The
Cakebread Cellars Napa Valley Cookbook
Wine and Recipes
to Celebrate Every Season's Harvest
by Dolores and Jack Cakebread, with resident
chef Brian Streeter
In
her Cakebread Cellars Napa Valley Cookbook, Dolores
Cakebread reveals that "growing grapes and making fine
wine was our only intention when Jack and I purchased the
property for the winery in 1973." So, why a cookbook?
What does food have to do with this story? Isn't making
great wine enough?
The
Cakebreads are the classic American success story. Today,
much of the family works in the business; their land is
abundant with grapes of course, but also with vegetable
gardens, orchards, groves of olive trees bearing some half-dozen
varietals, and beehives. Does life get any better in the
Valley? Apparently so.
The
Cakebreads helped create the American Harvest Workshop,
"a nonprofit, educational effort to increase the appreciation
of wine, viticulture, and the nutritional and aesthetic
qualities of American farm products." The AHW events
are carefully organized, attracting widely respected chefs
and local purveyors-they are incomparable celebrations of
food and wine. Then there are the Cakebread vintners dinners,
cooking classes, and wine tastings paired with food.
Resident
chef Brian Streeter, along with Dolores and Jack Cakebread
celebrates the seasons of the Valley with their compendium
of rustically elegant dishes: appetizers like Roasted Mussels
with Bread Crumbs and Garlic; main dishes including Leg
of Lamb with Green Olive-Almond Tapenade and Tomato Jam,
and Chicken Under a Brick; and vegetables such as Spinach
with Raisins and Pine Nuts, and Polenta. Equally sensible
are the salads, soups, sandwiches and pastas. What is there
not to like about a Roasted Garlic, Summer Squash and Teleme
Pizza, or a picnic basket filled with Pan Bagna—those
over-the-top tuna sandwiches.
Think
about a spring lunch of Roasted Beet Salad and Candied Walnuts
alongside Carrot Soup with Garam Masala and Fromage Blanc.
When frost hits, tuck into a cozy dinner of Venison Stew
with Dried Cherries. Each recipe is indexed by season, and
all relevant dishes are paired with a suggested wine.
Desserts
are delightfully simple, and just what you would expect
after dinner in Napa. Honey Ice Cream with Candied Walnuts,
Apple Cranberry Crisp, and a Polenta Cheesecake with Strawberries
Macerated in Zinfandel are just a few that you'll want to
devour immediately.
No
recipe is overly complicated, and the instructions are clear.
Some, however, require the skill, patience and knowledge
of a more experienced home cook. The pantry ingredients
are no more demanding that Italian tuna and white truffle
oil. Sometimes you'll need access to heirloom tomatoes and
Dungeness crabmeat, but the book does include a helpful
list of purveyors for those harder-to-find ingredients.
Streeter and the Cakebreads also include some basic cooking
techniques and a glossary with just enough wine-tasting
information as to not overwhelm.
It's
easy to be cynical, but if you understand the Cakebreads
you begin to realize that this book may not be mere self-promotion.
They really want to share their passion for great wine and
food. And, after they finish telling their story there's
some good eating ahead.
RECIPE:
CHICKEN
UNDER A BRICK
Reviewed
by Kevin Schoeler
(Updated: 11/04/08 SB)
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