July 13, 2014 Dungeness Crab and Gazpacho   Dinner - grilled red curry marinated chicken with rice and asparagus

Breakfast was the better meal today.   Yesterday Suzette bought a 1 1/2 lb. Dungeness crab at Costco ($7.99/lb.).  Last Saturday at Las Golandrinas at the Vine and Wine Society wine festival we bought two bottles of Zia champagne, one blanc de blanc brut and the other rosé for $11.00 each.  The blanc de blanc was 100% Chardonnay grapes and the rosé was 100% Pinot Noir grapes.  Today I fetched the bottle of blanc de blanc Zia champagne, which is Gruet’s new entry level champagne.

We put the crab in the fridge over night to thaw and I cleaned it while Suzette fetched the gazpacho from the garage and filled small bowls with the last of the PPI gazpacho and garnished the bowls with the last of the PPI croutons.

I made my new favorite mayonnaise dressing for seafood: ¾ cup of prepared mayonnaise, a squeeze of lemon juice, 1 Tbsp. of dry white vermouth, 1 Tbsp. of white wine vinegar, the chopped leaves from 1 sprig of tarragon, a dash of salt and ½ shallot diced.

Suzette reconstituted the PPI cocktail sauce with lemon juice and a Tbsp. or 2 of horseradish.

Suzette put the champagne into an ice bucket filled with ice cubes so we could keep it chilled outdoors. We grabbed the PPI coleslaw and we carried everything out to the table under the gazebo in the garden.

It was a beautiful morning and with four water lilies were in bloom.  Here are some pictures of the pond and the lilies.

the four new water lillies

The crab was very fresh.  It had a succulent flavor of the ocean and the flesh came away from the shell without any effort.     

The gazpacho was still delicious and so was the champagne.  I guess you could say we were celebrating Bastille Day today instead of tomorrow. 

We went to Pro’s after breakfast at around 11:00 and I bought a few items including a pineapple ($.79/lb.) and some vine ripe tomatoes on their stems ($1.29/lb.)

Dinner was a series of misadventures. I wanted to use the PPI coconut and curry marinade that Melissa had made for the apricot and chicken skewers when she was here but the marinade had gone bad.  Then I tried to make a new marinade, but we did not have any coconut milk, so I used some red curry paste in coconut milk.  It turned out to be too hot, even when Suzette added a cup of apricot puree.  But I chopped up some oriental basil and put it into a gallon freezer bag with the marinade and six chicken thighs and we marinated the chicken for several hours.

We made rice with a bit of the marinade and we steamed asparagus.

Suzette grilled the chicken but it got too hot and scorched and blackened from the direct heat on the marinade. 

I made a mango salsa with one mango, about 1 ounce of pasilla chili, about 1 ½ ounce of onion and a dash of salt, one clove of garlic squeezed into the salsa, the leaves from 3 sprigs of oriental basil and the juice of one lime.  The salsa turned out to be the best part of the meal.

I peeled the pineapple and we grilled 2 slices of pineapple with the chicken.

We also made a caprese salad with slices of tomato, mozzarella and basil leaves from our French basil and drizzled the caprese salad with a simple dressing made with balsamic and olive oil and dash of salt and pepper. 

We drank beers and chopped our way through the meal.  It is amazing how one unappetizing dish can ruin an entire meal.   But one wonderful meal a day is probably enough to make one’s day.  Otherwise we could get very spoiled.

We have been eating figs poached in the Franciscan Limited Release Oakville Port we bought at the winery in 2006 for dessert almost every night and tonight was no exception.

It was a lovely finish to the dinner.

After dinner we laid the PPI asparagus into the plate with the balsamic dressing to marinate overnight.

Bon Appétit