January 17, 2020 Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup. Wine Dinner at Tuerta No.1

January 17, 2020 Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup.  Dinner - Wine Dinner at Tuerta No.1

I ate yogurt, tropical fruit salad, milk, and granola for breakfast.

At 12:30 I heated the PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup.  I added a sliced mushroom, a quartered and sliced zucchini, another heaping T. of red Miso, some more water, and three beef meatballs.

After I ate I rested and watched the stock market surge upward.  My portfolio is now up 20% over the last two years, which is remarkable.

I suspect it has run ahead of itself with all the positive developments in the economy absorbed, including the Fed’s easing of interest rates and a China trade deal signed, but good fourth quarter’s earnings could push it up further.  It is hard to figure out what to sell, so I may do nothing and ride it out.

At 3:00 I walked 2/3 mile in the relatively warm afternoon sun.

At 4:15 I drove to the bank and Lowe’s where I bought vanilla and chocolate ice cream and cream filled cookies.

I watched TV until Suzette arrived at 5:45.  We changed clothes to go out to dinner and drove by the Candy Store to make sure the alarm was set and then drove to Tuerta at 317 Central NW for their special wine dinner. It was the best wine dinner I have had in a long time, but the food was redolent with spices and chilis.  Suzette reacted violently and threw up, but I made it through.

The chefs were the owner who had worked at Los Poblanos before opening this restaurant last fall and his friend who used to be the sous chef at Los Poblanos, who if I understood the conversation I overheard had recently quit at Los Poblanos and was getting ready to travel to Peru.  Peru seemed to figure in the meal.  At the end of the meal we were served coffee grown near Cuzco.

We were one of the last guests to arrive a minute or two after 7:00.  When we arrived and were
seated. we were served a a flute of Gruet champagne.

The owner, Dan, introduced the meal by saying they tried to use mostly locally produced ingredients

Here are the purveyors:

Here is the menu:

Soon we were served; an amuse bouche to pique our appetite, a slice of radish with two small piles,
one of vinegary finely grated carrot and the other beet set on top.

 

Wikipedia defines amuse bouche as follows:

An amuse-bouche (/əˌmjuːzˈbuːʃ/; French: [aˌmyzˈbuʃ])[1] is a single, bite-sized hors d'œuvre.[2] Amuse-bouches are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu by patrons but are served free and according to the chef's selection alone. These are served both to prepare the guest for the meal and to offer a glimpse of the chef's style. It means in English roughly “to amuse the mouth”.

The first course was a Middle Eastern inspired dish of sautéed cubes of spaghetti squash and
cauliflower tossed in a Guajillo chili, cumin, sumac, and coriander paste, which was also smeared on
part of the plate, served with a very dry 2018 Hugl Weine Austrian Gruner Vitliner: a very interesting
 wine ($14.99 at Total Wine). Tasting notes: Austria - Unfiltered. Flavors of fresh-squeezed lime and
crunchy apple give this a lively appeal, with a snappy finish of sea salt and pepper. Pairs well with shellfish and grilled seafood.

 

The second course was a thick slice of baked delicate squash garnished with heavenly light potato gnocchi and pepitas and other vegetables fresh from local growers like small turnips and a stalk of fennel with a light mustard and Demi-glacé sauce and cubed carrots.  I forgot to take a picture until I
finished this dish.  Here is a picture of my empty plate with a bit of the mustard sauce.

This course was served with a glass of 2018  Vento Vermintino from the Terre of Talamo. The label says the Terre di Talamo is located near the sea in Tuscany.  I asked the chef how he made the gnocchi so light and he replied, “I handle them as little as possible, like drop biscuits.” This was my third favorite dish of the night.

  

The third course was my favorite dish of the night, three large cubes of  lightly sautéed Smoked rabbit terrine, served with roasted and sautéed baby potatoes and a blackberry compote.  I am sure I am the only person with this thought but this dish reminded me of Swedish Cuisine because it emphasized two of Swedish Cuisine’s favorite ingredients, baby potatoes and a berry compote.  It also was remarkably like Swedish Cuisine’s restricted pallet of flavors that generally range from sweet to sour.  This dish was within the sweet spectrum due to the use of the blackberry compote, like Swedish pancakes that are served with lingonberry preserves or compote.

The Swedish make a big deal about each summer’s first baby potatoes because they almost melt in
your mouth.  The creaminess of the potatoes in this dish reminded me of that creamy flavor and softness of the baby potatoes I tasted in Sweden and Denmark when I lived there as they fell apart to the touch of my fork.  This dish was very special to me because the taste and composition of ingredients were so purely Scandinavian.

