January 2, 2015 Billy arrives Breakfast Tamales, and chili Shopping for wine and food, Dinner Roast Leg of Lamb, Eggplant Provencal and warm salad

January 2, 2015 Billy arrives   Breakfast  Tamales, and chili Shopping for wine and food,  Dinner Roast Leg of Lamb, Eggplant Provencal and warm salad

I picked up my brother, Billy, at 8:30 and drove him to the house.  On the way he said, “I have stuff for breakfast and lunch with me.”  When I asked him, “What,” he said, “Tamales and chili con carne.”  When we arrived home, Willy and Suzette were up and hungry, so we decided to fix breakfast.  Suzette suggested steaming the tamales that Billy had bought at the Whole Foods store in Dallas, So, she did that.

Suzette also fetched the last of the wonderful Oaxacan black beans cooked with Herba (hoja) Santa and avocado leaves from the fridge and heated it in the microwave.  We decided to eat the tamales with fried eggs and Billy made those in a large skillet while Willy and I squeezed the last of the navel oranges into juice.  Suzette plated up lovely plates of tamales, chili con carne with posole, black beans and fried eggs.

I realized immediately that Billy had struck upon a great food combination, putting posole into chili con carne, but everything about this breakfast was delicious and interesting.   I felt like the culinary creativity of the Simon family unit was alive and functioning at a pretty high level.

Next Billy and I did some banking and business.  We printed and took the lease for the new tenant to the bank, where we signed and notarized it.  I talked to Isaac, the contractor, who was working on getting the fire marshal inspection and CO for the Candy Store, which he got this morning.  I met him at the bank and paid him his final installment and by 12:00 noon we were ready to shop. 

We first drove to Trader Joe’s and bought 2 bottles of Perrin Cotes du Rhône Reserve at $9.99 each, a bottle of Le Ferme Julien rosé for $5.99 and a bottle of Monople Austrian potato Vodka for $14.99 for Billy’s Chanukah gift.  

We then drove to Total Wine and I bought a Oregon Wildhaven Pinot Gris ($10.99), several new rosés (Monte Clavijo Rioja Rosé of Grenache and Tempranillo [$7.99] and D’ Autrefois de Pinot Noir, $11.99), a bottle of Monte Clavijo White Viura at $7.99, a bottle of Bougrier Anjou Blanc (Chenin Blanc at $9.99), a bottle of Perrin Reserve Rouge at $8.99 and a bottle of Gruet Blanc de Noir for $11.47.  Billy and I then went to the liquor department and I bought a bottle of Berneroy XO Calvados ($29.95) and a bottle of Knight Gabriello Grappa di Brunello for Billy’s Chanukah gift.  I was amazed that with the mix six bottle 10% discount that the Perrin Reserve cost only $8.09 a bottle, almost two dollars less than at Trader Joe’s.  Perrin’s Reserve could become our house red wine at this price.

We then drove to Fano and bought a fresh baguette and then to Sprouts Farm Market, where we bought two eggplants, a 5.6 ounce plastic container of blackberries, Roma tomatoes ($.48/lb.), a head of fresh garlic, limes and a grapefruit for Billy.

Finally we drove to Costco and bought the leg of lamb, some shampoo, corn chips, and a rack of lamb.  After filling the tank of the Prius with gasoline at $1.78/gallon we drove home, arriving at 4:45.

When we arrived Billy immediately started working on the lamb roast.  He squeezed garlic and added Italian Seasoning and lemon juice to make a rub/marinade and spread it over the lamb roast and let the lamb sit in the marinade for fifteen minutes.

Eggplant Provencal

I started making Eggplant Provencal by slicing an eggplant into ½ inch thick slices, then brushing both sides of the eggplant slices with olive oil, then placing the slices on a greased baking tray and slicing vine ripened tomatoes into ¼ inch thick slices and placing them on top of the eggplant slices. 

Suzette then mixed panko with grated Pecornio Romano cheese and we put that mixture on top of the tomato slices.

