I are my usual breakfast and a Suzette and I rode to the Nature Center and back.
I met Robert for lunch at East Ocean to discuss his cases. Robert is a vegetarian, so the choice for lunch was easy. We split a dinner portion of Combination Vegetables with Fried Tofu for $7.95. The vegetables are the same that are included in my new favorite dish, .Moo Goo Gai Pan. The only difference is the addition of fried tofu in this dish instead of chicken in the Moo Goo Gai Pan, which makes the Combination Vegetables with Fried Tofu fully vegetarian.
We had thawed out a ribeye steak for dinner. At 6:30 after my last appointment I started slicing about 1/3 lb. of white mushrooms and a medium shallot and went to the garden and picked a basket of baby greens from our garden and two ripe tomatoes. I made a Caprese salad by slicing the tomatoes and laying the slices on the salad that I had placed in a pasta bowl after rinsing and spinning it an placed the salad in the fridge to chill and freshen a bit. I then cleaned and separated slices of fresh mozzarella (Costco) and put a slice of cheese under each slice of tomato.
When Suzette arrived around 7:00 she took over making the salad dressing. She combined about 1 ½ T. of Fig balsamic vinegar with about 2 T. of Spanish olive oil from Sprouts (bought on sale for $5.99). I went to the garden and picked a handful of basil leaves and placed one or two on each slice of tomato in the salad. I then whisked the dressing to combine the balsamic vinegar with the olive oil and drizzled it onto the salad and put the salad back into the fridge to chill.
We then turned our attention to the rest of the meal. Suzette is Miss Grilleta, so she took over the grilled food duties. I am the saucier, so I took over sautéing the mushrooms.
I fetched the three ears of fresh corn from the garage ice box while a Suzette salted the steak with coarse sea salt and ground black pepper.
She then placed the corn in its husk in the grill beside the steak and grilled them together.
Sautéed Mushrooms
I then peeled and minced 1 clove of garlic from our garden. I put 1 T. of olive oil and 1 1/2 T. of butter in a non-stick sauté pan and heated it. When the butter had melted I added the sliced Sautéed Mushrooms
shallot and garlic and added a dash of white pepper and two dashes of ground thyme and sautéed them over medium heat for a couple of minutes, while I fetched the bottle of Amontillado sherry from the dining room.
I the added the mushrooms and sautéed them for about five minutes to coat them in grease and soften them a bit. I then added about 1 ½ T. of sherry and stirred and cooked the mixture for a minute and then turned of the heat to preserve the liquid in the sauce.
Soon after I finished the sauce, Suzette brought the char broiled steak and ears of corn in. I opened a bottle of 2007 Wellington Mohrhardt Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon, which is my favorite Cab and the best one in the house. I had a velvety smooth texture from front to back of the tongue without any hint of tannins, just a quiet, rich slightly jammy fruitiness. A superb wine.
Suzette had cooked the boneless ribeye to medium rare perfection pink throughout and the corn had kept its moisture and freshness. Suzette de-husked two ears of corn and I sliced the steak. Suzette then plated the corn and we each plated one half of the slices of steak and scooped the mushroom sauce on top of the steak slices. We poured glasses of wine and put the plates of food and the Caprese salad on a tray and I took the tray to the table under the gazebo in the garden, while Suzette carried the wine glasses. She had already taken silverware and napkins to the gazebo.
We both had worked hard today, which probably made this simple but wonderful meal even more enjoyable. I did not butter my corn. Instead it became coated with the light butter and sherry sauce from the mushrooms that gave it a pleasant flavor. The soft mushrooms combined with the steak were divine, especially when followed by a sip of jammy fruity Cab. We freshened our palate with bites of the crisp lettuce and tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad and cycled through the dinner ingredients time and time again until we had eaten everything.
This was a great dinner because it included the freshest ingredients and a fabulous wine, even though the ingredients were prepared simply and quickly.
The cool temperature of the evening air told us we were approaching the end of Summer. Suzette was particularly proud of her recent successful installation of our handmade Mexican light fixture over the gazebo table that cast a soft orange light onto the table without having to deal with the inefficiencies of the old candelabra that she moved to above our patio table where the candles will be better protected from gusts of wind.
After dinner we returned to the house and Suzette decided to eat the rest of the clafoutis, but left me a small piece. I decided to finish the meal with a slice or two of Brie and a few more sips of wine for a traditional French cheese course. I had aged a ½ kilo wheel of French Brie for a month before cutting into it last week, so it was at its soft creamy best flavor. The richness of the creamy cheese clashed slightly with the jamminess of the Cab, but that seemed like a too fussy thought, although It reminded me why the French prefer Pinot Noir with cheese.
This was the same cheese given by the producer to diners at the communal dinner on June 6, 2016 that we attended on Omaha Beach. Isigny Ste. Mere is just a couple of miles south of Omaha Beach.
Then I made a cup of earl grey tea and poured a shot of Calvados and and sipped them as I ate small bites of the clafoutis. I had an urge to finish the meal in the French style, so I ate a Lindor chocolate with the last of the Calvados and tea.
It was 9:30 and we both were ready to crawl into bed.
Bon Appetit
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