July 9, 2017 Breakfast – yogurt, granola, cherries new, milk. Lunch - Salmon and goat cheese omelet. New Recipe Dinner – PPI Chicken, sausage, and salmon Paella with green peas
This morning I watched the Tour de France and the news programs. There was a terrible crash with two G C contenders (Richie Porte and Adan Martin) crashing and two other contenders, Contador and Nairo Quintana loosing over a minute to Chris Froome.
At 10:30 we rode to the Farm for a snack. We toured the extensive gardens and split a cucumber mint drink for $3.00. Linda appears to be building two attractive guest cabins near the gardens. The gardens are extensive and appear to be very productive. They include a flower garden, vegetable gardens, and herb gardens and two hoop houses in which tomatoes and beets were growing.
We decided to make a salmon and goat cheese omelet, so we rode home arriving at noon. I chopped onion and cut the end off a plastic encased goat cheese and diced chilled PPI steamed asparagus.
Suzette sautéed the onion and stirred three eggs and added the egg, asparagus, and a handful of PPI grilled salmon to the skillet and after a minute or two added slices of goat cheese. The fresh soft goat cheese did not melt but it did soften further creating soft white puddles. After about five minutes of cooking at medium heat Suzette folded the omelet in half with a large spatula and allowed the inside to firm for another few minutes. Finally, she cut it in half and served ½ on each of two plates. I drank iced tea and Suzette drank water.
After lunch we went to the garden table where we had stacked the garlic we picked a week ago. It filled two chairs and the entire table. Suzette lay all the garlic in a pile. I took a wooden cutting board, knives and a scissors to remove the bulbs from their root and stalk. I quickly found that a sharp scissors was best for snipping off the the root section and cutting the bulb away from the stalk. As soon as the bulb was freed from it root and stalk the dirt encrusted outer layer or two of husk surrounding the bulb fell away rather easily. In about 1 1/2 hours we filled 11 quart freezer bags with bulbs of garlic, which we took into the house and placed in the freezer section of our fridge. We have tried several different methods of storing garlic and find that freezing is the best.
At 2:00 Suzette started watching TV and I rested. We both became restless and I suggested that we go to Talin to shop for the ingredients for fried tofu and vegetables, which is a new favorite dish of ours. We left the house at 4:00 and drove to Talin. I first went to the Coda Bakery that was packed with folks, mostly eating Vietnamese sandwiches and bought two loafs of fried Tofu for $.75 each. Coda Bakery, 230 Louisiana SE, is the only store in Albuquerque that makes fresh fried tofu that I know. On Sunday it offered chili. Lemongrass flavored fried tofu, but we chose the regular type.
Then we drove across the parking lot to Talin. We first went to the European section and bought a 1 kilo bag of Santo Tomas Spanish short grain rice for $5.35. Then we went to the fish department and found a fresh monkfish for $9.99/lb. so we took a 1 lb. chunk of that.. we then went to the Chinese canned vegetable section and picked up a can each of sliced water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and baby corn. I also picked up a bag of dried Lilly flowers that I like to cook in rice. We did not see canned mushrooms, so we went to the fresh vegetable section and bought a small container of white beech mushrooms and a bag of sweet Bok Choy. We checked out and drove to Sprouts at the corner of Lomas and San Mateo where we bought sour cream, milk, raw almonds, green grapes, and green beans.
We arrived home at 5:30 and Suzette lay down to rest, so I started to make the paella. I looked at Jose Andres’ Tapa Cookbook recipe and improvised. I could not find our paella pan, so I settled on the large Le Creuset Casserole. I chopped about a cup of Vadalia onion and three cloves of the garlic we had just cleaned, the PPI chicken breast, 1 of the smoked sausages that Dee brought from Austin at the end of June, and a bag of small shrimp. I found the bowl of about 3 oz. of fresh peas we picked from our patch of snow peas in the garden a few days ago and the rest of the PPI sorrel pesto glazed salmon. I also fetched from the garage fridge, our bottle of Sofrito. There is a big difference between the official method of making paella in a paella pan and the way we make it. Because we are using PPI ingredients that have been previously cooked we can add them later in the process. In the Spanish method you cook all the ingredients and then add the rice and liquid. What I did was I sautéed the onion and garlic, then I added 1 ½ cups of the short grain rice and sautéed it with the onion and garlic. Then I added the sausage and a handful of frozen shrimp and then 3 cups of chicken stock and ½ cup of white wine, which covered the other ingredients. I set the timer for 23 minutes and covered the casserole and let the rice cook in the liquid for about fifteen minutes. I then added the diced chicken and salmon and put in about ½ cup more water because the rice seemed to be absorbing liquid rapidly and because I did not want the rice to burn and because I like my paella gooey, not baked firm and dry.
After another fifteen minutes we tasted the rice and seemed cooked, so we filled pasta bowls with paella. I drank 2015 Benton Lane rose’ that is a 100% Pinot Noir Rose from the Southern Willamette Valley.
Then I switched for my second bowl of paella to a glass of 2015 Ferme’ Julien Rose from Southern France (Trader Joe’s $5.99).
I loved the paella, so full of delicious different flavors.
The first time I ate official Spanish Paella was at the Victoria Hotel in Granada, Spain in 1970, which at that time was one of the Grand Hotels in the center of Granada. Instead of going through the front door, the guidebook I had suggested going around the corner to the back of the hotel where a more humble café was located that served more common fare, but from the same kitchen. Billy and I ordered paella, which contained ham, chicken, and fresh green peas, very much like the paella I made tonight, except the Victoria Hotel version was drier and more cake like, which seems to be favored by the Spanish.
Tonight’s effort was completely successful. As Barry explained last week when I watched him make risotto, the kernel of short grain white rice, when cooked in the manner used for paella and risotto in an open uncovered pan, cooks the outer layer that contains a lot of gluten into a sticky paste like consistency that binds the kernels together, while the inner portion of the kernel that has sweetness is softened but retains some of its firmness. That is how paella develops its firm cake like consistency.
We watched Granthouse and Prime Suspect Tennison on PBS, which prompted me to eat a piece of chocolate with a glass of Calvados, either due to the great theatre or the great meal.
Bon Appetit .
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