The rabbit terrine was very special also, but in a very French way.  The chef said that he boned the rabbit and smoked the meat and roasted the bones and made a sauce from the roasted bones and combined the sauce and smoked meat, which he then baked. Voila. I think I tasted a hint of cognac.

The rabbit dish was served with a glass of 2018 Domaine de Clairfont, a Southern Rhône red blend that I found deliciously light and fruity.

Here are some tasting notes on it: Cotes du Rhone, Rhone, France- This Cotes du Rhone exhibits all the finesse and depth found in wines costing twice as much. Medium-bodied, a nose of jammy cassis fruit lead to rich plummy flavors which linger into a long, soft finish (Elegant, Cassis, Plum, Medium-bodied)

It garners a rating of 4.3 out of 5, so a great rating for a wine at this price. The website indicates a cost of  $11.98 and that Total Wine stocks this wine. This was my favorite wine.

The fourth dish was a beef short rib served on a local vegetable medley sauced with what appeared to be a reduction of cooking juices.  By this point I was full and Suzette could not eat anything, so we asked for and were graciously provided a box to take the beef home.  The beef seemed to be just a bit dried out to me, although the sauce and vegetables were delicious. Needless to say both chefs are superb sous chefs.  The sauces shown brightly in every dish.

The short rib was served with a glass of 2015 Talcott Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon from the Columbia Valley.  I had never tasted this wine and it had huge tannins, A very powerful full bodied wine that complemented the heavy beef dish.

 

 

Here are its tasting notes:  Columbia Valley, WA- Ripe blackberries and red cherries intermix with hints of cola and vanilla in this full-bodied Columbia Valley Cabernet. It sports a richly-textured mouthfeel with supple oak integrating the upfront flavors.
BRAND
Talcott Cellars
COUNTRY / STATE
Washington
REGION
Columbia Valley
WINE TYPE
Red Wine
VARIETAL
Cabernet Sauvignon
STYLE
Oak
TASTE
Blackberry, Vanilla
BODY
Full-bodied

This a $15.99 bottle at Total Wine, where all the wines were probably acquired, with a rating of 4.1.  The selection of wines tonight suggests that if you know your wines and are careful, TotalWine is an excellent wine store.

The fifth and last course was my second favorite dish and probably the most creative dish of the evening, a dessert of apple doughnuts dusted with powdered sugar resting on a puddle of peanut cardamon caramel sauce and served with a few ounces of prickly pear kombucha spiked with Santa Fe Spirits’ Apple Brandy and sweetened with a cinnamon syrup.

I have never eaten a peanut caramel sauce or tasted prickly pear kombucha, so this dish delivered what every foodie loves, a exploration of discovery into new regions of gastronomy.  The sauce making skills of the chefs shown brilliantly with the peanut caramel sauce that offered  an interesting contrast between the earthiness of the ground nut sauce was combined with pieces of fluffy apple doughnut.  I had seconds and thirds of the doughnut when offered they were so tender and delicious.

So this was a meal that will not soon be forgotten.  Two excellent chefs on their “A” game producing superb dishes featuring amazing sauces and pairing them with complementary and unusual wines that are not overly expensive.  I will look for several of these wines.  They are the type I really enjoy, very pleasant to drink and moderately priced.

We finished our meal at 10:15 and said goodnight to our 6 table mates for the evening.  We enjoyed meeting and talking to Steve and Susan. Steve is a retired Sandia scientist and Susan is a retired attorney who now spends much of her time painting watercolors. Then told us about their recent hiking trek in Peru, a high altitude adventure.

It was also fun to share the table with Stephanie, the editor of Edible New Mexico, who is extremely knowledgeable about the New Mexico food industry and ready with an answer for any question.  For example we were talking about the absence of good goat cheese in New Mexico these days and asked Stephanie, What has become of Old Windmill Creamery? (her answer was that it shuddered its operation rather suddenly).

So it was a fun evening of food, wine, and conversation with an amazing meal. This evening reconfirmed my belief that the quality and creativity of the sauces separates the ordinary cook from the great chefs.

I shall return to Tuerta soon to try one of its interesting sandwiches.  Here is its sandwich menu.

After dessert we were offered cups of coffee grown near Cuzco and I enjoyed a cup of the strong, rich coffee.

Bon Appetit