Friday, January 31, 2014

January 4, 2014 Sautéed Scallops with a lobster cream sauce over gnocchi with asparagus

January 4, 2014 Sautéed Scallops with a lobster cream sauce over gnocchi with asparagus

Today, I decided that I wanted scallops with asparagus so we went to Costco and bought 1.4 lbs. of scallops for $15.99/lb.  Unfortunately they were repackaged from one of the frozen scallops that are sold in 2 lb. bags and they lacked the flavor of fresh scallops, but we did not determine that until we cooked and at them for dinner.  We also bought fresh asparagus ($6.99 for 2.25 lbs.) and butter lettuce and romaine lettuce for Cesar salads and scotch for Suzette.

When we returned home, Suzette sautéed the scallops in butter and olive oil and two thinly sliced green onions, while I made a cream sauce with three Tbsps. butter and two tablespoons of flour and we stirred in about 1 cup of lobster broth and then seasoned the sauce with salt and pepper and I picked and chopped a few sprigs of thyme and garlic greens from the garden.  I splashed 2 Tbsps. of amontillado sherry into the sauce to give it a bit more flavor. 

Suzette steamed about fifteen stalks of asparagus and we cooked the remaining one-half bag of gnocchi in a pot of boiling water.

Dinner was simple.  The fresh asparagus with the delicious cream sauce was the best part of the meal.  I finely chopped four or five stalks of chives and sprinkled them on the top of the sauce to give the dish a little color and onion flavor.

It seems that when you change your diet and begin using new and different ingredients it changes all of the flavor relationships and you must also adjust your taste to the new regime.

We drank the St. Martin Sauvignon Blanc again and it was better with this dish but everything about this dinner shouted “lack of flavor” to me perhaps because I took an anti-biotic before dinner and it left a weird taste in my mouth or because I am recovering from the sinus infection I have and lack taste.

I hope things change soon.  I think I want to roast a duck and make a l’orange sauce tomorrow evening or grill a steak and make a béarnaise sauce to see if I can rekindle my taste.

Bon Appétit




  

January 3, 2014 Dinner – Ham, Broccoli and Pineapple casserole

January 3, 2014 Dinner – Ham, Broccoli and Pineapple casserole

We are in the midst of using up PPI from Christmas and developing new low cal low carb recipes.  I bought a couple of pounds of broccoli at Pro’s Ranch Market on Thursday ($.69/lb.).  Tonight we decided to use some of the burnt ham to make a casserole.

I combined in a ceramic casserole baking dish one medium onion diced, two pounds of broccoli and one pound of cooked ham and ½ cup of fresh pineapple, diced into small bite sized pieces.  Suzette then reconstituted her red eye gravy from Christmas and poured it over the ingredients and we sprinkled the top with a handful of grated mozzarella cheese and baked the whole affair for about 30 minutes to heat it.  The sauce was not thick enough to bind the ingredients into a homogeneous whole, so the total effect was less than perfect.  It will be better upon re-heating, possibly over pasta.

I have not given up on carbs.  They are what keep my body charged up and I cannot eliminate them from my diet. 

We drank St. Martin French pays d’ oc Sauvignon Blanc with the meal and ate Susan Palmer's Cranberry Lime Salsa made using my Mother's recipe.



A less than successful first attempt at a carbless diet.  Perhaps a step too far for my taste but a sort of interesting Hawaiian Broccoli casserole.

Bon Appétit.     

Sunday, January 5, 2014

January 1, 2014 Dinner - Lobster Bisque with sautéed artichoke heart, pea, ham and pimiento tapa with Brussels sprouts

January 1, 2014 Dinner - Lobster Bisque with sautéed artichoke heart, pea, ham and pimiento tapa with Brussels sprouts

This was a totally PPI dinner of sorts.  We had saved the large claw and arm from last night’s Broiled lobster dinner and the PPI artichoke heart, pea, ham and pimiento tapa from Cynthia and Ricardo’s Christmas Day party, so we decided to make Lobster Bisque and sauté the tapa with some blanched Brussels sprouts that I found in the back of the vegetable crisper that had not been used for Christmas Eve.
Here is the recipe that we used from the Joy of Cooking:


At about 4:30 Suzette fetched the stock pot with the lobster shells and pieces of uneaten lobster we had started last night with the shells and inaccessible bits of lobster meat and put it on the stove to simmer with a cubed onion, a chopped stalk of celery, a few chopped carrots, 2 whole cloves, a bay leaf and 6 peppercorns. 
I de-stemmed and quartered the approximately 1 cup of Brussels sprouts and then I cracked open the claw and removed and cubed the claw meat which resulted in about 1/2  to ¾ cup of meat and put those shells into the stock pot. 

