We worked in the garden before 7:00. At 8:00 we made a Lax, pimiento, onion, fresh feta cheese omelet with feta we bought from Old Windmill Dairy last Saturday.
At 10:30!we drove to Hime a depot so a Suzette could shop. Then we drove to Talin, where we soy sauce, shallots, and a whole 1.85 lb. Red Snapper from Mexico.
We then went home and I chopped onion and three types of mushrooms, shitake, white beech, and white. Suzette shaved thin slices of Mexican squash and carrot to resemble noodles. Remember, no carbs. Then she cubed the pork tenderloin and sautéed the onion and mushrooms and added 1 T. of tomato paste and ½ T. of minced sage from the garden and a dash of nutmeg. Then she added the cubed pork and after it was fully sautéed, added cream and heavy cream.
I opened a bottle of La Granja Rose’ (Trader Joe’s $5.99, which is 100% Grenache) and poured us glasses. Suzette plated the vegetable noodles and we each served ourselves Stroganoff. We took our plates outside and ate under the gazebo.
After lunch we took naps until 4:00. I then made a clafoutis until I realized that we had only two eggs and I needed three eggs.
Suzette said we needed Avocados and cilantro, so I drove to El Super, where I bought three mangoes for $.99, 18 eggs for $1.77, corn chips, a bunch of cilantro for $.19, a bunch of green onions for $.25, and four avocados for $1.98.
When I returned home I completed making the clafoutis. We baked it in a 375 degree oven for 55 minutes. I used Rainier cherries and 1/3 cream and 2/3 milk. By accident I let the milk come to a full boil and then let it cool in the fridge while went to El Super, which seemed to coalesce the milk curds somewhat, which gave the clafoutis a more creamy uniform consistency.
We decided to grill the whole red snapper on the grill and serve it with a mojo de Aja sauce, which is a sauce made by cooking garlic in butter.
At 6:00 Suzette went to the garden and harvested six or seven stalks of garlic and cleaned them. I had started making the mango salsa, by chopping more onion and two of the avocados and the three mangoes and ½ of a medium jalapeño plus the juice of 1 lime and ¼ cup of cilantro.
I then cut the heads of garlic from four of the stalks, removed the outer layers of husk and the inner membrane from around the individual cloves of garlic and chopped them for the sauce.
While I was preparing the mango salsa and chopping the garlic Suzette opened two cans of refried black beans and added a dried avocado leaf, several dried hoja santa leaves and a handful of fresh chopped epazote to the beans to add flavor to them.
Suzette stuffed the stomach cavity of the red snapper with lemon slices and secured it in a fish shaped grilling rack.
I minced about four T. of fresh garlic in two waves. Suzette cooked the first wave in butter to baste the fish while grilling And I cooked the second two T. of garlic to make a pouring sauce for the fish.
I turned the TV to the NBA finals at 6:40. When Willy arrived around 7:15 Suzette started grilling the red snapper. The fish was almost done in 15 minutes. I added a bit of water to the beans every 20 minutes and stirred them to keep them from scorching. The fish flesh offered slight resistance when I tried to filet it, so we immediately covered it with aluminum foil and put the tray it was on into the still warm oven from cooking the clafoutis for a couple of minutes. Then I filleted the fish onto the pan and Suzette plated a small pile of it onto each of three plates and added a small pile of beans garnished with flakes of requeson cheese (Mexican cottage cheese, bought at El Super).
I put the mango salsa on the table with the corn chips and Suzette toasted two flour tortillas on the outdoor grill. Toasting the tortillas on the outside grill dried them out. They would have been softer and more delicious if heated on the gas grill on the stove where the heat coverage would have been controlled better. Neither Willy or I said anything negative about the tough tortilla, but Willy did not eat his and I did not eat all of mine.
The red snapper was cooked to perfection, moist in the middle and flaky at the edges. The beans were delicious also with their hint of avocado and hoja Santa. Willy particularly liked the mango salsa; I suspect because the sweetness of the mangoes balanced the spiciness of the jalapeño and the fresh onion, cilantro and tomato gave a fresh vegetable flavor to the salsa, so that no one ingredient dominated. Suzette had added a bit of salt to the salsa
We watched Golden State win its second game in the finals against Cleveland. While we watched I brought the clafoutis to the table and Suzette brought bowls and spoons. Suzette and I ate a few spoonfuls of clafoutis. It is the best one I have made this year, perhaps because the cherries have ripened in the last two weeks and are sweeter or because the Rainier cherries are a sweeter cherry or because I used a little more sugar or because I scalded the milk until a tower of bubbles rose from the pan. Baking is tricky.
Bon Appetit
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