December 4, 2012 Dinner – Grilled Lamb, Squash and Celeriac Casserole, Red Pear Salad and Pecan Pie

December 4, 2012  Dinner – Grilled Lamb, Squash and Celeriac Casserole, Red Pear Salad and Pecan Pie

Sometimes just the right amount of food prepared with great ingredients and care makes a perfect dinner.  Tonight was just such a meal.  Suzette talked to Cynthia Elliott the other day and they decided that Cynthia would make a salad and dessert and we would make a vegetable and grill a leg of lamb.  Not a very specific menu, so lots of room to create and Suzette and Cynthia are fully capable of creativity in the kitchen.

On Saturday I went to the garden and gathered a handful of fresh herbs, oregano, garlic greens and rosemary and stuffed them into the cavity of a boneless leg of lamb (Costco $4.99/lb.) and added a couple of Tbsps. of olive oil, and 1/3 bottle of PPI French red wine and marinated it in the meat drawer of the fridge for four days, so it was permeated with herbaceous wine flavor. 

On Monday I went to the garage fridge and brought in a four pound Hubbard squash grown in Suzette’s organic garden at the Center for Ageless Living in Los Lunas.  We cut the squash in half and roasted it in the oven until the flesh softened to almost mush. 

On Tuesday evening I peeled and cubed ½ of a celeriac root (celery root) and one russet potato and we boiled those for about fifteen minutes until they softened and then I found a recipe from Bon Appètit on the internet that said to make a potato and celeriac mash you simply whipped the boiled vegetables with cream and butter.  So Suzette whipped the celeriac and potato with butter and cream and added about two or three cups of the roasted squash and put it into a large enameled casserole pan and garnished the top with chopped pinion nuts and Pecorino Romano cheese. 

Then we turned our attention to the lamb.  Suzette insisted that we segment the leg of lamb into three pieces so that there were two thicker chunks and a thinner piece, so she could regulate the fire and cooking time on the thinner piece so it would not dry out.  This turned out to me one of the revelatory discoveries of the meal.

When Cynthia and Ricardo arrived at around 6:30 p.m. Suzette covered the pot of squash and celeriac and baked it in the oven for about twenty minutes while the lamb was grilling and we sipped a lovely 2006 Cline Vineyards Zinfandel with French spreadable cheese with garlic and herbs spread on toasted slices of a baguette from the new Bosque Baking Company at 922 Coal SW in downtown Albuquerque (tel. 234-6061) that Cynthia and Ricardo brought.

Cynthia said when she arrived that she had baked a pecan pie and everyone likes pie.  I said pecan pie is my favorite and that I wanted the recipe.  Cynthia also brought a salad bowl filled with lovely red pear slices, arugula, spinach, cucumber, cheese squares, and celery and a vinaigrette dressing. 

So, when the lamb came off the grill there was a frenzy of activity in the kitchen.  While I sliced the lamb, Suzette fetched the squash casserole, Cynthia dressed and tossed her salad and I poured more red wine.

Soon after we began eating I saw that we had nearly finished the bottle of Cline Zinfandel because it was so smooth and drinkable, so I went to the basement for another bottle of Zinfandel.  I was inspired by the lightness of the Cline Zinfandel and decided, in accordance with our new policy to drink the older wines in our cellar, to try the last bottle of a case of Pacific Star 1998 B-X Ranch Reserve Zinfandel, we had bought at its production facility at Myers Flat on the Avenue of Giants in the coastal redwoods on Hwy. 101 in Mendocino County in 2008.  Unfortunately, this year when I made a special side trip to Myers Flat to visit the PacStar tasting room, it was closed. 

So when I consulted the internet today, I was thrilled to see that Pacific Star Winery still exists and has its main winery facility at Fort Bragg, CA and that is the most westerly winery in the U.S. and more or less at the end of Anderson Valley, where we have been going every other year to attend the Pinot Noir Festival in Philo.  Anyway, the PacStar Zinfandel was luscious, silky smooth, except for a heavy sediment on the side and bottom.  My recollection was that we paid $90.00 for the case of Zin or $7.50 per bottle. 

We had over ½ bottle of the Pacific Star Zin left when we had finished our plates of food, so we just sat and talked and sipped the lovely wine until it was gone and even afterwards enjoyed the lingering taste of smoothness and light fruitiness.  This is the lightest zinfandel I have ever tasted; an ultimate example of a rich fruity California Zinfandel.   

Finally, we decided to cut into the pecan pie.  Cynthia sliced pieces and garnished them with scoops of Hagen Daz vanilla ice cream.  I brought out my new bottle of raspberry liquor and we tried it but it was a little harsh so we added more Trimbach raspberry liquor to sweeten it.  I put out the Trimbach Mirabelle plum brandy with the raspberry liquor and also made mint tea with dried mint from the garden.  The pecan pie was wonderful with a crisp top covered with pecan halves and without a gooey corn syrup filling and with a terrific crispy crust.   

At 9:00 p.m. we all looked at each other and said it was bedtime and so Cynthia packed up her stuff after graciously leaving us a large wedge of pecan pie and our giving them a container of squash casserole.

I can not tell you how wonderful this meal was.  Everything was interesting and perfectly cooked from the newly discovered bakery in our neighborhood to the lovely pecan pie to the best zinfandel I have ever tasted to the discovery of how to properly cook a leg of lamb to the unusual and the discovery of a new taste and ingredient combination of celeriac with Hubbard squash.  All just great.

Bon Appètit