February 20, 2020 lunch – Dumpling Soup. Dinner – Sautéed Salmon with diced tomatoes, capers, and parsley an Cauliflower Couscous

February 20, 2020  lunch – Dumpling Soup. Dinner – Sautéed Salmon with diced tomatoes, capers, and parsley an Cauliflower Couscous

Today’s meals were a tribute to making something from nothing.

Both meals were totally improvised with the few meager ingredients left after our week long absence.

At lunch I diced a Mexican squash and a shallot and boiled them in about 1 ½ quarts of water plus a tsp. of dehydrated chicken broth and ½ T. of vegetable better than broth.  I then added six or seven leaves of Napa cabbage sliced into bite sized pieces and 8 chicken mini-dumplings and 4 oz. of medium tofu cubed.  I also added two eggs whisked with a T. each of Mirin, soy sauce,  and a tsp of sesame oil. When added the egg created a Donburi effect, sort of a cooked omelet in the soup.

The soup made three medium bowls of soup because I had not eaten anything for breakfast or since our four hour lay over in Oakland last night as part of our 11 hour return trip from Maui.

We ate ham and cheese sandwiches and tuna and octopus poke and seaweed salad on the five hour plane trip from Maui and in Oakland during the four hour wait for our connecting flight.p to Albuquerque.

I napped from 2:00 to 4:00 today and then went to the bank and post office and then meditated from 5:00 to 6:00.

When I returned home Suzette had thawed out a 6 to 8 oz. salmon fillet bought at Costco.  She was trying to replicate the dish we ate at the Kula Bistro, a calamari steak lightly seared in olive oil and garnished with diced tomatoes, capers, and parsley.

She created a perfect match using the salmon instead of the calamari and canned diced tomatoes instead of the fresh plus capers and fresh chopped parsley.  The dish only took five minutes to make after the salmon was thawed and was ready even before I was able to fetch and pour glasses of Tuatua New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Before I arrived Suzette had chopped broccoli and cauliflower flowerets into Couscous sized pieces in the Cuisinart and sautéed them in a skillet with butter and olive oil to make Cauliflower Couscous that she placed on the plate to create a bed of vegetables on which she lay the salmon and garnish.  Here is a photo of this lovely tasty low cal and low cholesterol dish.  It is a real winner.  Suzette says she will add this dish to the menu at the Center.

We were so proud of Suzette’s culinary achievement that we celebrated with two scoops of chocolate ice cream with a dash of Kahlua, sautéed piñon nuts, and whipped cream for dessert.

This was a terrific day of unscripted successes in culinary creativity.

Bon Appetit