June 18, 2018 Lunch – Vietnam 2000. Dinner – Baked Turkey, brown gravy, apricot and cherry compote, mashed potatoes, and Asparagus and Toast points
This was another great food day.
I toasted 1/3 slice of whole wheat everything bagel and spread it with cream cheese and garnished it with thin slices of Vidalia onion and Lax, and capers and drank a cup of green tea with it.
Peter Eller wrote to me and I called him and he came over and looked at the new Bisttram painting and Baumann wood block print and then we drove to Vietnam 2000 for lunch. We had gone to Viet Taste Restaurant on Menaul last week, which I thought was sub-par and was amazed it had won the award for the best Vietnamese restaurant in Albuquerque. I could not believe that it merited the best award, so I suggested we go to Vietnam 2000, which is my all around favorite and depending upon the dish one of my two or three favorite Vietnamese restaurants in Albuquerque.
I ordered no. 50, which is sheets of cooked rice flour pasta laid on top of lightly sautéed mung bean sprouts, cucumber, green onion rings, fried onion threads, and chopped basil and mint. The rice sheets are garnished with crisp fried egg rolls and marinated grilled pork and a few sprigs of cilantro. The dish is served with a bowl of Vietnamese fish sauce to soften and flavor the noodles. It is a beautiful and extremely tasty dish. In the winter the vegetables are sautéed more and it becomes even more interesting as the warm vegetable filling produces a flavorful sauce on its own. I do not think any other restaurant in Albuquerque serves flour sheet dishes such as this.
Peter looked at the photos of dishes in the menu and ordered a banh dish, which is cooked vermicelli rice noodles that are cut and patted into squares and garnished with a beef wrapped shrimp that has been fried. It is a unique dish that I have only seen served at Vietnam 2000. The noodles were hard for inexplicable reason and Peter had trouble eating them but he loved the tender beef wrapped shrimp. We agreed Vietnam 2000 was a superior restaurant.
After we returned home and I said goodbye to Peter I met with a client and worked until 3:00.
I brought in the 19 lb. turkey we had thawed and cleaned it and put it in one of the turkey bags Suzette bought yesterday and threw some flour on the turkey and baked it in a 325 degree oven from 3:20. When Suzette came home she informed me that I should have thrown the four in the bag to coat the bag and I should have cut slits in the bag so the skin would brown.
I put the neck and giblets in a pot of water with 1 tsp. of Knorr dehydrated chicken stock and simmered it to make a stock.
With all my mistakes (the skin did not brown and the turkey cooked very slowly), it was the most tender turkey meat I have ever tasted. I guess I poached the turkey.
After I finished work at 4:30 I peeled and diced six or seven small Russet potatoes and put them into a pot filled with enough water to cover the potato chunks.
When Suzette arrived at 5:30 we discussed the accompanying dishes. I said I could go to the store to buy some canned cranberry sauce, but Suzette said, “We have fresh apricots. I can make a fruit compote out of those. I suggested, “There is ½ cup of brandies fresh cherries in the fridge also.” Then Suzette asked, “What green vegetable do we have? I answered, “We have asparagus.” And Suzette, answered, “And chard in the garden. But I can make Asparagus and toast points.” I chimed in, “That would be wonderful, it would be a little like dressing because it uses bread.”
So the menu was set. We would use available ingredients to make:
Roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, asparagus and toast points, and an apricot/cherry compote.
Suzette went to the kitchen to do her magic.
Asparagus and Toast Points
This one of Suzette’s traditional family recipes that I never experienced until I met a suzette. She chopped several stalks of asparagus and cooked them. Then she toasted four slices of rye bread and chopped them into pieces and combined them with the asparagus and warm milk and butter in a bowl.
She pitted some apricots and added the ½ cup of pitted cherries and a bit of sugar and water and stewed them into a bittersweet compote. In about ½ hour.
She removed the turkey around 3:30, then made a roux with flour and butter and added enough of the cooking juices from inside the turkey bag to make a gravy.
Finally, she cooked the diced potatoes until tender and then whipped them with milk and butter in the Kitchen Aid mixer.
Suzette also decided to drink a Rose we had in the fridge rather than the La Granja Viura/Verdejo I put into the fridge, and poured some of the Rose to sip on.
This was accomplished by Suzette between 6:00 and 7:00, while I watched TV.
The turkey was roasted to golden brown, even though its skin was a soggy mess. We cut the bag off the roasted turkey and I sliced four or five slices of white meat from the unfloured side and removed
a thigh from the turkey and sliced the meat from the thigh. The meat was cooked and very tender.
Suzette poured me a glass of rose and plated a mound of mashed and a clump of compote and put the bowl of asparagus and toast points on the table. We each chose several pieces of turkey and poured gravy over the turkey and mashed potatoes. We took our plates and glasses to the table and added some asparagus and toast points. We gave thanks for this lovely food and that we had all the wonderful ingredients to make such a great meal and enjoyed our turkey dinner.
I could not watch the news about the separation of immigrant families, so we watched the replay of the England v. Tunisia soccer match and the Antique Roadshow episode from Omaha.
Willy came around 8:00 and re-heated a plate of food and did laundry and talked about his trip to Phoenix in the morning. I agreed to pick him up at 7:20 and drive him to the airport. When Willy left around 8:45 we began putting up the food. Suzette made room in the fridge by throwing away the old tortillas and pita bread. She put the other dishes and the turkey broth into plastic containers, while I sliced and deboned the meat from the turkey. I filled four one gallon freezer bags, one with bones, one with dark meat and two with white meat.
We finished and got ready for bed by 10:0o.
It seems like both Suzette and I thrive on these intense cooking and eating experiences in which we are challenged to quickly devise and execute menus and meals with available ingredients.
Willy and I picked apricots from Macon’s tree yesterday. I had shopped for all the other ingredients in the last week or two. The cherries were left from the Clafoutis I made last Friday with cherries that I bought at El Super for $1.77/lb. I bought three lb. of asparagus last Thursday on sale for $1.69/lb. at Sprouts. The day old rye bread was bought last week at Pastian’s Bakery store for less than $1.00 and the turkey was salvaged from the old refrigerator in the basement flood last week. It was a 19 lb. butterball turkey bought last Thanksgiving for $.99/lb. at Albertson’s. The potatoes were bought in a 10 lb. bag at El Super for $1.66. So this was not only a wonderfully delicious meal, but also a relatively inexpensive meal; probably costing less than $25.00 for all the ingredients. Besides providing a fabulous fresh turkey dinner for three, we have PPIs we shall use for a week of other meals. Suzette is already planning turkey salad and turkey soup. Voila.
This seems to be the system. A meal of fresh ingredients followed by several meals utilizing the PPIs from that meal.
Bon Appetit
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