November 15, 2014 Shopping for Mole and Dinner at the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery

When I awoke this morning, I found Suzette researching recipes in our Diana Kennedy Oaxacan cookbook, Oaxaca al Gusto.  She had marked about ten recipes to consider including a yellow, a green and a black mole.  We decided to go to Altos Ranch Market to see if we could find costeña chilies, chicken, achiote, Mexican oregano and a few other items on our list,

When we arrived at Altos Ranch Market I bought a few limes ($.79/lb.) and three avocados.  We then went to the deli and bought crema sin sal ($2.29/lb.) and went back to produce and bought 1 pasilla/poblano chile but found no costeña chilis or dried avocado leaves.  Then we looked for chilis in cans and found no costeña chilis in cans either, so we returned to the deli counter and bought cubes of fresh made black and green mole concentrate.  Then we went to the meat department and bought 6 chicken thighs.  I now saw Suzette’s plan, to see what ingredients we needed to buy in Mexico next week for our Holy Mole party on Christmas Eve.   We now have a partial list of ingredients.

After we got home we made open face sandwiches by spreading mayo and liverwurst on German Ry bread and coating with Dijon mustard and slices of salami and gelbwurst.  We drank a beer with the sandwiches and Suzette went to work.

At 3:00 I drove to to the Center for Ageless Living in Los Lunas to meet Suzette.  My planned treatment did not materialize, so we soaked in the large hot tub at the Garden Gate Day Spa until around 4:45, when we steamed, showered and dressed and went to the restaurant for dinner.  We met Haley, the new waitress, and discussed wines with her as we tried to decide what to order for dinner and which wine to drink.  I decided upon the lamb shank Special three course prix fix dinner and Suzette wanted to try the new item on the menu, gnocchi in brown butter sauce.  I actually had difficulty deciding whether to drink the Drouhin Beaujolais or the Cline Pinot Noir for my wine.  Since I had tasted the Drouhin before, I opted for the Cline 2012 Sonoma County Pinot Noir.  Suzette had Haley aflutter with tasks so I opened the bottle of Pinot Noir and poured a glass.  Soon, Executive Chef Devven arrived with an small plate holding a ramekin filled with an olive tapenade made with Kalamata olives, olive oil, herbs and the secret ingredient, creamed goat cheese to help bind it accompanied by a pile of warm pita bread toast points.  I loved the creamy tapenade and smeared it on the warm pita slices and sipped pinot.

Soon Suzette returned from her training session with Haley and finished the tapenade and pita and then Haley brought us our dinners.  My lamb shank was sauced with a thick tomato, Kalamata olive and carrot puree dotted with rounds of potato gnocchi.  My first taste of the sauce told me that it had a fair amount of black pepper, because it had a noticeable pepper flavor and a slightly tart flavor of the fresh and canned tomatoes and olives, rather like hot and sour soup but without the strong sour flavor of vinegar (sort of a hot and tart puree).  I loved the carrots cooked into the sauce and told Devven.  I also explained to him that the sauce had a distinctly peppery flavor to me but that on the entire spectrum of black pepper flavors, this sauce was probably near the middle; but I, unfortunately, am on the outer edge of the black pepper spectrum, at essentially no black pepper.  I use a little white pepper when dishes call for black pepper, unless the pepper is cooked into the dish.

The lamb shank was succulent and so tender that the meat literally fell off the bone. Chef Devven said he had cooked the lamb shanks for 7 to 8 hours.  I found the use of fresh cherry tomatoes from the Center’s garden in the sauce refreshing on what would turned out to be the last evening of Indian Summer.  I loved Devven's gnocchi because it was not doughy.  Chef Devven offered his recipe for his gnocchi.  Here it is:

Gnocchi with sauteed fresh tomatoes in brown butter sauce 

Lamb shank with gnocchi in tomato, olive and vegetable sauce

Devven also offered his secret, which is to stir the potatoes in the pan until they get smooth just after they are cooked, while they are still warm.

I loved my dinner.  I traded bites of lamb for Suzettee's gnocchi and I liked hers a bit better than mine because it had a buttery flavor and less pepper.  My ideal dinner this evening would have been gnocchi in butter sauce with the roasted lamb shank.

Next we were served a small plate with a blintz on it (a warm crepe rapped around some ricotta cheese mixed with lemon peel and a bit of sugar and garnished with dabs of raspberry coulis and fresh raspberries; very tasty.

After dinner at around 6:00 we were walked outside to park area to the newly installed circular labyrinth made by stringing Christmas lights in a series of interconnected concentric circles between the stage and the Spa.  A round sitting area had been arranged at the center of the labyrinth with benches and large rounds of wooden logs for seats.  There were also freshly cut bamboo stalks and marshmallows and at the very center of the labyrinth was a metal fire pit with a fire set in it ready to be lit.  A large wooden drum was set on a stand near the first turn in the labyrinth.  Suzette took over the drumming duties and l walked the labyrinth to the center and took over the fire and marshmallow duties.  I lit the fire and soon folks began to show up, a few residents of the assisted living facility and families with small children.  Suzette directed them into the labyrinth and when they finally arrived at the center, I offered them a bamboo stick and marshmallows.  I seemed that for several of the small children, this was their first marshmallow roasting experience.  It was fun to see them enjoying the fire and the roasting of their marshmallows and the expressions on their faces as they bit into the hot gooey masses of burned/toasted sugary marshmallow.  After a few minutes Suzette went to take pictures of the labyrinth and I took over the drumming duties.  At around 6:30 Suzette and I carried the drum back into the Spa and we left around 7:00.

We had planned to go to Birdland’s 20^th anniversary party at Low Spirits, but I took a little nap and did not awaken until 11:00, which we decided was too late to go out again. 

Bon Appétit