In the morning on the way home from my Business Water Committee meeting I stopped at Pastians’ Bakery on 2nd St. for day old bread and bought 6 plain bagels, a loaf of German Sourdough Pullman, and three French baguettes,(two of whole wheat and one of white flour) for $2.81 or ¼ of retail.
I do not usually mention lunch, but I really enjoyed the PPI amalgamation today. In the spirit of not wasting anything, I threw the cooking medium from the Cream of Asparagus soup that included about one pound of asparagus and four or five stalks of celery from Sunday evening's meal into the pot of mixed bean thread and vegetable noodles with ham, shrimp and PPI teriyaki mackerel. So, today I added some water to loosen the thickened soup a bit (as noodles sit in water they absorb water and swell up) and heated the soup for lunch. The wonderful vegetable flavor of the asparagus mixed with the meats was delicious and very invigorating, especially after taking a few vitamin and ibuprofen tablets. At 4:00 p.m. I rode 18 miles in a rather heavy wind wthout feeling any tiredness.
I love poached seafood in a cream sauce made with the poaching medium, so after lunch I took two small filets and four scallops from the freezer and let them thaw in the sink. I spoke to Suzette at around and told her my idea for dinner and mentioned that I wanted to put some craisens (dehydrated slice cranberries) into the sauce because we both like cranberry sauce with salmon.
At around , after my ride and a shower, I sliced six (1 cup) baby portabella mushrooms and removed about 1 cup of broccoli flowerets from their stalks and left those on the kitchen counter and went to meditate. When I returned home from meditation at Suzette was sauteing garlic in butter in a large skillet. I went to the basement and fetched a bottle of Cutler Creek Pinot Grigio (Jubilation or Sunflower Market $3.33) for the poaching medium. Suzette made the poaching medium in the skillet by adding about ¾ cup of it to the skillet and about 3/4 cup of water to the butter and garlic. We both agreed that we should throw the craisens into the poaching medium to allow them to re-hydrate, so I fetched a handful and tossed them into the skillet as Suzette placed the salmon, mushrooms, and scallops in the skillet (Court Boullion also requires thyme and parsley, but tonight we did not add them), covered the skillet with a wok lid, and turned up the heat to allow the poaching medium to develop steam and poach.
While the salmon and scallops poached, I fetched some butter and put 2 Tbsp. of it into a steel mixing bowl to which Suzette added 2 Tbsp. of flour and mashed the two ingredients together to blend into a buerre marie. After the salmon and scallops had poached for about ten minutes, Suzette started the broccoli steaming in the steamer, I wrapped ½ of one of the whole wheat baguettes in aluminum foil and placed it in an oven heated to 350°, and Suzette removed the salmon and scallops to a baking dish and put the salmon and scallops into the oven to keep them warm while we made the cream sauce.
Suzette asked if I wanted some rice and I said yes and fetched the last cup of PPI rice from the fridge and heated it in the microwave and also cut a lemon in half and halved that and placed a ¼ lemon wedge on each plate Suzette had placed on the kitchen table ready for plating dinner after she put napkins and forks and knives on the dining table in the TV room.
The cream sauce prep was easy. Suzette spooned about five tsp.s of the poaching medium into the buerre marie and whisked it vigorously to blend it into a smooth paste. She then spooned the thick paste into the poaching medium that had been reduced to low heat while I whisked the paste into the liquid. In about two minutes we had made a smooth creamy sauce. Voila!
We then turned off the steamer, took the salmon and scallops out of the oven and Suzette plated up the plates first with a pile of rice on which she placed a salmon filet and two scallops and laid four of five flowerets of steamed broccoli on the side and drizzled the cranberry and mushroom and garlic cream sauce onto the pile of seafood and rice while I fetched glasses and a bottle of A to Z Oregon Pinot Gris 2010 that Dan Stoddard, Suzette’s partner in her Santa Rosa facility, had brought us for last Friday evening’s dinner from the fridge.
The A to Z tasted a little light and not as concentrated or as minerally as the Trimbach from Tuesday’s tasting, but that is to be expected, because Trimbach’s Pinot Gris is probably one of the best in the world and grown on limestone rich soil. I guess the limestone (old reef) structure that extends across southern England Alsace
The dinner was delicious, even if the fish was not fresh. If the fish had been fresh the texture and juices of the fish and scallops would have combined into an aromatic, mélange of flavors and textures with the cream sauce. Fresh is always better than frozen, but that is the blessing and the curse of having PPIs. PPIs provide the ready ingredients for a quick easy meal. I remember taking a cruise in the Caribbean with mother in 2000 and the P&O ship served only frozen fish that had been cut into individual portions before the cruise. So, ease of preparation sometimes trumps fresh, unfortunately.
The two real surprises of the meal were how mildly sweet the craisens made the cream sauce. With the addition of garlic and mushrooms to the poaching medium, the traditional addition of herbs became unimportant. Second, how tender the whole wheat baguette was. It was steamy and soft in the middle and had a tender crust that made it perfect for eating with and dipping in the cream sauce because it did not interfere with the creaminess of the sauce, but complemented the sauce’s creamy texture. I loved the bread and it made me feel healthy.
Bon Appétit
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