One-Stop Shopping

Raphael Lunetta is no stranger to exotic ingredients. The owner and chef of JiRaffe in Santa Monica routinely turns out dishes with the likes of barrel-aged Banyuls vinegar, purple Peruvian gnocchi and lotus root.

Still, he found himself utterly captivated by Valley Produce in Reseda, where shelves brim with canned goods labeled in Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish, Armenian, Russian and Hindi. The cheese section is crowded with offerings from Mexico, France, Egypt and Iran. And vegetable bins are bursting with opo, an Indian squash; tomatillos; and my favorite--the good ol’ American cucumber.

“You can walk in here and not be sure what you are going to do,” Lunetta says. “But when you leave you’ll have 100 ideas.”

I’d invited Lunetta to come with me to Valley Produce, which he had never visited, because I was curious to see what this United Nations of markets would inspire in a chef of his caliber. The day we walked through the aisles, the windowless, somewhat gritty grocery was its typical bazaar of shoppers speaking half a dozen languages and wearing colorful saris, hijabs, turbans and guayabera.

Lunetta examined one thing after another from the bins and shelves: a potpourri of spices, burlap bags of basmati rice from the foothills of the Himalayas, and a dozen or so flat breads from the Middle East. He looked over Indian eggplant and olive oil from Lebanon.

Slowly he began to fill our cart. He insisted I buy a quince jam from Switzerland--a brand he knew and said I’d pay twice as much for at one of the city’s upscale markets. And then he tossed in gourmet European cookies, grabbing both milk and dark chocolate varieties.

As it happened, it was a week before JiRaffe’s 10th anniversary celebration, and Lunetta had been thinking about the menu for days. As he walked by the meat counter--with its lamb tongue and testicles, pork and beef feet and tripe--he noticed a selection of sweetbreads. An epiphany struck.

“I’ll make baby chickens stuffed with sweetbreads and basmati rice,” he said suddenly. “We ran that as a special when we first opened.”

A few days later found us in JiRaffe’s small kitchen. Forget the chicken. This place was stuffed itself with the 39-year-old Lunetta and half a dozen others busily preparing for the anniversary feast. Among them was Josiah Citrin, Lunetta’s boyhood friend and surfing buddy who teamed with him at JiRaffe before moving on to his own restaurant, Santa Monica’s Melisse.

Lunetta had already boned the delicate baby chickens he would use for his roasted poussin stuffed with ris de veau (sweetbreads) and the basmati. Chris Minutoli, the chef de cuisine, was busy sauteing the diced sweetbreads in clarified butter and tending to a huge vat of stock and bones that had been simmering for about 12 hours. That would provide part of the base for the morel mushroom sauce--the finishing touch for the poussin.

Once the delicate birds (Cornish hens or boneless chicken breasts can be used instead) were stuffed, they were wrapped in caul fat and then in plastic wrap, parboiled, sauteed and baked. Lunetta insisted that although the recipe is long and complex, it can be adapted for home cooks.

“You can use shiitake, portabella or even white button,” he says of the mushroom choices for the sauce. And for the sweetbread-averse, there are plenty of alternatives: “turnips, onions, parsnips, carrots, herbs, thyme--whatever you like or are inspired by when you’re out shopping.” (For Lunetta’s poussin recipe, go to www.latimes.com/poussin.)

As the chicken was being prepared, Lunetta made a roasted beet salad, adding Bulgarian feta, walnuts and dried tart cherries from Valley Produce. It was the perfect melange: a touch of Reseda mixed with Santa Monica.

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Roasted Beet Salad

Adapted from chef Raphael Lunetta, JiRaffe

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Serves 6

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3 medium red beets

(about 3/4 pounds)

2 tablespoons Banyuls vinegar

1/4 cup grapeseed oil

1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

Salt and ground pepper

2 cups walnut halves or pieces

1 cup sugar

2 cups corn oil for deep-frying

6 ounces Bulgarian feta cheese

3/4 cup dried cherries, chopped

2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded

and diced (about 2 cups)

2 tablespoons minced shallots

1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley

1/2 cup chopped chives, divided

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Wash and wrap the beets in aluminum foil and place on a baking pan that has been sprinkled with 3 tablespoons water. Roast the beets 40 to 50 minutes, or until tender and cooked through. Let cool. Peel the beets and grate on the medium hole of a box grater. Set aside.

Vinaigrette: In a jar with a tight seal, mix the Banyuls vinegar, grapeseed oil, ginger, salt and pepper to taste. Shake well and set aside.

Walnuts: Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Add the walnuts and blanch for 4 to 5 minutes. Drain well and toss with the sugar, then set aside. In another saucepan add the corn oil and heat to 350 degrees. Add the walnuts in batches and deep-fry for 1 to 2 minutes until golden brown. Remove and let drain on a rack placed over a baking sheet.

Place the feta cheese in a food processor and blend until creamy.

Assembly: In a mixing bowl, combine the grated beets, walnuts, cherries, tomatoes, shallots, parsley and half the chives. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss with the vinaigrette and adjust the seasoning. Place a ring mold measuring 2 3/4 inches across on a serving plate. Fill with 1/2 cup of the beet mixture. Spread some of the feta on top and sprinkle with a few chives, then remove the ring mold. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the beet salad around the edge of each plate and serve. Continue plating the remaining salads. Or simply place the salad on each serving plate and add a dollop of feta and a few sprinkles of chives on top and serve.