March 18, 2012 Dinner - Northern California Cuisine: Crab cakes on a bed of English Pea Purée garnished with Cucumber and Coriander Slaw and a Cream of Asparagus Soup.

March 18, 2012 Dinner -  Northern California Cuisine: Crab cakes on a bed of English Pea Purée garnished with Cucumber and Coriander Slaw and a Cream of Asparagus Soup.

Lisa and Mike stayed in town this weekend to attend the Reception for Lisa Randall, this year’s Albert Einstein World Award for Science recipient and fund raiser for the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.  The award is a really special thing in the world of theoretical physics and Mike is a passionate supporter of Lisa Randall, who he believes may make a breakthrough to decouple the world economy from its dependence on fossil fuels.

When I heard that they would be in town, I invited Mike and Lisa for Sunday dinner.  Suzette decided to test one of her Northern California recipes for the Greenhouse Bistro’s April through June Special Meal menu, so, as far as I was concerned, we hit a trifecta: excellent foodie tasters, two of our favorite friends and a new recipe to try. 

All the recipes for the Northern California Menu at the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery are taken from the California Wine Country Cookbook by Janine Saine.  The Crab cake recipe is on page 79 (See attached recipe).  On Saturday I went to Costco and purchased a 1 lb. container of Phillips’ Lump meat crab meat ($18.99), two loaves of Sourdough bread ($4.99) and English cucumbers (3 for $2.99) and went to Sunflower Market to buy more fresh organic English peas.

On Sunday morning we hulled the peas in the morning.  Suzette returned around 3:30 pm. from work, with some Half and Half and milk and several quart containers of prepared chicken stock.  Suzette started cooking around 4:00 p.m. and I started around 4:30 p.m.  Suzette made the stock for the asparagus soup, when I arrived in the kitchen and She then got out the Waring Blender and made the pea puree with the fresh peas and a little chicken stock to emulsify the purée

While I sliced four or five stalks of celery and 1 English cucumber into thin 3 inch long slices and chopped about 40 leaves of fresh cilantro for the slaw, Suzette made a Dijon mustard vinaigrette with fresh ground coriander seeds and I tossed the dressing into the slaw and put it in the fridge to meld flavors.

Suzette then dumped the crabmeat into a steel bowl and brought it to the table where I was chopping and watching NCAA basket ball finals.  I minced finely 1/4 cup of red bell pepper and fetched fresh parsley and thyme from the garden and plucked six or seven stalks of fresh chives and chopped them into about 1 ½ Tbsp. of chopped herbs and threw that all into the crabmeat.  Suzette then added 3 Tbsp. of mayonnaise, 3 Tbsp. of the fresh bread crumbs and salt and pepper to the crab meat and set it aside to meld flavors 

We then turned our attention to the Cream of Asparagus Soup (page 157 from the “Joy of Cooking” by Rombauer and Becker, 1967 Ed.).  

Suzette had already removed the tips from 1 lb. of asparagus and steamed them and started a stock with the remaining stalks of asparagus plus 6 cups of chicken stock and ¼ cup each of chopped onion and celery and it had been simmering the stock covered for about 1 hour when I arrived in the kitchen after finishing the chopping at around 5:45 p.m.  Suzette then pushed the stock through a sieve to separate the broth from the solids and melted 3 Tbsp. of butter in a large enameled sauce pan to which she added 3 Tbsp. of flour.  After that had thickened and cooked into a thick roux, we began adding  ½ cup of half and half but that did not thin the roux sufficiently to eliminate all of the lumps of flour, so we added a couple more Tbsp.s of half and half until it became smooth.  We then slowly added the asparagus stock over low heat stirring constantly to eliminate all lumps. This took several minutes. We had a small dispute because Suzette wanted to use a wooden spoon and I wanted to use my large French whisk, so I use my whisk and the spoon and we traded stirring the soup until it thickened (about twenty-five minutes).   The soup had a lovely light creamy consistency but lacked flavor, so we decided to add the seasonings of paprika, salt and white pepper and that helped a bit but we saw that the recipe called for a garnish of hard cooked egg, Suzette started three eggs cooking over medium high heat. 

