I did not eat breakfast.
I picked up Billy at the airport at a bit before 11:00. I suggested we go to lunch. After a discussion Billy said he would like Chinese.i asked Billy if he liked good BBQ ribs. When he said yes, I suggested Buffet King at the corner of Seagull and Academy. I warned him Buffet King was all about variety and abundance over quality. He was still game, so we drove there. When we arrived we found a table in front of a TV showing the Impeachment with the subtitle script of the audio. I then gave Billy a tour of the vast array of dishes, pointing out my favorites.
We then started filing our plates with food. I started with a pile of Manila clams, several fried shrimp, a spoonful of beef and broccoli, and two BBQ ribs. Billy tried the ribs, put found a dish he liked better, sautéed shrimp and water chestnut slices. For my second plate I went to the sushi bar and took a pile of seaweed salad, two mackerel and four snapper pieces of sushi and pickled ginger and wasabi.
I removed the pieces of fish and their seaweed wrappers from the ball of rice and ate them Sashimi style, dipping the fish pieces into the dipping sauce made by mixing soy sauce with the wasabi.
Billy ended after two plates full but I went back for a third plate on which I placed Mapo Dofu, 4 more fried shrimp, another rib, a cup of egg drop soup, and an almond cookie.
Our waitress was great, refilling our tea pot with hot green tea and adding two more tea bags each time. So the tea got stronger over time.
After lunch we drove home with an intermediate stop at Lowe’s where Billy bought two bags of powdered red chili and a gallon of milk.
Billy rested during the afternoon while I went to a client’s .
When I returned at 5:00 I had another client meeting at 5:20 until 6:45, making this one of my busiest days in a while.
When I finally got to the kitchen, Willy had arrived. We discussed the dinner menu. Suzette would
steam the salmon. She and I would make the cream sauce and Billy would sauté the fresh spinach. We would also serve bowls of the cream of cauliflower soup Suzette made last week as an appetizer and drink the bottle of Vouvray I had chilled in the fridge.
Sautéed spinach.
Billy diced a shallot and the sweated a clove of garlic in olive oil in a large skillet and discarded it. He then sautéed the minced shallot in the olive oil in the skillet and added a pile of baby spinach leaves.
Steamed Salmon
We had bought a 2 ½ lb. skinned salmon fillet at Costco on Monday evening. I cut it into four pieces and Suzette lay the pieces on the steaming rack and garnished them with pads of butter and slices of
lemon. I minced 2 T. Of fresh parsley and added that. She then steamed the salmon fillets in the in the steaming oven for 24 minutes at a setting of 21. When the salmon was cooked she turned off the heat, removed the pan of cooking juices and left the salmon fillets in the warm oven.
The Bechamel Sauce
Suzette fetched another bag of the garlic we harvested from our garden this year from the garage fridge. I minced two cloves of garlic. Suzette melted 3 T. of butter in an enameled sauce pan and I added the minced garlic and a T. of Billy’s minced shallot. Suzette sautéed the garlic and shallots for a minute and then added 3 T. of flour and cooked that for a couple of minutes. I then added the 1 cup of steaming liquid and approximately 1 cup of milk to the roux while Suzette stirred the sauce to keep it from developing lumps. When the sauce was smooth we turned down the heat. The sauce
continued to thicken and so I added an ounce of Vouvray to thin it a bit.
Suzette served bowls of cream of cauliflower soup in our lovely soup bowls.
Willy fetched wine glasses and poured the Vouvray. I withdrew from the kitchen until it was time t assemble the plates. Billy ¼ of the Spinach in a small pile on each of the four plates. Suzette then placed a salmon fillet on each pile and I spooned cream sauce onto the salmon fillets and spinach.
We served ourselves. Suzette fetched her fresh cranberry sauce from the fridge and we enjoyed a lovely meal.
Comments
Steaming, rather than poaching, creates a perceptively firmer texture that is not water logged. The fish has a more natural flavor, rather than a boiled flavor.
The Vignoles Leachteau Vouvray was slightly sweet, probably 4 to 5% sugar by volume. It went particularly well with the spicy turmeric flavored cauliflower soup, but I found that it clashed a bit with the salmon. Suzette loved it, but she loves Chenin Blanc on all its manifestations. I liked the subtle lemony fruity flavor with the salmon though.
After dinner Billy brought me two gifts. A box of Belgium Neuhaus chocolates and a bottle of 10 year old Gran Reserva Spanish Tempranillo. I opened the box and studied the catalog provided and chose a passion fruit and almond truffle and ate it as I sipped the last of my wine.
We also collectively sampled a small plate of three baked items Suzette’s kitchen staff made as experiments. They were all good. I especially liked the coconut pound cake with a sugar glaze and the dark rich flourless torte.
At this point I became amazed with the waves of wonderful food. I am so thankful to be in a family of fabulous cooks. Everything tasted liked served in an expensive restaurant because it was of that quality and so expertly prepared. My amazement did not stop there because I was further amazed that we had created such a lovely dinner in an hour, so effortlessly.
After dinner as Suzette cleaned the kitchen I butchered the boneless leg of lamb we had bought at Costco last week by removing the flap of fat, the tendons, and silver skin. I placed the resulting pieces of meat in a container and created a marinade of pomegranate juice, Pinot Noir wine, five cloves of garlic peeled and sectioned, and a handful of rosemary from the garden. I will add olive oil tomorrow to the marinade.
It was now after 9:00 and Willy left and Billy and I walked 1/3 mile to Laguna and back home and then we all retired to bed.
Bon Appetit
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