June 3, 2018 Brunch – Sautéed Pork Rib , Onion, Tomato, and Pasilla chili on tortillas with poached eggs, Late Lunch – Salad. Dinner – Grilled Ribeye Steak and Asparagus with sautéed mushrooms and Béarnaise sauce

June 3, 2018 Brunch – Sautéed Pork Rib , Onion, Tomato, and Pasilla chili on tortillas with poached eggs,  Late Lunch – Salad. Dinner – Grilled Ribeye Steak and Asparagus with sautéed mushrooms and Béarnaise sauce

My idea for brunch was to make a dish like Machaca with the PPI ribs instead of beef jerky or roast beef.  I sliced and diced ¼ Vidalia onion. A Roma tomato, 2 oz. of Padilla chili, and about 3 oz. of ribs.  Suzette wanted to try to poach the eggs, so while the ingredients were sautéing she heated the eggs in a Pyrex loaf pan filled with water in the microwave until they were poached.  Suzette then heated four small corn tortillas in the microwave and laid two each on a plate, piled the sautéed ingredients equally on the two plates and then put the poached eggs on top of the piles of ingredients for a sort of deconstructed Machaca or with some liberty, Huevos Rancheros co Costillos.

At 11:00 we left for Corrales but since the liquor laws prevented Wineries from opening until noon, we stopped at the new Sprouts store on Coors just south of Montano and bought a rutabaga, two golden beets, two parsnips, a chunk of cheddar cheese for $1.99/lb., and a cluster of tomatoes.

It had rained in the morning and the skies threatened to open again with rain or worse at any minute so we decided against attending the Corrales garden tour.

We first went to Corrales Winery a few minutes before noon, which is owned by Barbara Arbuckle and her husband.  It is a beautifully manicured property with a lovely field and gardens suitable for events plus several acres of grapes at the northern edge of Corrales and a tasting room with vast windows oriented toward the Sandias with a truly breathtaking view of garden, fields and mountains.  We tasted all five wines they were offering and Suzette bought a case of 2017 Riesling less one bottle, which I talked her into filling with a bottle of their excellent Muscat Cannelli.

We next drove to Pasando Tiempo, which is the opposite of Corrales Winery.  The tasting room Pasando Tiempo is added onto the back of Chris and Martha Carpenter’s house, which is a decidedly more family affair with Martha pouring and Chris, the winemaker, talking about the wines.  Chris makes wine in a more French Style, which is to our liking.  Suzette bought wine for last year’s event from Pasando Tiempo.

This year besides their excellent Riesling with its fruit forward freshness and nicely balanced tannins, Chris made a Rose from Zinfandel grapes that was lovely, light and fruity with a mild but noticeable
spicy finish and a truly a wonderful Chardonnay that we judged would compete favorably with any
made in New Mexico.




Chris said he followed the French Burgundy tradition of leaving the juice on the refined lies for several months to enrich the Chardonnay flavor of the wine, then malolactically fermented the wine and aged it with oak staves to add a rich oaky flavor.  The Chardonnay was a real success, a truly wonderful Chardonnay.

We don’t usually drink Chardonnay, so I was surprised when Suzette bought eight bottles each of the Riesling, the rose, and the Chardonnay.

So in less than two hours today Suzette had finished her purchases of wine and beer for the party on June 23, when considering the case of 2017 Tempranillo she bought at a Casa Avril a month ago and the three beers she bought at Kilt Check on Friday night.

What a joy to live in close proximity to vineyards that produce reliably consistent drinkable wines.  The wine industry is maturing in
New Mexico, and particularly in Corrales.

The lady pouring at Corrales Winery told us that the property was part of a vineyard before Prohibition, but because of Prohibition, part of the land was planted in apple trees, which we could see still existed on the next door property.

So the history of wine production goes back a long way in New Mexico and Corrales.

We drove home with our three cases of wine at 1:30 but stopped at the Estate sale at the Draper house three doors down the street.  Nancy was not there.  We looked through the house and Suzette purchased piles of beautiful linen napkins and table clothes and a tall lamp that we can use in the guest room for a total of little over $100.00.

When we returned home we made a salad for a late lunch at 2:00.  We picked a basket of lettuce in the garden and ran into the house as a second rain storm started to pelt us. I Cleaned and spun the lettuce and put it in the large salad bowl with two of the vine ripened tomatoes diced that we had bought at Sprouts, the last of the pickled beet chunks, two green onions sliced, a hard boiled egg, 1/3 of a cucumber, peeled and sliced and a handful of pitted kalamata olives.  Suzette dressed the salad with the buttermilk dressing she made for the string bean salad last week.  Besides a delicious salad, we were able to empty a large part of the refrigerator. I drank water and I poured a Suzette a glass of 2016 Hungarian Gruner Vertliner (Trader Joe’s $6.99).

I then took a nap until 4:30 while Suzette went though the linens and set the table in the TV room with a lovely linen round table cloth and matching napkins. I wonder when people fill in those on line questionnaires trying to find their perfect match if there is a question such as, “Would you be attracted to a person who shares your love of fine linen?”

