October 23, 2020 Lunch – Sashimi with Sushi rice. Dinner – Cedar Board Grilled Teriyaki Salmon with Rice and Catalan Spinach
Today’s big adventure was going to shop at Sprouts and the three dishes created from that trip.
I left home shortly after 8:00 and shopped for an hour at the new Coors store. I first found an assistant to help me choose an immune system vitamin, then I fetched a gallon of milk (one of the two items we needed to replenish), then I bought green onions, cilantro, and discovered a beautiful large bunch of organic dill. This changed the trajectory of my shopping. When I arrived at the meat counter I bought two matched fresh Atlantic salmon fillets weighing approximately 5 lb. and cut to a length of 13 inches each for Gravad Lax for $8.99/lb. and two Aji tuna steaks weighing 2 lb. on sale for $7.99/lb. I was thrilled because there was enough fresh salmon for lunch, dinner, and Gravad Lax plus enough tuna for lunch and two dinners.
I then saw that chocolate covered almonds were on sale so I bought a 12 oz. bag of dark and milk, three shallots, a red bell pepper, and then the other item I needed, honey almond granola, plus a lb. of rolled oats for oatmeal.
I drove home happy.
After I put up the groceries and took two sea scallops out of the freezer to thaw and worked until 11:00 I went to the kitchen and prepared the Gravad Lax.
I mixed 1 cup of salt, 3/4 cup of sugar and ground a heaping tsp. of black pepper corns. Then I rinsed and dried each filet and cut the front of the filets off to square up the front end of each filet. I then measured nine inches with my Pyrex 9 x 9 inch baking dish and cut each filet to fit the dish. This left two approximately 4 inch long filets that I put into a gallon freezer bag with a piece of tuna and put the bag
into the fridge. I then filled the bottom of the Pyrex dish with fresh dill weed . Then I coated the skin side
of one of the 9 inch filets with the dry mixture and lay it on the dill weed skin side down. Then I covered the inside side with dill weed and spooned dry mix onto it. Then I spooned dry mix onto the inside of the other 9 inch filet and lay the filet inside side down on the first filet. I then spooned the rest of the dry mix onto the top skin side of the second filet and covered it loosely with more dill weed sprigs. I then covered the dish with Saran and covered a brick with Saran and lay the brick on the top of the fish and put the dish into the fridge.
I then turned my attention to lunch. I sliced off a piece of tuna for lunch and then wrapped the
two remaining tuna steaks in Saran and put them into the freezer for future dinners.
I sliced the remaining small piece of tuna, the two front ends of the salmon filets and the two sea scallops and two radishes and placed them on a plate.
I then fetched soy sauce and wasabi sauce and mixed those two ingredients in a dipping bowl. I then mixed 1 T. rice vinegar with 1 tsp.of sugar the make a sushi flavoring and mixed it into about 1 cup of PPI cooked rice, which I heated in the microwave to heat
Finally, I fetched pickled ginger and a green onion and fetched chop sticks and made a cup of green tea and ate a mega lunch of Sashim
There must have been a lb. in all of salmon, tuna, and scallops.
After lunch I watched the Market close slightly up but mixed. The Dow was down 28, the Nasdaq was up 42, and Apple closed down $.71. When Apple is down my portfolio is usually down, but today it produced a small.3% gain, so I was happy.
At 3:30 I made teriyaki sauce by combining and heating to just a bit less than a boil, 1/3 cup each of Aji Mirin, soy sauce, and sake plus 1 T. of sugar. I let the teriyaki sauce cool and then poured the teriyaki sauce into the gallon freezer bag with the three pieces of fish and put it in the fridge to marinate.
I had invited Willy for dinner and we settled on his favorite dinner of teriyaki salmon and Catalan Spinach. Catalan Spinach is a Jose Andres Recipe. Here it is.
I de-stemmed a colander full of spinach leaves and Suzette soaked a Cedar board in water to impregnate it with water.
Then at 6:30 I made a cup of rice by bringing 2 cups of water plus a tsp.of dehydrated dashi and a tsp. of dried seaweed to a boil, then added 1 cup of rice, and covered the pot and reduced the heat to its lowest setting and let the rice simmer for 30 minutes.
Suzette placed the teriyaki marinated salmon and tuna
Then returned to prepping the Catalan Spinach. I minced three oz. of onion and diced an apple. Suzette fetched the bag of shelled pinon nuts and heated three T. of butter and 1 T. of olive oil in a large skillet and I added the onion, apple, and a handful of pinon nuts and sautéed them until the onion and apple softened and the pinon turned a golden color.
We had decided to eat outside, so Suzette wanted a fire in the fire pot and warm sake, so she set a fire in the pottery brazier by the gazebo in the garden and then fetched a bottle of sake and we fetched a pitcher that held ½ of the bottle and heated the pitcher of sake in a bain Marie by placing the pitcher in a sauce pan half full of water.
Willy arrived about this time and Suzette brought in the grilled salmon. Here is a photo.
I put the spinach into the large skillet and covered the skillet with the wok cover. I flipped the spinach a couple of times to bring the spinach into contact with the heat. Soon the spinach had wilted and we were ready to eat.
Suzette spooned rice onto plates and cut the salmon into portions and placed them onto the rice and I added the spinach and fetched tea cups for the sake.
We carried our plates and the cups of sake and pitcher of sake to the table under the gazebo and Suzette lit the fire.
This was a great meal that we have made many times and always love eating. The teriyaki flavor mixed with the smoky flavor from its grilling and the tenderness of the fish that holds those flavors because the board protects the fish from direct contact with the heat and fire in the
Grill.
I like the Catalan Spinach because it combines the nutty crunch and fat of the pinon nuts with the sweetness and fruitiness of the apples and rehydrated raisins with the mineral bitterness of the spinach.
We enjoyed the cool calm weather that made the warmth of fire feel comforting. After dinner we sat and talked while we watched the fire and sipped the last of the sake.
After another 45 minutes when the fire died down we poured water on the fire and cleared the table and carried everything back to the kitchen.
We then said goodnight to Willy and after watching a bit of news Suzette went to bed and I stayed up and watched “The Way I See
It” that showed the humanity , intellect, and empathy of Obama.
At midnight I went to bed after a great day of food shopping and preparation and cooking.
Bon Appetit
