September 27, 2016. Lunch – East Ocean Dinner – Catalan Style Chard and PPIs; Vichyssoise, cheese sandwich, Grilled Pork chop and Onions, pesto pasta and broccoli
Today I tried to avoid between meal snacks and carbs.
I ate granola, yogurt and blueberries and then a little before 8:00 rode to Montano and back.
At 11:30 I went to lunch at East Ocean with Peter. He ordered the Scallops in Lobster Sauce, but I ordered Moo Goo Gai Pan, an assortment of mushrooms, carrots, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, bok choy, baby corn, snow peas, broccoli, and chicken in a light thickened soy or oyster sauce sauce. The assortment of vegetables is sufficiently interesting to make this one of my favorite dishes and therefore there is need for little rice except to coalesce the small amount of sauce. I gave most of my fried rice and my egg roll to Peter to take home with about 1/3 of his Scallops in Lobster sauce.
We agreed that one of the things we like best about East Ocean is the small bowl of Egg Drop Soup made with home made chicken broth. It is the perfect way to start meal.
Also hot tea and either Sweet and Sour Chicken or an egg roll is served with the meal. There are different prices for different dishes, but both of our meals were $5.85 plus $1.00 for the substitution of fresh scallops for the usual shrimp. As I have said many times lunch at East Ocean is the best food value in Albuquerque when you consider quality of ingredients, skill in cooking, and price.
My dish was delicious, a steamy pile of beautifully cooked and sauced fresh chicken and vegetables, except for the Oriental mushrooms, corn, and water chestnuts.
For dinner I had planned to fix two tapas from Jose Andres’ Tapas cookbook, the slow roasted pork tenderloin and the Catalan style Spinach, but substituting Chard, so we could try the green raisins we had recently bought at Bombay Spices at 6514 Central SE and enjoy the fresh pine nuts we bought Sunday at Costco.
At 5:30 I went to the garden and picked a basket of chard leaves and de-stemmed them and cut them into bite sized pieces.
When Suzette came home we discussed my dinner menu and decided to eat PPI Vichyssoise instead of cooking the Pork tenderloin, which was agreeable because the pork tender had not fully thawed and would be more flavorful and easier to cook after another day of thawing and also because we had two PPI Grilled Pork Chops with Grilled Onions in the fridge, so I could eat one of them if I wished.
Chard Catalan Style
I cubed 1 ½ Gala apples and fetched the green raisins and pine nuts.
Then I fetched the Vichyssoise and Suzette heated 2 T. of Spanish olive oil in the wok, which I had left conveniently on the stove.
After stir frying the apples for a couple of minutes, Suzette added the chard, pine nuts, and raisins and in another minute the chard wilted a bit and the dish was ready. Suzette plated it as I looked for a bottle of white wine. We had nothing cold but both agreed that the bottle of La Granja Viura/Verdejo blend would be perfect, even if we had to drink it over ice. So I put ice cubes into wine glasses and poured us glasses of Spanish white wine from the Rioja to accompany our Mediterranean meal.
We both agreed that a cheese sandwich would be nice to eat with the soup and salad, so Suzette sliced Fano baguette, toasted them and laid slices of French Comte’ cheese on them and melted the cheese in the microwave while I was dealing with the wine and was filling bowls with Vichyssoise and fetching silverware.
The Catalan Style Chard
Soon we had a lovely dinner. I was still a little hungry after a second day of riding bike and no snacks, so I heated the PPI pork chop and onion and some of the PPI broccoli and pesto pasta from last night’s meal, so I would not be further tempted to snack.
Willy came by at around 8:00 and ate the rest of last night’s PPIs plus the remaining Catalan Chard we left for him.
Then he and Suzette finished the Peach cobbler with some vanilla ice cream, while I sipped a cup of chai, which has become my go to beverage of choice after I found out it is recommended by the Ayurvedic Institute.
We watched the Frontline report comparing the lives of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It was the most in depth psychological study of both I have ever seen and revealed them as highly complex individuals with lots of psychological baggage, as we all are. I was riveted in front of the TV for the hour. It is a must see program that will inform you about each, as no other program I have ever seen about them does.
Many of their friends, classmates, and biographers were interviewed on screen, who gave deeply analytical insights into the events that shaped their character.
Bon Appetit
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