March 28, 2013 Breakfast - Chicken Liver Omelet; Lunch - Seafood Noodle Soup

March 28, 2013 Breakfast - Chicken Liver Omelet;   Lunch - Seafood Noodle Soup

Breakfast - I wanted to use the reserved chicken liver from the chicken we roasted the other night to see if I could replicate my mother’s recipe for chicken liver omelet.  I cut up a shallot and five or six small white mushrooms and 1 clove of garlic and added a healthy dash of dried chervil and sautéed those ingredients in a medium sized skillet with 1 1/2 Tbsp. of butter and 1 Tbsp. of olive oil.  Then I rough cut the large chicken liver to get it into bite sized pieces and put it in the skillet with about 2 Tbsp. of Amontillado sherry.  I then stirred three eggs and poured them over the mixture in the skillet.  The egg filled and covered the mixture to the edge of the skillet; perfecto.

After a few minutes of cooking I flipped one-half of the egg pancake onto the other side of egg to make an omelet and realized that I had forgotten to put slices of cheese in the middle of the omelet, so I sliced four slices of Swiss Gruyere and laid them on top of the omelet and covered the skillet with another skillet to steam and melt the cheese slices.

In another three of four minutes the omelet was done.  Although, the cheese was not entirely melted, I served it anyway.  I liked it very much except it did not have the strong sherry flavor that Mother’s had and it was drier.  I think next time I need to add more sherry so it will be looser and lighter and tastier.  Also, I think mother added sliced onion, which would give it a sweeter flavor and hold the moisture.

I was working to finish the research for my client’s brief for the Court of Appeals and I finished around 2:00 pm, so I celebrated with a bowl of noodle soup.  We had PPI scallops and the salmon I thawed out yesterday, so I decided to make a seafood soup.  I put 2-3 quarts of water in a 4 quart sauce pan and added 1 tsp. of instant dashi soup mix.  Then I minced 1 medium shallot (about 1 Tbsp.) and two medium portabella mushrooms and put them in.  Then I cut up 1 ½ scallops and a 1 inch by five inch wide strip of fresh salmon into cubes and put them in.  Then I removed a 14 oz. cube of tofu from the water in the plastic tub and  cut a ½ inch thick slice of tofu off the top of the 14 oz. block and cubed it into ¼ by ½ inch cubes and put that in also.  I got a large tablespoon full of white miso and stirred that in and added one wrapped bunch of soba noodles and one nested bunch of imitation egg noodles and a little more water to cover them to the pot.  Then I went to the vegetable crisper in the fridge and got out the last stalk of celery, green onions, and went to the fridge in the garage to fetch the new bag of spinach and sliced two green onions and the celery and de-stemmed and chopped a large handful of spinach and put those in with a 1 Tbsp. of rice cooking wine and a dash of sesame oil.

The traditional Miso soup recipe in my Japanese cookbook calls for dashi, trefoil, tofu and red miso, so the substitution of celery and spinach is perfect.  I usually like to use seaweed and green onion in my miso soup, because that is the recipe that is commonly used in Japanese restaurants, but today’s soup was hefty enough without the added seaweed.  

After a few more minutes to let the mushrooms and noodles soften, I was ready to eat.  I fetched cilantro and Shirachi and Hoisin sauces from the fridge and cut a lime in half and squeezed lime into the soup and served it in a large bowl with fresh cilantro leaves and a squirt of Hoisin and Shirachi to taste.

 

I make many variations of noodle soup depending upon the available ingredients and usually eat it one or two times a week.  It is easy to make while I am talking on the phone with clients, so fits comfortably into my work day schedule.

The basics are a soup flavoring, some miso, some meats, noodles, and some vegetables, and green onion.

Cilantro, lime and the sauces are usually added for a Vietnamese finish but I can go toward Japanese with tofu and seaweed or stir in ham and an egg for a more Chinese approach.  It just depends upon the ingredients.

At 6:00 I drove to Jack Ferrell’s house in Placitas for my monthly Last Thursday Book Club meeting and arrived at 6:45 p.m., just in time to watch the sun set over Mount Taylor.  To say Jack’s home has wonderful views is an understatement.  It is on the northern edge of a hillside off Tunnel Springs Road with a dramatic view of the near vertical Sandias on its south and a expanse of glass on its north side with a panoramic view from Mount Taylor on the west to the Jemez Mountains and all the stacked mesas that form their foothills on the Santa Ana Pueblo on the east.  Jack served light snacks that included: Cabot Cheddar cheese and a boutique Ohio Swiss (Jack is originally from Ohio) and Washington and Oregon wines and beers, since the book selection, Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, was set in Bonner’s Creek in the Idaho Panhandle.

After the discussion there is always a dessert served and Jack and his wife had made an apple crisp with fresh Yakima apples that was truly delicious; not a lot of sugar or liquid, so the apples were particularly toothsome. I loved it.

I am beginning to become more comfortable with technology and realizing that I have a camera with me at all times in my I Phone, so I intend to take more pictures to illustrate more of the ingredients and techniques.  So bear with me if you are longing for more pictures.

 Bon Appétit