At 5:30 p.m. Suzette said that the Joy of Cooking recipe only called for 2 ½ cups of stock and there was about 6 cups of stock after she removed the shells from the stock and that she was going to reduce the stock at high heat to evaporate off half of the stock to enrich the stock, so Suzette turned up the heat on the stock and boiled it.
When the stock had reduced somewhat by around 7:00, Suzette fetched a cup of heavy cream and used the béchamel sauce alternative as instructed in the recipe but used mostly stock and about ½ cup milk instead of three cups, to make the sauce and then added stock and cream to make the béchamel sauce. 

The result was a lovely creamy almost white soup since I had eaten the coral roe last night. Rather than save it for the soup.
Suzette wanted to add dry sherry to the soup, so I fetched the Amontillado sherry and added about 2 Tbsp. to the soup, as well as a dash of paprika and a dash of nutmeg.  Since we did not have fresh parsley, finely diced five or six stalks of chives and garnished the top of each bowl of soup with chives and a dash of paprika.

While the soup was cooking Suzette placed the PPI tapa in a large skillet and added some olive oil and the Brussels sprouts and sautéed them until tender.  The result was a little oily but the flavor was superb because the Fresh Brussels sprouts gave the dish a freshness that it otherwise would not have had.
When both dishes were ready, I opened a ½ bottle of Gruet Brut and we were ready to eat.


 



 


We watched a funny movie with Adam Kutchner and Cameron Diaz and Queen Lattifah and bunch of Saturday Night folks named “ ????? Las Vegas” about a couple that meet in Las Vegas and during an all- night binge, get married and then in the morning want to get their marriage annulled until Kutchner puts one of Diaz’ quarters in a slot machine and wins a $3,000,000 jackpot and they start fighting over the money in a divorce proceeding.  The judge, played by Dennis Miller, makes them serve a trial marriage for six months and see a marriage counselor, Queen Lattifah.  Predictably, after several attempts to derail the marriage by drawing each other into compromising positions, they discover that they really are in love with each other and even though they go through with the divorce, they get together for real in the end.

I must warn you that our diet will change in the near future due to Suzette’s New Year’s resolution to lose 25 pounds by April.  So we will be avoiding flour, avocados, bread, rice, potatoes, and other starchy and fatty things and probably reducing our intake of wine for four months.  Those of you who love meat protein, fresh vegetables, salads and soups are going to love the next few months’ recipes. 
I may even return often to my favorite diet of stir fried meat and vegetables over rice with hot tea, which is a wonderful winter dieting regimen.

Happy New Year and Bon Appétit 

   

January 4, 2014 Sautéed Scallops with a lobster cream sauce over gnocchi with asparagus

January 4, 2014 Sautéed Scallops with a lobster cream sauce over gnocchi with asparagus

Today, I decided that I wanted scallops with asparagus so we went to Costco and bought 1.4 lbs. of scallops for $15.99/lb.  Unfortunately they were repackaged from one of the frozen scallops that are sold in 2 lb. bags and they lacked the flavor of fresh scallops, but we did not determine that until we cooked and at them for dinner.  We also bought fresh asparagus ($6.99 for 2.25 lbs.) and butter lettuce and romaine lettuce for Cesar salads and scotch for Suzette.

When we returned home, Suzette sautéed the scallops in butter and olive oil and two thinly sliced green onions, while I made a cream sauce with three Tbsps. butter and two tablespoons of flour and we stirred in about 1 cup of lobster broth and then seasoned the sauce with salt and pepper and I picked and chopped a few sprigs of thyme and garlic greens from the garden.  I splashed 2 Tbsps. of amontillado sherry into the sauce to give it a bit more flavor. 

