November 16, 2012 Two New Restaurants in One Day - Rose’s Table Café and Vinaigrette

November 16, 2012 Two New Restaurants in One Day - Rose’s Table Café and Vinaigrette

I went with Mike Verhagen to Rose’s Table Café for lunch.  Rose is originally from Merida on the Yucatan Peninsula, so she knows Yucatán cuisine.  The café is located on the first floor of the shiny new three story glass and steel building located at the southern end of University Blvd. across from the Albuquerque Sound Studio in Mesa del Sol, three miles south of the Rio Bravo exit on I-25.  The menu is simple, but interesting; lots of black beans and slow roasted meats in banana leaves.  I tried the fish tacos and Mike tried the pork tacos (cochinilla pibil).  Mike’s tacos were served with a large round cylinder of rice covered with black beans shaped by inverting a timbale.  The fish tacos were excellent.  According to Richard, the Chef, they are Swai filets thawed and battered in a flour and corn meal and baking soda and Modelo ale mixture.  The batter was crisp and toothy and the fish flesh soft and white and flakey.  The taco was a warm corn tortilla and the pieces of fish were garnished with both pickled red onions and cabbage in a mayonnaise sauce.  Lovely.  Each taco plate was also accompanied by a thick red salsa for dipping and sprinkling on the meat.  Mike’s pork tacos were shredded pork with a subtle pibil flavor.  We each chose Mexican cokes to drink and enjoyed their assertive cane sugar sweetness.  For dessert Rose served us fresh baked pumpkin cookies; large mounds of soft pumpkin flavored cookie dough coated with a thick soft white icing.  Pretty wonderful.  www. rosestablecafe.com/

 We and two couples in the neighborhood (the Colliers and the Souder/Grafs) with whom we have been friends for over twenty years as our children grew up and played together, made reservations at the newly opened Vinaigrette restaurant (www.vinaigretteonline.com).  When we arrived the newly remodeled building at 1828 Central Ave. SW we found ourselves in a large well lit dining room with reclaimed pine floors from Dixon and high efficiency LED track lights.  The atmosphere was clean, yet cozy and comfortable and a bit noisy if you do not like the bistro-like intimacy of a large room with lots of tables of people eating and drinking and talking merrily.   The menu appears to be the same as the one in Santa Fe with garden fresh ingredients served in a wide variety of soups, salads, sandwiches and large and small side dishes.  We tried a variety of dishes including beautiful salads, such as the gorgeous Nutty Pear-fessor with its Grilled Bosc pears, bacon crumbles, toasted pecans, and Maytag blue cheese  served on a bed of greens and dressed with a ruby port vinaigrette, shown on right ($11.95), a warm Reuben sandwich ($10.45), a grilled Cuban Torta (Sandwich), shown below ($10.45). 


 

Suzette tried the stuffed cabbage roll with cumin and garlic flavored beef rolled in a tomato stewed cabbage leaf with a chive and sour cream sauce and some marinara sauce also, shown to the right  ($7.50) (Suzette thought the meat had too much cumin and the marinara sauce rather bland).  The sandwiches are filled with generous portions of meat and each has its own unique dressing.  You can add meat to the salads for $4.00 to $7.00 extra.  I ordered my favorite salad the French Frisée with extra lardons ($9.95 plus $1.00) (lardons are diced pieces of fried bacon).   The standard portion of lardons is generous and the extra lardons are overkill unless you love bacon, which I do.   The salad is a plate of frisée topped with a poached egg and dressed with a warm shallot dressing.  I cut up the egg and let the liquid of the yolk mix with the warm shallot dressing to coat the frisee and lardons.  Heaven.  Bread and olive oil is served upon request and it is a delicious soft Italian loaf, worth ordering.  My overall impression is that the Albuquerque restaurant is as good, or better than the Santa Fe restaurant.  The other thing I noticed is how much care and creativity goes into the sauces and dressings on the sandwiches, sides and salads.  Viniagrette's has a wonderful sous chef.  

I am so glad that Vinaigrette is in my neighborhood.  Now I do not need to go to Santa Fe for my favorite salad.  We all ordered Marble Brewery beers because we had had appetizers and wine at the Collier’s house before dinner and the wine list did not look exceptionally interesting, although I did see a Ramón Bilbao “Valiñas” 2011 Albarino for $6.75 that loved interesting and would be great with fish or diver scallops, but not tonight's fried lardons.   Vinaigrette’s menu is stuffed full of interesting dishes, so I look forward to several more trips to one of Albuquerque’s best new restaurants.   Open MONDAY through SATURDAY, 11 am to 9 pm, tel. 505.820.9205 or info@vinaigretteonline.com     

Bon Appètit

November 15, 2012 Dinner – Pork Confit with sautéed Black Beans and Rice Medley

November 15, 2012 Dinner – Pork Confit with sautéed Black Beans and Rice Medley

I talked to Suzette last night and she said she wanted to eat the pork confit that we had made on Monday to see if it was still good because we had used a piece of pork that sat in its cryovac bag in the fridge for two weeks.  Lucky us. 

