Sunday dinner

Eastside Road, Healdsburg, February 1, 2009

A CHICKEN EVERY SUNDAY, that was the promise eighty years ago, as I understand it. It's been a long time since I dealt with a chicken, but it came back to me. Cut at the wing joints, the thigh joints; remove the back by cutting through the ribs; split the breast into two and bone them out. Wingtips, neck, and back go in the stock pot.

So then it was make the usual risotto — an onion minced fine and sweated in butter and olive oil; add the rice and heat until it turns powdery white and translucent along the edges; add the chicken stock ladle by ladle, and a glass of white wine along the way.

Lindsey broiled the chicken. We sliced a white truffle (the Christmas truffle) onto the risotto. Green salad, made tonight with shallots, not garlic.

Dessert: Lindsey adapted an orange upside-down cake from this month's Gourmet magazine, substituting almond flour and potato starch for the polenta. (We had a non-eater of wheat at table.) We thought it quite delicious, though she's not sure about the advisability of the potato starch.

How nice to have Sunday dinner with your family!

Pinot bianco "la Viarte", 2005 (!), Friuli; Côtes du Rhône "les Moirets", 2006