I started the day with a bowl of granola, with yogurt, milk, blueberries, and some vitamin powder.
My main intention today was to use the fabulous growth of dill in our garden to make a traditional Swedish Gravad Lax. Yesterday I went by Ta Lin and Sprouts to look at their salmon and did not like the look of either.
Today I worked until 1:00 and then went to the Courthouse to obtain a certified copy for a case. I then drove to East Ocean and in keeping with my plan to eat healthy and light ordered Moo Goo Gai Pan, which at East Ocean is a stir fry of seven or eight different vegetables with chicken in a lightly soyed thickened chicken stock sauce served with fried rice. I enjoyed the vegetables but only ate 1\2 of the dish and boxed the other ½.
After lunch I drove to Costco and found two identical matched 2.28 lb. fresh farm raised salmon filets for $7.99/lb. I also bought a wedge of Pecorino Romano cheese and a case of Modelo beer.
I went home and worked and rested until Suzette arrived at about 6:00.
Gravad Lax
I then went to the garden and picked a basket of fresh dill stalks and rinsed them and removed the heavier parts of the stalks. I went to the basement and fetched the salmon poacher, which is a six inch wide by about 20 inch long and six inch deep steel affair large enough to hold a whole salmon.
Since the total weight of salmon was approximately 4 ½ lb. I made 1 ½ recipes of the Gravad Lax mixture. The standard measurements of which are 2/3 cup of sugar, ¾ cup of salt, and 1 tsp. of fresh ground black pepper for each 3 lb. of fish. I mixed the dry ingredients to uniformly mix them. Then I laid a layer of dill stalks in the bottom of the salmon cooker. Then Suzette poured the dry mixture onto the outside of one of the fillets to coat it and I laid that outside down on the dill stalks in the poacher. Suzette then shuck a thick layer of dry mixture on the exposed inner side of the fillet in the poacher and I then laid a thick layer of dill stalks on it. We repeated the process of pouring the dry mixture onto the inside of the other fillet and lay that side down on the dill on top of the other filet with head and tail ends matching and Suzette poured the rest of the dry mixture on top of the second filet. I went to the garden again to get more dill and laid more fr
esh dill on top of the salmon.
We then went to the garage and found one of the 1x6 cedar boards we use for cooking fish on the grill that was cracked. I marked the board so it would fit in the poacher and Suzette found the saw and I took the board and saw outside to saw the board. Wily arrived at this time and helped hold the board steady while I sawed the length of the wider side that I needed to cover the salmon. I then placed a piece of Saran over the poacher and then placed the board over the Saran an then placed two bricks on the board to weight down the board. My unscientific assumption of the curing process is that the weight forces the dry mixture to be compressed into the fish flesh and a chemical exchange occurs whereby the liquid in the fish flesh goes into solution with the dry mixture to form a sweet brine that replaces the liquid in the fish flesh, essentially curing the fish flesh. Under normal refrigeration salmon will keep about three days before bacterial action starts. With curing the salmon will easily not go bad for three or four months.
We asked Willy what green vegetable he wanted and he said, “I would love Chard cooked with piñon nuts.” So, Suzette went to the garden and picked a basket of chard and destemmed it while I found the last raisins in the house, which were green raisins from the Bombay Spice store. I heated water and put the raisins into the hot water to re-hydrate. Then Suzette fetched the piñon nuts from the freezer and I diced a shallot and put the pieces into the large skillet of melted butter on the stove and fetched the wok top. Suzette then sautéed the shallot and then browned the piñon nuts. She the added the raisins and chard and covered the skillet to cook the mixture with its own steam and heat.
I turned my attention to the tzatziki I made yesterday. I tasted it and mixed in 1 tsp. of salt, which made the flavors pop. I put it on the table. I also went to the basement and fetched a bottle of 2013 Famille Perrin Cotes Du Rhone, which is a blend of 50% Grenache and 50% Syrah, because I like Southern Rhone with lamb.
I poured glasses of wine while Suzette was cooking the chard dish. When she finished cooking the chard we heated the three ears of PPI corn and the five PPI roasted lamb chops in the microwave and were ready to eat.
I enjoyed dinner but ate a bit too much because it was so delicious.
After dinner we watched a episode of Silicon Valley and then at 10:00 it took Willy to the airport to take his Jet Blue red eye flight to New York for his first big national planning conference and to visit Luke and Rebecca and Mickey.
Bon Appetit
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