October 31, 2014 Lunch Azuma for Chirashi Dinner Crab and Scallop soufflé and steamed asparagus

October 31, 2014  Lunch  Azuma for Chirashi   Dinner  Crab and Scallop soufflé and steamed asparagus

I finally finished my filings in the water cases yesterday and so today I had something closer to a relaxing day.

After stopping at Fano for a  baguette ($3.00) I met Rahim for lunch at Azuma and we both ordered Chirashi Donburi with my usual selection of seafood.  Here is a picture of it.  We discussed his recent trip to Las Vegas for the International Hotel Group’s Annual convention and the wonderful sushi they ate in Las Vegas, which has become a really great food town.  For example, Rahim described his visit to Nobu’s restaurant and hotel.

It was trick or treat night so we wanted a simple meal, especially since Suzette was camped by the front door to give out candy and I was the one in the kitchen.

After lunch I had gone to Sprouts and bought a 1 lb. can of crab claw meat ($12.95), string beans, two 3 lb. salmon filets for gravad lax, 2 avocados, a pot of dill, 4 hot house tomatoes on the stem, and chocolate covered almonds.    

When I got home we discussed what to make for dinner, since we have not cooked for the last three nights.  Suzette suggested a crab meat omelet.  I thought I would like to try to make a crab meat soufflé, so I checked Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and quickly found a recipe for fish soufflé with an adaptation for crab.  We did not have any milk or fresh sole filets, but we did have heavy cream and fresh scallops.

So I substituted scallops for fish and eliminated the step of browning the fish filets in the oven and simply sautéed the scallops, shallots and crab in one skillet in butter with wine.

I separated five eggs and Suzette turned off the lights and came to the kitchen and helped me finish the soufflé prep by whipping the egg whites, cooking the butter and flour in the enamel sauce pan and stirring the egg yolks and then the ½ cup of Swiss Gruyere cheese in to make the soufflé mixture.

We then folded in ¼ of the egg whites and then added the cooked seafood to the soufflé mixture and then the rest of the egg whites and put that into a buttered soufflé dish coated with grated Swiss cheese and collared the souffle dish with parchment tied with string.  After 35 minutes in a 375˚ oven we were ready to eat.  We de-stemmed about 15 stalks of asparagus and steamed them and sliced four slices of the fresh baguette and toasted them and poured glasses of a bottle of 2013 Reserve de Cleons Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie I bought at Trader Joe’s in September for $6.99.  Muscadet is a classic complement to seafood because of its light, slightly tannic flavor.  In other words, the wine does not get in the way of the delicate seafood flavors.  It is grown in the Loire River Valley near the Atlantic Ocean and appears to be cheaper here than in wine shops at the Loire Atlantique area if my experience is any indication.

finished souffle

We loved the meal and were happy to be eating and cooking wonderful food again, especially since we had been too busy to cook and had been eating PPI’s for the last three days.

Bon Appétit