June 10, 2012 Fried Trout with Tartar Sauce and Asparagus
Suzette is starting to work on her next menu for the Bistro. Ann Sesler, the Bistro's Executive Chef, had decided to put a fish dish on the menu and Suzette suggested that I look at the menu and make suggestions.Ann had suggested a red chili battered tilapia filet and I much prefer trout so when I went to Pro’s market at around to shop to get the early bird specials, I checked the fish department.There were no trout out in the display area, so I asked the attendant if they had trout and he went to the refrigerator and brought out a hand full of fresh trout.I bought the four nicest ones ($2.99/lb.) and about 1 lb. of calamari to see if we could replicate yesterday's Ristra recipe.There was no potato flour, so I bought a box of rice flour along with some of my usual ingredients such as ham and onions and Anaheim green chilis and tomatoes.
At dinner time I suggested that we try the red chili dusted fried fish recipe, so Suzette tossed some medium Chimayo red chili in a bag with some of the rice flour and we coated the trout and then after I cleaned the squid and chopped them into ringlets, some of the squid with the rice flour chili batter.Suzette then fried them and I opened a bottle of Spanish La Montanana Viura and we made a tartar sauce with mayonnaise and sweet pickle relish and the juice of about ¼ lemon.
The trout’s meat was tender and delicately white and the skin was crisp.So that was a success.We did not think the dish had a sufficiently picante chili flavor though.The calamari were not as crisp as at Ristra and other restaurants, so they must be deep frying them at the restaurants at high heat.We could only sauté them in oil in a skillet and they did not float and absorbed more grease, so were greasy, but they were still delicious.
The asparagus were a little over the hill so they turned out to be a bit soggy also.
Some nights, dinner is an experimentation and reason to get rid of old ingredients.
June 9, 2012 Lunch - Ristra; Dinner- Salmon, cucumber and dill sauce
We went to Santa Fe for the day and we wanted to try something a little different for lunch. So we decided to go to Ristra Restaurant which is one of our favorite French restaurants.Suzette ordered fried calamari and I ordered the Duck confit salad with French lentils ($13.75).My salad was the best duck confit salad I have had in the U.S. for the price.It was served in a large pasta bowl in three piles: lentils in one, salad in the second and a leg and thigh quarter of duck was the third component in the bowl.The salad was slightly wilted as if lightly seared in a skillet, the duck was crisp as if roasted and then deep fried to sizzling and the lentils were delicious.I asked the waiter about the manner of cooking the lentils and he went to the kitchen and returned and said they were simply boiled in a miripoux (finely carrots, onions and celery) with bacon.
Suzette’s dish was equally interesting, a large platter of white, lightly coated pieces of calamari.The batter was light and flavorful and we asked the waiter how they were prepared. He said they were coated in potato flour.Suzette drank a glass of Gruet Blanc de Noir champagne with her calamari and I drank a glass of Côte de Rhone with my duck.
We were invited to Amy and Vhal’s house for dinner and to discuss and share pictures of Willy’s graduation.They had purchased a filet of fresh Copper River King salmon at Costco that they grilled to rare and served with a lovely cucumber and dill sauce.
We opened a bottle of 2011 Toulouse Rosé of Pinot Noir from Anderson Valley, California.When we went to the Pinot Noir Festival in AndersonValley in May, we tried all the roses in the tent and decided that Toulouse’s was the best, so we then went to the winery and ordered a case of it.It met all expectations.It was super fruity and had that lovely pinot noir grape flavor. The closest I can come to a description is wine Kool Aid; sweet, pleasantly fruity and with that special pinot noir flavor. After dinner Vhal and I watched the hockey game and the NBA game 7 between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics and sipped an Argentinian red blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.
