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Easy Peasy Pairing with Dracaena Wines Chenin Blanc #WinePW

 

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This month, Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla issued a CSA challenge to the #WinePW group. You can read her invitation here. The challenge – pair any wine with seasonal vegetables that you would receive in a CSA box or find at a farmer’s market. I picked up that gauntlet as the perfect opportunity to finally cook something special for the bottle of Dracaena Wines Chenin Blanc I’ve been saving.  And I felt ever so peased to do so.

Whether or not you wrote a blog for the theme, please do join the #WinePW Twitter chat group on Saturday, 13 August at 8 am EST/ 11 CST! Follow the hashtag and let us know what your favorite seasonal pairings are!

So, what appealing recipea did I happealy make? Read on my fair audience (if the puns haven’t already given you a clue)!

Market life in Turkey

Buying fruit and veg at a market is far more common in Turkey than shopping at a grocery store. Greengrocer shops are also still very common here. I’m guilty of shopping for my produce at Carrefour but, as an international chain, my Carrefour has uncommon items like cranberries, raspberries, sweet potatoes, etc! I do prefer to buy as much of my produce from a greengrocer as possible but am, admittedly, too lazy to trek to a market.

Especially in large cities like Istanbul, you can find markets pretty much any day of the week. Most usually open only once a week so you have to know where and when they all happen. Turkish markets, called pazar, should not be mistaken for a farmer’s market. Third parties run the vast majority of stalls. Even so, you are guaranteed to find fresh, seasonal items.

Turkish food is all about seasonality. Outside the big cities, refrigerators are still a recent-ish phenomenon and do not approach the size of a standard American fridge. Shopping is usually done within a day or two of cooking and fresh products have very little preservatives so they don’t last long when not used.

Roast Chicken with Peas and Lemon & Dracaena Wines Chenin Blanc

Now, my lovely peaple, hopefully I have peaqued your interest in what I found at the pazar. But, before we get there, let’s talk about my wine!

Last autumn I went back to the US to visit my family for the first time in four (or maybe five) years. Eeek. Family obligations out of the way, I did what I always do when abroad. I shopped for wine! And of course I had to take the opportunity to finally get myself some wine from Lori and Dracaena Wines! I ordered a bottle of her Cabernet Franc Reserve and a bottle of the new (last year) Chenin Blanc. The Cab Franc I naturally opened for Cab Franc Day! The Chenin Blanc, on the other hand, has been staring at my for almost a year now. Demanding I find a special use for it.

Dracaena Wines Chenin Blanc comes from Wilson Vineyards in California’s Clarksburg AVA where the silty soil is perfect for this grape. While not certified, the vineyard employs organic farming. The wine (100% Chenin) fermented and aged in a combination of stainless steel and neutral oak barrels.

One whiff of this beautiful, cool lemon wine had my head whirling with aromas of lemony goodness, early peaches, and a whiff of something undefinably tropical. Those citrus and peaches found their way onto the broad palate along with something that tasted awfully like my friend K’s pandan panna cotta!

The dish I made I adapted from a recipe out of the Lemons and Limes cookbook. The original recipe calls for broad beans which were not to be found so I substituted fresh peas. Which I’ve never had before and discovered I love! Peas of my childhood came frozen or in a can and are a mushy nightmare. Fresh peas? Entirely different story!

Not only was this the most delicious roast chicken I’ve ever made, the combination of peas, lemon juice AND rind, and lemon thyme all beautifully complimented the Chenin Blanc, highlighting the wine’s citrus character. My side dish of blanched green beans (also from the market!) with a lemony garlic cream sauce paired equally well.

A masterpeas if I do say so!

Seasonal vegetable fun continues!

There are still lots of fresh veg recipes out there! Check out what the others in the #WinePW group found.

• A Summer Harvest and A Visit to Santa Ynez Valley’s Beautiful Biodynamic Demetria by Wine Predator…Gwendolyn Alley
• CSA-Inspired: Whole Roasted Rockfish with Tomatillo Sauce + Seabold Cellars’ 2021 Siletto Aligoté by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Easy Peasy Pairing with Dracaena Wines Chenin Blanc by The Quirky Cork
• Grilled Artichoke and Marianna Rocim Alentejo by Our Good Life
• Lodi Locavore Living by ENOFYLZ Wine Blog
• Mexican Street Corn and Sausage Salad with a Vino Blanc by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Red Cabbage Pasta with Condriesque White Wine by Cooking Chat