We also measured the damask tablecloth I selected and it fit our dining room table.  I can hardly wait to invite Nancy and Cliff over for a meal served on some of her Mom’s linens.

At 6:00 we began prepping dinner.  The menu was initially simple: grilled steak and roasted vegetables.  We added sautéed mushrooms, Béarnaise sauce, and grille asparagus to the menu, as dinner prep progressed.

I cubed the rutabaga, beets, parsnips, and two carrots and put the cubes into a Pyrex baking dish with the white turnips I cubed yesterday.  Suzette took over and salted and peppered the vegetables and drizzled and tossed them with olive oil and roasted them covered with aluminum foil in the oven for a hour or until they softened.

Suzette wanted a fresh Béarnaise sauce, so I went to the garden and picked a handful each of tarragon and thyme.  Suzette followed me and picked a basket of the lovely lavender that is blooming in the garden and made an arrangement in the flower vase shaped like a basket from her parent’s wedding, which she placed on our newly acquired linen tablecloth.  Here is a picture.

Béarnaise Sauce

After Sixty Minutes at 7:00 we began prepping the rest of dinner.

We decided on wine. My choice was a 2015 Grossete from Carianne in the northern Cotes Du Rhone (Costco $9.99).  I like this wine because it combines Mourvèdre, Grenache and Syrah in a slightly jammy, fruity blend.  The trick with this wine is it must be allowed to open up for at least thirty minutes, so I uncorked the bottle at 7:00.

I first made the Béarnaise sauce.  I use Julia Child’s recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  It is easy if you follow certain rules.  I use two enameled pots. One in which I boil 1 T. each of fresh tarragon leaves and minced shallot with ¼ cup each of white wine and white wine vinegar, plus 1/8 tsp. of white pepper and a dash of salt until the volume of liquid reduces by 2/3 to 3/4s.  In the other pot I whip three egg yolks until they thicken a bit and turn more yellow.  I then strain the liquid from the first pot into the second pot after it has cooled a bit.  I then cut 1/2 lb. of butter (two ¼ lb. sticks) into seven or eight slices and begin adding the butter to the egg mixture over very low heat.  Ideally, and tonight was such a night, as the butter melts, the sauce will thicken into a creamy consistency.  Tonight I used a larger pot with a broad bottom and was able to add six or seven pats of cold butter at
a time so in just a few minutes the butter had gone into solution and the sauce had thickened until it

coated a spoon and I did not have to stir the sauce to thicken it.  I then turned of the heat and stirred the sauce for several minutes to allow it to gradually cool and drive off more liquid.

I then poured the sauce into a pitcher in which there was about 1 T. of old Béarnaise sauce that I had taken out of the fridge that was still cold and placed the pitcher of sauce in the fridge to cool.  The two elements of making Bearnaise are the reduction of liquid and the cooling.  The reduction concentrates the vinegar, which holds the egg and butter in suspension and the cooling allows the sauce to avoid curdling.  It may take a few times to get the process right.  Even now it is not foolproof and I sometimes have trouble.

Suzette asked me if I wanted anything else besides the roasted vegetables and steak and I answered, “I would like a green vegetable.” Suzette suggested grilling asparagus with the steak.

The division of labor varies from meal to meal, but since I am the saucier and Suzette is the Grillette, she de-stemmed the asparagus and tossed the stalks with salt, pepper, and olive oil and then grilled them with the steaks, except tonight I asked Suzette to slice the mushrooms while I was prepping the sauce.

Sautéed Mushrooms

Suzette chopped ½ lb. of large white mushrooms roughly so they had the appearance of portobello or even morels.  I liked the roughness, but I broke the pieces into smaller bite sized pieces.  I minced 1 medium shallot and three small cloves of garlic and sautéed them in a medium non-stick skillet with two T. of melted butter and 1 T. of olive oil. I then added the mushrooms to the skillet when Suzette was grilling the steak and asparagus at about 7:25.  After I tossed the mushrooms to coat them with oil. I started de-stemming the fresh thyme and adding it to the skillet.  I then reduced the heat and added about ¼ cup of Amontillado sherry to the skillet and simmered the mushrooms for about five minutes when Suzette brought the steaks in.

Willy arrived at 7:45 just as the finishing touches on the meal were being made.

She had previously removed the asparagus from the grill and wrapped them in aluminum foil to keep them warm.

We put a piece of aluminum foil over the steaks for a minute to let them finish cooking and then I sliced the two steak.  Suzette removed the vegetables from the oven and plated the asparagus on each of three plates and poured the wine into glasses at the garden table.

Willy filled us each a glass of water. We then each served ourselves roasted root vegetables, slices of steak, and mushrooms and carried our plates to the garden with the pitcher of béarnaise sauce I fetched from the fridge.

Everything was wonderful.  The steak was particularly good and I really liked the roasted vegetables without any onions or garlic or potatoes.

We enjoyed the cool weather with the higher humidity left in the air from the day’s two rains.

We sat in the garden and talked until about 9:30 when Willy went home and we went to bed.

What a lovely day of wine drinking and cooking.

Bon Appetit