October 4, 2012 Lunch - Ahh Sushi; Dinner - Veal stew

October 4, 2012 Lunch - Ahh Sushi; Dinner - Veal stew

I went to Ahh Sushi restaurant for sushi today with a client.  It is located at 6231 Coors NW, at Riverside Plaza, Ste. “A”, located north of Montano.  I ordered my usual: chirashi.  This one was cheaper than most at $9.95 and came with soup or salad and tea.  It was served in a medium sized bowl filled with sushi rice on one side and green salad on the other.  The salad was topped with a red chili dressing and seaweed salad and flakes of crab.  The rice side was topped with fish of your choice.  In my case I asked for salmon, maguro (Ahi tuna), white tuna, yellowtail, octopus and salmon and received what I ordered plus two shrimp.  My host asked the owner, whose name is AHH, to fix whatever he wanted to fix and we received a crab and shrimp filled caterpillar, a Santa Fe roll that was very interesting rice wrapped with a thin sheet of rehydrated dried tofu around the layer of rice and stuffed with crab, green chili and cream cheese.  There was also a fiery salmon roll that was rather hot for my taste.  The miso soup was good with large chunks of tofu and lots of white miso.  The sashimi fish in the chirashi was also cut into chunks rather than long thin slices like some other restaurants.  I liked it all the fish was fresh except the octopus and possibly the white tuna.  Next time I will simply ask for whatever fish is freshest.

Willy and I had gone by the Alpine Sausage Kitchen after lunch at La Salita yesterday and picked up Genoa Salami, Gelbwurst (veal bologna) and a 1 lb. package of frozen veal stew meat.  When we arrived at home, I thawed out the meat, but when Suzette brought the Italian dishes, I put it in the meat crisper.

So today at around 5:00 p.m. I dissolved a cube of beef bouillon and about 2 tsp. of chicken bouillon in about 2 cups of water.  After Suzette got home and relaxed for a few minutes, at around 6:00 p.m., we went to the garden and picked an about 2 lb. eight ball squash and baby carrots, beets and turnips and we cleaned and cube them.  I then cubed the meat and 2 russett potatoes Suzette had peeled and then I cubed two fresh large shallots and Suzette tossed the veal in rice flour and salt and pepper and sautéed the veal and other ingredients in a large skillet with grape seed oil and then combined the ingredients with the broth I had made in a large enamel pan.  While the stew was simmering on the stove we had a discussion about seasoning and decided to use sate, so I went to the garden and picked a handful of sage and chopped about 1/2 cup of it and put it into the stew.  I then tasted the stew and wanted a little more complex herb flavor so we decided to add parsley.  I fetched three stalks of parsley and chopped them and added them.  We had reserved the carrot and beet leaves, so I chopped them just before we served the stew and cooked them for about ten minutes until they softened slightly. 

I sliced slices of sourdough French bread from Costco and toasted it and we served the stew in psta bowls with a bottle of La Granja 2010 (50% tempranillo and 50% garnacha [granache] from Rioja, Spain, $5.99 at Trader Joe’s).

The stew was lovely.  It was light and flavorful yet did not have any harsh flavors at all.  The wine had that lovely combination of sharp edginess of tempranillo combined with the soft fruitiness of granache.

While the stew was cooking Suzette peeled about three lbs. of fresh peaches and after dinner she made a peach and blueberry cobbler.

What a wonderful dinner of fresh ingredients!

Bon Appétit