I ate no breakfast today thanks to the double helping of Eggplant Parmesan last night.
I went to the fridge at 1:00 and decided to eat another helping of Eggplant Parmesan for lunch. It was delicious again. The eggplant had collapsed and become creamy and blended with the spinach, cheese, and meat sauce into arch thick sauce that coated and flavored the spaghetti perfectly.
The only ingredient I did not have when I made the Chicken Massaman Curry on Thursday was tamarind, so I had bought a 1 lb. bag of dried tamarind fruit at El Super yesterday for $1.99/lb. I asked Suzette to help me make tamarind paste to ad to the curry when she arrived home this evening. We looked at a couple of videos on the internet and discovered that you remove the hard shell, strip the threads from the fruit, soak the fruit in heated water for several hours to soften the fruit, and then push the fruit through a sieve to remove the fruit from the remains threads and the internal seeds.
We removed the dried husk from about ten pods and removed the threads that encased the fruit while we heated water in the tea pot. We then put the fruit into a medium sauce pan, poured about three cups of water over the fruit, brought the fruit to a boil , covered it and let it sit for about three hours until after the meal.
Suzette was hungry so we immediately started dinner after removing and covering the tamarind fruit. We had PPI mashed potatoes and I had thawed a rib steak yesterday.
Suzette salted and peppered the steak, I cut the two boiled Artichokes in halves so Suzette could grill them with the steak. The artichokes retain a lot of water from the boiling and so the grilling simply heats and removes the moisture, leaving a more firm steamed artichoke that has the added benefit of being heated. We love to grill the tender medium fresh artichokes that Trader Joe’s sells for four for $2.49.
I fetched the mayonnaise dill sauce and put it on the table for the warm artichokes.
We decided to steam some of the fresh organic broccoli that I had bought on Thursday on sale for $.88/lb.. Suzette deflowered a head of broccoli and put the flowerets into the steamer with water, ready to steam.
When Suzette took the steak and artichokes to the grill I turned on the heat under the broccoli and started cooking the Mushroom sauce.
Mushroom Sauce with cream
I sliced about six or seven medium portobello mushrooms and minced ½ of a shallot and two cloves of garlic. When Suzette took the steak and artichokes to the grill outside, I heated 2 T. of butter and 1 T. of olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat and then added the minced shallot and garlic and cooked them for a minute or two. Then I added the mushrooms and about ½ T. of dried marjoram and ½ tsp. fleur de sel with herbs Provence. I tossed and stirred the mushrooms with a wooden spoon for about five minutes until they were coated with the grease and began to soften and change color. I then added about 2 T. Amontillado sherry and stirred it in to coat all the mushroom slices. I cooked the mushrooms to infuse the sherry for another couple of minutes. When the surface of the sauce began to glisten I knew I was on the right track because the sauce was beginning to bind the butter, Mushroom liquid, and sherry. I then did something I have never done before; I added about 1 ½ T. of Central American Crema from El Super to the sauce to further bind the sauce and add a slightly creamy flavor.
Willy arrived at this point with his wash and we invited him to join us for dinner. This was a great example to him of the benefit of being ready to eat when the meal is ready.
I fetched a bottle of 2015 Chateau Haut Sorillon Bordeaux Superiore I bought at Trader Joe’s on Saturday for $7.99 and Suzette opened it and also heated the PPI mashed potatoes in the microwave while I finished making the Mushroom Sauce.
In a few more minutes, when Suzette brought in the grilled steak and Willy had started his laundry, the sauce and broccoli were ready to eat. I sliced the steak which was between rare and medium rare and divided it into three portions with Suzette’s being the rare steak.
Suzette divided and plated the mashed potatoes and we each served ourselves the broccoli and Mushroom Sauce and I poured the red wine.
We each took a grilled artichoke and enjoyed our elaborate dinner while watching the Antiques Roadshow from Fort Worth and the one from Santa Clara.
Poached Pears
After dinner Suzette serves us bowls of vanilla ice cream with some of the poached pears we made yesterday. As I mentioned, I bought four Bartlett pears at El Super. Sunday afternoon Suzette peeled the pears and cored and halved them and I sliced them. I then put about ½ cup of water into a medium sauce pan with about ½ cup of sugar and the remaining 1 cup or 1 ½ cup of 2004 St. Clair Refosco red sweet wine that we found undrinkable but kept for just such a moment. I also added the zest of one lemon, the juice of ½ lemon, and about 2 T. of an Italian aperitif made from bitter herbs and simmered the pears and liquid for about a hour until the liquid reduced by about ½.
The ice cream with the still firm pear slices and flavorful poaching medium made for a lovely flavorful dessert.
After dinner we ate a few pieces of chocolate and drank more or the new Prince d’ Arignac Armagnac VS we bought at Trader Joe’s for $15.00. Armagnac is typically more mellow than cognac and cheaper.
After dinner I sieved the softened tamarind and we put about three or four T. of the resulting paste and about 1 cup of the tamarind flavored water into the curry and bottled the paste and remaining liquid.
Suzette then went to bed a bit after 9:00 and I stayed up and enjoyed immensely watching the family pictures, official ceremonial movies, and commentary collected into a BBC special celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday. I guess I am a closet monarchist. Or simply that much of her life parallels my life. I remember fondly the week I spent with my family in London in 1960 in early April during which we viewed the royal wedding procession of Princess Margaret from a balcony window in the heart of London with all the other well wishers and tourists.
Bon Appetit
Bon Appetit
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