June 5, 2016 Breakfast – prosciutto, mushroom, and Iberico cheese Omelet, Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Noodles, Dinner – New Recipe Sauteed Sweetbreads on Corn and Mushroom hash with a Cream and Chicken stock Cream Sauce

June 5, 2016 Breakfast – prosciutto, mushroom, and Iberico cheese Omelet,  Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Noodles, Dinner – New Recipe   Sauteed Sweetbreads on Corn and Mushroom hash with a Cream and Chicken stock Cream Sauce

We spent the day restoring our living and dining room after the floors were refinished and the walls and ceilings repainted.  At 10:00 I peeped an omelet by chopping 2 oz. of Prociutto, three green onions, 4 oz. of garlic chives, three mushrooms sliced, and about 2 oz. of Iberico cheese slices.  The idea was to make an omelet with all soft, quick cooking Ingredients.   It worked out well and I toasted 2 slices of French baguette and buttered them and spread them with lime and orange Marmalade.  

We ate by the pond, which was particularly lovely today.

After breakfast we made Gravad lax.  I filleted the salmon while Suzette mixed 1 cup of salt, 3/4 cup, and 1 tsp. of pepper.   I put fresh dill weed on the bottom of a pyrex baking dish that the fish fit into snuggly.   We then dusted the outside skin side of one filet with the sugar/salt mix and put the skin side down in the baking dish .  Suzette then poured the mixture on to the inside of the filet.  I went to the garden and picked about 1 cup of fresh dill and put 1/2 of them on the inside of the first filet.  Suzette then poured more mix onto the inside of the other filet and I put it on the first filet.  Suzette put the rest of the mixture on the exposed skin side of the second filet and the rest of the dill.

I then covered the baking dish with saran and weighted the fish with a brick.

   The first filet coated with the sugar/salt mixture and dill weed

At 2:30 I became hungry again, so I heated the PPI noodle dish from our meal at Vietnam 2000 yesterday.

Finally at 6:30 we began cooking dinner.  I wanted to make a new dish inspired by some of the recipes I read about cooking sweetbreads, which I bought on Thursday at Ranch Market.

I first soaked the sweetbreads in a milk, cornstarch, and egg white marinade. I chopped ½ shallot, 2 sprigs tarragon and four sprigs of thyme, plus six baby garlic scapes, four baby portobello mushrooms and 1 oz of enoki mushrooms and cut the kernels off two ears of cooked corn?

  The shallots, mushrooms and herbs

  The corn and scapes

Then I  took the sweetbreads out of the marinade and tossed them in a bag with about ¼ cup of flour and 1/3 cup Progresso breadcrumbs. I then melted 2 T. of butter and 1 T. of Spouts olive oil in a large sauté pan and Suzette sautéed the sweetbreads to golden brown another d then we put them in a metal pan into a 150 degree oven to keep warm.

  A sweetbread coated in the coating 

We then made the cream sauce in an enameled Le Crueset sauce pan.  I melted 3 oz. of butter with the PPI butter and added 3 T. of flour and Suzette stirred that into a roux, which took three minutes?   I then added 15 oz. of chicken stock flavored with tandoori spices saved and degreased from Thursday night’s meal. Suzette then added ¼ cup of heavy cream to the sauce and ½ tsp. of truffle salt to finish the sauce.

  The sauce

  Sautéing the sweetbreads

I then melted 2 T. of butter and sautéed the shallots and then the herbs and mushrooms and then added the corn and enoki mushrooms until they softened.  

  The vegetables sautéing

I went to the garage fridge and fetched a bottle of Marques de Cacerus white Verdejo from Rueda (total Wine $11.99 less 20%) which Suzette opened and poured us glasses of.  It was fruity and delicious with the cream sauce. 

 Not he warm sweetbreads

Suzette plated dinner by makings a pile of the corn and mushroom hash and then divided the sauteed sweetbreads on eachWe carried the  and then sauced the sweetbreads and vegetables with the cream sauce.

  My plate; lots of sauce, lots of sweetbreads

I toasted two pieces of French baguette for each of us and Suzette then ladled cream sauce on top of the sweetbreads and toast.

We ate under the gazebo by the pond but we're under attack by mosquitoes, so we did not dawdle over our dinner and wine.

Cleaning the sweetbreads is the big issue.  I soaked them in water for a day.  My mother used to soak them in milk. There is also a big issue removing the tendons that surround the glands.

I was not satisfied with either form of cleaning for these sweetbreads.  Suzette did not like the dish, so I guess I will only br eating sweetbreads in restaurants from now on.

Bon Appetit