I had the idea of making a Spanish/Caribbean adaptation of the Italian dish that is served at the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery.  At the Greenhouse Bistro the pork is served on white cannellini beans.  My idea was to serve the pork with black beans and rice, sort of a fancier Spanish adaptation of the Cajun red beans and rice.

Here is the recipe for the pork confit (from my September 2, 2012 blog):

On Monday morning I started the Pork Confit by crushing in a mortar 2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt, 1 Tbsp. Black pepper, two leaves of bay laurel, and five sprigs of fresh thyme.  I then put the spice mixture in a gallon Ziploc freezer bag and added three pounds of boneless pork cubed in 1 ½ inch cubes and tossed the pork with the herbs and let it sit in the fridge for 6 to 7 hours.

Then Suzette and I transferred the pork and spice combination  to two covered enamel casseroles and added enough olive oil to the casserole to cover the meat, about 1 ½ cups to 2 cups per casserole and one half head of peeled cloves of garlic into each.  Then we brought the casseroles to a boil and then put them into a 225˚ oven and cooked them for 2 ½ hours.   Then we removed the casseroles from the oven and allowed them to cool and then combined the two into one and put it in the fridge overnight.  

END OF RECIPE

 So at around 5:00 p.m. when Suzette called and said she was on her way home, I asked how she wanted the beans prepared and she said with celery and onions and a pimiento.  So I minced one stalk of celery, 2 Tbsp. parsley, with one medium pimiento and one large shallot we had bought at the last Farmer’s Market. 

Then I started 4 ½ cups of water and added a large bay leaf and 1 tsp. of dehydrated chicken stock and brought the water to a boil.  When the water was at a boil, I added 1 cup of wild rice to the water and lowered the heat to a simmer.  After 45 minutes I added a cup of basmati rice to the water and simmered for an additional 30 minutes. 

Suzette arrived at 5:45 p.m. and after a drink, at around 6:00 p.m. she took out two large skillets, one for the beans and the other for the pork.  She put a bit of olive oil in the bean skillet and sautéed the minced vegetables for a few minutes and then added the beans.  After a few more minutes I added 2 Tbsp. of Amontillado sherry to the beans to give the beans a little more Spanish flavor.  Suzette then put some of the pork in the other skillet with its olive oil and spice mixture and sautéed it over low heat to heat it.  After about ten more minutes when the rice was ready, dinner was ready.  I ran to the basement for a bottle of Benton Hill 2010 Rosé and Suzette served dinner by putting a pile of pork on one side of the plate and rice on the other side of the plate with a scoop of beans on the rice.   The arrangement of foods was lovely and delicious, see picture.  

The wine was dark and cool and not sweet at all.  More somber and dark, like the cool wet Dundee Hills of Oregon’s Willamette Valley, just north of Corvallis.  Not at all like the fruitier complexity of rosés grown in California’s Sonoma and Anderson Valleys.  But the Benton Hill was a very good complement to the assertive flavors of the pork and black beans and rice because it unified their flavors with a texture of smoky red wine flavor.  Everyone liked the dish.  Simple and elegant at the same time.

We liked the rosé so well that I decided to go to the fridge in the garage and fetch the last pumpkin parfait made for us by Rose of Rose’s Table Cafe in Mesa Del Sol, with its pumpkin allspice cookies, submerged in layers of pumpkin mousse and whipped cream to try with the rosé.

After dinner I made chocolate chip cookies with Willy, so a lot of wild food and I am up at 2:30 a.m. to prove it. But the pork confit was not spoiled and that is the trick with pork confit.  Although I do not understand all the chemistry, the cooking at low temperature covered with spices and olive oil seems to preserve the meat and prevent spoilage.   The confit method cooking seems to me to be an older version of and amazingly similar to the new wildly popular sous bise method of cooking ingredients to temperature sealed in a plastic bag in a water bath boiling.  

Bon Appètit  

November 13, 2012 Dinner - Luke’s Vegetarian stir fry.

November 13, 2012 Dinner - Luke’s Vegetarian stir fry.

Luke invited a group of friends for dinner and a breath work session.  He made a pot of quinoa and guacamole and we put out the pickled cucumber, daikon and shallot salad (pickled in Japanese rice wine and mirin) and he stir fried medium tofu, refried black bean, broccoli, diced asparagus and chicken stock in a wok. 