Billy pre-heated the oven to 450˚ and roasted the meat for 20 minutes at that temperature, then he turned down the oven to 350˚ and then we baked the lamb for about another hour until its internal heat reached 130˚ and the eggplant Provencal baked for about 45 minutes.  Our temperature gauge on the oven is loose so it is hard to set an exact temperature, so after about 45 minutes when not much cooking was evident, I placed an oven temperature gauge in the oven and saw that the temperature was really only 325˚, so I turned up the temperature and in another 20 minutes we smelled lamb cooking.  Billy tested the temperature again with a new ThermoWorks spear Thermapen, he brought me for Chanukah.  We put the timer on for another fifteen minutes and I started making the salad.  

Billy removed the lamb from the oven in fifteen minutes and covered it with aluminum foil to let it rest and cook a bit more.

Warm String Bean salad

Suzette wanted a simple Balsamic Vinegar and olive oil dressing, so I put about 1 Tbsp. of freshly opened Kirtland Balsamic Vinegar in a bowl and slowly added about three Tbsps. of Kirtland extra virgin olive oil and a dash of Herbs Provence, salt, and white pepper to the dressing and whisked it into a creamy emulsion.  I let it sit for a few minutes until I remembered that I had minced a shallot for breakfast that was in the fridge and put that into the dressing for about 8 minutes to let it marinate and soften.  Suzette fetched and spun a basket of organic greens (Costco $3.99/lb.).  Then I sliced and chopped a tomato and 1/3 avocado and added those to the salad. 

I then wrapped half of the baguette in aluminum foil and put it into the 350˚ oven for the last fifteen minutes of cooking time.

When the timer showed 1:30 minutes, I heated the approximately 2/3 lb. of PPI steamed green beans in the microwave and then sliced the warm green beans and added them to the salad and tossed it again and I sliced the lamb into ¼“ thin slices.  Suzette took the eggplants Provencal from the oven and sliced we were ready to eat.  

We poured glasses of Perrin Reserve and called Willy to join us at the table. I lit a candle and we had an intimate and very delicious dinner.  Suzette fetched the new bottle of mint jelly, which Willy and I like with our lamb.  I suspect Willy enjoyed dinner most with the fresh baked heated French baguette and lamb and mint sauce.  The roasted lamb was delicious, not a tough bit in it that did not fall away from the meat with a flick of the knife and roasted to somewhere between medium and medium rare.  

I loved the warm string bean salad the best because it was a new dish and the string beans tasted wonderful with the light slightly sweet Balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

After dinner I suggested that we try several grappas to see how Billy’s new bottle of Knight Gabriello Grappa di Brunello stacked up.  I fetched shot glasses and the Grappa di Brunello Reserva that Mike and Kathryn brought me from Italy and we did a side by side tasting of the two Brunello grappas.  The Knight Gabriello Grappa di Brunello was fresher tasting of fruit, “More winey,” was Billy’s assessment.  The Grappa reserve had a heavier body and more complexity, probably from the aging. 

Both were delicious.  I then suggested that we fetch an oak aged grappa from the basement, so Billy and I went to basement and I showed him the Trimbach liquours and brandies I had bought several years ago.  We decided to try the Trimbach Grande Reserve Poire William brandy.  We set up two more glasses and poured the oaked grappa and Trimbach brandy into one each. We both agreed that the oak aged grappa tasted good, but the Trimbach Poire William tasted great.

 

Billy and I had a short discussion about how funny it is about quality; it seems to be worth the extra cost when you taste it, perhaps because we were raised in a family that spent a lot of time and money on good quality food stuffs and developed our palates to taste the difference between good and great. 

A lot can be said about how one develops one’s palate and taste for good quality and whether that makes one a more refined person.  Tonight it was easy to agree that that was so, when the two persons engaged in that discussion were raised together on the same great food and wine and were sitting together tasting some of the great liquors of the world in a time honored tradition they had developed over years of tasting fine liquors after a fine dinner.  

The show stopper after dinner activity was Billy’s giving me my trip journal from our 1960 family trip to Europe (when I was 14 and Billy was 12).  Suzette read passages of how Mother left the family in Belgium to go buy lace tablecloths in Bruges and then showed up at the boat in Rotterdam, which Billy rightly commented on as the beginning of the end of Mother and Father’s marriage.   I suggested that that was also the beginning of my passion for journaling that led to this blog.  

Finally around 8:00 we decided to watch Episode 7 of Marco Polo on Netflix.  I could not stay up until the end and went to bed at 8:45 p.m. and slept a solid 7 hours.

Bon Appétit