Christmas Eve Goodness

Christmas Eve brought a familar yearning for a seafood feast. Brooke's family tradition is crab legs on Christmas Day; my family always serves oyster stew on Christmas Eve. We crossed the two, and ordered a mess of crab legs from Dirk's. Dirk's prices are stratospheric, but they sure have good stuff. We kicked things off with one of our favorite appetizers, a salmon tartare adapted from Saveur. It's mouthwatering with homemade potato chips.



The crab legs were succulent, served with usual accompaniments, but I forgot to snap a pic.



We washed this all down with an '05 Bisson Golfo Del Tigullio Vermentino Vigna Intrigoso (Rosenthal). I bought a couple bottles of this last summer with caprese salad on the brain- a fine pairing, indeed. It served the tartare and crab legs fine as well- it's full (you could argue fat when I let it get too warm, but I wouldn't), distinctive and layered. Like most wines I favor, it recalls the place from which it came- the Ligurian coast. Bisson makes several game-changing wines, including a rosato that's a must have for summer. The wines can usually be found in Chicago, and I've purchased several at Wine Discount Center.

My other chore for Christmas Eve was making pork rillettes. We had two recipes lying around, one calling for pork loin, and the other for pork belly. I love easy decisions. We haven't tried it yet, but I'll be sure to post the results.