I was still working after when Suzette came home. She asked me what I wanted to do for dinner and I suggested that we make an easy dinner. I suggested that we use the duck halves in the meat compartment in the fridge. She suggested heating the remaining one-half delicata squashes and I suggested cooking some asparagus.
So, while I was still on the computer, Suzette took the two duck halves, pricked their skin and placed them in a heated oven for 25 minutes to roast them and plated the PPI delicate Squash stuffed with pecans and onions. Then Suzette got on the computer to check her mail and I went to the kitchen and took the old PPI Sauce L’Orange out of the fridge left over from before Thanksgiving and our trip to Mexico and stirred it and let Suzette taste it and I tasted it and it was fine. I asked if she wanted me to add fresh orange slices and Suzette said, “No, I think we need to use the fresh mangos we have, so please use them.” So I went back to the kitchen and cut up a mango and put it in the PPI orange sauce that still had its strong madiera flavor, so I knew could stand more fresh fruit. The mango was golden yellow so in prime condition.
I also made guacamole out of the six remaining avocados, because they were at the end of their freshness. I chopped about three tablespoons of onion, pressed two cloves of garlic and scooped the meat of six avocados into a bowl and added the juice of one and one-half limes and a generous sprinkle of Cholula chile sauce and few grains of sea salt into the bowl and mixed it with a spoon. We ate some of the guacamole as an appetizer with corn chips while the duck was cooking. I forgot to add fresh cilantro but will do so on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 .
I then took ten stalks of asparagus from the fridge and stemmed them. Suzette then came in and put them in the steamer and started them steaming while I heated the orange sauce and re-heated the squash in the microwave. Suzette did not like microwaving the sauce so she put the sauce into a small enameled sauce pan on the stove to simmer for a few minutes longer.
When the duck had roasted 25 minutes the halves were fully cooked and juicy and hot and the skin was slightly crisp. I was able to easily separate the breast and wing quarter from the thigh and leg quarter. We then plated the leg and thigh quarters and sauced the duck with the mango/orange sauce and added the asparagus and the heated squash quarters to our plates and poured out the remaining Carneros Creek Pinot Noir 2007 (about one-half bottle) and commended ourselves on a delicious meal that took less than 10 minutes of actual prep time. This is one of the greatest benefits of utilizing PPI ingredients and we have the breast quarters of the duck and the Mango/Orange sauce available as PPI ingredients for another meal.
The Carneros Creek Pinot Noir 2007 was still good, so it had staying power and is worth considering buying again. Although the Carneros Creek Pinot Noir was not a great drink, because it did not have either the fruit forward character or long lasting finish of a great Pinot Noir, it was a clean pinot tasting red; perfectly adequate to the task of providing a satisfying complement to this delicious dinner.
My opinion is that great wine will greatly enhance a great meal and even turn a good meal into a great meal. Likewise, bad wine will ruin a great meal. But average wine will not diminish or enhance a good or great meal. I think this kind of awareness is a characteristic of a food oriented person but not a wine person. I consider myself a food oriented person; always much more focused on the food aspects of a meal than the wine aspects. Suzette tends to be a wine person. So we make a great food couple, because she will never agree willingly to let us drink bad wine and I will never willingly accept eating bad food (bad ingredients or preparation or cooking technique). That is why we cook at home so much, because we can control the ingredients, the prep, the cooking technique and the wine selection necessary to eat good food and drink good wine most of the time. For an example of a great meal where all the aspects of the food and wine are great, see the November 30th, 2011 meal we ate at Bill and Elaine Simon’s house.
The difference in price between a good meal and a great meal is a factor of at least 10 to 1 in cost, so it is a big difference and one we can not afford to eat great food and drink great wine every night, not to mention the time it takes to shop for and prepare the meal. So we try to keep our meals simple (easy and quick to prepare), good (good cooking technique) and inexpensive (the best ingredients and wine available at moderate prices). Sometimes we fail, but we succeed far more often than we fail and far more often than local restaurants and for far less (at least by a factor of between 4 and 6 to 1) than what it would cost to eat a similar meal at a local restaurant.
Bon Appètit
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