December 9, 2013 Sautéed Rib Steak and Mushrooms with Sautéed Sweet Potatoes and Squashes and Creamed Kale with Chanterelle Mushrooms

December 9, 2013 Sautéed Rib Steak and Mushrooms with Sautéed Sweet Potatoes and Squashes and Creamed Chard with Chanterelle Mushrooms

I was working on a case with a client and could not help Suzette in the kitchen this evening, so this meal description will illustrate her skills with PPI’s and menu creation. 

After lunch with Mike at Taj Mahal, I went to Quarter’s on Yale and bought two cases of Marchesi Chianti Superiore for $.599/bottle and one case of Casa D’Avalo Grillo from Connie Nellos that he is featuring that we had drunk and liked at Kylene and Barry’s Christmas party last night and were offered by him at the party.

Then I went home and thawed out a rib steak I bought at Albertsons a month or two ago (graded Choice $5.99/lb.), which is a very good price for that cut and grade of meat.   When it became evident that I was too busy to help, at around 6:30 Suzette began dinner by sautéing in one large non-stick skillet, the PPI white acorn and Hokkaido Squashes and sweet potatoes we had baked last week.  In another small cast iron skillet, she sautéed three sliced white mushrooms in butter and olive oil. 

At the same time she chopped up several chanterelle mushrooms and sautéed them with a handful of the chopped chard I had picked from the garden last Wednesday before the storm hit and when those two ingredients had softened and cooked a bit, she added ¼ cup of heavy cream to create a cream sauce.

She went to the basement and selected a bottle of 2008 Wellington Vineyards’ Sonoma Valley Syrah grown in its Englandcrest vineyard and opened it to breath a bit.

Finally at 7:00 she made me stop working when she told us dinner was ready and I went to the kitchen and she heated up the small cast iron skillet and sautéed the steak and warmed up the other side dishes.  Finally at around 7:15 she removed the steak from the skillet and sliced it.  a bright line of red indicated that It was a little bit rare in the middle so I put a piece of aluminum foil over the slices and we plated the vegetables and after another minute of two when the steak had cooked more laid slices of steak on our plates and garnished the steak wit the sautéed slices of mushroom.  Suzette poured glasses of Syrah and we began eating while watching Dallas go down in flames in a chilly Soldiers’ Field to the Chicago Bears.  The meal was super delicious.  As I have said before I was raised on beef  and sweet potatoes (yams) in Texas and I love creamed spinach.  I found the substitution of chard to be fine and even interesting.  I loved the dinner.

I am not a fan of Syrah because it tends to be earthy and complex and I usually like fruity and clean tasting wines that do not interfere with the flavors of the food.  But, If you like earthy and complex, you will like Wellington Vineyard’s Syrah.  In fact, it has those peppery spicy notes that one often finds in California Zinfandels.  Its complexity and earthiness, perfectly complemented the fatty, heavily marbled steak.  As Suzette, said, “A forkful with the combination of the creamed Kale and the creamed kale and the steak makes a perfect bite.”  

 

 

I agreed and could only add, “Especially when washed down with a good Syrah.”

After dinner I ate a bowl of European yogurt ($2.99 at Trader Joe’s) with three slices of fresh pineapple I had sliced up yesterday afternoon (Pro’s Ranch Market $.50/lb.).  I often let the pineapples sit in the fridge a week or two, which seems to concentrate their sweet flavor a bit.

Bon Appétit

 

   

 

December 3, 2013 Crawfish Etoufée

December 3, 2013 Crawfish Etoufée

This is a recipe we make pretty often, because it is one of my favorite Cajun dishes.  We use Paul Prudhomme’s recipe from his Louisiana Kitchen Cookbook.

First let me show you Paul Prudhomme’s recipe for Crawfish etoufée and then I will describe how we made it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We use one large skillet and one large enameled casserole.  Suzette made three cups of chicken stock with some PPI chicken and water and I diced 1 cup each of celery, onion, and red bell pepper, plus 1 Tbsp. of fresh garlic.  Then Suzette said, “We are making a variation of the recipe with more vegetables and fewer crawfish.”  I chopped up about  ¾ cup each of celery, green bell pepper and onion and four green onions I picked from our garden.

