Rub-A-Dub-Dub

When Luisa sent me to David for his recipe for a sage-rosemary-garlic-salt rub for just about any food, I went happily, as I always enjoy reading with envy about David's life in Paris. (I'm so casual with their first names that you'd be forgiven for thinking I actually know these people, instead of just being a groupie lurker). They are friends I've never met.

It just so happened that my sage plant and my neighbor's rosemary plant were in desperate need of pruning, so the timing was perfect. I used the chopping attachment for the wonderful stick blender that My Beloved's daughters gave me for my birthday, and it worked a treat for rendering those woody and wooly herbs to near-dust condition. Blended with minced garlic and coarse salt, it smelled wonderfully pungent.

I sprinkled some all over and in an organic, pastured chicken and roasted it in the usual way. The result was really tasty but, at the first bite, I was already dreaming of embellishments. Next time, I'll add lemon peel to the chopper for a citrus lift. I'd also push the mixture under the skin instead of sprinkling it on top so the flavors have a better chance to infuse the meat - chicken stubbornly tastes like, well, chicken, unless you do something forceful to it. I might also add some flat-leaf parsley next time to coax the flavors out of winter and into the summer a bit.

All in all, however, I'd recommend this simple rub. I was too excited to await the drying process and just used it fresh, but I think I will prune again later and dry it for little Christmas gifts. It would be especially welcome for someone who is still working and needs a quick way to add flavor and pizzazz to a weekday meal.

Rosemary and Roasted Grapes

When I roast a chicken, I like to add veggies and things to roast alongside - only one pan to clean up, just adding a little green to the plate completes it, and I get to experiment with all kinds of combinations.

I almost always toss in some potatoes, either red potatoes or fingerlings - they are more or less a "given". I also love shallots roasted whole. I just drizzle the veggies with a tiny stream of olive oil and roll them around in it to coat, adding different herbs or seasonings as the mood strikes me.

This time, I had two ideas for the same chicken. I still had some of the fresh rosemary that Chilebrown brought me a week or so ago and there were some green grapes in a bowl on the counter, looking less and less likely to be eaten by the day. So, I stripped the rosemary twigs of their soft leaves and mixed those with the potatoes and shallots and sprinkled a fair amount in and over my chicken. I roasted as usual - about 375 degrees for 50 minutes, then threw in a cup of the grapes, scattering them around in the pan, for the last 10 or 15 minutes of the roasting.

What an amazing combination of sweet grapes, savory shallots and rich, tangy rosemary was with the chicken! The skin of the chicken was crisp, the meat moist and this wonderful herby-sweet grape "compote" made what might otherwise be a pretty boring chicken into a truly heavenly dish. I'm going to try this rosemary-and-roasted-grape combo again later this week with pork chops and, yes, shallots again. These flavors were meant to be together - happy marriage.

Inviting Controversy

If you don't like chicken livers, avert your eyes from the photo and come back tomorrow.

If you don't care for rosemary, see you domani!

That is, unless you want to surprise yourself with one of the most amazing combinations ever to cross your lips - chicken livers and rosemary.

I found the basic idea for this recipe - chicken livers skewered with rosemary and gently sauteéd in butter - at epicurious.com, where it's about the second item that pops up when one types in "chicken livers." Most of the rest are either mousse, paté or chopped liver recipes. This one seemed intriguing to me, so I decided to try it with the chicken livers I found at Baron's Meats in Alameda, but with some changes of my own to make it even better.

First, I went next door to beg some 6" sprigs of rosemary from my neighbors' thriving plant - rosemary grows practically wild around here and everyone is glad if you'll prune their bushes a bit. Following the recipe, I cleaned and divided the chicken livers into lobes, then soaked them in milk in the fridge for an hour. While they were soaking, I got busy stripping the leaves from the rosemary stems so I had about 5" of bare stem with a tuft of leaves left at the top. Set those aside.

Next - and this is the part I added - I sauteéd in a wide frying pan two garlic cloves gently in generous butter, then added four good-sized mushrooms, sliced in thick slices, and sauteéd them in the same pan. I set aside the mushrooms to cool, reserving the pan for later.

When the soaking time was up, I rinsed the livers, threaded them alternately with the mushrooms onto the skewers, about two mushroom slices and two livers per skewer depending on the length of the skewer. Be sure to leave an inch or so of the stem uncovered; if you pick them up to turn them by the tuft end, everything slides off - you need that extra inch to grab hold with tongs or fingers when flipping.

Reheating the same buttery, garlicky, mushroomy pan, l laid in the skewers carefully to sauté on medium high heat until the rosemary softened and the livers were just barely done, still pink in the center. Sadly, the rosemary didn't keep its bright green color but, heavens! what a taste sensation it made! From the first bite, My Beloved was nodding while chewing and meeting my eyes with that "Baby, I love the way you cook" look that melts my heart.

This was easily the best thing I have cooked in a month of Sundays. If you like chicken livers and rosemary, run don't walk to your nearest purveyor and get 'em while the getting is good. I'm already thinking I'll make these again next week. If you don't like chicken livers or rosemary, what are you doing still reading?