October 29, 2003
Ideas for ThanksgivingWe are back on standard time and Thanksgiving is less than a month away! Even with this unseasonably hot weather we've had, I'm starting to get into the holiday spirit.
Starting today, and running into November I thought it would be appropriate to share Thanksgiving recipes from local growers and vintners. I will also suggest wine pairing ideas. Wine, after all, is food to be consumed with food.
Last week I had dinner at Huber Vineyard near Lompoc in the Santa Rita Hills with Norman and Traudl Huber. For the first course, preceding the Wiener schnitzel and apple pie made from local apples was a wonderful harvest soup.
I thought the soup would be especially good for the Thanksgiving feast so I called Traudl for her recipe. This hearty and delectable fare she has made "from scratch and memory" for years. When I asked her for a recipe, she told me she would have to think about it and write it out.
Here is Traudl's Harvest Soup recipe which serves twelve:
4 cups of fat free chicken broth
2 pounds of carrots, cut up
3 medium potatoes, red rose or white rose, peeled
2 medium onions
2 cups acorn squash, softened in the microwave, with seeds removed
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp. honey
2 bouillon cubes (chicken)
salt and pepper to tasteCook until soft, remove the bay leaves and puree. Add two cups of low fat milk after you puree.
This wonderful soup makes a great first course or early course for any meal, and I think it would be perfect on any Thanksgiving menu. What you don't eat, you can freeze, she told me.
I should underscore using the freshest vegetables possible-from your own garden or a farmer's market. I know Traudl would agree.
At the Huber's we drank a bottle of 2002 Palmina Bianca which I brought. Palmina is made by Steve Clifton (of Brewer Clifton) and Chrystal Seals. The Bianca is an intriguing blend of white Italian varietals, very fresh and verging on the spicy side, and a perfect counterpoint to hearty fare like Traudl's Harvest Soup.
The soup would also be a good soul mate to a dry rose wine such as Sanford's Pinot Noir Vin Gris or the limited production, Botella, a dry rose made from sangiovese by Chrystal Seals. This soup is remarkably versatile and wine friendly, and would always marry well with a sauvignon blanc or a chardonnay-maybe something tasting from the Santa Rita Hills like a chardonnay from Rozak, Clos Pepe, or Huber.
The soup would also match well with pinot noir-but then-like Brian Loring of Loring Wine Company says, "Everything's better with pinot!"
More Thanksgiving ideas next week. Bon appetit!
Wine and food lover and Santa Maria Times Wine columnist, Bob Senn, lives in the Los Alamos Valley and owns the Los Olivos Wine & Spirits Emporium.
