December 22, 2015 Christmas party Shopping, lunch – Potato Soup, Dinner – Red Grouper, Snow Peas, and Preserved Lemon Baked in foil.
Yesterday for lunch I heated a plate of PPI turkey leg meat, Dressing, Gravy, and Roasted Vegetables. The turkey was so tough I became physically uncomfortable trying to swallow it and had to stop eating about halfway through lunch.
About 4:30 Justin Sachs of Santa Fe Framing delivered the "Little Man with Monkey Eyes" by Agnes Sims he had framed and we liked it very much in the new frame. It was originally matted with a ceiling tile that, as Peter Eller so aptly stated, "Did little to help the picture." Justin's Moon Glow gold leaf frame is a big improvement. We all liked the picture a lot more in its new frame.
It makes you wonder what Agnes Sims was thinking when she painted this arresting image.
In the evening I made potato soup using the white portion of three medium leeks sliced thinly, 1 large onion, and six Yukon Gold potatoes sliced thinly and simmered in diluted turkey stock for several hours. Then I puréed the mixture, seasoned it with salt and added about 1 cup of heavy cream. The result was a very satisfactory potato soup, although the soup was a ,title too thin to my liking. I shout not have puréed it so much.
Any way I minced about six stalks of chives and ate two bowls of potato soup today for lunch.
Today was the big shopping day for the Christmas party. On my way home from a Doctor’s appointment at 11:15 I called Fano and asked if I could stop by and buy three baguettes and Clifton said, “Yes.” So I picked up three fresh baguettes. Then I drove to Pastian's for rolls and, much to my surprise,found two dozen poppy seed dinner rolls, one dozen Butter flake Rolls and one dozen regular dinner rolls in the day old rack. I bought them all, plus a 9 inch cake decorated for Christmas with white icing with red and green flowers. The total bill was $11.07.
After lunch and a 30 minute nap I drafted an order in my water case and sent it to the Judge for approval. At about 3:15 I drove to La Montanita Food Coop and bought, nutmegs, whole allspice, ground allspice, ground coriander, and cloves.
Then I drove to Ta Lin and bought a whole 12 lb. fresh King salmon for $7.95/lb. for about $94.00, three 3.5 oz. jars of black lumpfish caviar for $8.85 each, some long Bok Choy, .8 lb. of fresh red grouper, a bottle of sake, and some beautiful Shishito peppers.
I then drove to Sprouts at Lomas and San Mateo, where I bought, a green pepper, red leaf lettuce, cilantro, beautiful Italian parsley, double dipped chocolate covered peanuts, a head of cauliflower, grape seed oil, olive oil, and returned home by 5:30.
Suzette was cleaning off the dining room table and we threw out many old kitchen tools and put a green table cloth over a white damask table cloth for the party.
We had a lively discussion about dinner. I had thawed a boneless pork steak with the intention of making stir fried pork with snow peas, Shitake mushrooms, and bamboo shoots until I saw the Pink grouper. When I called Suzette and she affirmed her desire to eat grouper that menu went out the window. We finally settled on grouper, preserved lemon and snow peas baked in foil. We have developed a successful method of foil cooking, I removed the fish from its bones and cut it into two pieces so the thinner flesh that surrounds the stomach could be placed on top of the thicker piece from the top of the 1 inch wide steak to make a bundle of fish. Suzette then de stringed about a dozen snow peas and put them on the fish that had been placed in the center of an about 12 x 12 inch piece of aluminum foil. I the chopped onion and put about 1 oz. of chopped onion, a few leaves of Epazote and cilantro, about ¼ oz. of pimiento, and several slices of diced preserved lemon on the fish, plus Suzette seasoned the pile of ingredients with salt and pepper and about 1 oz. of white wine and a ½ oz. pat of butter. She then crimped the foil until the packet was sealed and then put that packet onto another piece of aluminum foil and crimped the first packet in another packet to double seal the fish. We have found that double sealing the fish is the only way to assure the first packet retains it sealed integrity. I also washed and cut four radishes from our garden into halves for a fresh radish garnish to the dish, a la Mexico.
We baked the fish packets for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. While the fish was baking we opened a can of refried black beans and added water to the contents and then some of the chopped onion and some pimiento plus some Epazote and cilantro. I opened a bottle of 2011 R.G.M.V. white wine lend of Roussane, Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, and Viognier from the Central Coast of California, which I had bought at Trader Joe’s for $3.99 in July of 2014. Suzette did not like the wine and I thought it had a rather bland flavor without ant interesting characteristics, which is exactly what we had thought last year when we first drank this wine. My statement to Suzette was, “This the last bottle and I will not buy any more of it.” So we have another bottle of cooking wine in the fridge. I guess the lesson is that this was a bottle that over promised and under delivered even at the lowly price of $3.99.
I read and then at 8:30 Suzette she was going to poach and flambé some of the pears we picked this fall with Cynthia in Trimbach Pear Brandy. I said, “The Brandy is not sweet. You may wish to use the sweet red wine instead.” Soon Suzette brought me a bowl of vanilla ice cream covered with pears and blackberries that had been poached and flambed in the pear Brandy. I found the combination of pear chunks, blackberries lightly poached in the Trimbach Brandy to be incredibly delicious a new taste sensation I shall try again soon.
I went to bed happy, soon after I ate the lovely ice cream dessert.
Bon Appetit
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