March 7, 2016 Lunch – Asian Pear, Diner – Guiness and Maple Syrup Cooked Brats with sautéed Cabbage with red Giant radish leaves and steamed broccoli

March 7, 2016 Lunch – Asian Pear, Dinner  – Guiness and Maple Syrup Cooked Brats with sautéed Cabbage with red Giant radish leaves and steamed broccoli

Today I was busy with a teleconference in the morning in the water case and a meeting in Los Lunas in the afternoon regarding Railway’s Development Agreement with the Village of Los Lunas.  Willy was back in town, so I invited him to join me for the trip to Los Lunas.  After my morning teleconferences, at noon we decided to grab a bite and then drive to Los Lunas for the 2:00 with the Village.  

We wanted a quick lunch, so I suggested eating downtown.  We tentatively picked Anatolia, but when we parked in my usual spot at 7th and Central. Willy mentioned Asian Pear.  I love Asian Pear and since it was two blocks closer at 508 Central SW, we stopped there.  We each ordered a Bull Gogi plate ($7.49) and took a seat. Shortly after we sat the owner brought us a small bowl of clear broth with shredded noodles in the soup, which was a palate cleanser for me as well as an introduction to the Korean food yet to come.  Then a man who is probably the other half of the owner family brought us each a small plate with two wedges of Korean vegetable pancake garnished with a lightly spiced red chili and tomato compote, which was delicious.  The pancake wrapped around thin slices of blanched carrot; very appealing and colorful.

Soon our plates of Bul Gogi arrived, a mound of shredded beef cooked in a BBQ sauce until almost dry accompanied by a wedge of rice and I realized I had failed to mention that I wanted Asian Pear’s wonderful noodles served in a soy based sauce (Chap Chae).  The male owner just smiled and soon the lady owner brought me a small bowl filled with hot noodles darkened in their soy sauce dressing attractively garnished with strips of egg white and yellow yolk, a beautiful, edible presentation that, when considering the amount of extra items and gracious service, transforms Asian Pear from just another Korean fast food joint o a full scale Korean fine a dining restaurant, admittedly, with a limited menu.  Since my last visit, Asian Pear has added Bento boxes to its menu, with the addition of tempura, pot stickers, and bean sprouts to a choice of meat entrees.  Asian Pear is my new favorite downtown lunch restaurant.  It seems to have created a breakout moment based on the many positive five star reviews it has gotten lately.

When we returned from Los Lunas Suzette was at home and we immediately covered the salad green raised bed to avoid a freeze damaging our greens.  Then Willy and I went to the kitchen and discussed dinner plans with Suzette, who said, “I thawed out Bratwurst,” which ended most of the questions about an entrée.  Suzette said she had picked red giant radish leaves that she wanted to add to the braised cabbage she was making, so I de-stemmed the red giant leaves and cut the leaves into bite sized pieces, even though Suzette had wanted them cut into long strips to match the size of the cabbage strips, because I could not see eating a long strip of red giant that had much more connective tissue in the leaf that would make its texture stringy.  Perhaps next time we will go with longer strips.

Suzette started cooking the brats in a bath of Guinness Stout and braised the cabbage in olive oil and butter.  Suzette then asked me to make a sauce for the brats and I made my usual 1 part horseradish to 2 parts mustard.  When Suzette looked at it she said, “It needs much less mustard. Please add some mayo.”  

So I took the PPI Louis Sauce from Friday’s dinner and added it to the mustard and horseradish sauce, which elevated the harsh mustard and horseradish to a wholly new level, by adding a citrus flavor from the lemon juice, a sour component from the capers and vinegar component and a creaminess from the mayonnaise.  It transformed the sauce into a more complex and flavorful mustard/horseradish sauce.

Then I asked Suzette if we could steam some broccoli for a green vegetable and she agreed, so I cut the flowerets from a stalk of broccoli and put them in the steamer on the stove and Suzette turned on the gas for the steamer.  I then went to the basement and fetched three Coors beers and put them in the freezer of the fridge.

Finally, when the Guinness had evaporated, Suzette asked for the bottle of maple syrup and added about ½ cup of it to the skillet in which the six brats were cooking.  It seemed that the brats were not fully thawed when Suzette started cooking them and they required additional cooking, so Suzette decided to give them a maple glaze. After another ten minutes of munching corn chips and waiting, Suzette plated up an amazing dinner of Guinness stout cooked Maple glazed Brats with braised cabbage and red giant and steamed broccoli.  Three different cooking techniques for three different dishes, quite fantastic.  I loved it.

We drank beer with the meal.

After dinner I ate two chocolate chocolate chip cookies, which were delicious and will now become my favorite cookie.  I simply substituted ¼ cup of ground Dutch cacao for flour in the standard recipe and viola.

   Yummy 

Just like the maple glazed brats a small change makes a distinctive flavor difference.

Bon Appetit