March 23, 2018 Lunch – Super Caesar Salad. Dinner – cedar Plank Grilled Teriyaki Salmon, Rice, and Steamed Green Beans Dessert - Hotel Chaco

March 23, 2018 Lunch – Super Caesar Salad. Dinner – cedar Plank Grilled Teriyaki Salmon, Rice, and Steamed Green Beans Dessert - Hotel Chaco

I ate ½ of a bagel with Lax, cream cheese, red onion slices and capers with tea with milk for breakfast.

For lunch I decided to make my a salad.  I went to the garden and gathered a basket full of lettuces, which I rinsed, spun, and filled a pasta bowl with.

Then I diced a Roma tomato, sliced thinly a large green onion, added some fried onions and green cracked olives and sliced 1/3 cucumber.  I then grated a fair amount of Pecorino Romano cheese on the salad and added a sliced pickled egg and four Spanish anchovies.  I doused the salad with Caesar dressing and grabbed a couple of knaekebrod rounds and a glass of water and ate to my heart’s content.  The salad  was twice as large and twice as good as the one yesterday.

 

I was tired from lack of sleep and another loosing day in the market, so I decided to go food shopping.  I receive food brochures in the mail every week, so I knew Smith’s had asparagus for $.98/lb. so I went there first.  I bought two bunches, plus a 3.5 lb. chuck roast for $2.97/lb. and a small plastic container of blueberries for $1.25.

Then I drove to Sprouts , because it had a special on Atlantic farm raised fresh salmon, which is my favorite for making Gravad Lax.

Besides two 2 lb. matched salmon filets. I bought an eggplant for $.50, three ears of corn for $.99, and a 2 lb. bag of 16-20 count per lb. shrimp.

After I put away the groceries I went to the garden and picked a basket of dill and rinsed it.  I then made Gravad Lax. I put 1 cup salt,  ¾ cup sugar, and 1 tsp. of mortar ground pepper corns in a bowl and stirred the ingredients to mix them.  Then I cut the salmon fillets to fit a pyrex baking dish and lay a layer of dill on the bottom of the Pyrex baking dish.

I then spooned some of the dry ingredients over the skin side of one filet and lay it skin side down on the dill.  I then spooned dry ingredients on the exposed inner flesh side and lay dill on top of it.

Then I spooned dry ingredients on the inner flesh side of the other fillet and lay it flesh side down on top of the layer of dill so it fir into the dish and lined up with the other filet.  I then lay the rest of the dill on top of the exposed skin side o& the second filet and then spooned the rest o& the dry
ingredients on top of the dill.  I then covered the salmon and dish with Saran, placed a brick on top of the coated salmon filets to weigh them down and placed the dish in the fridge st around 4:30.  I will flip the salmon after 24 hours, at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon and at 4:30 on Sunday afternoon after curing for approximately 48 hours, I will remove the residual ingredients and wash off the salmon to remove an6 excess sal5 and sugar, wipe the two filets dry, wrap them in Saran, place the
wrapped filets in a freezer bag and store them in the meat drawer of the fridge, ready to use.

            The Lax cure after 7 1/2/hours.  Note that dry ingredients have gone into solution

I called a Willy and told him we were grilling teriyaki salmon tonight, which is one of his favorite meals.  He later texted and asked if he could bring his friend, Andy, from work for dinner and could we make rice.

When Suzette came home at 5:00, I told her that Willy planned to arrive for dinner around 6:00.

At about 5:15 I made rice by putting 2 cups of water into a pot with ¼ tsp. of dehydrated Knorr chicken stock, a few dried Lilly pods, and about a Tsp of dried shitake mushrooms.  When the water came to a boil I added 1 cup of basmati rice, covered the pan, reduced the heat to low and simmered the rice for 30 minutes.  Suzette cut two cedar boards to the size of the two salmon filets and soaked them in a bathtub in water for 30 minutes.  Then a little before 6:00 Suzette lay one filet on each board being careful to keep the edges of the filets inside the edge of the boards and heated the propane grill outside
Then she placed the boards on the grill and cooked them for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile I snapped the hard ends of the haricot verts and placed them in the steamer with water and placed them on high heat for 10 minutes.

Suzette she wanted to drink Marble Double White beer with dinner, so I went to the garage and fetched the last three.

When Wily and Andy arrived we served glasses of water.  Suzette said the salmon needed to cook an additional ten minutes.  I turned off the heat under the rice and green beans.

Suzette set the table and I gave beers to Willy, Andy, and Suzette.  I poured a glass of Apple cider
from Normandy that I bought at Trader Joe’s for $4.99.

The salmon was perfectly cooked, crisp on the edges and moist on the inside.  The rice was flaky and delicious, and the green beans were soft but still a little crisp.

Dinner was really pleasant.  Fresh, flavorful and healthy.  We enjoyed meeting Andy, who works with Willy.

A bit after 7:00 Willy and Andy left and Suzette suggested we go to Hotel Chaco to have dessert and watch the sunset.

When we arrived at Hotel Chaco we were greeted warmly and shown to the fifth floor bar observation deck.  We were shown two two chairs at a pebble shaped table at the edge of the deck that was surrounded by plate glass panels that protected us from the wind.

We enjoyed the great design of the building and the lighting and when the waitress came over we ordered a chocolate flourless torte, a pot of tea, and Suzette ordered a Special drink named Rio Chaco, that was made with a chocolate liquor, bitters, and tequila.

The flourless torte was delicious, a baked fudge served with a pile of sweet strawberry compote and garnished with a slice of chocolate dusted with sesame seeds.

At 8:30 we walked around the hotel and then went home.

I read a few pages of The Hi Lo Country by Max Evans and then went to bed.

Bon Appetit