Suzette steamed about fifteen stalks of asparagus and we cooked the remaining one-half bag of gnocchi in a pot of boiling water.

Dinner was simple.  The fresh asparagus with the delicious cream sauce was the best part of the meal.  I finely chopped four or five stalks of chives and sprinkled them on the top of the sauce to give the dish a little color and onion flavor.







It seems that when you change your diet and begin using new and different ingredients it changes all of the flavor relationships and you must also adjust your taste to the new regime
We drank the St. Martin Sauvignon Blanc again and it was better with this dish but everything about this dinner shouted “lack of flavor” to me perhaps because I took an anti-biotic before dinner and it left a weird taste in my mouth or because I am recovering from the sinus infection I have and lack taste.

I hope things change soon.  I think I want to roast a duck and make a l’orange sauce tomorrow evening or grill a steak and make a béarnaise sauce to see if I can rekindle my taste.

Bon Appétit




  

January 3, 2014 Dinner – Ham, Broccoli and Pineapple casserole

January 3, 2014 Dinner – Ham, Broccoli and Pineapple casserole

We are in the midst of using up PPI from Christmas and developing new low cal low carb recipes.  I bought a couple of pounds of broccoli at Pro’s Ranch Market on Thursday ($.69/lb.).  Tonight we decided to use some of the burnt ham to make a casserole.

I combined in a ceramic casserole baking dish one medium onion diced, two pounds of broccoli and one pound of cooked ham and ½ cup of fresh pineapple, diced into small bite sized pieces.  Suzette then reconstituted her red eye gravy from Christmas and poured it over the ingredients and we sprinkled the top with a handful of grated mozzarella cheese and baked the whole affair for about 30 minutes to heat it.  The sauce was not thick enough to bind the ingredients into a homogeneous whole, so the total effect was less than perfect.  It will be better upon re-heating, possibly over pasta.

 
I have not given up on carbs.  They are what keep my body charged up and I cannot eliminate them from my diet. 

We served the casserole with the cranberry lime salsa that Susan made for the Christmas Open House and drank St. Martin French pays d’ oc Sauvignon Blanc with the meal.
A less than successful first attempt at a carbless diet.  Perhaps a step too far into an austere low cal diet for my taste but a sort of interesting Hawaiian Broccoli casserole.

Bon Appétit.     

January 2, 2013 Dinner – Chicken in lobster cream sauce with steamed sugar snap peas

January 2, 2013 Dinner – Chicken in lobster cream sauce with steamed sugar snap peas

Today I went to Pro’s Ranch Market and bought bone-in chicken breasts ($1.19/lb.), broccoli ($.69/lb.), green onions (4 bunches for $.99), tomatoes (3 lb./$.99), 3 avocados (5 for $.99), and a few other things.

My idea for dinner was to make a Chinese stir fry with chicken and broccoli, but when Suzette arrived home, she had a different idea, which was to use the PPI lobster bisque and sauté the chicken with some green onion and red bell pepper and then use the lobster bisque to sauce it.

This is the beginning of our low calorie, low carbohydrate diet. 

I sliced three green onions and about two Tbsp. of red bell pepper and deboned the chicken and cut one breast into slices. 

Suzette then sautéed the ingredients and in a few minutes we had a hot delicious low carb dinner.

I opened a 1.5 liter bottle of St. Martin Réserve Sauvignon Blanc from Pays D’ Oc (Total Wine $11.99).  This wine is a monopole made from grapes grown in a number of different vineyards in the Pay d’ Oc area of southern France near the Mediterranean.  It is labelled as Pays d’ Oc - Indication Géographique Protégée.  Pays means “Country” in French. Here is some information on Country wines of France.

