Today I recovered from my food poisoning by being very careful in my eating and resting.
I ate my usual bowl of granola, tropical fruit salad and yogurt for breakfast.
Suzette was simmering a chicken stock with a mirepoix so I took spoonfuls of the light flavorful broth through the morning.
I prepared the Gravad Lax at 9:30. I increased the recipe by ½ with 1 cup of salt and ¾ cup of sugar plus 1 tsp. of freshly ground black pepper.
I the peel of an orange and then filled the bottom of a 9x9 inch Pyrex dish with dill weed. Then I cut a piece of salmon to fit in the dish and spooned the dry ingredients over the outside and lay that side down on the dill. Then I spooned dry ingredients on the instead and lay dill on it. Then I cut the other part of the fillet to fit the pan and spooned the dry ingredients on the inside and lay that inside down on the dill lying on the top of the inside of the first piece that was facing up.
I spooned the rest of the dry ingredients on top of the exposed outside of the second piece and lay most of the rest of the dill on top of it. I covered the pan with Saran and then weighed the top down with a brick wrapped in foil. Here is a picture.
I put the pan into the fridge to cure.
Chicken Salad
I then turned my attention to lunch. We both were keen on Chicken Salad. I chopped the rest of the dill weed and it it in a large mixing bowl. Then I finely minced and added about 3 oz. of red onion, ½ Granny Smith Apple, two stalks of celery, 2/3 cup of mayonnaise, and 1 roasted chicken breast.
I put four eggs into the simmering chicken stock to hard boil. After about fifteen minutes I removed them and Suzette took over the final prep. She peeled and added two eggs cut into small cubes to the
salad and added 2 T. of sour cream to hide the prepared flavor of the mayo.
Willy came over to help a Suzette Roto-till the raised bed. While they were doing that at around 11:30 I toasted two slices of Orowheat Multigrain sandwich bread Suzette had bought for Willy at Costco and made a chicken salad sandwich that I ate with a glass of French Belles Vignes Sauvignon Blanc ($5.99 at Trader Joe’s).
I also had simmered the four artichokes I had bought at Trader Joe’s on the 15th. I cooked them about 45 minutes so they would still be firm enough to not collapse when Suzette grilled them with the steak.
Willy and Suzette also ate some chicken salad when they finished with the yard work. Then Willy went on a hike on top of Sandia Peak to cool off.
Suzette and I lay down for an afternoon nap after I took a rib steak out of the freezer to thaw.
When I awakened I took a shower and dressed. When I arrived in the kitchen Suzette had finished baking turnip and rosemary bread. It was delicious.
I discussed dinner and it appeared that Suzette had roasted cubes of sweet potato and turnips in the oven after she finished baking the turnip bread.
So dinner became simple; grilled steak and artichoke with roasted sweet potato and turnip cubes. The turnips were grown in the garden at Suzette’s Center for Ageless Living. Also, Suzette wanted to garnish the steak with sautéed onions flavored with lavender.
We decided to go with a lighter red and a Suzette agreed to chilling a bottle of 2017 Murphy Goode Pinot Noir.
We started cooking at around 7:00. All I had to do was make the artichoke dipping sauce and the sautéed onions. I chopped about 1 tsp. of fresh dill and added about 1/3 cup of mayo, the juice of 1/3 lemon, and 1 ½ T. of sour cream.
I then sliced 1/3 onion and sautéed the onion slices in 2 T. of butter at low heat to turn the onion slices translucent and soft. When Suzette brought the grilled steak in it was a perfectly grilled rare. I sliced it and Suzette added a tsp. of lavender to the onions and removed the roasted sweet potato and turnips from the oven. I sliced the steak and Suzette plated our plates while I opened and poured glasses of the chilled Pinot.
The boiled Artichokes
The grilled Artichokes and dipping sauce
We enjoyed dinner. Suzette raved about how delicious the steak was and how much better it was than the last steak we grilled. I think the difference was how Suzette Grilled the steak to rare rather than
overcooking the last steak to medium medium rare. Both steaks came out of the same three pack, but this steak was frozen for two weeks.
I ate a cookie with a cup of tea later. We watched the last episode of the English Game that chronicled the first time a professional team won the FA cup open England in 1885.
Suzette went to bed at 10:00 while I stayed up to blog.
Bon Appetit
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