November 3, 2015 Lunch – Que Huong, Dinner - steam baked Pink Grouper, Penne Pasta in a mushroom Cream Sauce with chard

November 3, 2015 Lunch – Que Huong, Dinner -  steam baked Pink Grouper, Penne Pasta in a mushroom Cream Sauce with chard 

I joined Aaron Lohmann at Que Huong for lunch around 12:30.  He ordered a wonderful dish of stir fried flat rice noodles and shrimp and I ordered my favorite dish of Bun with Grilled pork and Fried Egg Rolls.  Here are pictures of my bun.

After lunch I went across the street to Talin to see if there was fresh grouper and there was.  I bought a 1 lb. piece from my favorite fish monger who has prepared fish for me at Talin for over twenty- five years.  Here is his picture.

   Note the pink grouper 

I also bought some Yu Choy, ginger, a Chinese Eggplant, tofu, bamboo shoots, and hoisin sauce. 

After signing the sub-lease for Birdland to become a marijuana dispensary I went home and rode to Montano and back.

When Suzette came home we discussed dinner.  She wanted to prepare the fish in the steam convection oven.  We decided to make a cream sauce with the three different types of mushrooms, chanterelles, Hungarian Blacks and white mushrooms.  We wanted a green vegetable, so we decided to use some chard from the garden and thyme, so I picked a few sprigs of thyme and a handful of chard and de-stemmed the chard and pulled the leaves from the thyme stems.  I chopped a shallot and three cloves of garlic from our garden.

Suzette put a pot on to boil and then added the penne pasta.

I filleted the grouper into two filets and Suzette steam baked the fish with a few pads of butter in the steam convection oven on a setting of easy bake 21.  The fish turned out interesting.  It had a firm outside but was tender and juicy inside.  I don’ think I have ever had fish like it before. 

After Suzette put the fish in the steam oven, she Sautéed the shallots and garlic in butter and olive oil and then added the mushrooms and thyme.  She added about ½ cup of heavy Cream and a bit of white wine and let the sauce reduce somewhat and finally added the chard leaves and covered the skillet to steam the chard into submission. 

We drained the penne in the sink.  Then Suzette filled pasta bowls with penne and placed a filet in each bowl and ladled mushroom cream sauce.  I opened a bottle of white Cotes du Rhone and we toasted slices of Fano French baguette and enjoyed a lovely meal.

Bon Appetit