January 13, 2016 Lunch – PPI Beef Noodle Soup, Dinner – Roasted Pork with Apple and Shallot and Brussels Sprouts, onion, and Squash casserole.

January 13, 2016 Lunch – PPI Beef Noodle Soup, Dinner – Roasted Pork with Apple and Shallot and Brussels Sprouts, onion, and Squash casserole.

I ate the PPI Beef Noodle Soup I made several days ago with the addition of the approximately 2 oz. of brown beech mushrooms, 4 oz. of soft tofu, the remaining oz. of snow peas and another handful of spinach plus a bit more water and several spoonfuls of salmon broth.

I also made two open faced cheese sandwiches with P’tit Basque on Fano baguette.  

It turned out to be a lot of food three bowls of soup, the two sandwiches and a cup of hot green tea forced me to rest for a while from 2:30 to 4:00.

At 4:00 I rode to Rio Bravo and back and saw a lovely, sunny pink sunset reflect off the Sandias.

Here are some pictures taken just before sunset.

When I returned home I made myself a hot buttered rum cocktail to take the chill off and rehydrate my body.  Here is a picture if the drink garnished with freshly grated nutmeg.

I then started prepping a Brussels Sprouts casserole when Suzette arrived home around 6:00 by cooking a small white flattish round squash for 3:20 minutes at .8 power setting in the microwave to make it easier to separate its flesh from its husk. 

I then chopped ¾ onion, about ½ pound Brussels sprouts, six or seven cloves of garlic cut in half, removed and diced the squash and crushed about 2 tsp. of dried basil into a ceramic casserole dish, at which point Suzette took over and tossed the vegetable mixture lightly with olive oil to coat the vegetables and covered them with aluminum foil and baked them in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes covered and about 30 minutes uncovered.  

While the vegetables were roasting I went to the basement and fetched a bottle of 2010 Toulouse rose from Anderson Valley, the third to last of a case we bought when we last visited the vineyard in Anderson Valley in 2011 and put it into the fridge to chill.  I love the vivid reddish pink color of Toulouse’s rose in its elegant tall Riesling style bottle.

We decided to make the Spanish Tapa recipe we like that slow roasts pork tenderloin with Sautéed apples and onions, except this time, because there was so much onion in the casserole I decided to use 4 shallots instead of the onion.  I peeled and sliced 4 shallots and cored and sliced 1 Granny Smith Apple and Suzette put them into the copper braising skillet with some Spanish olive oil (Sprouts brand $7.99 per liter bottle) and sautéed the apples and onions until soft.  Meanwhile Suzette sliced four of the Boneless Pork tender chops into halves, totaling about 2 ¾ lb. of the 5.75 lb. we bought at Costco yesterday ($2.99/lb. less $3.00 per package). 

I went to the garden and picked a handful of fresh oregano, which I cleaned.  When the apple and onion mixture had softened, Suzette added the pork and garnished the pork with five or six sprigs of oregano and lowered the temperature in the oven to 275 degrees and put the skillet into the oven to bake with the now uncovered casserole for 30 minutes, which we had garnished with ½ cup of grated Reggiano Romano cheese.  While the pork was slow roasting Suzette made a cup of chicken stock with hot water and Knorr dehydrated chicken stock and I fetched the Spanish Pedro Domenquez Brandy. After 30 minutes Suzette tested the pork’s internal temperature which was 165 degrees, so we declared the dishes done and removed them from the oven.

Suzette the removed he chops from the skillet and made a sauce by deglazing the apples and shallots with the cup of chicken stock and 1 or 2 Tbsp. of Spanish Brandy.  In another couple of minutes the ingredients in the skillet turned into a light sauce which Suzette ladled over one of the chops and served on a plate with a pile of the Brussels Sprouts casserole.

We loved dinner and Suzette must have really loved the Toulouse rose, because she asked me, “How many bottles of this do we have left?”  When I said, "Two," She gave a both happy and sad smile.

What has happened to the wine in my opinion is that any intensely fruity wine that was almost too sweet to drink has aged to the point that the tannins and fruit have come into a splendid balance, which complemented the balance of fruit and vegetable flavor in the pork dish’s shallot and apple combination.  Sometimes aging a rose makes sense, especially if it is a hugely fruity one.

We watched “The African Queen” with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn from 1952 that had been beautifully restored in 2010 and we then soaked for about fifteen minutes and went to bed around 10:00 after bagging the 6 PPI pork chops and sauce and the PPI casserole.

Bon Appetit