March 7, 2015 Dinner Party with Cynthia, Ricardo, Andrew and Katie Crab Cakes, Okra Succotash, Salad, Remoulade Sauce and Papaya Salsa and Italian Meringue Cake

March 7, 2015  Dinner Party with Cynthia, Ricardo, Andrew and Katie   Crab Cakes, Okra Succotash, Salad, Remoulade Sauce and Papaya Salsa and Italian Meringue Cake

Cynthia and Ricardo are staying at Andrew and Katie’s casita while their house is being renovated and they invited us over for dinner tonight for crab cakes.

 

I finally enjoyed one of my usual Saturdays; office-work in the morning, lunch of Bun Cha Gio (No. 21) at Vietnam 2000 and a bit of grocery shopping.  Today I bought green grapes, a bunch of fresh cilantro ($.50), broccoli ($.98/lb.), and green beans ($.98/lb.) at Sprouts Farm Store and then drove to Total Wine to buy some Perrin Reserve.  I got a little carried away at Total Wine, perhaps because of the 10% discount on wines and the three tables of wine and spirit tastings or just because I needed to replenish our wine cellar and get ready for summer, I bought a 1.5 liter bottle of New Amsterdam gin rated 95 pts. by Wine Enthusiast ($15.99), a bottle of Depreville Rosé Brut champagne for $8.09 to drink with the dinner’s crab cakes, a 2009 Quinta des Carvahhas Late Bottled Vintage Port ($16.19), a bottle of Knight Gabriello Grappa Brunello for $34.99, a Nue Grapefruit flavored Vodka from Texas that I tasted to drink with dinner’s dessert, a Salmon Sancerre ($117.99, 2 bottles of 2013 Santiago Station Sauvignon Blanc and a Cabernet Sauvignon ($3.49 each), a Blue Vin Reisling that was being tasted ($8.99), 2 bottles of Perrin Reserve Rouge ($8.09), a bottle of 2013 D-Autrefois Rosé ($10.79), and then I got a little crazy and bought a bottle of Quinta das Carvalhas 20 year old tawny port ($44.99), and Knight Gabriello Amaro Di Toscano to replace the Vya Vermouth ($17.99).

I then went home and since Suzette had returned from yoga, we decided to make the Italian Meringue Cake.  She made the cake and then I helped her make the pouring custard (crème Anglais). The cake recipe requires 15 egg whites and we used all 15 yolks to make a triple recipe of custard with the addition of 2 cups of 2% milk, 1 cup of half and half and 1 cup of whipping cream and 1 cup of sugar in the large Le Creuset enameled casserole.  When the custard was ready Suzette added 3 tsp. of vanilla and filled the blue ceramic pitcher with a portion of the custard to take to dinner.

After a nap, I got up around 5:00 and we made a papaya salsa with a shallot, the juice of 5 small limes, ¼ of a red pepper, 3 avocados (I bought 28 avocados yesterday at Los Altos Ranch market because they were 7 for $.99), a slice of fresh papaya and about 2 Tbsp. of cilantro, all finely minced.

At 6:00 we packed up the papaya salsa, the pitcher of custard and put the Meringue cake into cake holder and we took a bottle of Anjou white plus the bottles of Depreville Rosé Champagne and  Nue Grapefruit vodka and black berries and some green grapes I had bought at Sprouts Farm Market and Total Wine today and drove to the casita that Cynthia and Ricardo are staying at while their kitchen is being re-modeled.

The casita was built by Andrew on property he and Katie own, located in Albuquerque’s North Valley bosque. Katie hosts the Children’s Hour on KNME on Saturdays.  The casita is a two story, mostly handmade house with lots of lovely wood elements.  The dining/kitchen and high ceilinged sitting area and a bathroom with a sunken bath are on the ground level and there are two bedrooms on the second level.

When we arrived we sat and talked in the sitting area nibbling artichoke dip and red pepper hummus with slices of red pepper, carrot, cucumber and celery, and olives and a German brie style cheese with mushrooms (Champignon) and crackers with glasses of Marble Brewery’s prize winning Imperial Red Ale and later glasses of a Depreville Brut Champagne that Ricardo bought at Total Wine.

Then Cynthia sautéed the crab cakes and heated the okra Succotash and dressed and tossed the salad (Cynthia is now using Sprouts' Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil) and then we each served ourselves a crab cake, some remoulade sauce Cynthia had made with Andrew’s homemade pickles, some papaya salsa we had made plus salad and Succotash and sat in the dining area on the banco and on chairs around the lovely elliptical shaped table Andrew had made.  When we finished the Depreville Brut, Ricardo opened and served the bottle of Depreville Rosé Brut.

We talked and enjoyed dinner and then, after a few minutes, while I halved some of the green grapes and poured small glasses of the Nue Grapefruit vodka, everyone was ready for dessert.  I put 5 or 6 grape halves and 4 blackberries and a puddle of custard on each plate and Suzette cut and laid slices of the Meringue cake on each plate.  The Meringue cake was welcomed with excited exclamations and compliments from the group.  Ricardo even went so far as to say it was the best dessert he had ever tasted.

We enjoyed a lovely evening of food and conversation until 10:00, when we said our good byes and drove home.

Bon Appétit