Vin de pays is a French term meaning "country wine". Vins de pays are a step in the French wine classification that is above the table wine (Vin de table) classification, but below Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) and formerly below VDQS classifications. Legislation on the Vin de pays terminology was created in 1973 and passed in 1979,[1] allowing producers to distinguish wines that were made using grape varieties or procedures other than those required by the AOC rules, without having to use the simple and commercially non-viable table wine classification. Unlike table wines, which are only indicated as being from France, Vin de pays carries a geographic designation of origin, the producers have to submit the wine for analysis and tasting, and the wines have to be made from certain varieties or blends. Regulations regarding varieties and labelling practices are typically more lenient than the regulations for AOC wines. In 2009, the Vin de pays classification was replaced by the new IGP - Indication Géographique Protégée, or Protected Geographical Region - designation.[2]

There are three tiers of Vin de Pays: regional, departmental and local.[1]

There are six regional Vins de Pays, which cover large areas of France. The most voluminous contributor to this category of wines is Vin de Pays d'Oc, from the Languedoc-Roussillon area in Mediterranean France.

So the Pays d’ Oc - Indication Géographique Protégée is part of a new classification system introduced in France around 2010 to designate wines grown in a specific region of the country, in a much larger geographic area than a local village Appelation Controlée or a specific single owner vineyard property.

The wine was clean tasting but without any character; perfect to wash down the delicate lobster cream sauce.

Bon Appétit

  

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

December 31, 2013 - Shopping for and eating a broiled lobster with salad for New Year’s Eve Dinner

December 31, 2013 - Shopping for and eating a broiled lobster with salad for New Year’s Eve Dinner

Today was one of those rare, ultimate food shopping experiences.  
 
Eating fresh lobster for New Year’s Eve has become one of our food traditions.  We have been talking about it for days because the logistics are always tricky.  After a meeting yesterday afternoon I went by Ta Lin Market at Louisiana and Central to see if they had any lobsters and they said they had ordered some to be delivered today.  Sonia, at the main customer service desk, said she could take my information and reserve me one.  So I gave her my name and phone and credit card number.  I took a card and she said I could call tomorrow after 2:00 p.m., which is when the lobsters were expected to arrive.

I called today around 12:30 p.m. and the person who answered told me the lobsters were on their way but had been delayed to the next flight and would not arrive until closer to 3:00 p.m.  This was starting to sound like meeting an old friend for a New Year’s Eve Party at the airport.  So I planned my trip to pick up a repaired suitcase, so that I would arrive at Ta Lin around 3:00 pm.

When I arrived at Ta Lin around 3:00 p.m. I was told that the plane had arrived and the driver was in transit with the lobsters.  I walked back to the fish department and spoke to my favorite fish monger, who I have dealt with for over fifteen years and speaks little English but we have some of the best conversations in broken English about fish and seafood I have ever had and he made a motion of a driver driving a truck and then waved his arms and in a sweeping motion to indicate that I should shop and said, “In few minutes.”  So I shopped for a few minutes, selecting a few essentials: dried rice, bean and vegetarian noodles, fresh Japanese eggplants, shallots, and fresh brown button mushrooms.  When I returned to the fish department, there was a large box sitting on a rolling table filled with large lobsters and one a couple eyeing the lobsters.  The man made a comment that it was arduous to buy a lobster and I said, “Yes, it takes two days” and he smiled and then he and his lady companion picked two 2 ¼ pound lobsters.  I had been eyeing the lobsters as soon as his lobsters were bagged and taken to the register in the fish department I selected the largest lobster of the several that were out of the box.  It appeared that the box contained about one dozen lobsters, all over two pounds each.  The lobsters were all alive and moving, so next to a tank at the shore in Maine, this was as fresh as one could get one anywhere.  My lobster was bagged and taken to the register in the fish department where it weighted 2.69 lbs. and was put in another large plastic bag.   At $13.88/lb. (the usual price for lobster at Ta Lin) that came to $37.34.  Not a bad price considering your new found lobster friend had just been flown in from the East coast by airplane freight in a large heavy cardboard box and driven to you from the airport by special limousine service.  

When I paid for the lobster at the cash register, the attendant even asked and gave me a packet of ice to keep my new friend comfortably cool on the drive home.

