March 27, 2018.Lunch – Miso Noodle Soup. Dinner Poached Salmon with Cream garlic dill sauce and Spinach and Corn custard

March 27, 2018.Lunch – Miso Noodle Soup.  Dinner Poached Salmon with Cream garlic dill sauce and Spinach and Corn custard

I ate the usual tropical fruit salad with yogurt and granola for breakfast.  Aaron came to work on an agreement at 10:30.  At noon we stopped for lunch.  I freshen up the PPI soup from yesterday by adding four more shrimp, two more fish balls, two mussels, another heaping T. of red miso, about 1/3 cup of lovage leaves, two more stalks of asparagus thinly sliced, a tsp of dehydrated dashi, about 3 oz. of tofu cubed, and another three mushrooms thinly sliced.  The soup was even more delicious than the one yesterday.

After lunch I went to Sprouts and bought a 3.3 lb. salmon filet for $6.99/., plus a red bell pepper, white grapes for $.98/lb., and about ½ lb. of green beans.

I had invited Mike to join us for dinner at 6:30.  At 5:00 I called Suzette, who was still at work, so I started making the corn custard.  Here is the recipe:

I cut the kernels from three ears of corn, which produced almost three cups of corn instead of two, so I increased the recipe a bit.  Mainly I added five medium eggs instead of two eggs and two egg yolks.

Suzette came home before the corn custard was thoroughly cooked, so she turned up the heat and cooked the soufflé dish full of custard for an hour, until the top of the custard turned a golden brown and became firm in the Center.

We decided to poach the salmon and make a garlic dill cream sauce and add spinach to the dish for and easy one dish entrée and vegetable.

Suzette made a poaching medium of PPI Albariño wine, water, butter and four chopped cloves of garlic in the large sauté pan.

She then lay four ½ Lb. salmon fillets in the sauté pan and covered it with aluminum foil to seal in the steam and poached the salmon filets for about twenty minutes.  In a separate sauce pan she melted Two T. of butter and four chopped cloves of butter and ¼ cup of fresh chopped dill.  Then I added two T. of flour and we sautéed the flour for a couple of minutes.  Suzette removed the salmon filets from the sauté pan and I poured the approximately 1 ½ cups of poaching medium into the sauce pan.  The sauce thickened immediate.. I then added about 1/3 cup half and half and the sauce loosened a bit.

Mike and I had de-stemmed a basket of spinach, we added the spinach to the sauté pan and put the salmon filets back into the sauté pan and covered it with the aluminum foil again to cook the spinach and re-heat the salmon on low heat.

The corn custard finally browned and firmed.  It had a creamy and slightly sweet flavor from the fresh corn.

The poached salmon was excellent in its garlic dill cream sauce with warm fresh leaves of spinach.  It was more like a warm spinach salad with exquisite Poached salmon in a cream sauce dressing.  In our effort to Simplify the meal by combining the vegetable with the entree, we actually created a new type of dish.

See how the fish and spinach combined 

I initially poured glasses of  2014 Archery Summit rose (100% Pinot from Oregon’s Willamette valley), but after the first glass of rose Mike wanted to switch to the Faiveley Pinot, so we opened one of the bottles.  It was deliciously smooth.

Mike had brought two bottles of 2015 Joseph Faiveley red Burgundy Pinot Noir that he had bought at Jubilation. The importer, Wildman is an excellent importer.  Here is its description of the wine.

Domaine Faiveley combines the principles of modern winemaking methods with the time honored traditions that have been practiced for centuries within their 19th century cellars. Each terroir and each vintage, benefits from special attention which makes the cuvées unique. Each bottle therefore becomes the faithful reflection of its terroir.

Terroir: Joseph Faiveley Bourgogne Rouge is sourced from vineyards spread throughout the terroirs of the Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune and the Côte Chalonnaise.

Vinification: The Bourgogne Rouge is vinified in the cellars of Domaine Faiveley for 12 to 14 months in the same manner as their broad selection of reds from the Côte de Nuits.

Here is some information about Bourgogne Faiveley:

Founded in 1825, Bourgognes Faiveley has been handed down from father to son for over 175 years. As the sixth generation to take the reins, François Faiveley manages, with equal amounts passion and competence, the largest family domaine in Burgundy. Methodically reconstructing vineyards fractured by French inheritance laws, Bourgognes Faiveley today owns more appellations in their entirety (monopoles) than any other domaine in Burgundy.
"Faiveley’s wines are... supremely clean and elegant: definitive examples of Pinot Noir... above all they have richness and breed, the thumbprint of a master winemaker."
-Clive Coates M.W.
Côte d’Or, A Celebration of the Great Wines of Burgundy

Cotes de Nuits is one of my favorite areas in Burgundy.

Mike indicated that he paid $32.00 per bottle, which sounds like a fair price for this bottle. Suckling rated this bottle a 91.

We opened the second bottle when Willy came and I opened a new package of Dubliner Cheddar cheese and sliced 1/8 wide slices for each of us.  Mike said the cheese went well with the pinot.  Both seemed to me to have a smooth and creamy flavor.  

Mike also brought a bottle of Maison Surrenne cognac, which is one of my favorites.

Here is some information on Maison Surrenne:

Consisting of four distilleries and eight cellars, Maison Surrenne Cognac is the largest existing family run cognac house remaining in the region. The cognacs produced are either single district, specific vintage, single cask or from a single vineyard, allowing them to produce an extensive range of eaux-de-vie to suit every pocket. The main distillery and cellars can be found in Jarnac, on the banks of the Charente River. Within their extensive storage are cognacs that reach back through history, and these are used to create an authentic brand that concentrates on providing a great range of quality cognacs at prices that are affordable to everyone.

Mike brought the VSOP, which costs around $50.00 these days  I poured a splash into four sniffers and defrosted small three Swedish marzipan and chocolate desserts and made 3 cups of Earl Grey tea for us.  Suzette only drank the cognac.

We talked a bit and enjoyed what had turned into a rather nice French three course meal.

Bon Appetit