October 27, 2015 Lunch – Torino’s@home, Dinner – Steamed Salmon and Sweet Potatoes and Salad

October 27, 2015 Lunch – Torino’s@home, Dinner – Steamed Salmon and Sweet Potatoes and Salad

I had a mediation at the State Bar Center today, so at 12:45, my client, Rosemary, and I walked across the bridge that spanned the arroyo to Torino's@home for lunch.  Torino’s is my favorite Italian restaurant in Albuquerque, but I had never eaten lunch there before today.  The lunch menu featured mainly panini sandwiches and one side order for $12.00 or $13.00.  I immediately noticed that the side order items included a roasted tomato soup, which looked interesting, and tiramisu, so I suggested to Rosemary that we split a soup and a tiramisu and each order a panini.

She agreed and ordered a Duck Confit panini and I ordered a Speck panini.  I re quested that our tomato soup be brought first, our sandwich second, and our tiramisu last.  Our waiter was wonderful and agreed and the brought us the best bread I have tasted at a restaurant in Albuquerque, warm, moist, thick slices of bread studded with black olives, plus slices of French sourdough baguette with both butter and olive oil.  

The cup of roasted tomato soup was lovely, thick with puréed roasted tomatoes, onions and herbs.  We ate it with buttered slices of bread.

The our sandwiches were served.  Rosemary’s was filled with shredded duck confit and a little dry, which Rosemary fixed by adding a drizzle of olive oil.  I ordered a Speck panini, which was a slice or two of prosciutto, a sliced I'd grilled eggplant, slices of roasted red bell peppers and slices of fresh mozzarella sandwiched between two pieces of grilled bread smeared with a fresh pesto mayonnaise.  I loved my sandwich.  The pesto mayonnaise reminded me of the pesto mayonnaise that Willy is fond of and makes; it was creamy and fresh, with the pesto emulsified into the mayonnaise.  I need to make some soon.

We studied the wine list and agreed that we both wanted to try the Vara Viura white Spanish house wine for $7.00 a glass.  We clicked glasses to celebrate the successful completion of Rosemary’s case and enjoyed our soup and sandwiches.  Finally when each of us had finished ½ of our  large sandwiches and our wine, we ordered the tiramisu.  I was amazed by Torino’s tiramisu.  Rosemary, who is a chef and who owned Rose’s Table, told me it was a proper tiramisu, made with lady fingers soaked in espresso and marsacapone dulce. The tiramisu was garnished with cocoa powder that went into solution when scooped up. 

After lunch and finishing signing the settlement agreement, we drove to Sprouts Market, where I bought a 1 lb. piece of fresh Atlantic Farm raised salmon, Brussels Sprouts, vine ripened tomatoes, granola, and tofu.  Rosemary bought tofu, milk, and flour to make bread.  We then drove to Fano’ Bakery and each bought a fresh baked baguette.

I dropped Rosemary at her house and drove home.  After working for a while, Suzette arrived and she rested and I rode to Montano and back arriving home at around 5:45.

Suzette decided to use our new steaming oven to steam the salmon and a sweet potato she had bought from Mennonites at the Los Lunas Farmers’ Market several weeks ago. She asked me to make an herbed butter glaze to put on the salmon as it cooked and to use the fresh cherry tomatoes we picked yesterday in our garden to make a salad.

I peeled and sliced 1/2 of the enormous sweet potato and fetched the salmon filet and then went to the garden and picked fresh tarragon and thyme and stripped the leaves and used the soften setting on our new microwave to soften 3 Tbsp. of butter, which I mixed with the herbs, and then squeezed the juice of ½ of a small lemon.  

I then fetched and chilled a bottle of Shadduck Winery’s White Zinfandel that we bought at the Vine and Wine Society tasting at Las Golondrinias last July.  

While Suzette was setting up the steamer and organizing the steaming of sweet potatoes and salmon by time (30 minutes for the potatoes and 10 minutes for the salmon), I made the salad with thinly sliced onion, Bibb and romaine lettuce, the cherry tomatoes, thee slices of fresh mozzarella cheese diced, one of the vine ripe tomatoes diced, and some of the wonderful croutons we made in our new oven.  I then made a simple Balsamic dressing with two cloves of garlic chopped, balsamic vinegar, and Spanish olive oil and dressed and tossed the salad. 

In about forty-five minutes we had organized dinner.  I poured the wine and Suzette plated the salmon and sweet potatoes.  The wine was interesting it was a medium weight wine, not too sweet, not too dry, and very fruit, with a slightly syrupy consistency, which reminded me of cranberries that we like to eat with salmon.

The steamed salmon and potatoes were delicious, very moist and tender.  Steaming seems like a much healthier way to cook because it eliminates the use of most fat.  We are a long way from mastering it as a cooking method, but we are well on our way.  

The salad was delicious, a tossed Caprese salad, without the fresh basil leaves.  I had seconds of the salad.

Eating healthy can be fun.

Bon Appetit