June 27, 2012 Lunch – Vietnam 2000; Dinner – Creamed beef and Mushrooms on Pasta

I took Luke to the Airport at 11:00 so was close to Vietnam 2000 and in the mood for my favorite summer dish, Bun Cha Gio, which is a bowl filled with strips of fresh cool julienned cucumber, shredded lettuce, mung bean sprouts, basil and cilantro covered with a bed of room warm boiled rice vermicelli and topped with hot meat or vegetarian ingredients of your choice.  My other son, Willy, and my favorite topping is a combination of fried pork egg rolls and grilled pork (No. 21, $7.25).  I also usually order extra basil and cilantro because I like the fresh herbs.  Today, I was interested in an extra lift, so I ordered an iced coffee with condensed milk; a lovely summertime drink.

After lunch when I arrived home I called Suzette and we decided to thaw out a steak for dinner.

Upon Suzette’s arrival at 5:00 p.m. she was hungry so we decided to cook a quick one dish dinner. 

Creamed Beef with Mushrooms on Penna

1 lb. rib eye steak, sliced into ½ inch wide slices

1 cup Penna pasta (dry)

5 large white mushrooms

3 Tbsp. yellow onion

2 cloves of garlic

30 ounces of stock (guinea fowl)

30 ounces of water

buerre marie (2 Tbsp. butter and 2 Tbsp of flour, blended into a paste)

1 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. olive oil

Suzette thawed the steak in the microwave and I sliced the steak and chopped the onion and cut about 1 lb. of broccoli flowerets off of their stalk, while she sliced about five large white mushrooms.

We poured the 30 ounces of stock into a large pot and added an equal amount of water and boiled the pasta until soft (about fifteen minutes).  While the pasta was boiling, Suzette sautéed the onion and mashed the garlic in a garlic press in a skillet and sautéed them at medium heat until softened and then added the meat and mushrooms.  While the meat and pasta was cooking Suzette made a buerre marie (2 Tbsp. butter and 2 Tbsp of flour, blended into a paste) and I steamed the broccoli flowerets.

After the meat and pasta was cooked, Suzette added the buerre marie to the skillet and cooked it for a minute or two. Then we gradually added about two cups of the stock from the pasta pot and made a cream sauce.  There was about 30 ounces of stock/pasta water left in the pasta pot, so I put it back into the container and refrigerated it for another meal.

We put a pile of the cooked penna in a pasta bowl and ladled the thickened creamed beef and mushroom mixture over it and put five or six flowerets of the steamed broccoli on the side of that pile in the bowl for a very attractive and delicious pasta dinner.

We opened a bottle of 2009 Round Pond Estate bottled Cabernet Sauvignon from Rutherford, CA.

I ate three chocolate truffles later with a glass of cognac and read about the chateaus of the Loire Valley in France.

Bon Appétit