Ahh... spring has sprung and the fresh fava beans are easy to find at the local farmer's market. Unlike the famous movie quote from Silence of the Lambs, I prefer my favas with white wine instead of Chianti.
I went to the Hollywood Farmers Market this morning and bought organic fava beans and local baby shitake mushrooms. I plan on preparing one of my favorite springtime meals (see recipe below).
The perfect match for this meal will be the Grgich Hills Chardonnay 2006.
Grgich Hills is both certifed Organic and certified Biodynamic. This means they use no toxic chemicals for pesticides, fertilizers and fungicides.
Grgich Hills Chardonnay ($42) has gorgeous aromas of honeysuckle and apple blossoms, rich flavors of lemon custard and a nice bright acidity at the finish.
Fava Bean and Shitake risotto
Peel one pound of fava pods and pop out the beans, blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes.
Drain and let cool. Then slip the green fava beans from the outer casing.
Saute one diced onion in butter and stir in 1 cup risotto rice. Stir to coat.
Add heated stock to risotto, one cup at a time. Stir frequently and let stock absorb before adding more. Probably will take about four cups of warm stock before risotto is al dente. Stir in some butter, turn off heat and cover.
Saute half cup of sliced shitake mushrooms in butter and let cook for five minutes.
Add peeled fava beans to mushrooms.
Stir cooked shitakes and favas into the risotto and add grated pecorino cheese.
Serves two
Celebrate spring with this delicious organic food and wine pairing!
5 comments:
Rich, it seems to be working now
Yes, thanks. In the novel, Lecter wants his fava beans with a big Amarone rather than the Chianti from the film. But, your point about white wine still remains! I've loved Grgich Hills Chardonnay for years. Your recipe sounds delicious! Thanks.
Just a knit picking technical point. Both organic and Biodynamic growers are permited to use Copper in thier vineyards, which is does toxify the soil if used repeatedly. Sustainable certifying agencies, such as LIVE Inc. in Oregon, severaly limit the amount of copper permited.
It is true that organic farmers often use copper sulphates as a fungicide. I would also like to see limits on this practice.
There's an argument to be made -- by someone deeper versed in multi-national agrrbusiness and conspiracy theory than I -- that the idea that copper used in biodynamic farming is toxic is argued most vociferously by the manufacturers of synthetic poisons for mold/mildew.
I think it's also important to understand that many, maybe even most, biodynamic growers will tell you that it's more a general philosophy than a prescriptive approach. I think anyone who takes Steiner literally shouldn't probably be allowed out of their padded room. Still I don't think many BD growers are poisoning the soil with copper based fungicides. I think most use as little copper as possible to control mildew.
So as long as great wines will come from places (global warming notwithstanding) with lousy weather (Burgundy, Champagne, Washington State, etc), something has to be done about mildew. And there aren't many purely organic options.
Post a Comment