December 24, 2020 Lunch – Pork Noodle Soup. Dinner -Baked Flounder Stuffed with Shrimp Newburg with Sautéed onion and yellow and Italian squash

 December 24, 2020 Lunch – Pork Noodle Soup. Dinner -Baked Flounder Stuffed with Shrimp Newburg with Sautéed onion and yellow and Italian squash

I went to the 999 store at 11:00 to buy oysters and got the last 24 plus two extra.  I had not been to 999 store in a long time and I was impressed by the expansion of its offerings.  I bought a nice 2 lb. flat fish. I think it was a petrale  sole.  I also went around the store to check things out.  I went first to produce and picked a bag of baby Bok Choy, some Japanese eggplants, a package of fresh turmeric root, a tub of medium tofu, package of snow peas, two types of new dried noodles, a box of gunpowder green tea, and a bottle of hoisin.

When I returned home I put the fish and vegetables in the fridge and started on lunch. Suzette called and said she was on her way homework I increased the amount of water.  I added Knorr tomato/chicken flavoring and a ½ lb. piece of pork diced, a heaping T. of white miso, the last 5 oz. of tofu, about five or six snow peas de-stemmed and cubed, three or four leaves of Napa cabbage sliced, two large portobello mushrooms sliced, and 4 oz. of white onion diced.  The combination of pork flavor, the dehydrated chicken/tomato, and white miso combined to nmake a lovely broth after about twenty minutes of cooking.  I wanted a quick meal so I added a bundle of fresh egg noodles and about seven or eight chicken mini-dumplings.  The result was splendid..  

Willy came by and set up about 200 luminaries and he and Suzette lit them in the afternoon.

After lunch I checked the Market and had another day of minimal gains because Moderna went down $7.00. I then rested and slept through 5:00 meditation.

Suzette wanted to start dinner at 6:00.  I suggested steaming the flounder in the Chinese style but Suzette was thinking of stuffing and baking it.  We did dueling cookbooks until Suzette, “Let’s look in her Williamsburg cookbook.” And there was the perfect recipe, Stuffed Baked Flounder. The stuffing was with Crab Newburg, but Suzette substituted shrimp.  We boiled about 12 heads on shrimp and Suzette made the stuffing using the Cuisinart to purée all the ingredients almost instantly: onion, red pimiento, celery, yellow bell pepper, crab boil seasoning, cayenne and a couple more ingredients.  Here is the recipe.

I opened the stomach and removed the swim bladder that the fish monger had missed and slit the fish along it backbone and opened a cavity by pushing the blade of my knife along the heavy rib bones for a distance of about 1 ½ inches in each direction and Suzette stuffed both cavities  with stuffing, dusted the fish with bread crumbs, and drizzled the top of the breadcrumbs with melted butter.

We decided to sauté zucchini and yellow squash with onion, and and pimiento with several of the white beech mushrooms I bought today at the 999 store for a vegetable because I add Italian seasoning and lemon juice that seems to go well with the fish.

Suzette baked the fish in a 350/degree oven for thirty minutes.  Here is photo of the baked flounder.

The squash, onion, and beech mushroom vegetable sauté 

  The stuffed fish before  baking

 

 

                                                          The stuffed fish after baking.  

Willy came over for dinner. 

I filleted the fish and divided the stuffing and fish among three plates by lifting the top filet and stuffing from the top, taking out the main rib bones and then lifting the bottom filet away from the row of bones on either side of the fish.  In any event there were still lots of tiny edge bones that we had to remove but the flavor of the delicate white fish with the newburg stuffing was delicious.

We poured Gruner Vetliner, a traditional Austrian grape, but in this case , grown and produced in Hungary, which is a great wine producing country just east that shares the same climate.

  Everyone loved the dish.

Willy asked for mulled wine so I made a 1/2 recipe with zest of two oranges and two lemons cooked with 24 cloves, 1 1/2 nutmegs crushed and three sticks of cinnamon in a syrup made with 1 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water and a magnum of Kirkland Cabernet Sauvignon and juice of three lemons 

The mulled wine 
  

 We each took a cup or mulled wine and walked down Park Ave. to see the luminaries. This was our first year to enjoy this stroll this early in the evening because this year we did not do an open house.

We met the Sounder Graffs about half way to the Country Club and walked back to our house and Willy lit the Mexican brazier and we talked and I served mulled wine to Emily, Rachel, and her fiancé and Willy. I went in at 10:00 when Kim and zdiane left and left Willy with his friends.

  Ironically, when Suzette spoke to her sister, Jean, today to wish her a Merry Christmas, Jean reported that she had eaten baked flounder stuffed with crab meat for dinner last night.  The only difference was that Jean had bought the stuffed flounder prepared for baking at a local meat market in Elizabethtown.

Bon Appetit