Tonight Suzette put about 7 Tbsp. of oil into the skillet and started sprinkling in flour slowly stirring all the time to eliminate any lumps, until the mixture thickened and took on color.  When we had a thick light brown paste we added to the skillet the ¾ cup each of finely diced celery, green bell pepper, and onion with 1Tbsp of garlic greens.  The heat under the roux mixture was reduced and cooked for a bit.  Then Suzette put 4 ounces of butter into the casserole and I added 1 lb. of crawfish tails and heated the casserole until the butter melted and added the ½ cup of minced green onion and then cooked the crawfish (Nantucket Shoals $14.99) in the butter for about five minutes.  We then transferred the roux and vegetable mixture to a sauce pan and added the seasonings (thyme, white pepper, black pepper, basil and salt) and three cups of stock and cooked the roux and about ¾ of the vegetable mixture and the seasonings until it was a smooth creamy consistency.  We then added three cups of roux mixture to the casserole, and cooked the mixture some more to blend the flavors of the ingredients.    After about another five minutes we had a full casserole of etoufée.   The consistency was very creamy and the vegetables had softened.

I heated 1½ - 2 cups of PPI rice in the microwave and fetched two bottles of Shiner Oktoberfest from the garage fridge and we were ready to eat.

 

Suzette put approximately ½ to ¾ cup of cooked rice into each of two pasta bowls and then we each ladled scoops of etoufée onto the rice.  It was delicious.  Delicious.  I find it to be an elegant dish, akin to Homard American and yet sort of Chinese in conceptualization because it is a cooked stew served over rice.

 This recipe makes enough to serve 8 to 10 people so it is a great party dish.  For parties, Suzette likes to make dirty rice with chopped chicken livers and gizzards cooked into the rice. 

Bon Appétit

December 2, 2013 Stir Fried Tofu, Halibut, Napa Cabbage and Cashews

December 2, 2013 Stir Fried Tofu, Halibut, Napa Cabbage and Cashews

We went to lunch at Vietnam 2000 at the corner of San Mateo SE and Zuni.  We each had a flour sheet dish.  Mine was No. 48 with fried egg rolls and shrimp paste and Suzette ordered No. 50 with grilled pork and fried egg rolls.  The sheets are now cut into squares that are about 2 X 2 inches and laid on top of sautéed mung bean sprouts and cucumber threads and served with a small bowl of sweetened fish sauce.

We then drove to Ta Lin and I bought two cubes of fried tofu at the bakery on the south side of the parking lot and a .7 lb. piece of halibut in the fish department ($11.88/lb.) and a head of Napa Cabbage ($.79/lb.).

When we arrived home, I rode to Rio Bravo and then when Suzette arrived, I started cooking.  I chopped up ten stalks of Napa, separating the green from the white parts and chopped up the tofu and picked about ¼ cup of cashews out of the mixed nut jar and ¼ cup of red onion.  I stir fried the nuts, the white part of the Napa cabbage and onion in the wok with about 1 Tbsp. each of garlic and ginger and 2 Tbsp. of peanut oil.   Then I added the green parts of the Napa cabbage and three sliced mushrooms and PPI cauliflower and string beans and a tbsp. each of tamari and Chinese cooking wine and a dash of sesame oil. Suzette pushed the halibut into the vegetables in the wok to cook in the wok to cook and covered the wok. 

We made a cup of rice by boiling 2 cups of water with a bit of dehydrated fish stock and some flecks of dried seaweed thrown in. 

Also, I made a thickening sauce out of 1 Tbsp.  each of tamari, Chinese Cooking wine and a tsp. each of mushroom soy and sesame oil and 2 tsp. of corn starch and about ¼ cup of water.   After the Halibut had cooked to the point of turning opaque (about ten minutes), I removed the halibut and added the thickening sauce and cooked the mixture another five minutes to thicken the sauce a bit.  When I separated the fish flesh from the bone in each bowl I found two 2 inch long lampreys lodged in the fish’s flesh that really freaked us out, but not as much as it must have disturbed the halibut and not enough to stop us from eating the flesh of the halibut that was left, over a pile of rice covered with the stir fried tofu and cashews and Napa cabbage mixture.      

 

I drank lichee flavored tea and Suzette drank water.

