August 16, 2014 Deborah Madison Luncheon, Dinner Crab Claws, Corn on the cob and Faro Cucumber Salad

August 16, 2014 Deborah Madison Luncheon,   Dinner  Crab Claws, Corn on the cob and Faro Cucumber Salad

 We had invited Penny Rembe to join us for the Deborah Madison luncheon and she arrived at around 10:30.  After a quick look at my art and shell collection, we drove to the Center for Ageless living in Los Lunas.

When we arrived the Education Building was filling up with the 40 people who had signed up for the lunch.

We were shown to a table marked “Reserved” and soon Deborah Madison arrived and joined us.  Then Suzette joined and introduced Deborah to the group and discussed the Center for a minute or two.  After Deborah spoke for a few minutes about her life in food and her authorship of 14 books on food and cooking the first course was served.

It was a glass salad bowl filled with a large scoop of Faro Salad with chopped cucumbers and flavored with lovage.  Deborah spoke about the dish in that easy dismissive Buddhist way.  The faro is a groats made from Spelt and is good for those who can not eat gluten.  The lovage is a wonderful herb that can be used in salads like the faro salad.  At the table I asked about purslane and Deborah mentioned golden purslane, which grows taller and is more of a culinary type of purslane that she uses in salads.

Penny and Deborah were old friends so the conversation was lively and interesting.  Deborah and Penny are both long time locally grown New Mexico produce growers and advocates and Deborah uses Penny’s locally produced lavender cosmetics produced at Los Poblanos (Penny’s family owns, rehabilitated and developed Los Poblanos into what it is today, which is one of the premier farming and hospitality centers in Albuquerque).  On the drive down Penny had told me they had just harvested 1200 pounds of chili, which they use in their products and in the restaurant, and bottled 200 pounds of pickles from their cucumbers.  I felt like I was sitting with a triad of local food leaders.

Anne and Derren cooked a great luncheon selected from Deborah’s new Cookbook, The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, a signed copy of which was being given to each attendee at the luncheon.  After the cool Faro Salad we were served an entrée of baked cannelloni with mozzarella garnished with cubes of tomato sautéed in balsamic vinegar with a scoop of fresh zucchini drizzled with lemon with a little basil.  Penny and Deborah drank glasses of Campalou Vouvray.  Suzette and I drank the Kermit Lynch Beaujolais. 

Soon the dessert arrived of local pears from Wagner’s Farms and fresh peaches from the Center’s tree in a honey Riesling wine sauce and garnished with a bit of whipped cream.  Everything was fresh and delicious and although eh portions were not large my hunger was amazingly satisfied, even though I had not eaten any breakfast.

I took Penny on a tour of the Center and we drove back to Albuquerque and I showed her the garden at the house.

After Penny left, I drove to Costco to get gas and shop.  One of the neighbors at last night’s Neighborhood Cocktail party said they had seen French Brie at Costco, so I wanted to go buy some.  Unfortunately, it was the same small round from Normandy that does not age well, so I avoided it and bought Le Delice and Swiss Gruyere instead.  I saw Dan Behles in the wine section and he recommended J Winery’s Pinot Gris so I bought two bottles of it and a bottle of Sancerre and a bottle of my favorite Dry Creek Sauvignon Blanc. 

Then I saw that lamb riblets were on sale ($11.99/lb. less $2.00 per package)  I bought a package with eight riblets for about $16.00.

Suzette arrived home at around 5:00 and we were both hungry, so we quickly decided to eat the crab claws I had bought at Sprouts on Thursday ($5.99/lb.) with ears of fresh Schweinbach corn from Moriarty, Suzette had bought at the Farmers’ Market in the morning and the PPI Faro Salad from lunch combined with the PPI cucumber salad I had made a couple of days ago.  I wanted to try the 2013 J pinot gris so I chilled it in the fridge and then the freezer.  I like light white wine served at around 50 to 52˚.

   

We made our favorite sauce for crab, combining about ¾ cup of mayonnaise with 1 shallot minced, a dash of salt, about 1-2 Tbsps. white wine vinegar, 2 tsps. fresh tarragon leaves chopped,  the juice of ½ lemon, 1 tsp. French Dijon Mustard and 1 tsp. of olive oil.  I usually combine the vinegar, lemon juice and shallot and let the acid ferment/pickle the shallot a bit, but today we were going to eat as soon as the sauce was finished and we needed to dispel some of the harsh edge of the vinegar, so Suzette added about 1 Tbsp. of local honey to the sauce to balance the bitterness of the vinegar.

Suzette toasted four slices of Bosque baguette and then plated up the plates with an ear of boiled fresh corn, half of the faro/cucumber salad and a couple of slices of baguette on each plate and I poured glasses of pinot grs and we carried them to the garden table under the gazebo and ate a lovely fresh dinner.  We decided that we did not like the crab claws as much as we liked the Dungeness crab at Costco and that the 2013 J pinot gris was exceedingly light but pleasant with the crab. The J pinot gris has a light honey pink color that is appealing also.

After dinner we watched “White House Down” on TV and Suzette had sliced some peaches from the Center and put a bit of sugar on them and let them sit for a bit to allow the sugar to go into solution and she then ate peaches and vanilla ice cream.  I took out the mayonnaise and brought in the PPI clafoutis and Italian meat sauce and we put those into containers and I ate a bit of the meat sauce that was dotted with bits of purslane and fresh tomatoes.  I am trying to reduce my carbo and sugar intake and found that the small bowl of delicious meat sauce made a great alternative dessert snack.

Bon Appétit