Around 9:00 a.m. Suzette sautéed corn beef hash with potatoes and onions and poached eggs on top by sweating them covered with the wok cover. I toasted two slices of bread and spread them with boysenberry preserves. It was a truly delicious breakfast
We worked in the garden for about 45 minutes after breakfast. Suzette then left too run errands at HD and Michael’s.
I rested and began reading an interesting article in last week’s New Yorker about a rich Texan who dived to the deepest part of the five oceans in a titanium shelled submersible to depths exceeding 23,000 feet.
I am reading more and enjoying it although I find that I read and doze alternately.
When Suzette returned at 12:30 we decided to have a light lunch. I had thawed a lb. of garbanzo beans we cooked several weeks ago yesterday. For lunch we made hummus by pureeing the garbanzo beans in the Cuisinart with a pressed clove of garlic, 1/3 cup if tahini, about ¼ cup of olive oil, 2 T. of minced parsley, and the juice of 1 ½ lemons.
We toasted the pita bread but it would not open properly so Suzette made open faced sandwiches by laying ½ of a pita on each plate and putting spoonfuls of hummus and the tabouli on the pita and
smaller piles of Tzatziki on the side of the sandwich. Here is a photo.
Then we held our weekly family Zoom meeting at 2:00. The topic of Theresa this week was this week’s Table for Two page in the new New Yorker describing Blue Hill boxes containing fresh produce and processed food stuffs from Blue Hill restaurants’ purveyors and its sustainable gardens at Stone Barns. I asked Luke if he wanted a box and he had said yes. Then Elaine said that Rebecca had ordered two boxes. Luke is planning to buy a Volvo so he can travel to Woodstock and back to be able to relieve the boredom of being isolating in his apartment in the City all the time. Sounds like sane strategy.
When the Zoom meeting ended near 3:00 I checked my emails and had received notification that my order was ready. I drove to Total Wine and picked up my order. The store was quite busy. When I went to the tasting area to pick up my order the attendant led me to the tasting room. . I saw that all the tables in the tasting room were filled with orders .
I drove home and Suzette helped me get the spirits into the house.
At 5:00 we took a tour of the garden. We topped the Chard and cut a fragrant Mr. Lincoln rose for Suzette to put beside her bed.
At 6:00 we began cooking. I went to the garden and picked thyme and chives and then went to the basement to fetch a De Ponte 2016 Dundee Hills, Pinot Noir.
The menu we decided upon was Roasted Beet Salad with goat cheese, green bean and tomato Couscous, and sautéed fillet Mignon with mushrooms and shallots.
Roasted beet and goat cheese salad
We peeled the beets and Suzette had sliced them into thick slices and grilled them at lunch and had refrigerated them.
She simply added chunks of fresh goat cheese and drizzled olive oil onto the mixture on each plate.
The sweetness and natural juices of the beets enhanced by grilling combined with the olive oil and creamy saltiness of the soft goat cheese combined to create a wonderfully flavorful dressing. In a meal of three great dishes this was the stand out, and made us think of the superb vegetarian dishes served by Blue Hill.
Here is the link: https://www.bluehillfarm.com/dine/new-york
Green bean and tomato Couscous
I made the green bean and tomato Couscous. I sliced and diced abRoma tomato and cut a handful of the thin haricot vert from Costco into 1 ½ inch sections and minced a shallot and a clove of garlic for the steak and Couscous. I then heated 3 T. of butter in a sauce at moderately high heat and added the green beans and after a couple of minutes, the tomato and ½ of the shallots and garlic and after another couple of minutes 1 cup of Couscous and sautéed those ingredients for several minutes while I heated water in the tea kettle to a boil and added 1 2/3 cup of boiling water to the Couscous, instead of the usual 1 ½ cups of water, and covered the sauce pan.
I turned down the heat after a couple more minutes when I saw steam emitting from the lid to the lowest temperature. Then after about five minutes of cooking I opened the cover and fluffed the couscous with a fork. The Couscous was still damp so I covered it again and turned up the heat and to create steam again and then after I saw steam turned off the heat.
As you can see Couscous is largely steamed rather than boiled
The steaks and Mushrooms
Suzette and I collaborated on this dish. Suzette fetched the steaks from the garage freezer at lunch and we thawed them in the sink until dinner.
Suzette then unwrapped the Saran and salted and peppered them while I thinly sliced three large white mushrooms, a shallot, and a clove of garlic and minced the five or six sprigs it thyme and four or five chives. Suzette sautéed the steaks in a large cast iron skillet with butter and olive oil. After a couple of minutes I added the shallot and garlic and then I in another minute of two the minced thyme and chives.
After suzette flipped the steaks she lay a pad of butter on each steak and I fetched and poured 2 T. of Amontillado medium sherry onto the mushrooms and shallot in the skillet. After a couple more minutes when the steaks were cooked to medium rare we were ready to serve.
This was a wonderful meal with a great wine. All the dishes were delicious in their own right and together they created a sumptuous feast. After dinner I fetched the Clafoutis from the garage and we heated pieces of it in the microwave. I ate my piece with a cup of citrus Earl Grey tea with heated milk and Suzette ate hers with a sip of cognac.
We watched two more episodes of the Crown until 9:30. Suzette went to bed and I grabbed a sip of Calvados Bernenroy XO and stayed up until I dozed while blogging. When I awakened around 10:30 I watched the locally produced documentary on the Peace Museum in Angel Fire for a few minutes and then went to bed when I could no longer keep my eyes open.
Bon Appetit
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