Bon Appétit

 

 

December 5, 2013 Dinner Party at Cynthia and Ricardo’s - Spaghetti with Seafood Red Sauce, Salad and garlic bread.

Several days ago Cynthia and Ricardo invited us to attend the Preview of 12X12 art works at the Harwood Art Center from 5:30 t0 7:00 and then go to their house for dinner.  We asked if we should bring red or white wine and Cynthia said “Red.  Ricardo is making his famous tomato sauce.”

So with a good deal of anticipation I grabbed a bottle of Chianti Reserva (Trader Joe’s $5.99) and we went to the Harwood at around 6:00 p.m.

We enjoyed seeing the art and especially visiting Ricardo’s and Cynthia’s studios.  Ricardo has started painting more, now that he has a place to devote dully to it, although both have excellent drafting areas in their studios.  In fact Cynthia has several drafting areas, so she can work on several projects at once, I suppose.   Cynthia’s studio also has a pattern of small purple orange and green handprints on the floor that is quite lovely and warm feeling.

My favorite piece at the show was by Ann Dunbar; a sort of futurist figure with a conical head and neck.

At around 7:00 we embarked for the five or six block drive to their house.  When we arrived the tomato sauce was simmering and Cynthia was laying wedges of brie and Havarti on a cheese board and bread sticks and water biscuits and a bowl of lovely raw green olives (from Smith’s) on their kitchen table.  We gathered around the table and discussed their planned lifting of their roof to create a row of clearstory windows on the south side of their kitchen, for which Ricardo had shown us the drawings at his studio.  Ricardo opened the Chianti Reserva and their bottle of Malbec and we started drinking the chianti with appetizers while Cynthia made a salad and heated a pot of water and made the spaghetti and Ricardo heated the large casserole of red sauce and added the seafood medley (calamari, baby scallops, and shrimp) to the red sauce and an aluminum wrapped loaf of garlic bread was heated in the oven.

After about twenty minutes Ricardo and Cynthia decided that the seafood red sauce was ready.  They told us that Ricardo had an interesting presentation for the spaghetti.  We watched as Ricardo used the slotted wooden fork from the salad tossing set to scoop a large forkful of spaghetti and twist it around the fork and then set the coned shaped mounds of pasta in the pasta dish and then scoop seafood res sauce on top of and around the mounded spaghetti.  A very artistic touch by a very artistic guy.

They took the spaghetti and sauce filled pasta bowls to their dining room table and Suzette served salad and Ricardo filled wine glasses with Chianti and later malbec and we passed the bread around.  I liked the bread very much it was the standard baguette from Bosque bakery, but with the addition of fresh garlic laced butter it came alive, standing independently as its own defined dish; the rich dough enhanced by the addition of fresh garlic and butter having a distinct taste and textural sensation.

 

After we had eaten our bowls of pasta and several pieces of bread, Cynthia announced that they had a small dessert.  They brought out a chocolate ice cream I had not seen yet from Trader Joe’s or Sprouts and fresh sesame seed covered Regina cookies from the Saratori's Pastry Shoppe next door to Tully’s Meat Market on San Mateo with we nibbled and ate small spoonsful of ice cream with the final bit of wine from the bottle of malbec.  

After a lovely evening and meal we said our goodbyes at around 9:30.

Bon Appétit

 

 

December 4, 2013 New Recipe – Sautéed White Acorn and Turban Squash and chard with sautéed pork steak

December 4, 2013 New Recipe – Sautéed White Acorn and Turban Squash and chard with sautéed pork steak

The weather report predicted the arrival of a large winter storm later today but mild weather of around 54˚ until then.  After a salad with only palm hearts and some pecorino cheese, I decided to go to PRO”S Ranch Market to re-provision the kitchen, especially with salad making ingredients.

 So after replacing my license at 3:00 p.m., I went to Pro’s and bought bananas and Mexican squash  ($.33/lb.), beautiful vine ripe tomatoes ($.89/lb.), six small avocados (3 for $.99), yellow onions ($.59/lb.), green onions ($.50/bunch), red radishes ($.33/bunch), a cucumber ($.25 each) and some Oaxacan string cheese ($.3.89/lb.).

