September 29, 2015 lunch – PPI Chirashi Donburi, Dinner – Grilled Halibut, sautéed green beans, and Papaya/Pineapple Salsa

September 29, 2015 lunch – PPI Chirashi Donburi, Dinner – Grilled Halibut, sautéed green beans, and Papaya/Pineapple Salsa

For lunch I ate the other half of my Chirashi Donburi from yesterday and it was surprisingly delicious and filling. 

Suzette came home at about 4:00 and we spent 2 hours preparing two raised beds and planted a winter crop of root vegetables and lettuce.  We put the hoops up but did not cover them with plastic yet and started the irrigation system in the two beds.  The beds still have grubs, but we are hopeful the additional diatomaceous powder around the seeds will protect the plants.

At 7:00!after the news we started cooking.  During the news I cleaned a large handful of green beans and Suzette made holes in the flesh of the 1 ½ lb. halibut steak and stuffed them with pieces of butter and then sliced a lemon and squeezed juice from the end pieces over the halibut and lay the halibut on the lemon slices to cook on a heated grill.  The halibut steak was about ]2 inches thick and it took about 25 minutes to grill it.  After 25 minutes the fish was still uncooked in the middle, so I filed each half from the large central bone and we grilled the center on the grill after we turned off the gas burners for five minutes more, which cooked the center of the filets to perfection.

After Suzette started the fish, she drained the impurities from the oil we had sautéed the cipolini onions in a week ago that still had some garlic and lavender.  Then we added about 2 Tbsp. of butter to the reclaimed oil and sautéed 2 cloves of garlic from our garden and about 3 Tbsp. of onion.  After a couple of minutes I added the green beans and tooted them in the oil and butter and the covered the skillet on the Cajun cooker with the wok cover so the beans would steam a bit.

After twenty minutes the beans were cooked so I turned off the headband let them sit covered in the pan until the fish was ready.

I then fetched the papaya pineapple salsa and put it on the table in the garden.  I poured glasses of Albariño wine and we plated each plate with one filet and a pile of green beans.

Everything was delicious, the halibut and green beans were cooked perfectly and the dry acidic Albariño went well with the flaky rich halibut sitting on a pad of butter to complement its richness and with a bit of lemon juice to balance its richness.

We loved dinner.  After dinner I tried the new cheap ice cream from Ranch Market ($1.99) with rum, chocolate syrup and Maraschino cherries and found it to be surprisingly delicious.

Bonn Appetit 

The fruit salsa with its Thai chilis was a cool