We rode to Rio Bravo this morning. I showered and watched Stage 19 of the Tour de France. Evald Bossehagen of Norway won the stage.
Aaron came by at 11:30 and we went to lunch at Taj Mahal. It was as wonderful as ever, with my favorite dish being the Saag Paneer. After lunch we returned to my house and went over several matters for Railway Land Company.
I had not slept well last night so I lay down a bit after 4:00 and watched the news.
Suzette came home around 5:45 and we decided to sauté the six scallops I had bought at Sprouts Tuesday. I wanted a sorrel cream sauce made with the lobster stock we had made last Saturday.
After fetching the lobster stock from the garage, I went to the garden and picked a handful of sorrel. Then I peeled and minced three cloves of garlic and 3 oz. of onion. Suzette suggested that I make the cauliflower couscous, so after she de-flowered ½ of a head of cauliflower and processed it in the Cuisinart down to small pieces that resembled couscous. I sliced six mushrooms for the couscous dish and then heated 2 T. each of butter and olive oil in a large skillet and added the onion and garlic and sautéed them for five to six minutes and then added the mushrooms and an additional T. of butter. I cooked those three ingredients with a pinch of dried tarragon for about 10 minutes and then added the couscous cauliflower and sautéed the dish for another 10 to fifteen minutes to cook the
cauliflower.
Scallops in asparagus and sorrel cream sauce
While I was cooking the cauliflower, Suzette was making the scallop dish. She first heated butter and olive oil in a skillet and sautéed the scallops to golden brown on one side and less on the other side and then set them aside.
She then made a roux by adding 2 T. of flour to skillet with the oil and butter used to sauté the scallops and cooked the flour until it began to turn a light brown color. She then added three ladles full of lobster broth (about 2 cups), while I stirred the sauce to eliminate lumps. She then added 1 to 2 T. each of sherry and heavy cream and then 1 cup of diced asparagus and the cleaned sorrel and cooked them several minutes to allow the sauce to thicken. She then returned the scallops to the sauce in the skillet to re-heat.
I had chilled a bottle of Chablis ($12.99 at Trader Joe’s) at 4:00. I poured glasses while Suzette first put a pile of the mushroom cauliflower couscous on our plates and then ladled spoonfuls of scallops and sauce onto the plate over the couscous.
We have re-grooved our diet to eliminate many of the carbs, processed ingredients, and dishes sweetened with white sugar. As you can see from tonight’s meal it is easy to create flavorful,
exciting dishes quickly.
We started cooking around 6:00 and finished eating the meal by 7:00, when we looked at Cynthia’s e mail extolling the musical performers at the Outpost, Jane Bennett and six Cuban women musicians in a group named Maqueque, who they had heard Thursday evening.
So we decided to go to the Outpost to see if we could get tickets. We arrived around 7:30 and were among the first to be admitted, so we took two seats on the fourth row at the Center aisle that gave us a perfect view of the stage. The music was Afro-Cuban and the musicians were wonderful, masterful musicians and very tight. They played a spirited 1 ½ hour set until about 9:45. Cynthia and Ricardo came again because they had bought $10.00 tickets last night. We paid $30.00 at the door tonight.
Richard Barrish came by to say hello and we invited him to join us.
After the concert, while we were speaking to Cynthia, Clift and Nancy Blaugrund walked by and said hello.
It was a very pleasant, spontaneous evening. Good food puts you in a good mood. During the concert I felt the wonderful food I had eaten today displace the ill effects of the bad food I ate yesterday. We discussed it and both agreed that the pate’ was probably the main suspect.
We went to bed as soon as we returned home a bit after 10:00 p.m.
Bon Appetit
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