April 17, 2019 Lunch – East Ocean  Dinner- PPI sautéed Trout on Calabacitas

I did not sleep well last night and slept until almost 7:30 after being awake for hours.

I drank a cup of hot water with the juice of ½ of a sweet lime.  The juice of a sweet lime is not sweet but is not sour like a lime or a lemon either. It is very mild with a subtle taste.

A I was drinking my juice Tahir called with a problem that needed immediate attention so I told him to come over in thirty minutes to give me time to shower and dress.  Being the considerate person he is, he brought me a box of bagels.  We worked on his problem until 11:00 when T-shirt had to leave.

I was thrilled when Peter Eller called at 10:45 asking if I wanted to go to lunch at 11:30.  Peter wanted to go to East Ocean 3601 Carlisle for a vey special dish.  One that I introduced him to because I created it.  It is a luncheon menu item, Shrimp in Lobster Sauce, with the substitution of scallops for the shrimp.  The lunch price has been raised to $8.50 from $5.50 since ownership of East Ocean changed hands about a year ago, and there is usually a $1.00 surcharge for the substitution of scallops for shrimp, but the added cost is worth it, because this is such a magical dish.  The Lobster Sauce is a suspension of clouds of egg in a thickened chicken stock and ground pork sauce with a small handful of finely sliced green onion and horizontal slices of three deep sea scallops tossed in and a mound of fried rice molded into the shape of a small inverted soup bowl on the edge of the large plate of sauce rather like a tiny diorama of a small hill beside a lake.

We ate and ate instead of talking today, the dish was that good.  Finally I finished and Peter chose to pack some of his lunch into a plastic box to take home.  I now realize I forgot to take a photo, alas.

I had mentioned wanting to go to Sprouts because it had a special on fresh corn, 6 ears for $1.00.  Peter said he had gotten over a dry spell of reduced income and the checks were now coming in.  I said that I had also reached a level of income that allows us to eat at a East Ocean instead of a hot dog at Costco. Peter criticized Costco for no longer using Nathan’s Polish dog’s and mentioned that Lowe’s had wonderful Boarshead franks.  I asked if Lowe’s offered Boarshead liverwurst and Peter again bemoaned the fact that Lowe’s no longer carried Boarshead liverwurst.  I said, “Sprouts carries Boarshead products.  Perhaps they have liverwurst.”

We decided to go to Sprouts and that I would buy Peter a lb. of liverwurst if they had it and six ears of corn, because Peter had to stay in the car because it was so painful for him to walk.  So we drove to Sprouts and Peter stayed in the car and listened to music on the radio.  I did an abbreviated shopping run.  Suzette and I both love liverwurst, probably as much as Peter, so I bought a lb. of liverwurst for us and a pound for Peter.  I then went to the meat counter and bought two small tuna steaks on sale for $7.99/lb. Then I went to the produce area and bagged six ears of corn for Suzette and me and six ears for Peter and a handful of green beans offered fo $.88/lb. and a lovely large artichoke for $2.00.  I then picked up a gallon of milk for $2.49 and finally went to the Supplement shelves and with assistance found the COQ-10 with L-carnitine liquid supplement, which was on sale at $25.00 per bottle reduced from $32.00.  I bought two bottles of this new supposedly magical elixir for my specific muscle enzyme deficiency.

Peter was not upset by my shopping delay.  In fact he was thrilled because he had listened to Ernest Bloch’s Israel Symphony.  I loaded the groceries into the car as the rain and small hail stones began to fall and drove us Bach home in the light rain shower.  When we got home we had outrun the rain which was coming over the mountains from the East. I helped load Peter’s PPI lunch and his corn and liverwurst into his SUV and said goodbye and drove into the garage as the wall of rain and hail

engulfed our house.  I put up the groceries as the storm subsided into a light rain.

I saw on the news that this was the first El Niño year in many years and New Mexico could expect above normal rainfall and all the reservoirs to fill.  It drizzled most of last night and had started raining again, so El Niño seems to have arrived.

It was almost 2:00 and I decided to marinate the tuna in teriyaki sauce.  The official recipe for teriyaki sauce is 7 T. each of Aji Mirin, soy sauce, and sake plus 1 T. of sugar dissolved into solution over low heat.  I have simplified the official recipe into 1/3 cup of each liquid ingredient plus 1 T. of sugar.  Today the 1 lb. of tuna was such a small quantity of meat that I used ¼ cup of each liquid and 2/3 T. of sugar and heated the mixture to nearly a boil.  After the teriyaki sauce cooled a bit I put the two tuna filets into a gallon freezer bag and poured the teriyaki sauce into the bag and placed it in the fridge to marinate.

When I returned to my computer I saw that the general counsel for the Taxation and Revenue Department has called  regarding Tahir’s issue, so I called her and we had a lovely chat and I asked to please see what she could do to resolve Tahir’s issue .  She called back a bit after 5:00 to tell me the Department had made an offer to settle Tahir’s tax issue and I thanked her.  She complimented me by saying my reasonableness had helped convince the Departmrnt to resolve the issue favorably, which opened the door for me to tell her that I had spent most of my career as a general counsel like her and how much I had enjoyed it and how it had taught me to use diplomacy to persuade rather than threats.  We ended the conversation with mutual good feelings as I thanked her for her efforts to assist in the resolution of the issue.  She had talked to the Secretsry and the revenue officer and written a letter to me with the Department’s offer, that resolved the issue favorably.

Suzette came home a bit before 5:00 but I was busy on Tahir’s case that occupied me until almost 6:00.  Suzette usually makes a quick reconnaissance of the fridge and today she found the liverwurst and corn.  So while I worked she ate a slice of liverwurst and started making calabacitas.

Calabacitas

Suzette removed the kernels from three ears of corn, and sliced an onion and sliced four zucchini.  She was  sautéing the onion and corn in a large casserole in heated butter and olive oil when I arrived in the kitchen at 6:00. I diced four tomatoes and added those to the casserole.  Then we added a T. of dried oregano and finally the zucchini slices.  I suggested adding some garlic.  Suzette agreed and I chopped and added about 2 T. of garlic.  We covered the casserole and simmered the calabacitas on low heat for about twenty minutes.  Suzette felt that we should eat the PPI trout from Monday night’s dinner so she placed the two PPI sautéed trout filets on top of the calabacitas and recovered the casserole and simmered the trout for fifteen minutes in the steam inside the casserole to re-heat the
trout.

When everything was heated, we were ready to eat.

Suzette was sipping a scotch, so I poured a glass of 2017 Belles Vignes French Sauvignon Blanc, my new favorite inexpensive French Sauvignon Blanc.  It lacks the clarity or tannins of Sancerre but it costs $5.99, I think, at Trader Joe’s instead of $18.00 to $20.00 minimum for a Sancerre at Total Wine or Jubilation or even an $8.00 to $12.00 bottle of American or New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.  It was a good choice for a PPI meal, sort of a good everyday white, especially if you did not care about the citrus acidity of higher quality Sauvignon Blancs.

Suzette served us bowls with a half of the trout filet lying on a pile of calabacitas.  I loved the fresh vegetable stew and took seconds of calabacitas.

After dinner Suzette scooped two scoops for each of us of the Scoops coffee chocolate swirl ice cream and doused them with rum and Kahlua and a squirt of whipped cream on top.

I filled a medium large mixing bowl with chunks of 1 small papaya, 1 pineapple, 5 mangos, and 4 oranges and the juice of two limes to make tropical fruit salad as I watched Rachel Maddow.  The fruit salad was delicious.  At 9:00 we went to bed after another great day of food adventures.

Bon Appetit