We discussed the dish and Luke said he was trying to re-create a dish he had eaten in N.Y. that used whole black beans.  Instead, the use of refried black bean created a more homogenous mass because the refried beans soaked up the liquid into a gooey thick mass dominated by the thick refried beans.  The flavor was delicious but the appearance was decidedly murky and mushy.  It was a shame because I had bought whole black beans at Costco the night before, so he could have made the dish as he intended but he grabbed the refried beans instead of the whole beans.

 The bottom line was that the dinner was delicious. The food was light and did not weigh us down because it was a pleasing combination of fresh vegetables and tofu and quinoa. 

We then went to Luke’s room for a great twenty to thirty minute session of lying on the blankets on the floor and breathing, which elevated all of our spirits both physically and spiritually as we breathed to open up any constrictions in our body with the energy of our breath and send the energy we liberated up through our heart and other chackras and out through the top of our head to enliven our spiritual body. 

We probably should have evenings like this more often, where we balance body and breath work with a light delicious meal.

Suzette and I agreed that Luke is a great teacher, because he is sensitive to the needs of his students and takes a light hearted and fun approach to teaching.

Bon Appètit

November 12, 2012 – Instant PPI Dinner Sautèed Cajun Pasta, Asparagus and Salad

November 12, 2012 – Instant PPI Dinner Sautèed Cajun Pasta, Asparagus and Salad

I wanted to make a salad like I used to eat in the 50’s in Fort Worth Texas.  It is ¼ of a head of iceburg lettuce dressed with a sweet dressing made with mayonnaise, catsup and pickle relish. 

So I took the iceburg lettuce from the fridge and I sliced it into wedges and I made the above dressing and Suzette sautéed the PPI Cajun pasta in boudin sauce in a little olive oil and we snapped and steamed a handful of asparagus stalks and in about ten minutes we had a great old fashion dinner.  We drank water.

What a throw back to the dinners of my youth.  The best salad of the kind described above in Fort Worth used to be served at the El Chico restaurant and the best bottled dressing of the type described above was Brockles.  Suzette says there is a new fancier name for this type of salad but we can’t recall it.

Bon Appètit   

November 11, 2012 Dinner - Shrimp Enchiladas with a Tomatilla Sauce and Lance Armstrong

November 11, 2012 Dinner - Shrimp Enchiladas with a Tomatilla Sauce

Luke and Willy were here for breakfast, which was eggs and bacon and fruit salad I made during the morning news programs from the PPI half of the Crenshaw melon from our garden and papaya bought last week at Pro’s Ranch Market and a pineapple ($.99/lb.) and three kiwi fruits (5 for $1.00 at Pro’s) Suzette and I purchased yesterday at Pro’s and the juice of one large lime ($.33/lb. at Pro’s).

After breakfast Suzette and I rearranged and hung pictures to get everything off the floor and then we went to Costco to buy black beans and a few things for Suzette’s business. 

We arrived home at around 3:30 p.m. and we peeled shrimp for the enchiladas and I rode abut five miles in a high cold wind and came home to watch the last quarter of the Dallas v. Philadelphia game while Suzette constructed a platter of enchiladas with the shrimp and the tomatilla sauce she made last night.

Last weekend we picked the tomatillas from our garden.  Although they were not fully developed due to late planting in July, we still had a basket full of them.  On Saturday Suzette chopped them up and cooked them with onion, garlic, chicken stock and dried oregano into a thick sauce.  They are slightly gelatinous when cooked. 

Then Suzette constructed the enchiladas by sautéing the shrimp with chopped onion, garlic, red bell pepper and oregano and then filling corn tortillas heated in the microwave with cheese and the sautéed shrimp mixture and laying the enchiladas in a large pyrex baking dish and covering them with the tomatilla sauce.

unfortunately, Suzette forgot to spread a thin layer of the sauce on the bottom of the dish before laying the filled tortillas in the dish so the enchilada's bottoms were tough.  Also the problem was compounded, because the shredded asadero cheese we chose was not a good melting cheese ($2.99/lb. at Pro’s Ranch Market).  So Suzette blended the sauce and cheese together to emulsify the cheese into the sauce and covered the enchiladas with the blended cheese and tomatilla sauce and then sprinkled cojita cheese on top and baked it in a 350° oven for about 45 minutes until the enchiladas bubbled.  The final result was wonderful; a pastry like tortilla coated with a thick sauce that was like something between a cake and a stew, but neither.  Not the gooey mess one finds at restaurants that use good melting cheeses.

Suzette heated the black beans in a skillet with about 1 Tbsp each of few chopped onion and red bell pepper and I chopped up about 2 Tbsp. of fresh cilantro ($.33/bunch at Pro’s on Saturday and sliced up one half of a small avocado (4 for $1.00 at Pro’s).  Suzette served  a wedge of enchiladas and we each served ourselves a large scoop of black beans and garnished the top of the enchiladas and beans with chopped cilantro, slices of avocado and dollops of crema con sal (Pro’s Ranch Market $1.69/lb.).