When Suzette arrived home I told her that I wanted to cut up the whole pork 6 lb. tender I had bought at Costco the other day and sauté pork steaks and serve them with sweet potatoes.   She said, “Why not bake all them with all the squashes.”  So I cut the white acorn squash and the turban squash in half and laid them on a cookie sheet with the two sweet potatoes and Suzette de-seeded the squashes and baked them in a 350˚ oven for 50 minutes.   I went to the basement and fetched a bottle of 2012 La Ferme Julien Rosé Ventoux Appellation Contrôle ($5.99 at Trader Joe’s) and chilled it in the freezer for about ½ hour while the potatoes and squashes were baking.

I also wanted to pick some chard before the storm hit so we would have some that was not frozen. I went to the garden and picked a grocery bag full of it and came back in and de-stemmed it and cut the leaves into bite sized pieces while watching the news and then placed the chard in a colander and washed the cut up leaves.   

 I cut the tender into 1 inch chops and we wrapped them in saran and put them into the freezer for later use.  Suzette then said I would like to sauté the pork with apples, so I cut one of the large apples I had bought at Pro’s several weeks ago ($.69/lb.) in half and skinned it and sliced it into thirds and then into thin slices.  It made about ½ cup of firm apple slices.  After Suzette started to sauté the pork in butter around 6:40 p.m., we added the apple slices and I asked, “Shall we add an herb?”  We decided that sage would be nice with the pork, so I went to the garden and plucked a limb of it from our sage bush in the near darkness around 6:30 p.m.   Suzette then said she wanted to add some wine flavoring and looked for the Madeira but found the Marsala instead and asked it that was okay with me and of course I said, “That is great.  I love the fruitiness of Marsala.”  So she splashed ¼ cup of Marsala into the pork skillet.

Also around 6:30 p.m. while I was cutting and wrapping pork steaks, Suzette peeled the squashes and sweet potato skins from their meat and cubed their meat and began sautéing it with two cloves of garlic minced in a garlic press and 2 Tbsp. of light brown sugar in a large skillet with 2 Tbsp. of butter.  After the squash had softened and heated and the pork was cooking, Suzette added some of the chard leaves to the potato and squash mixture and another Tbsp. of butter to emulsify it and was careful to stop cooking the chard to prevent it from collapsing into mush.

 

 

So at around 7:00 we were ready to eat.  Suzette plated the dish very attractively by making a mound with the sautéed potatoes, chard and squash and placing the pork steak slices on it and then garnishing the top with the apple slices and then drizzled the apple slices with the slightly thickened sage and Marsala sauce from the pork skillet.  Here are the plates.
 

 

I poured glasses of 2012 La Ferme Julien and we had a great winter dinner as we listened to the wind blow by the fireplace and waited for the storm to arrive.

 

The Ferme Julien is made by the Perrin family that is one of the best and largest producers of wine in the Rhône Valley of France.  Their Ferme Julien rosé is consistently good with fruity, tannin overtones and, in my opinion, the best value in rosé wines at $5.99.

 We drank the whole bottle, finishing it with a few chocolate covered peanut M&Ms.

   Bon Appétit

 

December 1, 2013 Lunch – Dallas Museum of Art; Dinner – Enchilada Casserole, Christians and Moors, Guacamole, Baked Zucchini Pudding, and tamales

December 1, 2013 Lunch – Dallas Museum of Art; Dinner – Enchilada Casserole, Christians and Moors, Guacamole, Baked Zucchini Pudding, and tamales 

We went to the Dallas Museum of Art at 11:00 and saw lots of interesting art.   Here are some of the ones I liked.  At 1:00 we became hungry and since we had not had a good salad in several days and knew would be eating Mexican food for dinner we went to the Museum restaurant and ordered a select you own salad for $8.00 each.  There were four kinds of greens.  In addition, I selected beets, blue cheese, egg, red onion, artichoke hearts, and cooked garbanzo beans.

There were four different dressings.  Suzette took honey mustard and I took Cesar salad dressing.  In addition there was a tray with a bowl of croutons, and bowls of chopped pecans, pinon nuts and raisins and I took some of each of those also.

