December 12, 2011 Lamb, rice and sugar snap pea sautèe

Dinner - December 12, 2011 Lamb, rice and sugar snap pea sautèe

Today I went on a quest for the best under $10.00 bottle of Pinot Noir in Albuquerque.

I bought a bottle of Pennywise Pinot at Costco for $7.89 and bought 5 bottles of Chalone Monterrey County Pinot at Whole Food for $9.99 per bottle (less a 10% discount).  I also bought a bottle of Pazo Serantellos Albarino 2010 at Whole Foods for $12.99 that a knowledgeable service assistant recommended, (“dry and crisp”) and a bottle California Leese-Fitch Sauvingnon Blanc 2010 at Costco for $7.99 that was rated 90 points.

So at dinner I wanted to try one of the newly acquired Pinots and so we decided to make a dish that used up some of the leftover grilled lamb.  Since I worked until after 7:00 p.m. Suzette decided to do a simple sautèe in one skillet, so Suzette sautéed in one large skillet 1 cup lamb, ¼ cup brown onion, two cloves of garlic pressed, about ¾ cup of our PPI basmati and wild rice and golden raisin combo, ¼ cup of chopped almonds, about 1 cup cubed white mushrooms, and about ½ cup of threaded sugar snap peas.   We decided to open the bottle of Pennywise Pinot and we each took one half of the pile of sautéed food in the skillet.  It was delicious.  The PPI lamb had been grilled to rare so did not get dry out and imparted some of its remaining juices to the sautèe as it cooked.   We did not add salt to let the natural flavors of the ingredients blend.  The dish’s texture was varied and interesting; the softness of the onion, mushrooms, lamb and rice contrasted with the crunch of the sugar snap peas and almonds.  I though the dish’s distinctly Middle Eastern flavor would be enhanced with a sauce of some kind, so I went to the fridge to see if I could find some harrisa, but only found a Swat Pakoda chutney.  The spicy tamarind chutney blended really well with the lamb and rice dish and added a fruity, spicy flavor to it.  The light pinot also complemented the subtle combination of flavors in the dish. 

The Pennywise Pinot was really good; a clean tasting French style Pinot; a legitimate contender for best Pinot under $10.00, unlike the previous candidate.

After our light dinner we still had some pinot left so Suzette went to get an opened bag of French dark chocolate truffles and I went to the fridge to get some Saint Andre cheese and French bread, so we could try the wine with those items.  The wine was great with both, but especially with the creamy Saint Andre on warm toasted slices of French bread.  The chocolate overwhelmed the pinot a bit in my opinion, but that really is not the point with chocolate anyway, is it?

Then we ate a little fruit cake to see how the rum had soaked in.   A lovely meal by the fire as a cold rain fell outside and we watched a Christmas Hallmark movie called “The Perfect Recipe”; a romantic comedy about a lovely woman struggling to get her writing career as a food critic going at a New York magazine and a young, handsome chef trying open his first restaurant on a shoestring who cooks gorgeous fresh Greek food.  A perfect movie for a perfectly simple, yet elegant Greek style dinner.

Bon Appètit          

December 9, 2011 Dinner - Boeuf Bourguignonne at the Bistro

December 9, 2011 Dinner - Boeuf Bourguignonne at the Green House Bistro and Bakery

On the 8^th Kevin Sanchez, our yard dude, found water bubbling up out of the ground in the back yard.  When I turned off the water well pump, we discovered that it was a leak on a line connected to the city water system, so I called Jason Bunt, my plumber, who found the leaking pipe but could not repair it because the 70 year old galvanized pipe was too weak to hold a clamp to gasket the leaking area closed when it was clamped.  So we were without water for the evening of the 8^th and could not cook. 

On the morning of the 9^th Kevin returned and dug up the line to an old capped faucet next to the house and Jason returned and capped the line at that point.  Voila, we had water again by 2:00 p.m.  What a wonderful amenity running water is!  I felt lucky and ready for a holiday from the house and since Suzette was working until 5:00, I elected to schedule a massage at 5:00 p.m. at her Garden Gate Day Spa in Los Lunas while she swam laps in the Spa’s pool.  After the massage and a shower to wash away the ill effects (both psychic and physical) of being without water for a day, I met Suzette in her Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery for dinner.  I finally felt civilized and refreshed after a day of being without water!~.  

