I’m really digging Saison beers these days.  Especially the ones which seem to be laced with a hint of brett, and have that slight farmhouse funk without going overboard.  (See also: The Bruery’s Saison Rue, and Eli’s favorite, Ommegang’s Hennepin.) This particular bottle of Fantôme hit the balance perfectly – it was distinctly citrusy with a nose of belgium farmhouse yeast, yet maintained a smooth finish.  Besides the glass chipping when I removed the cap (underneath which there is a cork,) this was an ideal bottle of beer. Plus, it was a great compliment to the autumnal dinner I’d been working on.  As it gets colder, I can move into cooking and eating more dishes designed to warm you up when it’s cold out.

 

Dinner started with a roasted chestnut soup. Vanity olive oil drizzle optional. 

 

 

Using Mark Bittman’s recipe as a jumping off point, I swapped out leeks for the onions, and still added just a hint of cream to make the whole thing a tad more indulgent. The finished soup was earthy and rich, but uncomplicated – and great with the beer.  Also, roasting chestnuts: what a pain in the ass.  Seriously.  I’m thinking a good walnut soup would be a much lower effort variation on this.

In the meantime, I put the finishing pine nuts on my swiss chard, checked the temperature on my roasting pork loin, and crisped leftover potatoes with more leeks in a pan.  Dinner was nearly ready. 

 

 

One of the great things about the temperature dropping and the cool nights, is a return to winter cooking.  I have a well documented love of braising, but along with the cool weather come the winter bitter greens. Mustard greens, chard, kale, or my favorite: beet greens.  Tonight however, I had Swiss Chard.  I shocked the greens, then brought them together in a pan with a bit of white wine, onion, garlic and pine nuts. 

 

 

Together, everything was pretty great: the potatoes had taken on a bit of a crust, the pork was perfectly cooked (thanks in-oven wireless thermometer!) and the chard had a hint of bitterness and earthiness, as well as my serving of veggies for the day.  My only complaint is that I was too delicate with my seasoning of the pork.  It had a light meyer lemon, garlic and rosemary rub that seemed to cook off in the oven, and leave very little flavor behind – next time, I’d marinate it overnight, and double the flavors for a bigger impact.  

With the soup and the Fantôme, I wouldn’t change a thing. 

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 9:49 pm and is filed under Pairings, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.