May 15, 2014
Lunch, Anatolia Turkish Mediterranean Grill Dinner, Sauteed Ham in Green Chutney Sauce, Creamed Chard, and Baked Potato
Aaron
invited me to lunch and I suggested Anatolia Turkish Mediterranean Grill,
Albuquerque’s Turkish restaurant, now located at 313 B Central NW. We both ordered the Daily Special, which was
chicken shish kebab served on rice with a side of salad for $6.99.
Daily
Specials usually are a regular menu item offered for a reduced price but occasionally
is a different Turkish dish. The dish
was chunks of marinated chicken white meat grilled on a skewer and served on a
bed of rice on one side of the plate with salad garnished with red onion strips
marinated or cooked in sumac or some other red herb on the other side of the
plate. The plate as contained Turkish yogurt sauce (cicac?) and a sliced piece of warm pita bread.
We were
served a small but delicious piece of baklava for dessert. We both enjoyed our meal.
I had no
plans for dinner but talked to Suzette as she was leaving Santa Rosa around
5:00. We decided to eat ham in green
chutney sauce and I suggested baking a potato, to which Suzette agreed.
So I put 4 potatoes in a 350˚ oven for one hour and went to ride. I had over cooked a butt end 1/2 ham on Tuesday for our dinner with the Palmers. It seems that I am a better cook of fancy French sauces than simple American food. Anyway we had the PPI ham and we decided to sauce it and saute it to soften the ham.
When Suzette
arrived around 6:30 the potatoes were baked and I was finishing slicing the ham off its bone. Suzette decided
she wanted a fresh green vegetable with dinner and suggested creamed chard. I agreed and she went to the garden and
picked a colander full of chard leaves, while I loosely chopped about 3 Tbsp s of onion. We then de-stemmed and Suzette spun the chard to clean it and heated about 1 Tbsp. of olive oil in a large skillet and then sauteed the
onion for a few minutes. I added a dash
of fresh nutmeg to the onions and then Suzette added the chard and stirred it
to coat it with oil and then covered the skillet with a wok lid to steam the
chard. In a couple of minutes, when the
chard had collapsed, Suzette added about 1/4 cup of half and half to the skillet and cooked
the chard to make a light cream sauce.
In another
skillet Suzette placed several of the driest slices of ham that I had reserved
for this dish and laid scoops of Green Tomato chutney over it and turned it to
coat the ham with the chutney.
I went to the
garden and picked several stalks of chives and sliced them and fetched the sour
cream and butter from the fridge.
As soon as
the ham was heated and had absorbed some of the flavor of the chutney and the
chard was cooked, we were ready to eat.
We placed a baked potato on each plate and mixed into them pads of
butter and sour cream and then laid pieces of ham, garnished with the sweet green tomato chutney sauce, and a pile of chard on each
plate.
We poured
out the half bottle of Josefina Rosé of Syrah that was in the fridge. The slightly heavier and more earthy rosé of
syrah went nicely with the salty and sweet ham.
I had eaten a lot of ham as I sliced it off the bone so I was already pretty
full and had trouble finishing my plate of food, but Suzette, who had not eaten
much all day, loved the dinner.
In fact, she
ate a bowl of chocolate ice cream after dinner.
After dinner
I sliced a quart of strawberries and doused them with cognac and Grand Marnier
and put them in a covered container into the fridge for a future parfait as soon as I buy a container of
vanilla ice cream.
I feel like we have finally readjusted to New Mexico and have re-established our creative recycling of PPIs, two weeks after our trip.
.
Bon Appétit
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