Sausage Test

Wine: Domaine Des Relagnes Cotes-du-Rhone – 2003

We decided to cook at home using sausage we bought from Chris at The Cheese Store of Silverlake. The sausage was a new product we had recommended to Chris and he decided to stock it as a test. The sausage was hand-crafted byge by Paul Bertolli who used to cook / own Oliveto in Northern California. His new company is called Fra’ Mani Handcrafted Salumi.

For the first course I found an interesting recipe for a salad. We had never made it before. It was in one of our favorite cookbooks: Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells. What I like so much about her recipes, is they are from restaurants and when we have traveled to France we have been to many of the restaurants to try the specific recipes in the book. We made a salad named: Salade a l”ail Chez Tante Paulette. Sounds fancy but is easy and great. You make a mustard vinaigrette. Sauté bacon (my favorite seasoning) and bread cubes to the cooking bacon (what could be better – croutons cooked in bacon fat) then toss the vinaigrette, bacon, and sautéed croutons. After you place on the plate the top with minced raw garlic. Sounds strong but isn’t. It was an excellent find and we will make again. Actually we did the next night.

For the main course we made Chicken and Sausage Paella derived from The Moro Cookbook. Cathy loves paella and has modified the recipe improving it to fit our tastes. Among other things we added Smoked Paprika and Spanish Sherry: Alvear Asuncion Oloroso. The Pallea was great and will provide several dinners, lunch for Cliff and some chicken for Polenta (the cat).

We had traveled the previous weekend for a wedding in Chicago. It was a spectacular wedding in the Chicago Cultural Center which was the old Chicago Public Library. The building is magnificent and wedding was very elegant. In an amusing whimsy, as the guests were leaving we were all given candy bars. We brought ours home and had the Art Bar: Dark Chocolate and Coconut for dessert!

Except for the fact that Cliff was coming down with a cold it was a great dinner!