June 2, 2020 Lunch – Steak and Potato Omelet Dinner – Vichyssoise, Brie Cheese, Foie gras, and Grilled Asparagus and Tabouli

June 2, 2020 Lunch – Steak and Potato Omelet  Dinner – Vichyssoise, Brie Cheese, Foie gras, and Grilled Asparagus and Tabouli

This was a quiet day that turned into an amazing food day.

I ate yogurt, blueberries, granola, and milk for breakfast at around 9:30.

Then at 12:30 I made an PPI omelet with the PPI piece of grilled steak, four halves of small purple potatoes, three mushrooms, ½ half of a shallot, a radish sliced, the leftover Couscous, and a crumble of cojita cheese.  I heated three T. of butter and cooked the shallot and mushrooms sliced. I then added the steak and potatoes.  Then I added the radish and Couscous.  I added another T. of butter at this point to keep the Couscous emulsified.  After about five minutes when the bottom had firmed I sprinkled cojita cheese on the uncooked surface and flipped one half onto the other half and cooked it for another minute or two.  The result had a wonderful texture, soft in the center and toasted on the outside; a proper omelet.

I rested and then worked on the brief in the afternoon until almost 6:00 wWhen Suzette came home. I made a gin and tonic and completed making the tabouli.

Tabouli

I had soaked ½ cup of No. 2 bulgur in water overnight.

I sliced and diced three Roma tomatoes, eight green onions, a bunch of Italian broadleaf parsley, and peeled, seeded, and diced 1 cucumber.

In a large mixing bowl I mixed the drained bulgur with the chopped vegetables and added juice of 1 ½ lemons and about 3 T. of Spanish olive oil.

Willy arrived for dinner at 7:00 as I was finishing the mixing.  Since we had a light dinner planned, I left the bowl of tabouli on the table.

The dinner plan was organized around the Vichyssoise Soup I made on Sunday that needed to be eaten and which we all love.  Suzette suggested we eat foie gras on French bread with it.  I suggested we grill some of the fresh asparagus I bought yesterday with it.  Willy did not want foie gras, but did want cheese and picked the remaining partial wheel of brie.  The idea was to create an eclectic light French style meal.

We had only one piece of a bread, about ¼ of a baguette, which Suzette sliced into three slices and toasted.  We had about 2/3 of a 6 oz. slab of foie gras (Lowe’s $6.49) that I then spread on two of the slices.  I then removed the rind from slices of brie and lay them on Willy’s slice of toast and several slices on the other two slices with foie gras for Suzette and me.  Suzette went to the garden and gathered seven or eight chives and snipped some pieces and garnished bowls of soup she had filled with Vichyssoise.

She then removed the tough ends from a 1 lb. bunch of asparagus and tossed them in olive oil, salt, and pepper and grilled them until half cooked and just slightly charred and then wrapped the stalks in aluminum foil with more olive oil and salt and pepper to finish cooking.  This is her method of cooking asparagus and I have never tasted a better asparagus.  Tonight her effort was perfect.  The asparagus were tender and drenched in olive oil mixed with the dark cooking juices yielded by the asparagus; a tour de force.

We opened a bottle of Chilled Gruet Chenin Blanc that was perfect, fruity and flavorful that exuded the sunshine absorbed by the grapes that you could taste.  It is Suzette’s favorite grape and this was a good bottle.  I shall stock up on it for summer along with Gruet’s rose of Pinot Noir.

The meal turned out far better than we thought.  Willy loved the brie cheese and opened an unopened 500 gram wheel maturing in the fridge and we spread some on fig and raisin crackers from Trader Joe’s.  We finished the meal with spoonfuls of tabouli instead of dessert.  Although we ate inside due to the threat of rain, the dinner had a decidedly al fresco feel to it.

I felt like the dinner was amazing because of the interesting assortment of dishes and superbly prepared ingredients.  For example, I had added Knorr dehydrated chicken stock to the Vichyssoise, which made it slightly salty, which we loved.  The asparagus was the real winner and an excellent complement to the brie cheese and we loved the Chenin Blanc wine with everything.

This is almost the first time ever that I have seen Willy become fully engaged in eating.  He fetched the crackers and extra wheel of brie and we had enough asparagus left to keep the excellent brie cheese and grilled asparagus combination going for a bit longer.  And then he ate several spoonfuls of fresh tabouli.

All in all, an amazing dinner created from almost random ingredients that are at the height of their flavor potential that had previously undiscovered affinities for each other.  This is the essence of creative cooking that is at the heart of French and California Cuisine.

Bon Appetit