August 2, 2014 Feast at Cynthia and Ricardo’s House Shrimp Scampi and sautéed Mahi Mahi, Bean Salad, fresh salad, chopped curly kale and sliced almond salad and Clafoutis

August 2, 2014 Feast at Cynthia and Ricardo’s House  Shrimp Scampi and sautéed Mahi Mahi, Bean Salad, fresh salad, chopped curly kale and sliced almond salad and Clafoutis

I worked at my desk all day.  At 3:00 I received  a call from Suzette, saying we had been invited by Cynthia and Ricardo for dinner and we were then going to the Museum for New Mexico Jazz Workshop’s Brazilian music concert.

I had gone to Sprouts Farm Market on Thursday and bought 2 lbs. of cherries, a ¾ lb. Mahi Mahi filet, some green beans, milk and mushrooms, plus chocolate covered almonds and toffee coated roasted peanuts.

Friday night I pitted the cherries and put them in a bowl with about two or three Tbsps. each of Grand Marnier and cognac and about 1 Tbsp. of Trimbach Plum brandy and covered them with saran and put them into the fridge to marinate.  So when Suzette called she knew we had marinated cherries ready to bake into a clafoutis. 

When Suzette arrived at around 3:45 I stopped working and we started making the clafoutis.

Clafoutis recipe:

6-7 Tbsps. flour

10 Tbsps. confectioners powdered sugar

3 cups enriched milk (1 ½ cups of regular milk and 1 ½ cups of half and half) scalded and cooled

3 eggs, whipped

½ tsp. salt

3-4 cups cherries pitted and halved

2 Tbsps. cognac

1-2 Tbsps. Grand Marnier

Buttered ceramic or pyrex baking dish

Marinate the cherries overnight in the cognac and Grand Marnier

Mix the flour and sugar and salt in a deep mixing bowl.

Make a well in the center of the mixture and pour in the eggs and stir with a wooden spoon until the texture is smooth.

Then pour in the milk slowly and stir to remove any additional lumps of flour

Butter the baking dish and then coat it with sugar.  The more sugar you leave the more caramel will be at the edge of the clafoutis.

Pour the batter into the baking dish.  Add the marinated cherries.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350˚ for 50 to 60 minutes until the middle is firm but jiggles.   

When the Clafoutis came out of the oven at 5:00, we put it in a cardboard box, grabbed the mahi mahi filet 

I had bought at Sprouts on Thursday and the bottle of Leese-Fitch Sonoma Sauvignon Blanc I had chilled and drove to Cynthia and Ricardo’s.

When we arrived and went into the kitchen Cynthia was stirring a skillet full of fresh shrimp with butter, garlic, olive oil, red pepper flakes and parsley.  On the kitchen table were bowls of chopped curly kale and slivered almond salad, a spinach and tomato salad dressed with Cynthia’s usual white balsamic dressing and a new tomato I had never seen before that was yellow with green inclusions on it, olives, a large bowl of bean salad including red beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, string beans and a couple more beans in a sweet and sour vinaigrette, and a loaf of Bosque baguette on a cutting board.  When the shrimp were cooked and removed from the pan. Suzette put a bit more olive oil and butter into the skillet and sautéed the Mahi Mahi filet and we were ready to eat.

Ricardo opened a bottle of Hanna Russian River Sauvignon Blanc which was light and has a slightly grapefruit taste and when we finished that we opened our Leese-Fitch, which was had much more body and a bit more complexity in comparison.

After dinner we ate Clafoutis and then drove to the Albuq. Art Museum at 6:45 for the New Mexico Jazz performance of Brazilian music.

We spent a lovely evening listening to two local bands play Brazilian music and were taught how to samba by a Brazilian young lady who was in attendance.  I loved the food and the evening and learning how to samba, which I have wanted to learn since the 60’s when I first saw “Black Orpheus” 

     

Bon Appétit