February 20, 2022 Brunch - Bacon, Egg, and Sweet Potato Burritos. Dinner - Poached Salmon in cream Sauce with broccoli and cauliflower couscous and Egg Noodles.
We worked at our desks today. Suzette for most of the day and I until 9:45 hen I began to watch Leicester lose to Wolverhampton 2 to 1.
At 10:00 Suzette was hungry and asked what I wanted for breakfast.
I said, “A Bacon and egg burrito.”
Suzette went to the kitchen and started cooking. Suzette usually likes some potato in her burrito. The only decent potato in the house was a sweet potato I bought at El Super on Wednesday. Suzette surgically salvaged about six or seven pieces of bacon and added three whisked eggs to the sautéed diced sweet potato.
It was a delicious burrito. I sliced a small avocado and Suzette fetched the Cholula hot sauce that we used to garnish the burrito.
We talked to Willy and made plans to eat dinner together, so I took two pieces of salmon out of the fridge to thaw and put a newly acquired bottle of Pinot Grigio Rose Vivace into the fridge to chill.
After lunch I took a shower and dressed in my biking pants and we went for our first bike ride in almost two years, if you could call the wobbly effort to ride a mile route within our neighborhood a bike ride. I was able to get on the bike but had trouble lifting my leg over the frame when we returned home a few minutes later. Suzette had to pull the bike out as I stood over the frame.
Suzette then showered and dressed for dinner and I changed my biking shorts for blue jeans.
We needed to replenish our alcohol so at 3:00 we drove to Total Wine and Suzette bought two bottles of her new favorite scotch, a bottle of Jim Beam bourbon, and a 12 pack of Negra Modelo for $13.99 and I bought a bottle of Berenroy XO Calvados discounted $2.00, a six pack of Magner’s Irish apple cider for $9.49, and a bottle of Presidente red Cotes Du Rhone for $11.98 less 25%. Actually Suzette said she would pay for the entire bill because I had just ordered a case of Hermann W. Wiemer Rieslings for $410.00.
When we returned home we both worked another two hours until 6:00 announced it was time to start dinner.
I did very little to help, just chopping a shallot and four cloves of garlic.
The menu was simple but healthy, poached salmon in cream sauce, broccoli and cauliflower couscous and boiled egg noodles.
Suzette quickly reduced a pile of broccoli and cauliflower flowerets to granular couscous sized pieces in the Cuisinart and put them in a skillet with olive oil and a dash of salt.
We then butchered the two thawed salmon fillets into about 8 oz. nice sized fillets and a small flat belly piece that I will eat for sashimi tomorrow.
Willy said he would come at 7:00 so we started cooking at 6:30.
Suzette started a handful of egg noodles boiling.
I fetched and opened the bottle of Pinot Grigio rose to use in the poaching medium. Suzette melted about 2 T. of butter in the large enamel casserole and the added the minced shallot and garlic. When the shallot and garlic had cooked she added about 1/2 cup of wine and a bit of water to complete the poaching medium and poached the salmon.
Suzette turned on the heat under the couscous skillet and covered the skillet with the wok cover to sweat and steam the vegetable couscous.
When the salmon was poached Suzette made a roux in a sauce pan with 2 T. of butter and 1 1/2 T. of flour and then added the poaching medium.
She then drained the noodles, but they were a little over cooked, so I added a T. of butter to them so they would retain their shape and not turn into a pasty glob.
The cream sauce was also not perfect. It was too garlicky and the rose gave it a different flavor profile from the usual French white wine style we like, so we decided to add Herbs du Provence and a splash of white vermouth and that improved and fixed the sauce’s flavor and helped keep it creamy, as it had thickened a bit.
Willy arrived at 7:00 and we were ready to eat.
Suzette plated the dinner in pasta bowls, spooning some couscous and some noodles into the bottom and positioning a salmon fillet on top and saucing the entire pile with cream sauce.
I had chopped parsley but Suzette forgot to garnish the top with the parsley.
I poured the rose for Suzette and me and handed Willy the remaining bottle of 2010 Wellington Morhardt Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon.
We loved dinner and Willy thought the vegetable couscous was great.
The Pinot Grigio rose was actually effervescent and was a little strange for a heavy French style fish dish, but we drank it anyway.
When I studied the wine for this blog I saw that it was recommended for drinking before a meal with appetizers like boiled shrimp, lighter fare than our heavy French fish entree.
Willy told us that he had added a new routine of lifting heavy weights to his gym exercise regimen, so after dinner I asked him to carry the case of newly arrived De Ponte 2019 Reserve Pinot Noir to the wine cellar in the basement, which he gladly and easily accomplished. So I was impressed with his training regimen.
We talked and watched the last episode of Around the world in 80 Days during dinner.
After dinner I opened a bottle of Trimbach Framboise liquor that was about fifteen years old. Willy did not want to stay for the after dinner drinks, so we said good night after discussing a possible trip to Mexico.
The liquor was still very sweet, so I asked Suzette for a splash of the cognac she took and that helped smooth out the sweetness. In fact Suzette the perfect words for the liquor, “kir royale”; to flavor a glass of champagne with a few drops of framboise liquor.
We settled down to watch All Creatures great and small and Suzette served herself a bowl of huckleberry ice cream with chocolate syrup and then me a small bowl of Blue Bell pistachio almond ice cream.
At 9:00 we went to bed.
Bon Appetit
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