November 19, 2023 Brunch - Dungeness Crab with Salad Dinner - Mussel and Pork Belly Fabada

November 19, 2023 Brunch - Dungeness Crab with Salad  Dinner - Mussel and Pork Belly Fabada

I woke up at 6:45 and began watching FIFA World Cup qualifiers and news

Erik and Sally got up and left around 7:45.

Suzette got up around 7:30. She poured off the soaking water and added new water to the Fabada beans and a tomato, a peeled onion, and a carrot and began simmering the beans for four hours.

Around 9:00 I started making the crab dressing by mincing 1/2 large shallot and covering the shallot with juice of 1/2 lemon and letting the lemon juice cook the shallot for 45 minutes.

Suzette tore and lay a pile of green leaf lettuce on each plate and brought in the crab and put it on a Chinese tray.

I snapped about 15 asparagus, sliced a tomato into wedges, peeled and sliced 1/4 cucumber. I arranged the tomato wedges and cucumber slices on each plate.

Suzette steamed the Asparagus and then decided to make deviled eggs. She hard boiled six eggs.

She then peeled and cut each in half and removed the yolks and mixed them with mustard and mayonnaise and stuffed the cavity where the yolk had been and dusted the top of each half egg with smoked pimiento and I cut cornichon into slices and put a slice on each deviled egg.

I lay the asparagus on the plates and finished making the sauce by mixing in 1 T. of horseradish, 1 1/2 T. of catsup, and 3/4 cup of mayonnaise.

Suzette opened a chilled bottle of Gruet Brut and we poured glasses of champagne and settled down to a lovely brunch.

When we had cracked about 1/3 of the crab and eaten as much of it with dressing in lettuce wraps and with the other vegetables we cracked the rest of the crab and stored in the fridge.

Suzette made a mirepoix and then simmered the shells to make a crab broth.

 

After brunch we planted the pineapple plant bulbs on the west side of the fence beside the sidewalk. While we planted it began to drizzle so we did not need to water the bulbs.

Then Suzette went to pick up the crane statutes she bought and went to Costco and bought pork belly.

When she returned she placed the pork belly in the French pan in which it fits tightly.  She then baked the pork belly in the oven for a couple of hours at 350 degrees until it covided.

At 4:00 I walked to the Country Club without any pain while Suzette watched home decorating Shows.

When I returned we poured the crab broth into a container and I took it to the garages for crab soup in the near future.

I called Willy and invited him for dinner.  He arrived at 6:30 and told us about his stretching session this afternoon and highly recommended it.

I went to the garage and fetched the mussels and a bottle of French Palintir Sauvignon Blanc from Cotes du Gascogne.

We shucked the mussels and Suzette sliced rounds of baguette and toasted them and filled pasta bowls with fresh spinach leaves and beans I put six mussels in each pasta bowl and Suzette cut about a dozen squares of roasted pork belly and put them on a plate and we each took three or four.  

We enjoyed a great Fabada with both super tender steamed mussels and pork belly with white wine and toast.

After dinner Willy helped move the rug in the living room and then left.

We watched World on Fire on PBS and then at 9:00 Suzettecworked on a staffing issue and then went to bed.

I blogged and at 10:00 watched Astrid on PBS and then the re-run of Texas v. Iowa State until nearly midnight.

Bon Appetit