We drank Kirtland beer with the dinner and watched the doping case against Lance Armstrong for a rather somber dinner time. 

A bit of history.  Luke, Suzette, Luke's friend Angele and I took a trip to France in 2005 and were on the mountain finish of the 15th stage of the Tour de France in the French Pyrennes south of Lourdes (Luz de Ardins?) on what was perhaps the greatest day of bike racing in Lance's career where Lance caught the strap of a child's mossette along the side of the road about 300 yards above us and fell and Tyler Hamilton made the other leaders wait for Lance to get up and remount his bike, which had a bent frame and stuck brake pad and commence to race with a vengance that took him well past the group of lead riders in the GC and past a young rider who had ridden on a breakaway ahead of the pack to convincingly win the stage.  There can be no greater evidence to me of Lance's ability and determination. We had parked in the town town at the base of the mountain and walked up about two miles of the 9 degree 7 mile ascent of the mountain and stopped at an outdoor cafe constructed at a campground beside the road to eat and drink and wait for the riders to pass, because we could not or would not walk any further.   As Lewis Black said on the Jon Stewart show, he had to take drugs just to watch the Tour on T.V.  I think we should acknowledge that it requires drugs to compete successfully in a grand tour like the Tour de France and let everyone dope and see who is the best rider under the same daunting conditions of a grand tour.  I suspect that Lance would have won under any evenly matched race over the same terrain and weather conditions, as he did seven times in a row and a third finish since.  He proved to me that day that he is one of the greatest atheletes of all time.  

The enchiladas were incredibly delicious and filling.  I had not desire to eat anything else other than a few extra bites of enchilada and beans.  I guess a fair assessment of the meal was that it was a wonderful success with a few small issues that were obvious and could be fixed easily.  We have never made tomatilla sauce with our own home grown tomatillas before, so this was a very exciting meal and incredibly fresh tasting.   

Bon Appètit     

 

November 8, 2012, Dinner – Cajun Shrimp Pasta

November 8, 2012, Dinner – Cajun Shrimp Pasta

I had thawed out a package of three Pork Boudin sausages (Ta Lin $7.99) a couple of days ago and Suzette decided to make a Cajun pasta dish with the sausage and some of the PPI pasta. 

So we thawed and peeled about 1 cup of shrimp.  Suzette then removed the boudin sausage stuffing from two of the casings (ground pork, rice and vegetables) and sautéed it with butter, onion and garlic and a Paul Prudhomme seasoning mixture of white pepper, salt, cayenne, thyme and oregano.

She then added the shrimp and added pieces of three or four diced stalks of asparagus and added cream at the end to make a cream sauce.

I went to the garden and picked about one cup of kale leaves.  After removing the stems from the leaves of kale and we put them into the sauce pan and when the kale wilted into the sauce we tossed it with the pasta and served it.

The sauce was very spicy, like so many of Prudhomme’s Cajun recipes but we enjoyed its warm spicy creamy texture in front of the fire on a cold early winter night and washed it down with beer. 

Later, later I had trouble sleeping due to the spicy rich creamy food and regretted not drinking more beer with dinner to wash it down better.

Bon Appètit    

November 9, 2012 Dinner – Sautèed Pork Cutlets with Apples and Cabbage and blanched green beans.

November 9, 2012 Dinner – Sautèed Pork Cutlets with Apples and Cabbage and blanched green beans.

Suzette worked late so it was up to me to cook dinner.  I took out three of the 4 smoked pork cutlets I had bought at Pro’s Market and sliced up the remaining ½ head of green cabbage and one granny smith apple and ½ of a Jonathan apple and put those ingredients, with 1 Tbsp. each of butter and olive oil, in a large non-stick skillet and sprinkled the ingredients with about 1 tsp. of cumin and 1/2 tsp. of salt and sautéed them and then covered them with a wok cover to steam for about 30 minutes.

I then plucked the ends off about 1 cup of string beans and put them into boiling water to cook. 

When Suzette arrived at home she put the three cutlets into a large iron skillet with a bit of olive oil and sautéed them until they took on a bit of color and then Suzette drained the green beans and sautéed them in the skillet we had used for the pork cutlets to reduce their wetness and take on a bit of pork flavor (a very nice trick).  I wanted some sauce for the pork and I fetched the PPI peach and basil sauce Suzette had made from the fridge.

I poured glasses of Concannon Sauvignon Blanc and we enjoyed a fun and easily prepared dinner, with bites of apple and pork, bites of pork and peach sauce and bites of green bean and cumin flavored cabbage.