The Tuesday Farmers Markett in Santa Barbara is a great place to shop for local seafood and farm-fresh products. My wife Christine and I were on the hunt for dinner so we headed down to the market. It is clearly spring at the market. The strawberries are and incredible, luscious red. The Gaviota and 
Chandlers are particularly sweet. We found scallions that were only 1/8 inch thick and lettuces that looked like a still life painting.
We picked up a few pounds of brilliant tomatoes, the longest baby leeks I have ever seen, and a couple of pounds of ultra-fresh ridge-back shrimp, still twitching. The ride-backs are limited to an incidental catch of no more than 50 pounds.
Dinner was easy to improvise with such great ingredients. I prepared a fricassee of shrimp with leeks, tomatoes, rosemary, garlic and Sherry wine, steamed artichoke, boiled beets and a salad with Japanese cucumbers, red leaf lettuce, cauliflower, more luscious tomatoes and my own Boudrain salad dressing.
We washed it all down with Jaffurs 2006 Syrah. In Jaffurs own word, "Jaffurs Wine Cellars is dedicated to producing great Rhone varietal wines with a new-world independence. Our wines -Syrah, Grenache, Petite Sirah, Viognier, and Roussanne - are among the best in the county. Owner/winemaker Craig Jaffurs, produced his first professional wines during the 1994 harvest. All our wines are carefully made in small lots. Only about 3500 cases are produced each year - production is limited. We work closely with our growers in the Santa Ynez, Santa Rita, Los Alamos, and the Santa Maria growing regions. We limit vineyard yields and require that optimal farming practices are observed. All our wines are crushed, pressed, cellared and bottled in our Santa Barbara facility. Visit us for a glimpse of world class winemaking in the heart of the city. 2007 is our 14th harvest!."
Send me an email if you would like the recipe.
Tastefully yours,
