked the meatballs through in the sauce with the top covered.

The turkey meatballs made another comfort driven meal and thank goodness a few friends were able to come over to help out with the eating.