June 8, 2012 “From the Hoof” at the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery
I went down for a treatment at at the Garden Gate Day Spa and at walked over to the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery to wait for Suzette for dinner.After sitting for a few minutes Chef Eric brought me a plate with a lovely small plastic container filled with a fresh carrot and turnip bisque made from the fresh carrots and turnips from the Greenhouse Bistro’s gardens.The Greenhouse Bistro sits on a six acre site that is part of the Center for Ageless Living that is owned by Suzette Lindemuth, who is my life partner or companera de vida as the Mexicans say and is the visionary who has created the Center for Ageless Living in Los Lunas, New Mexico.
Shortly after being served the soup, Ann Sesler, the Executive Chef and Director of Cuisine for the Center brought a plate of fresh baked soda bread and a cruet of a fresh tomato and herb coulis, which was a tasty addition to the soup.
After waiting a bit longer I began getting hungry, as I watched others eating their dinners, so I ordered a bowl of the Seafood Stew that was the prix fix meal of the day and a glass of Raymond Sauvignon Blanc Reserve.Suzette arrived as the soup was being served.
The soup was served in a dark brown French crock filled with a lovely light broth (caldo) and lots of bay scallops, mussels, shrimp and ringlets of squid.Suzette and I shared it and I really enjoyed it as the soup and fish course of the dinner with sips of the Sauvignon Blanc white wine.
I then ordered one of the dishes from the regular menu, a 6 oz. filet mignon served on a round of fried eggplant and garnished with Sauce Béarnaise plated with a pile of wonderfully delicious garlic mashed potatoes and a pile of sautéed green picked fresh from the Center’s garden that day.The greens included snow peas, arugula, mizutaki, Swiss chard, and other greens.I especially liked the snow pea peas.It is the end of the season for snow peas and some of them have grown large peas inside their shells and those peas have a sweeter, less dense flavor that an English pea when sautéed.
The meat was cooked to medium rare and was delicious.The Béarnaise Sauce was thick and creamy yet had that sharp bite of vinegar and fresh tarragon that makes it so appealing with beef.The round of eggplant was coated with panko and fried in oil, like in eggplant parmesan.On top of the steak was a sautéed mushroom cap filled with crab meat and the whole piled up stack of eggplant, steak and crab filled mushroom was drizzled with the Sauce Bearnaise. This is my favorite way to eat steak and I loved the presentation and all of the elements of the dish.A small filet mignon ha been my favorite steak since I was a small child growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, which was one of the greatest places to find a good steak in the world in the 50’s, since it was one of the main rail heads and packing plants for cattle in the U.S.I remember many great evenings of eating petit filet mignon at the Farmer Daughter and the Cattlemen’s Restaurants.
Suzette ordered her favorite dish from the Northern California Special Menu, Crab Cakes served on a bed of green pea puree with a cucumber and coriander slaw.She also asked for the sautéed fresh vegetables.I handed her my glass of Sauvignon Blanc and took a glass of Parducci Pinot Noir.Parducci is located in Ukiah, California in MendocinoCounty in Northern California, which is my favorite area for pinot noir.We had just been to the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival, which is only about 20 miles from Ukiah, where Parducci is located and from which it probably gets some of the fruit for its pinot noir wine (See May 19, 2012 review for more on the Pinot Noir Festival).
After we finished our large platters of food, Ann asked if we wanted dessert and I asked what they had that was special and she said, “Armando (the chief baker) made a lemon chiffon cheese cake that we are serving with a cherry coulis made from fresh cherries from the trees in the garden.”Although I was full and could not eat another bite, I asked Ann to
June 3, 2012 Grilled Lamb Chops with Tabouli and sautéed Sweet Potatos with aramath and Clafoutis
I love tabouli in the spring when tomatoes, parsley and mint are fresh.It is also the best time for lamb.So for dinner on Sunday evening I took the 6 lamb chops purchased at Costco ($7.99/lb.) with Mike Verhagen after our Friday lunch.
Suzette wanted to make a vegetable medley with the amarath (bought at the Farmer’s Market from Amayo Farms $3.00) and some sweet potatoes and I wanted to make tabouli.
Suzette rough diced and boiled two sweet potatoes and did the same to the aramath separating the stalks from the leaves. Then she sautéed the sweet potatoes with the aramath and some chopped garlic scapes.
