February 21, 2022 Lunch - 2000 Vietnam Dinner - Steamer oven baked chicken Thighs with Steamed Cauliflower and Broccoli with Cheese Sauce

February 21, 2022 Lunch - 2000 Vietnam   Dinner - Steamer oven baked chicken Thighs with Steamed Cauliflower and Broccoli with Cheese Sauce

I awakened at 8:00 after being up two hours last night as Suzette was leaving.

We discussed dinner briefly and decided on chicken so after lunch I thawed a package of five chicken thighs.

I ate a bowl of granola, yogurt, milk, and diced mango at around 10:00.

I then did Yoga at 11:00 this morning and felt like I was making progress for a change.

After Yoga I ordered and picked up my new favorite dish at 2000 Vietnam: steamed flour sheets over a bed of sautéed chopped lettuce, cucumber spears, and mung bean sprouts topped with a layer of fried slices of shrimp sausage and Egg rolls.

It was served with three containers of fish sauce instead of two so I was able to soak the dish with fish sauce before re-heating it for 55 seconds at a power of 80% to loosen the flour sheets so they would separate easily.

I made a glass of Vietnamese iced coffee and grabbed the bag of fresh cilantro and a magazine and, since it was sunny and 55 degrees with just a few gusts of wind, I ate in the gazebo.

There was a lot of work involved in eating this dish, separating the sherts of rice noodle and dipping them into the fish sauce and combining them with vegetables and pieces of fried egg roll or shrimp paste.

I finished around 2:00 and then worked at my desk until Suzette arrived at 5:30.

We watched the news and ate peanuts for a while.  Suzette had a scotch and I drank water to try to dilute the saltiness of the fish sauce that was drying out my mouth.

Suzette gave me three choices for preparation of the chicken; Bobby Flay that combines sautéing and baking, floured and sautéed like fried chicken, or baking in the steamer oven that uses no grease, but instead releases grease.

Given my sensitivity to grease we agreed on the steamer oven baking.

Suzette also wanted to steam cauliflower and broccoli and sauce it with a cheese sauce.

Both dishes involved low amounts of added grease, so we agreed on both dishes.

Suzette did a great job on both dishes.  She slipped slices of fresh lemon sprinkled with Herbs d’ Provence under the skin of each chicken thigh and cooked the chicken to 180 degrees which rendered much of the fat.

Similarly, she made a basic cream (béchamel) sauce and added slices of Jarlsberg cheese to make a cheese (Mornay) sauce while the vegetables were steaming.

I sensed this was going to be a great and pretty heavy meal and wanted a good bodied white wine, so I went to the garage and found a 2014 Gruet Chenin Blanc.  I knew Suzette liked Chenin Blanc and hoped this would be a good one.

As it turned out Suzette was enchanted by the wine and we both thought it was a perfect complement to the dishes, good tannins and lots of fruit.

Suzette delivered the perfect compliment, “I hope we have more bottles of this wine.”

I did not eat any dessert.  Instead I drank another glass of water to try to digest the two big meals I had eaten today.

Suzette went to bed at 9:15 and I followed at 10:15, when I blogged this entry.

Russia sent troops into Eastern Ukraine tonight, so we may have the first land war in Europe in over 80 years.

The Ukraine is asking for weapons and getting them and has an army of over 250,000, so Ukraine could become a bloody awful mess very soon.

This will have an immediate negative impact on the market. 

Bon Appetit