June 14, 2018 Lunch - Padilla’s Dinner Poached Salmon and Asparagus in Cream Sauce with Roasted Potatoes

June 14, 2018 Lunch - Padilla’s   Dinner Poached Salmon and Asparagus in Cream Sauce with Roasted Potatoes

This was a fabulous day of food.

It started at breakfast with lax and red onion on a cream cheese smeared 1/3 toasted slice of bagel garnished with capers.

Then Peter texted me at lunch to discuss a matter and we decided to go to Padilla’s for lunch.  Today the Chile rellenos were both wonderful and double dipped.  They were so large I could only eat one.  Peter ordered enchiladas with a spinach and bean mixture that looked wonderful.  The sopapillas were as good as always which means they are probably the best in Albuquerque.

After lunch I drove to Sprouts and bought 3 lb. of asparagus at the rain check price of $1.69.

We invited a Willy for dinner.   Had purchased a 1 ½ lb. salmon filet yesterday at Sprouts.  We decided to poach the salmon filet with some asparagus and make a cream sauce with the poaching medium.  We had about ¼ cup of dill stalks that I chopped and added to the poaching medium with a small head of garlic and 1/4 of a medium Vidalia onion minced.

Suzette made the poaching medium with, butter, white wine, and water.  She covered the pan to poach the salmon and asparagus. I made a roux with 2 T. of butter and 2 T. of flour plus a pinch of white pepper and salt.

When the salmon and asparagus were fully poached Suzette removed them from the pan and I slowly added the poaching liquid to the roux over low heat to make the cream sauce.  To give the sauce some extra richness Suzette added a heaping T. of crema.

Before the meal Suzette made a jiffy cobbler with the fresh apricots Megan picked from her tree.

Here is the recipe:


After dinner Willy left to get ready for a report he is presenting tomorrow.


I made a cup of tea and Suzette filled two parfait bowls with apricot cobbler and a scoop of ice
cream.

I loved everything about the meal.  A cream sauce made with fish stock is one of my favorites and is one of the easiest sauces to make.

I opened a bottle of 2016 Hungarian Gruner Vetliner ($6.99 at Trader Joe’s).  It was a little light and a little too sweet for my taste with this meal.  I would have preferred a heavier more full bodied white with more tannins like a Chablis, but Suzette loved Gruner Vetliner and we had a chilled bottle in the fridge.

It was a great day of food but I was a little depressed by some of the news, especially Trump’s new policy for Ice to separate children from their family when they cross the border illegally. It seems extremely mean spirited and immoral when justified as biblically ordained.

I am sure the policy will change, but it is one more reason to hope Congress soon will recalibrate its moral compass to stop some of the excesses of Trump’s Executive branch.

It was a huge news day with release of the FBI IG’s report on the Clinton tape investigation and the indictment of the Trump family by the NY Attorney General for violations by the Trump Charitable Foundation.

Bon Appetit