While Suzette cooked her vegetable dish and grilled the lamb chops I finished the tabouli.
I started the tabouli earlier in the day by soaking about 1 cup of #2 Bulgur wheat (Istanbul Market) covered with water for about an hour or two.After an hour or two of soaking I drained the excess water and added lemon and olive oil and gathered about three Tbsp. of parsley and about ½ cup of mint from the garden and chopped it finely and put it into the bowl with the bulgur.Then I chopped up three green onions, and two roma tomatoes and peeled and diced two cucumbers and threw them into the bowl.
When I finished chopping and mixing the tabouli, we plated two chops and some tabouli and some of the sautéed aramath and sweet potatoes and I opened a bottle of 2005 Estate grown Wellington Zinfandel, which was extremely smooth and flavorful and stood up well to the lamb chops.Eating the tabouli with the lamb was like serving a mint flavored salad with the lamb.The mint and parsley really enhanced the flavor of the lamb, without being sweet like mint jelly or bitter and sour like the mint sauces based on vinegar.
June 2, 2012 Dinner- Gazpacho, Shrimp with Angel Hair pasta in a cream sauce and Clafoutis
A full day of activity.We started at around by going to the Downtown Farmer’s Market, which continues to grow in size and variety.Since it is early in the season, there were not many growers, but lots of new food and merchandise purveyors.We handed out cards advertising the Center for Ageless Living’s Field to Food dinner on June 23, 2012 and spoke to the growers and food purveyors whose names were listed on the card.We had not had breakfast, so we split a delicious pork tamale ($5.00) and bought a ½ baguette from the Le Quiche bakery.
Suzette wanted to make gazpacho, so she bought cucumbers from Skarsgaard Farms, who used to be at Los Poblanos Farms.Then when we saw that one grower who grows mainly garlic was selling scapes, we talked for a long time to him (Eli) about growing and harvesting garlic and scapes and buying garlic from him for the June 23rd event.An added benefit of stopping at the garlic grower’s booth was reacquainting with Marjorie Sweet, our son Luke’s friend from Sarah Lawrence, who was working for the grower.It was lovely to say hello to her and hear her praises of Luke.
At Amayo’s booth, we bought a large bunch of Amarath.Amayo is one of the strongest supporters of Suzette’s Field to Food event, because its growing facility is actually located in Bosque Farms, near Suzette’s facility.Since the landscaping crew was scheduled to come on Saturday to start finishing our new gardens in the back yard, we bought small plants of cucumber, butternut squash, and tomatoes to plant.
Then we returned home and, inspired by our new knowledge of growing and harvesting garlic, we immediately went to our garden and spent about an hour cutting the scapes off all of our garlic and leek plants.Then while Suzette went to the store to buy celery for her gazpacho, I made some guacamole with lime juice, avocados, red onion, two pressed cloves of garlic, a few finely chopped garlic scapes and a dash of Cholula red chili Sauce and a dash of salt for that evening’s meal.
When Suzette returned home I finished pitting the 2 lbs. of red cherries I had bought at Pro’s Market on Thursday ($1.49/lb.) for clafoutis and we were hungry so Suzette made a quesadilla with Mexican Bafar ham, some of the fresh guacamole and Irish cheddar cheese, while I cut the cherries into halves and put them in a plastic bowl with about 2 Tbsp. of cognac and 1 Tbsp of orange liquor to soak.
After our lunch Suzette made her gazpacho using the Cuisinart.She boiled Roma tomatoes in water to loosen the skins and cook them slightly and then processed the tomatoes with celery, cucumbers, bell pepper, onion and radishes and sautéed some of the fresh garlic scapes and garlic in the delicious Chilean olive oil and added that to the soup.Since the soup was a little thick, we added Clamato juice to it to thin it a bit. Suzette then made croutons by dicing old French bread and shaking them in a plastic bag with garlic and olive oil and then baking them in the oven at 400° until brown.
