July 10, 2014 Dinner Grilled Steak and Mexican Onions with Sautéed Squash, corn, onions, and garlic and Gazpacho

July 10, 2014 Dinner Grilled Steak and Mexican Onions with Sautéed Squash, corn, onions, and garlic and Gazpacho

I thawed out a bone-in rib steak at lunch (shrimp salad with the PPI Mayonnaise Mignonette sauce made into a dressing with extra olive oil and a bit of cocktail sauce with lettuce from the garden to which I added sliced carrots and a sliced tomato).

At 6:30 p.m. Suzette came home and we discussed what to fix with the steak.  Suzette said she wanted to sauté the squash and then she looked for the PPI steamed corn.  I sliced the last of the three patty pan squashes into thin slices and two cloves of garlic and ½ of an onion.  I asked Suzette to grill six of the large scallions I had bought at Pro’s Market ($.33/4 onion bunch), so she fetched those.

Suzette went to the garden to get a handful of basil leaves and I de-stemmed the leaves and chopped them and added them with the kernels Suzette had cut off the corn to the squash mixture and sautéed them in a large skillet with olive oil.  After she went to grill the steak I covered the skillet with a wok cover like she did last night to steam the squash mixture to create the browned, yet soft texture I have become fond of.  Suzette fetched the gazpacho from the garage and ladled out small bowls of it and added croutons and I diced some avocado to garnish the gazpacho and fetched our last bottle of Cutler Creek Cabernet Sauvignon ($3.33 at Sprouts or Jubilation five or six years ago).  The wine had that delicious aged flavor, although it lacked the smooth elegant finish of a really good cab.  In other words, it had a bit of an edge to it that often occurs with wines made with blended grapes.  The edge is due to the lack of uniformity of the grapes or said another way their different terrior and growing conditions, I suspect.  

When the steak was grilled to medium rare, I sliced it and Suzette took the onions off the grill and plated up our plates and I poured the wine and we ate on the back patio.  It had just stopped raining and the evening was cool and damp and the air was thick with moisture, which was pleasant.  I added a bit of catsup to my dish to dip the steak into but it was not necessary and added an additional flavor to the dish that diminished the effect of the fresh ingredients.       

The gazpacho was still delicious and the addition of croutons and the creamy avocado cubes gave it added texture and flavor.  Also, the fresh basil gave the squash dish a fragrance and lightened the flavors of teh sauteed squash.

After dinner Suzette decided to make a fig compote with the figs we had been given on Sunday by Caitlin, the Turner's neighbor.  I went to the basement and the only bottle of sweet wine I could find was a 2002 Franciscan Oakville Estate Limited Release Port.  After the figs were halved and Suzette placed them into the large Le Creuset casserole and put that on the stove, I poured a bit of the port into a glass for Suzette and me to taste.  I was delicious, so I poured the 375 cl. bottle of port into the figs because it did not cover them.  Suzette was aghast. She said, "We only needed a small amount of port. That is probably a $30.00 bottle of port."  I must admit that it tasted really good, but it had a slightly tawny caramelized flavor that I did not like very much but it was very fruity.  I guess Suzette liked it better than I did.  I offered to dip a bit out of the figs, but she demurred my invitation.

I went on line later and found out that Suzette was correct.  The 2002 Franciscan Oakville Estate Limited Release Port was a $30.00 bottle and that we bought it at the winery, because there is such limited production of it, only 383 cases, that is only sold at the winery. OOPS! but a wonderful OOPS.

We now have a very good reason to really enjoy the fig compote.

Here is the information from an internet site on the port:

Franciscan Oakville Estate Port, Napa Valley, USA

• 
  Average Price of 750ml bottle, ex-tax in USD: $60

Price History for 2007 Franciscan Oakville Estate Port, Napa Valley, USA

Grape Variety

Red Port is blended together using a number of grape varieties. The precise identity of these, and the proportion each represents in the final blend, may not be known even to the winemaker. For some growers in the Douro region of Portugal, the ambiguity over what is in their fortified wines is not an attempt to protect some proprietary secret, but rather a matter of reality: they simply don’t know for sure what they have growing in their vineyards.
Because Portugal's wine industry has adopted regulation and legally enforced controls in the past few decades, tradition still has a strong influence on how wines are made and vineyards are managed. Tradition, here, means co-planted varieties and field blends (wines made from whatever combination of varieties happens to occur in the source vineyard). So, while the ...more

Napa Valley, an hour's drive north of San Francisco, California, is the most famous and prestigious wine region anywhere in the New World. Although a number of grape varieties are grown in the valley's vineyards, the area is particularly known for its Cabernet Sauvignon. The classic 'Napa Cab', the archetypal Napa Valley wine, is a rich, oak-aged red with aromas of blackcurrant, boysenberry, liquorice, vanilla and smoky, bittersweet chocolate.
Situated immediately north of San Pablo Bay, the valley runs roughly SE - NW for approximately 35 miles (57km) between the Vacas and Mayacamas mountain ranges (to the east and west respectively). The scenic 40-minute drive between the Napa and Calistoga townships passes through some of the most valuable viticultural real estate on Earth.
...more

Napa County is the best-known county (in wine terms, at least) in the larger North Coast AVA of California, largely because it includes the world-famous Napa Valley AVA, which covers most of the region. Napa County lies between Yolo County to the east and Sonoma County to the west. 

The port bottle is on the right

 Suzette cooked the figs at a medium high heat to boil a bit of the liquid off of the figs.  I went to bed early but Suzette stayed up and finished cooking the figs and put the covered casserole into the fridge to chill.
   

Bon Appétit