June 13, 2015 Lunch – German cold cuts; Dinner with Cynthia and Ricardo – Grilled Black Cod, Sweet potatoes, fava beans, and asparagus with Chicken albondigas and vegetable soup, a garden salad and apricot tart

June 13, 2015 Lunch – German cold cuts; Dinner with Cynthia and Ricardo – Grilled Black Cod, Sweet potatoes, fava beans, and asparagus with Chicken albondigas and vegetable soup, a garden salad and apricot tart

We went to the Farmers’ Market this morning.  Suzette bought beets for her Field to Food event next weekend ay the Center for Ageless Living at 7:00 p.m. on June 20, 2015 and we bought croissants at Le Quiche Bakery and fresh fava beans from Marjorie at Sterling Farms, who told us the best way to prepare them was to grill them.

We got hungry in the afternoon and so I went to Alpine Sausage and bought Genoa salami, Veal Bologna, and course liverwurst, plus a bottle of Bavarian Sweet mustard and a bottle of German Deli Mustard.  I also bought some blood sausage to eat on another occasion.

I then drove to Pastian’s Bakery and bought a loaf of Jewish Rye bread.  I then drove home and sliced up two tomatoes, 1/3 cucumber, and put the rest of a bottle of bread and butter pickles  Suzette had made several years ago on a plate and we had a wonderful German sandwich lunch with beer. 

We called Cynthia and Ricardo and found out they were free for dinner so we made a plan to cook dinner together.  I told Cynthia we had Black Cod, a sweet potato, asparagus, and the fava beans to grill and Suzette was making an apricot tart.  Cynthia said she had made a vegetable soup she could bring with a mixed salad.  I said great.

Before they came, I filleted the black cod and selected 16 large asparagus and cleaned them and Suzette made the apricot tart using a bit of a 1991 Freemark Abbey Edelwien Gold Sweet Johannisberg Riesling from Napa Valley in the pastry dough.  Suzette cleaned the fava beans and poured a bit of olive oil into a freezer bag and I went to the garden and picked a large garlic and chopped up four cloves and added them to the bag with a bit of salt and pepper and we marinated the fava beans and asparagus for about ½ hour. Suzette also sliced the sweet potato into 1/3 inch thick slices and marinated them in a different freezer bag with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Cynthia and Ricardo arrived at 6:15 with the salad, the soup and a bottle of Zonin DOC Prosecco Brut. 

Suzette had the tart in the oven.  We heated the soup first and ate it out in the garden with glasses of 2012  Domaine de la Presidente white Côtes du Rhône I had bought at Total Wine for $10.99, less 15% during the French Wine sale this April.  The soup was lovely; an organic vegetable stock soup with chicken albondigas, slices of oyster mushrooms from the Farmer’s Market and broccolini, with some chopped onion and herbs.  It was a delicate and delicious soup and pleasant with the white Côtes de Rhône, except we all tasted a bit of black pepper, perhaps from the prepared albondigas she had used.

I then opened a bottle of 2013 Monte Clavijo Viura from Rioja that I bought at Total Wine for $7.99 minus a 10% pick  six discount, which had a lot of structure and character and went well with both the soup and the grilled items soon to come.

Then Suzette started grilling the fish, sweet potato, fava beans and asparagus.  Cynthia went into the kitchen and made alight balsamic vinaigrette and dressed her mixed salad containing chopped cucumber, tomato, lettuce, red onion threads, celery, and chopped green olives and broght it to the table in the garden where we were eating dinner.  After we served ourselves salad, Suzette and I plated up plates with char-grilled cod, fava beans, sweet potato slices and asparagus and we ate heartily and sipped the viura, which also went well with the fish and other grilled items.   

When we ran out of viura, I opened the bottle of Zonin Proscecco and we finished the meal with sparkling wine. 

 A few minutes I brought out the open bottle of Freemark Abbey Edelwein Gold and shot glasses and then the tart.  We ate warm tart with sips of Prosecco and sips of the Edelwein Gold.  The Edelwein Gold tasted like a rare old wine that had turned syrupy and taken on almost a sherry taste but still retained its original intense sweetness.  Avery unique and interesting wine experience and pleasantly balanced by sips of Prosecco Brut that kept the Edelwein Gold brom becoming unbearably sweet on the palate.  

Suzette’s tart was wonderful.  She had made the dough slightly sweet with the addition of some Edelwein Gold to the pastry and chilled it and then put it into the tart shell and chilled the tart shell. 

Then she baked the tart pastry in the shell and then added a layer of apricot glaze made with sieved apricots (removed from their skins) and sugar and then a layer of halved fresh apricots and then poured crème anglais over the apricots to fill the tart shell and then sprinkled sliced almonds on top and baked the tart for about an hour.

We love doing dinner parties with Cynthia and Ricardo, because we share similar tastes in food and wine and are all great cooks.  When I described what we were planning to cook, Cynthia instantly recognized that her soup would be an appropriate appetizer and knew that a salad would be a wonderful accompaniment for the grilled items and they were both perfect accompaniments and utterly delicious.

We had a wonderful dinner in the garden with great wine. What a wonderful way to re-start the food trip.

I do not recall how or where I obtained the 1991 Freemark Abbey, although I suspect it was given to me by Larry Zamzok, who inherited a cache of wonderful wines that he graciously shared with me several years ago.

Bon Appétit

   

 Here is the recipe that Suzette used to make the fava beans:  

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs. fava beans in the pod
3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 lemon, halved
2 oz. Parmesan

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Build a medium-hot fire in a charcoal grill or heat a gas grill to medium-high. Put favas into a large bowl, drizzle with 3 tbsp. oil, and season with salt and pepper.


2. Grill favas, turning occasionally, until charred and soft, about 6 minutes.


3. Transfer favas to a serving platter. Drizzle with olive oil and squeeze lemon juice over the top. Season with salt and, using a peeler, peel thin strips of Parmesan over the top of favas. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.