January 14, 2015 Breakfast – Granola, Blueberries, and Yogurt, Lunch – The Greenhouse Bistro, Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak, Savoyard Mashed Potatoes, and Steamed Sugar Snap Peas

January 14, 2015 Breakfast – Granola, Blueberries, and Yogurt, Lunch – The Greenhouse Bistro, Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak, Savoyard Mashed Potatoes, and Steamed Sugar Snap Peas

I had a breakfast of granola, fresh blueberries, and Trader Joe’s European style yogurt.

I drove Aaron Lohmann to a meeting with the Village of Los Lunas at 11:00.  At 12:15 after the meeting we drove to the Greenhouse Bistro for lunch with Suzette.  Suzette had the daily special, which was a melted four cheese sandwich on home made bread with a bowl of Smoked Tomato Soup,I had my usual, Dill Chicken Salad Salad, and Aaron ordered the Cubano Sandwich with slices of roasted pork and ham.  I love the Bistro’s Chicken Salad, especially when paired with organic greens and spinach, as it was today, or greens and vegetables from the Center’s organic gardens in the Summer.  I asked Suzette what she wanted for dinner and we were not clear on what to prepare, so I said I would defrost a steak, which I did when I returned home and fetched a bottle of 2009 Wellington Vineyards Estate bottled Zinfandel.

After I completed a draft of a pleading at 3:00 I rode north to Campbell Rd. Slowly into a strong headwind and very quickly back home.

At 6:00 when Suzette returned home I asked if she would eat mashed potatoes and steamed sugar snap peas.  So I diced four Yukon Gold potatoes and put them on the stove to simmer.  I de-stemmed about 1 cup of sugar snap peas ( Costco $5.49 for 2 lb.) and put them in the steamer with water and put them on the stove ready and to steam.  I then sliced six or seven white mushrooms and put them into a medium skillet with about 2 Tbsp. of butter and 1 Tbsp. of olive oil, a large clove of garlic minced,  and a dash of dried Chervil and a tsp. of chopped fresh oregano and sautéed the mushrooms while Suzette Suzette took over to perform her Grilletta function and grilled the steak to rare.  When the mushrooms had softened a bit I added about 2 Tbsp. Of Amontillado sherry and turned down the heat to cook the mushrooms slowly until the steak was cooked and turned the heat on the double ring burner under the sugar snap peas to moderately high to they would steam in about eight minutes.

I fetched a container of PPI sauce that had been produced when we made Potatoes Savoyard last Wednesday, which contained a rich combination of butter, turkey stock and Raclette cheese.  While the steak was grilling Suzette drained the potatoes and stirred the PPI Savoyard sauce into the potatoes and I opened the Wellington Zinfandel and poured glasses of it.

When Suzette brought the charbroiled steak in I sliced it and we found that it was barely rare so Suzette cooked the steak slices in the. Skillet with the mushrooms for a minute of two to bring the steak to medium rare and we divided the slices onto two plates and Suzette ladled on spoonfuls of the Savoyard mashed Potatoes and we each took ½ of the steamed sugar snap peas and Suzette then divided the sautéed  mushrooms and their Sherry/butter sauce and we were ready to eat. 

Every dish in this meal tasted great, especially with the smooth, yet powerful full bodied Zinfandel.  A great wine will not make an inferior meal successful, but a great wine will enhance a great meal to the point of making a great meal memorable.  That is what happened tonight.  The Potatoes Savoyard were excellent, the mushrooms were more than adequate, the sugar snap peas were fresh and new steamed to a bright green color, and the aged beef was superb, dense and yet tender as only heavy aged beef can be.

This meal reminded me of many meals I ate growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, with my family.  In the 50’s I remember going with my father to one of the locker plants in Fort Worth and picking one of the half yearling steers that hung on large hooks in the aging locker after having been butchered.  We would discuss with the locker plant representative how we wanted the beef aged and processed, which was usually at least ½ hamburger meat, a few roasts and all the steaks that could be cut.  The locker plant would usually age the beef by air drying the whole side of beef in the locker room for 21 days and then cut the half beef into the desired cuts and freeze them.  I do not recall precisely if individuals could rent lockers at the plant to store their beef but we had a deep freeze so we usually took delivery of our beef and stored it at home.  The selection and aging and butchering of whole sides of beef was an annual event in Fort Worth, usually in the Fall, similar to our New Mexico tradition of roasting and freezing a year’s supply of green chile.

I can not say enough good things about the 2009 Wellington Zinfandel.  It had a lovely soft smoothness from aging in the cellar combined with a pretty powerful tannic character and as it opened up after about 20 to 30 minutes, a fruity floral bouquet and flavor.  It is unusual for us to drink wines of this complexity and strength of character, simply because I do not usually buy such expensive wines.  That is the benefit of being in a wine club.  You are forced to buy better wines because the winery sends you an assortment of all of its wines at a discount, usually including its better wines because those are more expensive.  We have chosen to remain members of Wellington Vineyards for over ten years because they produce my favorite Cabernet Sauvignon, Mohrhardt Ridge Vineyard Cab, which is grown on top of the coastal range of mountains just inland a bit from the Pacific Ocean in northern Sonoma County, south of Santa Rosa and the Russian River and north of San Francisco.

We had a glass of cognac and a chocolate later in the evening as we watched a new episode of Doc Martin and went to bed in a good mood at 10:00.

Bon Appetit