We enjoyed our salads and felt renewed and went back to see some more art, especially the European 19^th and 20^th Century stuff.  Impressionism, Pointillism, Suprematism, Cubism, Fauvism and Pre-Raphaelite works.  Nice but nothing to compare to the works from the Chicago Art Institute at the Kimball yesterday, except for about 10 Piet Mondrians that chronicled his entire career including pointillism and a few pointillist pieces that were knockout, especially one each by Signac and Pissarro.

We returned home by way of Walmart for a box and packed Suzette’s new chicken in cardboard and taped it shut.

Then a few minutes after 5:00 all the family arrived and around 5:30 we started eating all of the wonderful Mexican food Billy and Elaine had made.  Billy made a Green chili Chicken enchilada casserole with Monterrey Jack Cheese, Guacamole with tomato, and  Christians and Moors (black beans and rice cooked together with some sautéed onion and green bell pepper).  Charlie brought a new beer and Modelo Especial and Billy had some Shiner Bock. Elaine made a grated zucchini casserole with egg and milk and lemon zest that went well with the meal also.  Billy and Elaine also had bought some pork tamales from Luna’s that they heated by steaming them over boiling water.

After dinner we played games and Elaine made more chocolate and vanilla cookies and we sipped drinks. 

Suzette and I talked to Rita some and enjoyed her company.

Finally around 8:45 all departed.

Bon Appétit    

November 30, 2013 Jewish Dinner – Potato Latkes, Stuffed Cabbage and green bean salad

November 30, 2013 Jewish Dinner – Potato Latkes, Stuffed Cabbage and green bean salad

We went to Fort Worth today and visited two properties and two museums and then Will Rogers Cattle Barn Flea Market.

Dinner was a Jewish dinner at 5:00 p.m. at Sandy and Rita’s.

The stuffed cabbage was the best I have ever tasted. 

Rita’s Stuffed Cabbage

Serves 16

Cut the Core out of a head of cabbage and lay the leaves in a microwaveable container and cover with at least thee cups of water and microwave on high heat for 8 minutes to soften.

Meat filling:

Mix 3 1/2 pounds of ground beef with

1 grated onion and

8 saltine crackers and

1 can of Hunts tomato sauce for meatloaf and

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

Roll cylinders of meat stuffing into about two inch lengths by 1 inch tubes and tie a leaf of cabbage around each and lay in a deep baking dish and cover with

Sauce

½ can of Hunt’s Tomato Sauce for Meatloaf

brown sugar and

vinegar and

enough of the reserved cooking liquid from the cabbage leaves to cover and

Bake for one hour to 1 ½ hours in a 325◦ to 350◦ oven until cooked

Freeze and

When ready to eat put in crock pot and heat for a several hours.

Potato Latkes

Serves 16

8 lbs. of potatoes grated

1 or two grated onions

salt and pepper to taste

after grating the potatoes and onion heat canola oil in large skillet until very hot but not smoking and drop a scoop full of potato mixture into skillet to form a pancake about three inches across.

Fry until golden brown or brown remove to platter covered with a paper towel to absorb some of the grease

Serve with apple sauce and sour cream.

Apples sauce

peel apples and cook until they collapse into sauce.

Green Bean Salad

2 lbs. green beans

1 lb. mushrooms

4 green onions sliced

¼ chopped parsley

salt to taste

Dressing

Mustard and vinegar and olive oil seasoned to tasted

de-stem, and break into two inch pieces and blanch the green beans

Sauté shallot in 2 Tbps. of butter and add the mushrooms and sauté lightly for several minutes.

Mix mushrooms with green beans and chill

Dessert

Rachel made rugelach

Here is the Wikipedia entry

Rugelach

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Rugelach

Pastry

Chocolate rugelach

Main ingredient(s):

Dough: sour cream or cream cheese Filling: any of raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, chocolate, marzipan, poppy seed, or fruit preserves

Recipes at Wikibooks:

Rugelach

Media at Wikimedia Commons:

