December 28, 2015 Breakfast - Oatmeal, Lunch - Noodle Soup, Dinner - Cervantes Restaurant

I woke up early and made a pouring custard for the cloud cake Suzette made last night.  I scalded four cups of 2% milk with ¼ cup coffee beans.  Then I beat 15 egg yolks with 1 cup of sugar in another pan.  When the milk had cooled I served it into the eggs and sugar and heated that mixture slowly until the mixture thickened.  I then turned off the heat and stirred the mixture another three or four minutes to allow it to cool so it would not curdle.  We then added 2 tsp. of vanilla and seived the mixture into pitchers to cool.  

I asked Luke if he wanted some oatmeal for breakfast around 9:30 and he said he would like some, so I made oatmeal with my usual mixture of barley and oat flakes, a little water, milk, brown sugar, raisins, and walnuts.

For lunch I made noodle soup with rice vermicelli, wheat, noodles, and bean thread noodles, plus 4 head on shrimp, two sliced shitake mushrooms, a diced smoked pork chop, about 3 oz. of tofu diced, 1 Tbsp. Of strips of seaweed, 2 diced asparagus, 1 heaping Tbsp. of red miso, 7 or 8 snow peas, and dashes of fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, and Chinese cooking wine.  Here are the bottles.

Here is a photo of the noodle soup

For dinner, Luke wanted to go to Cervantes for Mexican food.  It has been so long I can not recall ever eating at Cervantes, so we readily agreed to meet him there at 7:30.

When we arrived I was surprised to see so many people on a cold Tuesday night and the warm and festively decorated interior.  Obviously, Cervantes is many persons’ favorite New Mexican Restaurant.  Luke and I ordered the daily special, 2 chicken tamales with rice and beans for $10.99.

Suzette wanted to try the seafood enchiladas, to compare them to her Paul Prudhomme shrimp enchilada recipe.  I already knew whose would be better, but said nothing.  

Suzette ordered a Negra Modelo and so did I as soon as I tasted the spicy heat of the Christmas, red and green chile sauces.  

The tamale was well prepared and vey tasty.  I felt like I made a good selection and had a good introduction to Cervantes family style cooking with one of the most traditional Christmas New Mexican and Old Mexican dishes.  No surprise, Suzette thought her adaptation of Paul Prudhomme’s Cajun Enchiladas was the better recipe, in part due to the use of fresh shrimp instead of seafood medley.

Bon Appetit