October 26, 2014  Veal Stew with Corn spoon bread casserole, salad and Tres Leches Cake

Cynthia and Ricardo came over for dinner.  Cynthia made a salad and a wonderful corn spoon bread casserole.  We made a veal stew.

Around 10:00 I cleaned the sliver skin and tendons out of the 1 ¼ lb. of veal stew meat we bought yesterday at Alpine Sausage Kitchen, while Suzette went to the garden and picked a basket full of turnips and a couple of small sweet potatoes.  I then sliced five pieces of bacon into 1 inch wide pieces and cleaned and diced the lb. of red onions we had bought at the Farmer’s Market yesterday.   

When Suzette had cleaned the turnips and sweet potatos, I diced them into large pieces to match the size of the veal chunks and we put them into the crock pot.

Then I peeled and diced a large sweet potato we had bought yesterday at the Farmer’s Market.   I then diced a red bell pepper, all the carrots we had picked from our garden, and an old stalk of leek. Suzette braised the bacon and then the veal and red onions in the large Le Creuset casserole and put those into the crock pot.

We then turned the crock pot to high and cooked the veal stew from 11:00 to 6:30 p.m.

When Cynthia and Ricardo arrived at 6:00 Cynthia brought in a deep baking dish filled with piping hot Mexican corn spoon bread, a Mexican flavored polenta with lots of Longhorn cheese melted into it and on the top of it.  Cynthia made a salad dressing with Balsamic Vinegar and a Portuguese olive oil we bought at a specialty food shop in Oporto.  Ricardo was carrying a PPI ½  bottle of J. Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon Seven Oaks Winery reserve, which we poured for our first glass of wine.  We then poured out our PPI 1/2 bottle of Wellington Alexander Valley  Petite Sirah (Gold medal Sonoma County Fair) after we took Cynthia’s salad (mostly arugula and mizuna with beautiful small cherry tomatoes she had raised in her garden and herbed cracked olive pieces) to the garden gazebo accompanied by a half baguette of warm Bosque Bakery baguette.  After a lovely first course of salad and lots of talk of Cynthia’s recent three week sojourn at her house in Maine, we served the veal stew and corn spoon bread.  When we finished the Petite Sirah Ricardo and I went to the basement to find another wine to drink.  Suzette had recommended a light red and soon my eyes fell upon the open case of 2010 Marchesi Castello de Monastero Chianti Superiore, which was wonderfully light and complemented the food.  The Petite Sirah was my favorite because it had a delightful fruitiness. 

Finally, Suzette served cognac and pieces of her tres leches cake and we all felt like we had had a lovely meal.  At 8:30 Ricardo’s alarm on his phone went off and after clearing the table we said goodnight.

Bon Appétit