October 12, 2021 Lunch - East Ocean. Dinner - Epic Paella creation using PPIs

 October 12, 2021 Lunch - East Ocean. Dinner - Epic Paella creation using PPIs 

I worked from 3:00 until 4:30 again and then slept until 8:30. 

I showered and dressed and made a bowl of granola, milk, yogurt, blueberries, and banana slices.  My client arrived before I could eat it so I ate the granola after he left at 10:30.

Then I called Mike and we decided to meet at East Ocean at 1:00.  

I then went to the kitchen and started by de-boning the roasted chicken and bagging the meat to make room for the Gravad lax.

I then made Gravad lax with the two bunches of dill, the two salmon fillets, and a curing mixture containing 1 cup of salt, 3/4 cup of sugar, and 1 tsp. of freshly crushed black pepper mixed together.

I layered dill on the bottom of a Pyrex dish, then poured curing mixture over the skin side one one of the cleaned and dried filets and then lay it skin side down on the dill.

Then I spread curing mixture over the exposed inside of the fillet and then lay a layer of dill weed on the exposed side.

Then I poured curing mixture over the inside of the other fillet and lay it inside down on the dill.

Then I covered the exposed outside of the top fillet with the rest of the curing mixture.

I covered the dish with Saran and lay a brick on top of the Saran and put 5he dish in the fridge to cure. 

The recipe for the curing (Gravad) mixture is 1/2 cup of sugar, 2/3 cup of salt, and 1 tsp. of black pepper for 3 lb. of salmon. Since the two fillets’ combined weight was approximately 4 lb. I increased the recipe by 50%.

Here is a picture of the salmon after 7 hours of curing.  The curing is achieved by the salt and sugar replacing the fat and liquid in the fish.

I usually cure for 24 to 36 hours with a flip of the fillets half way through the process.

I then drove to East Ocean and as I arrived Peter was getting out of his SUV, so I asked Mike if I might ask him to join us and Mike agreed.  Peter ordered the shrimp in Lobster sauce lunch, I ordered a dinner platter of fried tofu with Chinese Mixed vegetables and Mike ordered a dinner platter of Kung Pao chicken.  The dinner platter costs $1.50 more than the lunch portion and is enough for two or three meals. The fried tofu with Mixed Vegetables is the same price as most lunches, $8.95.

We had a lively conversation until 2:30.  I mistakenly believed that Moderna had gone up $70.00 and agreed to treat everyone to lunch.

When I returned home I discovered it had only gone up only $7.00 and my portfolio had suffered a loss today.  Yuck.

I worked on deeds until 5:00 when Suzette arrived.

Suzette said we needed to eat the paella that was left from our Friday night paella dinner at Vara.  It had been scorched and blackened on the bottom, so I thought there was little chance of salvaging it, but luckily I was wrong.  Suzette, the master of PPIs, suggested adding a protein and some asparagus, so we added some of the chicken I had de-boned and I chopped about 7 or 8 asparagus into 1 inch pieces.  I spooned the paella into a 6 x 9 inch Pyrex dish and we added the about 1 cup of chicken pieces and the chopped asparagus.

What made the dish a success was the addition of crab broth we had made from boiling the shells left from our fresh Dungeness crab dinner last week.  We ladled crab broth into the paella until it nearly reached the top rim of the Pyrex dish.  We covered the dish with Saran and put it in the microwave and cooked it on a setting of Sensor reheat.  The paella was still really wet after the first reheat, so Suzette removed the Saran and reheat the paella again.  This time the rice absorbed most of the broth.  Suzette served us bowls of the paella.  We were amazed by the transformation from a dry scorched cake of rice into a succulent moist mass of ingredients that had cooked into a thick stew and beyond.  The rice had rehydrated and lost its scorched flavor by absorbing the broth’s crab flavor.  It was one of the most successful one dish dinners we have made with a PPI in a long time.

While the paella was cooking I fetched a bottle of French Riesling from the garage fridge and opened it and poured two tastes.  It had greater mineral it you and less fruit and residual sugar than the Finger Lake rieslings we have been drinking.  Suzette liked the French Riesling a lot with the paella and even drank another glass after the meal Total Wine $14.99 less 25%).

I made a cup of chai and ate several cookies.

We went to bed at 8:30 and watched an episode of House Hunters International on TV and then Suzette slept and I blogged.

I can not tell you how wonderful our paella dinner was. It was much better than the dried out original last Friday night.

Bon Appetit