March 9, 2019 Lunch – Steak, Mushroom, Asparagus, Onion, and tomato Omelet. Dinner – Shrimp Scampi on Spaghetti and Spinach

Whole lot of cookin’ goin” on.

I did not eat breakfast because I had a project to finish.  At 11:30 I chopped PPI Steak, Mushroom, Asparagus, and tomato. Suzette had added oil and vinegar to the cooked asparagus, onion, and Diced tomato not used in the duck salad on Thursday evening.  I sautéed 1 oz. of onion and three sliced mushrooms in olive oil and butter.  I diced the steak and asparagus.  I whisked two eggs.  When the mushrooms and onion softened I added the diced steak and cooked the mixture another minute or two and then added the marinated tomato and asparagus.

I then added the two whisked eggs and then dipped the pan to distribute the egg evenly.  After several minutes I slid the egg pancake onto a plate and ate it with a cup of tea.

I then drove to Sprouts on Coors and bought 15 lb. of asparagus for $.98/lb., I also saw beautiful large shrimp for $9.99/lb. that I could not resist and scallops for $8.99/lb. and two Aji tuna filets for $7.99/lb.

I then bought fresh dill for $1.99 and dried cranberries and apricots for $1.99/lb. and cluster tomatoes for $.98/lb.  l felt great about my purchases as I drove home.

When I got home, I made

Gravad Lax with Suzette’s assistance.  I mixed 1 ½ cups of salt with 1 1/3 cup of sugar and a tsp of ground black pepper.  Then I lay a layer of dill from the garden n the bottom of a Pyrex baking dish. Then we coated the skin side of a salmon filet with the dry curing mixture and lay the skin side down on the dill.  Then I coated the inside with the mixture and then lay the store bought dill on the exposed inside filet.  Then we coated the inside of the other filet and lay the two insides together.  Finally we lay dill sprigs on top of the exposed skin side of the other filet and coated it with the remaining mixture.  I then lay Saran over the dish and weighted the top with a brick to create pressure on the whole and put it n the fridge to cure. The recipe for the curing mixture is for six pounds of fish.  I usually cure for 24 hours, turning the fish after 12 hours, but in this case because the fish did not fully fill the dish, I cured for 36 hours to make sure the fish got as much contact as possible with the curing liquid.

After I put the Gravad lax into the fridge to cure it was 4:30 and we decided to exercise and then to make dinner.  Suzette walked a mile around one of the lakes at Tingley Beach and I rode my bike three miles north to Central and then south to Marquez and back home.

Dinner -  Our first thought was to made shrimp cocktails with Vichyssoises but when I showed Suzette the beautiful large shrimp and suggested that we make Shrimp Scampi, she agreed and instead of boiling the shrimp in the pot of water I had filled and added orange peel and dill stems to for flavor, she cooked spaghetti in the pot of water while I peeled and deveined the shrimp.  Suzette chopped several zucchini, some onion, and the rest of the yellow bell pepper.  I chopped two or three cloves of garlic and three or four T. of parsley and then she then sautéed the ingredients in olive oil and butter.  Suzette then laid a layer of fresh spinach leaves on the bottom of two pasta bowls. When the spaghetti was cooked to al dente, she rinsed it and then added it and the shrimp to the large skillet and sautéed and tossed everything together until the shrimp were cooked.  Suzette then filled each bowl with the shrimp and spaghetti mixture and we ate it with glasses of the last of the Spanish La Granja white blend of Viura and Verdejo grapes and then opened a bottle of Picton Bay New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that I had chilled in the fridge for a day.  We preferred the Sauvignon Blanc because of its grapefruity citrus flavor with the shrimp.  Both are from Trader Joe’s.  The La Granja is $5.99 and I believe the Picton Bay is $7.99.

 This was the best shrimp scampi I have ever eaten because the shrimp were the best I have ever eaten and the dish was simple, well integrated flavors.  The addition of fresh spinach raised it to a higher level of a warm spinach salad by integrating a fresh vegetable.  I loved it.  The shrimp were advertised at Sprouts as coming from the Sea of Cortez.  This clicked with what the seafood market owner in Sayulita told us when I asked if the shrimp came from San Blas.  He said, “No, Sinaloa”, meaning the State of Sinaloa.  I now realize he meant from the waters of the Sea of Cortez next to Sinaloa.  I don’t know if they are raised or live caught but they are beautiful.

 

While Suzette was cooking our fabulous dinner, I sliced five Yukon gold potatoes from Costco and the three leeks I bought at El Super last week and placed them in the large Le Creuset casserole and filled it with water and Suzette added 1/T. of salt and we cooked them for an hour while we fixed and ate our diner.  I did not peel the potatoes, so the soup was a little lumpy with skin, which I liked.  I do not like the slick, even slimy, starchy potage that the French seem to prefer.

After dinner Suzette puréed the mixture with the emulsion blender and we added a bit more salt, the last two T. of chopped parsley left from dinner and 4 to 6 T. of heavy cream and stirred those in to make potage.  After tasting several spoonfuls of warm potage, we took the casserole filled with soup to the garage fridge to chill and mellow into Vichyssoises.

 Clafoutis.

I then scalded three cups of half and half. In a separate bowl I mixed 7 T. of white flour, 10 T. of confectioner’s powdered sugar and three T. of almond flour and ½ tsp. of salt.  Then I buttered a ceramic baking dish and whisked four eggs and added the whipped egg to the dry mixture and then the scalded half and half that had cooled for a few minutes.

I stirred the mixture and poured it into the baking dish and the added three 6 oz. containers of blue berries I had bought for $.99 each at Smith’s on Wednesday and one container of blackberries I bought today for $.77 at Sprouts.  I stirred the fruit into the mixture and placed the baking dish on a cookie sheet and we placed the cookie sheet and baking dish into the oven Suzette had preheated to 350 degrees.

We baked the Clafoutis on a cookie sheet in the 350 degree oven for 45 minutes on an  over and under heat convection setting

After 45 minutes of cooking the center of the Clafoutis was firm and the edges brown and bubbling.  I covered it with Saran and put it into the fridge.

We watched some SNL that now is shown twice.  We watched the earlier showing that starts at 9:30 to accommodate us aging millennials and went to bed at 11:00, before the news and the second showing at 11:30.

Bon Appetit