At a bit after 6:00 p.m. Lisa and Mike arrived with a bottle of Trahan Pinot Noir (Carneros, 2008) that Lisa had bought at the Winery with Ray Vigil in St. Helena, CA, a bunch of large red grapes, a bottle of G. Chevalier Sauternes 2009 and a wedge of Valdeon Blue Cheese (Queso de Valdeón (Queisu de Valdión, in Leonese language) is a Spanish blue cheese from León. The cheese is made in Posada de Valdeón, in the northeast of the province of León, and is wrapped in sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), or chestnut leaves before being sent to market. The cheese has a very intense blue flavor, but is not as yellowed or as biting as its cousin Cabrales [Cabrales is from near Santander in Asturias], from Wikipedia).

After we discussed the order of the meal and wine, we decided to open a bottle of young pinot noir to start the meal, so I went to the basement for a bottle of Pennywise Pinot Noir (Costco, $8.79?), which I poured for Lisa, Mike and Suzette and I poured a small glass of Garnet Sonoma Coast Chardonnay for myself.  We decided to uncork the Trahan Pinot and let it breath, so I did that.

We decided to drink white wine with the crabcakes, but eveyone was happy with their first glass of wine for the Asparagus soup.  Then Lisa took the shells off the boiled eggs and pushed them through a egg slicer both ways to dice them into small pieces and Suzette wrapped a loaf of the Costco Sourdogh bread in foil and put it into the oven to heat.  I fetched the Spanish Pimenton Paprika and put on the kitchn table beside the chopped egg and steamed asparagus tips.  In a few minutes we re-heated the asparagus soup and laddled it into bowls and each person garnished their own bowl with egg, paprika and asparagus tips and I served the warm bread.

After finishing our soup, Mike asked for more, which I took as a good sign.  While we were eating our soup and dipping warm sourdough beard in the lat bits of soup, Suzette went to the kitchen to make the crabcakes.  After we cleared the soup bowls I brought the three opened bottles of white wine, we had tasted for the Greenhouse Bistro Northern California menu last Tuesday to the table: the Garnet Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, a Raymond Reserve Selection Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2009, and an Educated Guess 2008 Napa Chadonnay.  Suzette poured a puddle of the light green pea purée on each plate, while I quartered a half lemon and put a wedge on each plate and we plated up the crab cakes (7) and we then piled a mound of the cucumber, celery and cilantro slaw on garnished the crabckes and garnished the puree with fresh green peas Suzette had reserved.  We each took tastes of each of the wines with the crabcakes.  Lisa loved the fresh peas and the purée and so we each gave her some of our resh peas.  Lisa thought the crabcakes and slaw needed more citrus flavor.  Lisa thought the Educated Guess had an interesting smoky and was less oaky than the Garnet Chardonnay. We all thought the Raymond Reserve Sauvignon Blanc was a really solid enjoyable wine without being overly grassy.

After dinner we all agreed that the meal had filled us up and we needed to rest our palates for a few minutes.  So we discussed how to attack the cheese course.  We all agreed that thin slices of toasted sourdough bread would be prfect. Lisa suggested that we spray the slices of bread with olive oil and grill or broil them in the oven. So she went to the kitchen and sliced thin slices of bread and sprayed them with olive oil and put them in a 400° oven set on convection for a fe minutes until the took on a little color.  While she was preparing the bread slices, I put ½ log of California Goat Cheese (Costco), 1/3 wheel of Rouge et Noir Classic Brie made by Marin French Cheese Co. for Costco (Costco $9.99? for a 1 lb. wheel) that I had put out to come to room temperature when Lisa and Mike had arrived, and the wedge of Valdeon Blue Cheese and placed it on the table with the Trahan Pinot and the grapes.  When Lisa brought the toasted bread slices to the table we started spreading the super creamy Brie, the tart flakey Goat and the Valdeon blue cheese on bread and washing it down with gulps of wine.  As soon as Lisa tasted the Valdeon cheese she looked at me and said, I think the Sauternes would be perfect with this blue cheese, so I opened the Sauternes and fetched four Baccarat white wine flutes Mother had bought in France in 1960 and poured a bit of sauternes into each.

Lisa and Mike immediately noticed how thin the flutes were.  I think I put them off a bit when I mentioned that they were hand blown French Baccarat crystal.

We all loved the Sauternes and the Valdeon cheese and finished the meal with bits of it and sips of sauternes and the rest of the grapes.  Lisa said whe had bought the Sauternes at Trader Joe’s. 

After dinner Lisa said the Emil Bistram on the mantel was her favorite painting.  We agreed with her and I discussed Bisttram and the Transcendental Painting Group painters and showed a few more pictures to Mike, who also liked some of the watercolors, especially the small Kenneth Chapman “Near Las Vegas” and we finished our wonderful California meal by 10:00 p.m.

Bon Appétit