July 23, 2015 Lunch – Taj Mahal Dinner – Roasted Chicken with Microwave Cous Cous

 July 23, 2015 Lunch – Taj Mahal  Dinner – Roasted Chicken with Microwave Cous Cous

I went with Peter to Taj Mahal today for lunch.  The food was wonderful, as usual.

We arrived before noon, and the food all seemed to be fresh.  I particularly liked the saag today, a vegetable stew with mainly spinach.

We talked about English history and especially the period during the Viking era from the reign of Alfred the Great to the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Peter recommended the movie, “Alfred, the Great”.

When I arrived home at 5:30 Suzette had arrived.  We removed the last of the food items from the pantry and found three bottles corked and sealed in wax that mother had made as Christmas gift to me.  They included:  hot and spicy olive oil, which we suspect my be rancid, and a cranberry vinegar, and a Golden herbed vinegar that looked really good.

I decided to make Cous Cous in the microwave to eat with the chicken. 

Microwave Cous Cous

1 cup water

1 Tbsp. Butter

2/3 cup Cous Cous

1 cup chard

10 cherry tomatoes 

5 sprigs of chives

¼ tsp sea salt

I went to the garden at 6:00 and picked a large handful of chard, five sprigs of chives and eight to ten cherry tomatoes and chopped up the ingredients into bite sized pieces. 

I then heated 1 cup of water and 1 Tbsp. of butter in a Pyrex bowl covered with Saran in the microwave for 2.22 minutes at a power of .9, which melted the butter and brought the liquid to nearly the boiling point.

I then stirred  2/3 cup of Cous Cous into the heated liquid, re-covered the bowl and heated the CousCous for another 2.22 minutes, which seemed to cook the Cous Cous.  

I then added the washed and drained ingredients to the Cous Cous, re-covered the bowl and heated the ingredients with the Cous Cous again for 2.22 minutes.

I then heated two leg quarters of a Roasted Chicken Suzette had brought from her Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery in the microwave covered with Saran for 4.44 minutes until the Saran bulged.  

I then stirred the ingredients into the Cous Cous to break up the Cous Cous and to integrate the flavors of the ingredients with the Cous Cous and placed the covered plate of chicken on top of the covered bowl of Cous Cous Cous and heated them together for 1.23 minutes at a power of .8. This had the added benefit of steaming the Cous Cous in a tightly sealed container, which mixed all the flavors and lightened the texture of the Cous Cous.

I had chilled a bottle of 2013 Mendoza Valley, Argentinean Sauvignon Blanc ( $4.49 at Total Wine) in the freezer at 6:30, so it was chilled by around 7:00, but I added a cube of ice to each glass to make sure it remained chilled.  Suzette noted that this bottle had a noticeable citrus flavor, which complemented the chicken.

I loved the light and airy steamy Cous Cous filled with the garden fresh vegetables and count it among the best Cous Cous I have ever tasted.

Suzette wanted a dessert, so we opened a bar of hazelnut and milk chocolate bar we bought at IKEA last Thursday and I opened a new bottle of Chabanneau fine Cognac V.S.O.P. ($29.99 t Total Wine).  The cognac had a fresh, slightly sweet taste that we both found very pleasing. 

After watching Jon Stewart and Bardet win Stage 19 of the Tour de France on one of the most torturous narrow winding ascents of a mountain I have ever seen, Suzette went out to inspect the garden and came back with a handful of fresh peaches from our new peach tree.  She sliced them and mixed them with Kirtland Greek yogurt and fesh honey from a bottle that Jefferson gave her and we had a second delicious dessert from our newly planted fruit trees.

We also decided upon a reddish colored crusher fines today for the top layer of our bocce court and Suzette ordered them to be delivered on Monday or Tuesday.

Suzette is carry a terrifically heavy load with all of her work stuff plus the bocce court project and kitchen remodel; the least I can do is to keep our gourmet food trip going.

I feel like tonight's meal achieved a gourmet level of cuisine.  It seems that because we are without a functioning kitchen, I was required to improvise my cooking technique for the Cous Cous and doing so created the methodology that achieved a better result than ever before.  It makes me think that I finally got in touch with the essence of cooking Cous Cous that maximizes the benefit of using a Cous Cous cooking pot where the vegatables are stewed in the bottom pot and the Cous Cous is stemed in the top tightly lidded pot that allows the combining of the steam generated from the vegetables to cook the Cous Cous.  The missing factor that prevented me from using that Cous Cous cooker may have been the need to initially cook the Cous Cous in boiling water before putting it into the Cous Cousery to steam. Voila!

Bon Appetit