October 27, 2021 Lunch - East Ocean. Dinner - Venison Stew

 October 27, 2021 Lunch - East Ocean. Dinner - Venison Stew 

I had a cup of hot chocolate for breakfast because I had two telephone conferences that lasted until noon.

Suzette was working at home today, so we decided to go to East Ocean for lunch.  I suggested she order for us and she ordered the two dishes I would have ordered, Roast Half Duck and Stir Fried Deep Fried Tofu with Mixed Vegetables.  Since the new ownership has taken over the duck has improved noticeably. It now has a crispier glazed skin and seems more succulent.  The fried tofu and Mixed Vegetables are the same, except perhaps an omission of celery’ which is an improvement.  There are nine vegetables (onion, bok Choy, carrot, sliced bamboo shoots, sliced water chestnuts, snow peas, broccoli, mushrooms, and tiny corn).

The fried tofu was softer today, which I also liked. The dishes were served with rice.  We ordered hot tea.

We ate until full and still filled a box with enough duck and mixed vegetables for another meal.

When we returned home we brought the venison stew in and Suzette heated it on top of the stove and then added more water and red wine.

I peeled and cut all of the carrots from our garden plus two additional store bought carrots and added them to the stew and Suzette covered the roasting pan and baked it covered in a 275 degree oven for 3 more hours for a total of 7 hours.  

I had a meeting at 3:30 that lasted until 5:00, after which I diced 1 lb. of portobello mushrooms. Suzette removed and thawed a lb. of frozen pearl onions.

I then Sautéed the mushrooms in butter and olive oil with 1 1/2 T. of minced shallot for about thirty minutes and put the cooked mushrooms into the stew.

I then sautéed the pearl onions that Suzette had thawed. I followed Julia Child’s recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 1.  I sautéed the onions for a few minute ps and added a crushed basil leaf, a few sprigs of thyme, and about 1 T. of parsley and then 1/2 cup of red wine.  After about twenty minutes more of braising I removed the thyme and bay leafs and transferred the onions to the stew pan.

After a few more minutes Suzette mixed all the ingredients together in the  stew pot and spooned enough stew into bowls and heated them and we ate venison stew for dinner.

I then poured the last of the De Ponte 2017 Reserve into glasses and we ate an interesting dinner of venison stew.  We did not find the flavor of the venison to dominate as much as the mustard flavor but the sauce and meat had a more buttery texture.

After dinner I cored and sliced most of the apples we picked from our tree this year and Suzette baked them into an apple crisp.  By 10:00 the crisp was baked to golden brown and we went to bed.

Bon Appetit