After Suzette put the gazpacho in a container and into the fridge, I started the clafoutis, following the recipe for “Clafoutis aux Cerises du Limousin” on page 592 in the Gourmet Cookbook Volume 1.I scalded three cups of milk and then let that cool. I then sifted into a mixing bowl, five or six Tbsp. of white all purpose flour and ten Tbsp. of powdered sugar and about ½ tsp. of salt.When sifted, the flour and sugar into a mound with a hole in the middle.Suzette had finished her croutons by now and asked me if I wish for her to pre-heat the oven, since it was still warm and I said, “Yes, to 350°, please.”
I then stirred three eggs in a small cup with a whisp and added that to hole in the middle of the bowl and then stirred the egg into solution with the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon.After the mixture became smooth and thickened, I removed the crust of milk solids from the top of the scalded milk and added the milk to the bowl of ingredients and stirred that with the wooden spoon until smooth and well mixed.I then coated a 1 ½ inch deep ceramic baking dish with butter and then dusted it with powdered sugar.I added the cherries to the mixing bowl of ingredients and then stirred them in with the wooden spoon and then poured all of the ingredients into the ceramic baking dish.The volume of ingredients filled the baking dish about 3/4 full.It is important to leave some room, because the clafoutis will rise some.I then put the clafoutis into the pre-heated 350° oven and set the timer for 50 minutes.When the alarm rang, I checked the Clafoutis by shaking the rack and it was still loose in the middle, so I turned off the heat and left the clafoutis in the oven to continue to cook as the heat reduced.In about another ten minutes, I removed the clafoutis from the oven.The Clafoutis had risen to fill the entire volume of the ceramic baking dish and had even overflowed a little bit. As it cooled, it sank a bit below the top of the ceramic dish.
Max Aragon and his assistant, Luis and Luis’ three children came around to make final measurements for the patio addition.At Max and I went to Home Depot to buy wood for the patio addition, which took over two hours.When we got back home after , I took a shower while Max drank and beer and discussed the patio addition with Suzette.Finally at around I grabbed a Gruet Chardonnay and we loaded up the car and headed up the hill to SandiaHeights to Suzette’s best friend, Debbie’s house.
Thankfully, when we arrived, Jeff, Debbie’s husband was watching the Stanley Cup finals between the L.A. Kings and the N.J. Devils.I have not been following the Stanley Cup playoffs as closely this year as in years past, so it was great to see game two.Debbie put the guacamole and chips into bowls and during intermission, we ate and talked about our trips and took a tour of the renovations they are making to their house. Then during the next intermission, Suzette and Debbie served gazpacho, garnished with cubes of avocado and the croutons, on the house’s east side patio with its incredible view of Sandia Peak and the tram.Debbie then put together her main dish of shrimp with angel hair pasta with a white wine/cream sauce, which was delicious with the French baguette (Le Quiche Bakery).The hockey game went to overtime, so we heated the clafoutis and ate clafoutis while watching L.A. win the game in overtime.After dinner we sat on that day’s newly installed patio on the west side of the house and watched the afterglow as the sun set in the west and the city lights after a great meal.
I must say that I got a slight upset stomach, which I attribute to the clash of the citrus in the guacamole and gazpacho with the cream in the sauce on the pasta dish and the milk in the clafoutis.They did not mix well in my stomach.So the menu may not have been so perfect.
I went with Mike Verhagen to La Salita for my favorite new New Mexican dish, Chile Relleno stuffed with Swiss cheese.I loved it as usual, especially after being deprived of good New Mexican food for over ten days in the Pacific Northwest.
Then we went to Costco and I bought whole grain bread, asparagus, lamb chops, and a bottle of Whispering Angel 2011 Rosé.
At around I began chopping up three medium sized eggplants, a medium sized onion, an Anaheim green chili, 2-3 Tbsp. of fresh ginger root, about four cloves of garlic, two pork sirloin steaks.When Suzette arrived at around , we went to Mariposa Gallery for Arts Crawl and when we returned home we got out the big wok and Suzette started cooking the dish.She put about 2 Tbsp. of peanut oil in the wok and seared the meat and some of the ginger and garlic and added 1 tsp. of sesame oil.Then I added 1 tsp. of garlic chili sauce and the rest of the ingredients.