When I arrived home around 4:00 I put the lobster in the fridge and emptied the large pot that had held the mulled apple juice at our Christmas Eve party of its contents and drank a cup of mulled apple juice as I washed the pot and filled it with clean water and put it on the stove.   I then checked a phone message and discovered it was from Sonia at Ta Lin telling me that my lobster was on its way.   
At around 5:15 Suzette arrived and I confirmed that the lobster was in the house.  We had discussed dinner in the morning and decided to not go out, since I am under the weather, but instead to eat a simple meal of a salad and broiled fresh lobster, if I was able to obtain one.  Suzette had only had a blintz and blini for lunch at her Greenhouse Bistro’s New Year’s Blintz and Blini luncheon, so she was hungry.   She turned on the heat under the pot and ground up several old dried out rolls and pieces of bread in the Cuisinart to make fresh bread crumbs.  My favorite way to prepare lobster is the way my mother did; to boil the lobster to kill it and then to split it open, so it lays flat in a roasting pan belly side up and sprinkle it with bread crumbs and pads of butter and broil it until most of the moist internal organs are coagulated and cooked, but still tender.  I have found this method retains the greatest amount of sweet ocean liquid in the meat, while imparting a wonderful broiled flavor. 

I started making the salad by spinning a couple of handfuls of organic greens from Costco ($3.99/lb.) and placing that in my large teak wood salad bowl with some sliced cucumber, cubes of French Beaufort cheese and fresh pear, a couple of palm hearts sliced and a bit of cubed red bell pepper.  Suzette blanched a handful of fresh sugar snap peas and added those to the salad, while I made a salad dressing with about 1 Tbsp. of balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp. of Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard, the pulp of three small cloves of garlic pressed in a garlic press, 1 tsp. of Herbs Provence and enough olive oil (Kirtland Extra Virgin from Costco) to balance the harshness of the vinegar (about 1/3 to ½ cup).  When you stop gagging at the back of your throat and the oil has not separated from the vinegar, you have reached balance.

When the water in the pot came to a boil I went to the fridge in the garage to fetch our newly found lobster friend for dinner and went through that momentary moral and physical tussle of getting it into the pot of boiling water to kill her by boiling.

After about ten minutes of boiling we removed the lobster from the pot, placed it belly side up on a board and I split it open along the mid-section of its belly from head to tail with a large sharp knife.  It was still very wet inside, which was a good sign. Suzette took over as I finished the salad making and placed freshly made bread crumbs in the lobster’s cavity and then put pads of butter along the split open crease running the length of its body and squeezed lemon juice on it.  We put it in a roasting pan and put it in a 500˚ oven on broil about six inches from the heat for five minutes.
Suzette filled a small ramekin with butter and microwaved it to melt the butter.



After about five minutes we were ready to eat.  We filled bowls with salad and placed the lobster halves on a large Chinese steel platter.  I got a plate to use to stack the discarded shell as I ate the lobster and Suzette used the platter for her discards.  We opened a bottle of Barefoot Bubbly Brut Cuvée that Cynthia and Ricardo brought for our Christmas Eve party.  I have never drunk Barefoot Bubbly before.  I enjoyed it very much.  It is a true bone dry brut.  Upon examining the back label as I write this article, I see that Barefoot Cellars in Modesto, CA recommends it as perfect with fruit, sharp cheese and buttery lobster.  Perhaps it tasted perfect with dinner because we included all three of those ingredients in this evening’s dinner.   The champagne had a clear color and was very bubbly, with all the characteristics of traditional French brut champagne.   

 It won the gold medal at the Winemaker’s Challenge International Wine Competition in 2012.  I recommend it.
For those of you who do not know it, Ta Lin typically has the widest selection of fish, both frozen and fresh.  It also the largest world food market in New Mexico.  If you have not been there, you should go.  

As I reflect on Ta Lin’s timing and logistics for the arrival of the lobsters, they were perfect: the lobsters were packed and shipped to arrive in Albuquerque by air freight by around 2:30 p.m., they were picked up at the airport by a waiting driver and driven to the store and selected and paid for by 3:30 p.m. and ours went into the pot alive and kicking by 6:00 p.m.
Bon Appétit