Wednesday, June 26, 2013

June 25, 2013 Grilled Lamb Chops, Squash and Eggplant with Vietnamese Fried Rice

June 25, 2013 Grilled Lamb Chops, Squash and Eggplant with Vietnamese Fried Rice

We sat around and ate pistachios for until 7:00 p.m.  When I mentioned that we had lamb chops we could grill and an eggplant.  Suzette said, “I will start the grill.”
After I sliced the eggplant into ½ inch slices and the last lonely Mexican Squash and brushed them with an olive oil and lemon juice dressing I had made.  We discussed making couscous with the kale we had bagged in the fridge.  I went to the fridge and remembered that I had bought 1/2 of mung bean sprouts at Pro’s Ranch Market last week that needed to be cooked and saw a container of PPI rice and decided to make fried rice instead.   
 
I rinsed the mung beans and put olive oil in the wok and heated it and threw in three small cloves of garlic from our garden.  Then I threw in the rice and then the kale and then a handful of turnip greens I had saved from the processing of the turnips Suzette picked from the garden this morning.   After a couple of minutes of turning the rice over onto the vegetables to cook the vegetables, I turned around and saw the rinsed bean sprouts and threw them in and then continued the process of cooking and turning and added about 1 Tbsp. of Chinese rice cooking wine and a ½ tsp. of sugar and a pinch of Chinese sea salt.   Then I thought about the lovely Vietnamese omelets with bean sprouts and fetched two eggs and stirred them into the rice and vegetable mixture and cooked the mixture for another five minutes turning 1/3 of the mixture at a time which was the amount that fit on my large wok paddle, until the egg firmed and started to brown and the dish was ready.

When Suzette brought in the grilled lamb chops, while the eggplant was still cooking, we discussed a wine for the meal.  I suggested another Côtes du Rhône, like last night’s wine, and she said she liked the wine last night.  So I went to the cellar and found a bottle of 2010 Ortas Côtes du Rhône Les Viguiers (Red Rhone Wine).  I am pretty sure I bought this bottle at Total Wine for around $10.00.  Ortas is a wine brand of Cave de Rasteau (www.cavederasteau.com), which is the largest wine producer in the northern Vaucluse region of France in Provence.  Rasteau is a lovely old hill town located north east of Orange, Chateauneuf du Pape and Avignon  The wine label says Les Viguiers is made from old vines with 70% Grenache, 20% Carignan and 10% Cinsault.  I found the wine to be lovely and light.  I liked it better than the Kirtland Côtes du Rhône last night.  The combination of grapes gave it that Rhône complexity and the extra Grenache gave it fruitiness. 

Suzette said it was important to grill the eggplant until it became creamy, which is when it turns to an opaque creamy color from its white, color.  She achieved that perfectly.

Bon Appétit

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