While the ingredients were cooking I heated water in another wok and added strips of black fungus/wood ear and sliced shitake mushrooms and some Knorr dehydrated chicken stock and started a cup of basmati rice cooking.After sautéing/stir frying the vegetables for about twenty minutes or until soft I added the wood ear and mushrooms and enough stock to cover the mixture of ingredients and added 10 ounces of firm tofu and about 1 Tbsp. of rice cooking wine and let the entire mixture simmer for an additional thirty minutes.Then I added a thickening solution of 1/3 cup broth to which I added 1 Tbsp. of cornstarch, 2 Tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp. of sesame oil and 2 tsp. of Rice Cooking Wine and cooked the mixture for an additional ten minutes.At this point the sauce will turn slightly brown and thicken.
Finally at around after watching the Stephen Colbert show, we served the dish.It was delicious, not too spicy, with a rich balanced flavor of pork and eggplant with zippy touches of ginger.We drank beers with the meal.
This is my favorite Chinese dish.I have been cooking it for forty years and love it.I tend to not make it spicy.Most Chinese restaurants served only pork and tofu and they thicken the sauce more because that is quicker.I usually stew the ingredients for about 30 to 45 minutes, which I think imparts a more soup or stew like flavor. The traditional Szechwan recipe for Mapo Dofu uses less meat, more chili and no eggplant.But there are Szechwan recipes for spicy eggplant that combine pork and eggplant into stews, so I combined the two recipes and adjusted the seasoning and ingredients to what’s available.
May 30, 2012 Dinner- Spanish Tapa of Artichoke hearts, green peas, pork, pimiento, and saffron
We went to a party after work given by IQ and stopped at Lowe’s at Lomas and 11th and purchased some pork sirloin steaks on the way home.
So we did not get home until around , and were hungry.
We wanted something easy and quick to cook.Suzette suggested that we make the Spanish tapa we had discovered at a small restaurant in Pasia, Spain last May.Pasia is the sister city connected to San Sebastian and a deep water port we hiked to from San Sebastian. We took a ferry to the old part of the city nestled on a rocky promontory on the north side of the bay across from the port area, where there were a number of restaurants.At one, we ate a wonderful appetizer made of all PPI as part of a cheap Comida del Dia for 10.50 Euros.
The secret ingredient in the dish is the fabulous olive oil of Spain that does not impart a flavor or have an oily taste, so lets the ingredients shine through.The dish is simple; canned or bottled artichoke hearts packed in water, Spanish ham, cubed and fried into lardettes, green peas, that can be canned or frozen and thawed, pimientos, that can be canned, and a dash of saffron. If you want Spanish pimiento, it is sold at Ta Lin.
We did not have any Spanish ham, so I removed the meat from one of the pork steaks, we had just purchased, into ½ inch cubes and Suzette fried them in the best olive oil we have, which is Chilean.We opened a bottle of artichoke hearts bought at Costco that were packed in water, and we took a package of frozen red bell peppers we had previously roasted and a package of frozen green peas from the freezer.Suzette defrosted the peas and bell peppers with warm water (about 1 cup each of peas and artichoke hearts and 1/2 cup each of red bell pepper and ham).
I quartered the artichoke hearts and removed as much water as I could by pressing them with a paper towel.
When Suzette finished frying the pork into lardettes, she lowered the heat and added the peas and sautéed them with the ham and then added the red pepper and finally added the artichoke hearts and a dash of Spanish saffron, we had bought in Spain last year, to the skillet in which the pork lardettes were sautéed.
When all the other ingredients were combined and mixed and heated in the skillet with the olive oil fried ham lardettes, we served the tapa in a bowl.We each had about a 1 ½ cup portion of tapa that was sufficient for a dinner portion.I drank a glass of the De Ponte rosé and Suzette had a scotch and we had a lovely light and quick meal. Prep and cooking time was about twenty minutes.
