October 3, 2019 Lunch – Pho #1. Dinner – Grilled rib steak, baked Potatoes, Sautéed Mushrooms, and roasted String beans

October 3, 2019 Lunch – Pho #1. Dinner – Grilled rib steak, baked Potatoes, Sautéed Mushrooms, and roasted String beans

I ate my usual breakfast and then rode the short circle about three miles.  Then I worked until 11:45 when Peter picked me up and drove us to Pho #1 on San Pedro between Central and Zuni.

Spoiler alert, Pho #1 specializes in Pho, a hot soup made with a beef broth enriched with aromatic herbs and spices plus thin vermicelli noodles and a selected assortment of cuts of beef.  We each ordered number 46, with rare beef, brisket and tripe.  We ordered large bowls for $8.95 each plus an appetizer, Central Vietnam egg rolls that used tapioca flour for the fried wrappers and were stuffed with marinated grilled pork, shrimp and noodles with a fish sauce dipping sauce. ($5.95).  We each also ordered iced Vietnamese coffee.  They were brought to us already made in a plastic cup with a lid and a straw.  They used high octane espresso coffee , which Peter loved, butvwhich I found a bit too caffeinated for me.

The soups were served with a small mountain of oriental basil and mung bean sprouts.  We enjoyed our lunch but we found ourselves devoted to Vietnam 2000, or more specifically its Bun Cha Gio with the fried egg rolls.  We are not pho folks yet.

After lunch I worked until 4:30 and then went to the bank and then to meditate at 5:00.

When I finished meditating at 6:00 I returned home.  Suzette had baked three russet potatoes.

I started by slicing six portobello mushrooms and a shallot and three cloves of garlic and de-stemming a tsp. of fresh tarragon leaves whileSuzette snapped the ends off the three types of string beans, purple, yellow and large flat green pole bean that we had bought at the Farmers’ Market.  She then steamed the beans covered in a Pyrex baking dish and then doused them with butter, olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them on the grill in the Pyrex baking dish with the steak, as she did the carrots last night.

I then opened the bottle of 2015 Chateau Roudier from Montagne-St. Emilon Controlle that I bought on Monday at Trader Joe’s for $12.99.  It is one of our favorite wines for steak.  The newly released 2015 does not have the concentration and character of the earlier vintages, but it is a well constructed wine with great smoothness. Perhaps I will buy six more bottles and age them for a year or two.

While Suzette was grilling the beans and steak, I sautéed the sliced mushrooms, shallot, the fresh tarragon leaves and garlic in a medium skillet with three T. of butter at medium high heat, because Suzette said, “the steak will be ready in three minutes.”. In three or four minutes the color of the mushrooms turned darker as they began to absorb the butter. Then I doused the mushrooms with two T. of Amontillado sherry and after a minute turned down the heat as Suzette was carrying in the grilled steak.

I quickly sliced the six or seven chives into thin rounds and fetched the crema from the fridge.

Suzette had charred the steak on the outside but the inside was rare to medium rare, which is the way we like it and the string beans were tender except for the thicker Eastern Pole beans, from which we could only eat the small beans inside.

Suzette fetched the pitcher of Béarnaise Sauce from the fridge and sliced the steak.

We served ourselves slices of steak, a baked potato filled with butter, sour cream and chives, string beans, and garnished the steak slices with sautéed mushrooms and dabs of Béarnaise Sauce and I poured glasses of red wine.  We enjoyed a lovely dinner.

This is a type of dinner that we often make, so we are very familiar with how to make it quickly, including knowing and accounting for the fact that that dishes such as the steak or mushrooms continue to cook after they are taken off the grill or the heat is reduced and we include that two or three minutes of cooking time consciously or unconsciously.

After dinner I toasted four slices of ciabatta and spread butter on them and slices of brie or a scoop of goat cheese and washed them down with a bit more wine.

Suzette was craving dessert, so she found the last three Swedish Punchroller in the freezer. Punchroller are my favorite Swedish dessert.  I buy them at IKEA.  They are a roll of coconut and chocolate filling wrapped with pistachio flavored marzipan and cut into two inch long pieces and the ends are dipped in dark chocolate to seal the ends.  I heated one for Suzette in the microwave for 20 seconds and poured her a sniffer of cognac and she enjoyed her dessert as we watched an episode of Doc Martin on PBS.

At 9:00 after she went to bed I heated the last two and ate them with a small glass of German pear brandy and a cup of chai while I watched the Eleventh hour news program with Brian Williams.

Suzette went to bed at 9:00 and I went to bed at 9:45.

I wakened at 3:00 and wrote this blog during a thunder storm.  The rainy season has come late or the winter storms are starting early this year.

I realize that since I have been reading books for the book club, I read the New Yorker less and don’t listen to NPR radio, so have become fixated on the TV news cycle.  My rationalization for this is that this is a significantly historic period, as we are witnessing perhaps the first American President to ever be convicted of impeachment by the Senate but I miss the balance between cultural and political history.

Bon Appetit