July 26, 2018 Lunch – Tabouli Salad. Dinner – Book Club

July 26, 2018 Lunch – Tabouli Salad. Dinner – Book Club

I fried some of the hamburger helper and two eggs for breakfast.  It did not seem to agree with my stomach.

For lunch I reconstructed yesterday’s tabouli salad with a diced tomato, more kalamata olives, another labne, and more lettuce.

I also made an open face Jarlsberg cheese and Serrano ham sandwich.

At 3:00 I drove to Fano to buy a loaf of bread , but their retail store was closed.  They directed me to Albertson’s which had no Fano  bread either, but had just baked fresh loaves of French bread.  I bought two loaves for $1.98 each.

When I returned home at 4:45 I started cooking.  I first made the tandoori marinade for the lamb I diced yesterday with 1 ½ cups of Greek yogurt, 2 T. of lime juice, 1 T. of Madras curry powder, 1 tsp each of ground cumin and salt and ¼ tsp. of  cayenne and 1 T. of minced garlic.  Then you remove ¾ cup for sauce for the final dish and add ½ T. more of garlic to the marinade.  The marinade was so thick that I added a couple tsps. of milk to thin the marinade.



I then added the marinade to the lamb in the freezer bag and put it back into the fridge.


Clafoutis


I then made the Clafoutis.  We had lots of out of date heavy cream and Half and half, some made this Clafoutis with 1 cup of heavy cream and 2 cups of half and half..  I scalded the milk and it actually boiled for a few minutes.  I mixed 7 T. of flour with 10 T. of powdered sugar and ½ tsp. of salt in a bowl.  In the added three eggs beater to the dry ingredients.  Then I added three well beaten eggs to the dry mix and stirred them in.  Then I added the scalded milk to the mix and stirred it eliminate any lumps.  Finally I added the brandied cherries to the mix.  I had buttered and dusted a ceramic baking dish with sugar.

Then I poured the batter into the dish and baked it in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 50 minutes.  The result was a perfectly baked golden brown well risen Clafoutis, which I removed from the oven.

Suzette arrived as I cut a cantaloupe as I was cutting a cantaloupe into slices and then wedges.  Suzette wrapped prosciutto around three sides of secured them with toothpicks.

I then sliced 5 peaches into halves and Suzette grilled then on the grill for a few minutes and then topped with a roll of Serrano ham (Costco for $9.99).

I gathered the candies, Clafoutis, wines, peaches, and cantaloupe, plus a plate of pickles, and a bowl of mixed olives.

I decided to follow the norm and take $10.00 per bottle wine.  The four I chose were the lovely 2012 Vina Real Reserva from Rioja Mohua Sauvignon Blanc from Costco and a St. Sagnol Rose from Coteaux Varios de Provence and a Cherry Blossom California Pinot Noir from Trader Joe’s.  I love all of these wines.

Here are pictures of the dishes laid out on the table at Charlie and Susan’s house where we took all the stuff and held the meeting.

After filling plates with food and glasses with wine, we watched the documentary on Max Evans “The Thousand Year Old Man”  that Barry lent me.  I enjoyed it again and so did the others.  We then discussed the book and other Evans books and members gave their grades.

Then we moved to the kitchen and served the Clafoutis with whipped cream and Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream.

I was amazed by how successful the Clafoutis was.  There was one main reason.  I used higher butter fat milk, 1.2 cups of heavy cream and 1.8 cups of half and half.  I also let the milk boil when scalding it, which I do not know if made a different.  The result was this was the first Clafoutis in which the crust was fully integrated, rather than having a light custard over a heavy doughy crust.  The result was a creamy custard that held the cherries in matrix.  This lead to another beneficial effect, the edge of the custard pulled free of the edge of the ceramic dish.

Keith ate three helpings with liberal additions of whipped cream and I ate several helpings.  I think I have finally discovered the secrets to making a wonderful Clafoutis.

At 10:30 I took the cheeses and food back home.

I finally had time to look at the results in the Market.  Today was the largest 1 day loss of any stock in the history of the Market, when Facebook’s Total market capitalization dropped by $119,000,000.  I own 540 shares, so my loss from Facebook was $22,269.  But the good news from this catastrophe is that my total portfolio only dropped $10,000.  Not my worst day by a long shot.  This is direct evidence of the benefits of portfolio diversification.

Bon Appetit