A glorious fish soup is like looking into a constructed lagoon in an aquarium populated by clams and rocky chunks of white and purple potato and pink salmon with leaves of kelp like kale and spinach strewn among threads of garlic greens and flecks of thyme and strands of white cipolinni onion; all bathed by the foamy broth of butter, white wine and clam juice.
I cut four slices of the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery French Bread and layered each with slices of Dubliner Cheddar and Swiss Gruyere. We broiled them in the oven as the soup heated and when the cheese was still soft but starting to brown, we served the soup with the toasted cheese open faced sandwiches and a glass of crisp, clean tasting Wellington Sonoma Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2010.
A hugely satisfying meal for little effort; simply heating the leftover soup, cutting some bread and cheese and broiling it for a few minutes in the oven and twisting off the bottle cap of the wine.
Suzette was working on the computer and did not wish to participate in the dinner prep.
We had gone to Ta Lin and bought a pound of large (20-30 count) shrimp with heads on and a few other items such as two kinds of mushrooms and some garlic and shallots and baby bok choy. I decided to use up the left over peppers we had bought at last Saturday’s Farmers’ Market and use the medium sized zucchini Suzette found in the garden this morning. Since it is forecast to freeze Monday, November 7, 2011 , I picked the last ripe tomatoes and five sprigs of parsley. Then I began to chop zucchini and shred some fresh oregano Suzette picked yesterday. I chopped up one-half of the two sweet Italian peppers and about ¼ of the pimiento and about one-half cup of red onion and one cup of the more distressed grape tomatoes and a lobster mushroom that weighed about one-half pound.
Suzette helped me start two skillets with butter and olive oil. I then cooked the onion in one and started the zucchini in the other. After squeezing a couple of cloves of the fresh garlic into the onion one, I tossed in the chopped lobster mushroom and the peppers into the onion one. After both skillets’ ingredients sautéed for a bit, I tossed about one-half cup of split grape tomatoes into each pan and squeezed one-half lemon into the zucchini and poured about three tablespoons of Dry White Italian Vermouth into the onion skillet to make a sauce. After a few minutes Suzette checked the skillets and said that we needed to add some water to the onion skillet to make the sauce and said she always added both water or chicken broth and wine to make a sauce for pasta. So after Suzette added some water to the onion skillet, I then added 12 shrimp to the onion, mushroom and pepper skillet and covered both skillets so they would steam a bit. Suzette checked again and turned up the heat on the shrimp to a boil so the pepper sauce and shrimp would cook through with more steam and she turned down the heat on the zucchini so it would not dry out and scorch. I then divided the minced parsley from three sprigs of Italian flat leaf parsley between both skillets.
Suzette heated up the leftover linguine with pesto and we plated it into large soup bowls and ladled the shrimp with pepper sauce and sautéed zucchini over the linguine. We drank the remaining half bottle of the Wellington Sauvignon Blanc 2010 that we had opened at Brunch.
About thirty minutes after dinner we heated the last of the Apple Tart and scooped the last of the Alden’s Organic Vanilla Ice Cream over it and had a lovely dessert, while we watched English BBC mysteries on PBS.
Bon Apetit
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