January 13, 2015 Lunch The Shed Dinner Grilled Pork Sirloin Steak with PPI Ratatouille

January 13, 2015  Lunch The Shed   Dinner  Grilled Pork Sirloin Steak with PPI Ratatouille

I drove to Santa Fe for a hearing at 9:00 through blowing snow in near white out conditions on frozen roads.  After the hearing I walked from the Supreme Court Building to the Shed for lunch (Olivier only serves dinner, I found out first).  The Shed is my comfort food enchilada sanctuary.  I order the Enchilada plate with beef and all posole as I have for the last 47 years.  I guess you could say I am devoted or addicted to their style of enchiladas with that unique red chili sauce, which I now have the recipe for.  Here it is:

The Shed's Red Chili Enchilada Sauce (1972)

1/4 c Canola oil

2 cloves minced garlic

2 T flour

1/3 - 1/2 cup hot, or extra hot, red chili powder ( I usually use a combination and closer to 1/2 cup)

1 cup tomato juice

2 cups water

1.  Saute garlic in oil

2.  Add flour, cook a few minutes till flour smell is faded.  Remove from heat

3.  Add chili powder and stir w/whisk till smooth - it's very thick at this point

4.  Add tomato juice and water.

5.  Set back on heat and cook till thick - this doesn't take very long.

Bob, I make four times this recipe and freeze whatever I don't use.  

Enjoy.  Janis LaFountain

I usually drink a Negra Modelo and eat a piece of chocolate mocha cake after lunch and today was no exception.  I loved lunch and then walked to the American Indian Women’s Museum and saw several sketches by Helen Hardin and a large number of paintings by her mother Pablita Velarde from Santa Clara Pueblo.

Here is the recipe for the Shed Mocha Cake:

The Shed Mocha Cake

Erin Doherty

This is the classic Mocha Cake from The Shed in Santa Fe, my favorite dessert since pre-school! It does, however, contain raw eggs...so caveat emptor.

· 

servings:
Makes 6

Time:

prep time:

15

total time:

30

other time:

freezer time 15 min+

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servings:
Makes 6

Time:

prep time:

15

total time:

30

other time:

freezer time 15 min+

---

Ingredients

·         12 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips

·         2T. instant coffee

·         2T. sugar

·         2T. water

·         7 eggs, separated

·         1t. vanilla extract

·         8 1/2 oz. chocolate wafers, crushed (or use Oreo pie crust, if you cannot find plain wafers)

·         Whipped cream, for serving

directions

In a double boiler, melt together the chocolate chips, coffee, sugar and water; allow to cool. Add egg yolks to the chocolate mixture along with vanilla. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into chocolate mixture. Spread crushed chocolate wafers in the bottom of a 8 or 9 inch square pan. Cover with half of the chocolate mixture and another later of crumbs. Freeze for 15 minutes. Add remainder of chocolate mixture and top with another thin layer of crumbs. Cool. Serve with whipped cream.

Source:Erin Doherty

So now you can replicate my favorite Shed meal anywhere anytime you choose.  God bless the internet.

I then drove home and went with Suzette to a meeting.  After the meeting we drove to Costco and after Suzette gassed up her mustang, we went shopping for dinner.  We decided on a package of pork sirloin steaks ($3.49/lb.) on special for $3.50 off per package.  I chose a package priced originally at a $15.77, so the final price was around $2.75 per pound, which was a great price for fresh pork steaks.

We took the pork home and Suzette sprinkled sea salt and pepper on them and grilled them while she was heating some of the PPI Ratatouille.  We looked in the fridge and saw that we had half of a PPI bottle of Gruet Brut champagne left from New Year Day and decided to drink it with dinner.  This dinner’s prep took no more than 15 minutes.

We had a wonderful dinner of sliced pork steaks grilled to medium rare (slightly pink in the center) served on a pile of warm ratatouille; very simple and yet very elegant and delicious; another lesson in how great tasting food does not need to be elaborate or contain expensive ingredients.

After dinner we opened a bottle of 2007 Fonseca Late Bottled Vintage Port from Costco for $18.99 and tasted it along side of the $12.99 bottle of Harris Late Bottle Vintage Port from Trader Joe’s.  We both liked the Harris better, but agreed that the Fonseca needed time to open up before we could tell for sure.  We had a piece of strawberry jelly candy that some Christmas guest brought us with the port for a perfect finish to a lovely meal. 

Bon Appétit