November 18, 2015 Dinner – Baked Acorn Squashes filled with PPI Pork Tapa and Stir Fried Yu Choy
I ate granola with yogurt and blackberries for breakfast. At around 10:30 I went to the bank and then to Birdland to check the progress of the gas line repair. Then I went to Sprouts at San Mateo and Lomas and bought a lb. of Atlantic farm raised salmon ($5.99/lb.), avocados ($.50 each), chocolate covered peanuts ($2.99/lb.)nanda Granny Smith apples. I am hosting my book club Thursday night and need to prepare a table of snacks for them.
I then went to Albertson's at San Mateo and Montgomery and bought a spiral cut ham ($1.88/lb. and large raw shrimp from Bangladesh for 5.99/lb. then I drove to Macleod and Jefferson and bought two fresh baguettes at Fano. It was noon when I arrived at Costco, so I ate a Polish Dog and a glass of lemonade and then shopped. I found amazing cheeses, Pont-l'Évêque, Petit Basque, a whole kilo wheel of French Brie from Isigny Ste. Mere, and Boursin. Then I bought potato chips, mixed nuts, and Lindt Lindor chocolates. I bought a fruitcake for myself.
I then drove home, unloaded the car, and soaked the fruitcake with dark rum and put it in the basement.
The stock market was kind to me today, so I relaxed and read some info on a case and then at 3:00 rode to Montana in a pretty strong wind that seem to gust to about 15 MPH out of the North, which made the ride home quick.
At five I cut up a bag of Yu Choy that had been sitting the fridge for more than a week. Suzette came home with the PPI Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars from the S’mores party last Friday at the Center for Ageless Living and wanted to cook the two acorn squashes I had bought at Sprouts last week, but we decided to first prepare the chocolate dessert for the party. I make a baked chocolate pudding that I like very much.
Baked Chocolate Pudding
½ lb. butter
8 oz. chocolate
2 oz. powdered cocoa
8 eggs separated
½ cup sugar
1 Tbsp. Flour
Melt the chocolate and butter and stir until smooth.
Turn off heat and mix in sugar.
In a separate mixing bowl, mix 4 egg yolks and the 1 Tbsp of flour. reserve the other 4 egg yolks for the Pouring Custard.
Tonight Suzette whipped the separated 8 egg whites until they stood in firm peaks in our Kitchen aid.
I then added the egg yolk and flour mixture to the chocolate, butter and sugar mixture and stirred them together with a whisk. I then added that mixture to the egg whites in the mixing bowl and Suzette folded the mixture into the egg whites.
When I began the prep, I had buttered the inside of 2 quart bowl and coated it with sugar.
I also put water to a depth of 2 inches into a large enameled Le Creuset Casserole into the oven at 350 degrees to make a Bain Marie to cook the pudding in and preheated the oven and the Bain Marie to 350 degrees.
The volume of the batter became so large, we decided to collar the baking bowl with waxed paper to a height of about six inches above the lip of the bowl. Suzette cut a piece of waxed paper that just overlapped the circumference of the bowl and a piece of string and she held the waxed paper in place and I tied the string around the paper to create a tight fitting collar.
I the poured the chocolate mixture into the bowl and we out it into the Bain Marie in the oven to bake at 350 degree for 30 minutes on convection setting. Suzette also put the 2 acorn Squashes into the oven to bake. After 30 minutes, Suzette took the acorn squashes out and we set the timer for another 40 minutes, but after about another 20 minutes the pudding seemed to be ready when we stuck a sharp knife into it that came out clean. We let the pudding sit in the Bain Marie on top of the stove for a few minutes to further cook and set up and the we removed the bowl from the Bain Marie. After a few more minutes Suzette fetched a new cut glass covered cake dish and we de molded the pudding onto the cake dish. This the best result I have had in years. The pudding was loose in the bowl and literally fell onto the cake dish exactly where I wanted it to sit.
While the pudding was baking I made the Pouring Custard
6 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups of scalded milk
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar.
I had only 4 1/2 egg yolks, so I reduced the amount of milk to 2 cups, half of which was heavy cream. I scalded the milk and then let it cool while I whisked the egg yolks with 1/3 cup of sugar and a Das of vanilla and a Tbsp. Of Grand Marnier. I then strained the scalded milk into the egg yolk mixture and began the 30 minute process of stirring the egg mixture until it thickened. When the mixture coated a spoon and tasted like custard it was ready. I poured it into a pitcher and put it into the fridge to cool.
The custard in the fridge
We covered the pudding and stored it in the cool laundry room.
Then Suzette cut the acorn squashes in half, removed the seeds and filled the cavities with brown sugar and butter and PPI pork, apple, and onion tapa. She then baked the squashes covered with aluminum foil in the oven for another 30 minutes to heat all all the ingredients.
While the squashes we're baking I chopped three cloves of garlic and 1 Tbsp. of ginger and sliced three baby portobello mushrooms and opened a small can of water chestnuts. I put 1 ½ Tbsp. If peanut oil and a dash each of sesame oil and chili oil into my wok and heated it. Then I added the ginger and garlic and cooked it for a minute. Then I added the stalks of the Yu Choy and cooked the for 2-3 minutes, the added the water chestnuts and mushrooms and cooked them for several more minutes, while I made a thickening sauce with about 3 Tbsp. of Aji Miren, a dash of sesame oil and 2 tsp. of cornstarch. I then added the green chopped leaves of the Yu Choy and a large handful of mung bean sprouts and cooked the until the greens started to collapse. Then I added the thickening sauce and told Suzette dinner was ready. Suzette removed the squashes from the oven and put one half on each plate and laid a pile of stir fried Yu Choy next and onto the squash ver decoratively. We poured glasses of the PPI Tuella red wine from the Douro Valley in Portugal and had a lovely light meal.
We watched the Nova series conclusion on the geological making of North America and then went to bed.
Bon App
No comments:
Post a Comment