August 27, 2021 Lunch - Ham and cheese sandwiches Dinner - New Recipe, Lamb Keema

 August 27, 2021 Lunch - Ham and cheese sandwiches  Dinner - New Recipe, Lamb Keema

What a strange day.  It did not go the way I thought it would.  Instead of walking I watched Federal Reserve chairman Powell’s Jackson Hole video speech at 8:00. Then I revised documents for my new case and called my new client who came by to review and sign the revised documents that I then filed in court around 11:30.  I was watching the market off and on and the military reports on Afghanistan.  The market seemed to stabilize except for Moderna that was down almost $20 at one point, but luckily ended down only $15.00 because 1.9 million doses sent to Japan were contaminated.  The Dow was up and the NASDAQ reached a new high and so did my portfolio. Bravo. It s up 21.8% for 2021 to date. Which is good because I am spending money on house repairs.  Greg finished repairing the wood on the patio pergola today.  I felt proud that I had bought 80 shares of Facebook because it went up $8.25 today; enough to pay Greg’s bill and tried to forget that the 500 shares of JD stock I sold to obtain the money to buy the Facebook Stock had gone up $13.00 since I sold them.

I ate granola with yogurt and blueberries and milk for breakfast at 11:00.  At 1:30 I decided to make ham and Jarlsberg cheese sandwiches.  I toasted two slices of whole wheat bread and spread Mayo and mustard on each slice.  Then I added slices of ham and cheese and heated them in the microwave for 33 seconds to slightly melt the cheese and warm the ham.

I drank a glass of Buttonwood Riesling with the sandwiches and ate the last two slices of the lovely red tomato from Suzette’s Center for Ageless Living’s garden in Los Lunas.  Both the sandwiches and the wine were delicious. I lay down but could not get to sleep. I drove to the library and picked up Travels With Charley by Steinbeck and The Night Watchman by Erdrich at 3:00. Then Audrey called at 4:00 and we talked for about 1/2 hour.

Lamb Keema

Suzette arrived at 5:00 and I got up at 5:30 and watched the news with her until 6:30 when she fetched the new recipe in a Cooking Simple magazine. Here is the recipe.

The reason we picked this recipe was because we had all the ingredients to prepare it, including all the exotic herbs like ground cloves, turmeric, and coriander. I first assembled all the herbs and other ingredients.  The only alteration we made to the recipe was, we used a diced ripe tomato from The Center instead of tomato paste, which we deemed an improvement.

I sliced 1/2 onion in half horizontally and into thin slices and chopped about 1 T. each of ginger and garlic, which Suzette sautéed in a large Enameled casserole in 1 1/2 T. of olive oil.  After ten to fifteen minutes when the onions had browned a bit and turned translucent Suzette added the spice mixture she had assembled and we cooked a few minutes more to release the herbs’ flavors.  Then we added the diced tomatoes and cooked the mixture until the mixture thickened to almost a paste and the tomatoes went into solution in about fifteen minutes.

                                                   Sautéing the onions, ginger, and garlic

                                                    Sautéing the spices with the onions

   

                                              Cooking the lamb with the tomatoes and spices
           Cooking the tomatoes with the spices

We then added a lb. of ground lamb and a cup of water and cooked the mixture another 20 to 30 minutes until it thickened into the consistency of a creamy sauce.

We each then toasted two corn tortillas on the open gas flame of the stove and spooned the creamy mixture onto the tortillas and garnished it with fresh minced cilantro and dabs of sour cream.

The sauce melted the tortillas into a soft pastry that formed a soft succulent base for the dish.

I love a Cotes Du Rhone style red wine with lamb. I have found a good Spanish wine that is really wonderful at Trader Joe’s that has the same grape dosage as many Cotes Du Rhone bottles; 60% Syrah and 40% Grenache. It is the 2011 Origon Gran Reserva, which is a real bargain at $5.99.  I have bought cases of it because I love its smoothness and find it goes well with lamb and steaks.

I opened a bottle of it while the Keema was cooking and we had a sip of it while we watched the news.  Then we drank it with the lamb and found it to perfectly complement the Keema as the wine and Keema blended into a seamless whole.

We drank the rest of the bottle after dinner with a piece of fresh Belgium milk chocolate with almonds and it was pretty delicious with the chocolate also as we watched Terminal with Tom Hanks and Zeta Jones until 10:00 when we went to bed.

Bon Appetit