Rugelach

Crescent-shaped rugelach

Cut rugelach

Rugelach (/ˈruːɡələx/; Yiddish: רוגעלך), other spellings: rugelakh, rugulach, rugalach, ruggalach, rogelach (all plural), rugalah, rugulah, rugala (singular), is a Jewish pastry of Ashkenazic origin.
Traditional rugelach are made in the form of a crescent by rolling a triangle of dough around a filling.^[1][2] Some sources state that the rugelach and the French croissant share a common Viennese ancestor, crescent-shaped pastries commemorating the lifting of the Turkish siege,^[3] possibly a reference to the Battle of Vienna in 1683. This appears to be an urban legend however, as both the rugelach and its supposed ancestor (the Kipfel or Kipferl) pre-date the Early Modern era, and the croissant in its modern form did not originate earlier than the 19th century (see viennoiserie).
An alternative form is constructed much like a strudel or nut roll, but unlike those, the rolled dough and filling is cut into slices before baking.^[4]

Contents

• 1 Etymology
• 2 Ingredients
• 3 Cultural
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Etymology

The name is Yiddish, the Jewish language of eastern Europe. The ach ending (ך) indicates plural, while the el (ל) can be a diminutive, as, for example, shtetlekh (שטעטלעך, villages) is the plural of shtetl (שטעטל, village), the diminutive of shtot (שטאָט, town). In this case, the root means something like "twist" so the translation would be "little twists," a reference to the shape of this cookie.^[3] In this context, note that rog (ראָג) means "corner" in Yiddish,.^[5] In Polish, which influenced (and was in turn influenced by) Yiddish, "róg" can mean "corner", but can also means "horn"—both the kind on an animal and the musical kind. Croissant-shaped pastries, which look like horns, are called in Polish "rogale" pl:Rogal świętomarciński. That word is almost identical in pronunciation and meaning to the Yiddish "rugelach".
Alternatively, some assert that the root is rugel, meaning royal, possibly a reference to the taste.^[6] This explanation is in conflict with Yiddish usage, where the word keniglich (קעניגליךּ) is the dominant word meaning royal.^[7]
Finally, in modern Hebrew, they are known as roglìt (רוֹגְלִית), a postbiblical Hebrew word meaning "trailing vines".^[8] The Yiddish word ruglach probably came first. The modern Hebrew is probably a neologism, chosen for its similarity to the Yiddish and its descriptive meaning.

Ingredients

Rugelach can be made with sour cream or cream cheese^[1][2][3] doughs, but there are also pareve variants with no dairy ingredients,^[9] so that it can be eaten with or after a meat meal and still be kosher. Cream cheese doughs are the most recent, probably American innovations, while yeast leavened^[9][10] and sour cream doughs^[11][12] are much older.
The different fillings can include raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, chocolate, marzipan, poppy seed, or fruit preserves which are rolled up inside.

Cultural

Rugelach is a traditional Jewish food that is eaten any time of year, including, but not limited to Shabbat. Despite the fact that it is not fried in oil, they are traditional on Hanukkah.^[1][2]

Sandy made a platter of amazing Ghiradelli chocolate cookies.  Here is her recipe: 

  and bowls of fresh pineapple and strawberries.

I bought a bottle of Chateau de Thauveray sancerre at Costco and Charlie bought a bottle of Santa Christiana Toscano red and a bottle of Kungfu Riesling from Washington State at Kroger’s

Here is the info on the Sancerre.  I loved the Sancerre with its character and majestic full bodied Sauvignon Blanc flavor.

Chateau de Thauvenay 2010 - SOLD OUT

Gold Medal, Concours International des Vins de Lyon. Light crisp yellow with golden touches. The bouquet is subtle, fresh and fruity, with flinty notes and white flowers. In mouth: this wine is harmoniously crisp and round with a long finish.

Appellation:	SANCERRE
Cuvée:	Château de Thauvenay
Color:	White
Vintage:	2010
Quantity:	80,000 bottles
Yield*:	50 hl/ha ≈ 3 tons/acre
Grape:	Sauvignon Blanc
Vineyard Age:	35 years
Terroir:	Clay and Limestones
Harvest:	Mechnical and hand picked
Harvest Conditions :	Excellent with dry weather.
Wine Making:	Raking of the must. Slow fermentation process between 17°C et 20°C, in thermoregulated stainless steel tanks.
Bottling:	Estate Bottled

As the information says the dry weather gave the wine with a crispness and a clarity that was impressive.  A steal at $14.95 at Costco.

Buy it, you will like it.

Bon Appétit