When we sat down, we were served a plate of small diamond shaped focaccia cubes with fresh herbed compound butter.  We ordered a glass of Champalou Vouvray sec and shortly after being served the wine, we were each served a complimentary appetizer of a baked mushroom stuffed with flavored bread crumbs and chopped mushroom on a bed of sautéed spinach in a sauce I could not identify but seemed to contain balsamic vinegar made by the new assistant chef, Eric Elliott heaslet.       .

After eating small bites of the mushroom with the lovely light Vouvray, we were intrigued to try a bowl of the special soup of the night, “Champagne Chicken Soup”, and decided to keep things simple and light by each trying the soup and splitting one order of grilled vegetables.   The soup was served in a brown ceramic bowl of the type used for French Onion soup that was filled with a lovely chicken stock based soup with shredded chicken and sliced fresh vegetables, including carrots, yellow crock necked squash and, most interestingly, fresh plump and chewy shitake mushroom slices that gave the soup an added chewy texture.  The chicken stock was flavored with champagne that gave the soup a lightness that allowed the soup to eclipse generic chicken soup and turned it into something quite different; lighter and decidedly unchickeny. 

As we finished our appetizer we were informed by our waitress,  Kat that the kitchen did not have asparagus and would we accept grilled yellow and red peppers as a substitute for asparagus in the grilled vegetable medley.  Neither of us wanted peppers, so we elected instead to split an order of Boeuf Bourguignonne and ordered a glass of Cahor's, a fruity mixture of Grenache and Carignane grapes.

Soon our waitress returned with a salad plate on which a four sided bowl was placed filled with a thick beef bourguignone  topped with a large scoop of mashed potatoes garnished with chopped parsley leaves.  When the wine was poured I dug in.  My initial reaction was that there was too large a portion of potatoes for the beef stew, but as I mixed potatoes with stew, I realized that each accentuated the other.  The bland and fluffy mashed potatoes balanced and diminished the heaviness of the carrot, mushroom, onion and beef in wine sauce beef stew and the stew gave the mash potatoes a rich meaty flavor and heft; a lovely combination.  The fruity red wine further lightened the heaviness of the beef stew.

We were really full by the time we finished our half portions of Boeuf Bourguinonne, so we selected two pieces of apple almond tart and a brownie to take home.  I left the Bistro feeling more satisfied than I would have at any of my favorite bistros in Albuquerque.

Good Bless Suzette and Ann and the kitchen staff at the Green House Bistro and Bakery.

When I got home I had a chocolate attack and ate the brownie with cardamom tea and then ate some chocolate truffles with some Mexican brandy as we laughed our way through “Step Brothers”, the Judd Apatow produced comedy with Will Farrell, John Reilly, Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins.

I count the day as a wonderfully reassuring example of how quickly one can turn tragedy into gastronomic and comedic ecstasy by the application of a relaxing massage or swim, good food and wine, and pleasant entertainment.

Bon Appètit

December 7, 2011 Dinner Sautèed Pork Chop with toasted cabbage

December 7, 2011 Dinner Sautèed Pork Chop with toasted cabbage

Sometimes things happen when you are cooking that you think are mistakes but they turn out to be positive experiences from a taste standpoint.  One of those things happened tonight.  I picked up two beautiful boneless thick cut pork chops (Lowe’s $4.68/lb.) to cook with the green cabbage I had purchased at Pro’s Ranch Market last week ($.25/lb), because I know that one of the dinners that Suzette loves is pork anything with sautèed cabbage and apples and onions.  Since I had to go to meditate by 6:45 p.m., I started chopping cabbage into strips at 5:30 p.m.

Suzette came home at around 5:45 p.m. and when I showed her the lovely fresh pork chops, she agreed immediately to cook them and the skillet full of cabbage strips I had placed on the stove ready to cook.  We decided to fix dinner before my departure for mediation at 6:45 p.m., so I asked her what kind of apple she wanted, Jonathan or Granny Smith.  Suzette said Granny Smith, so I went to the garage fridge, but found only a Fuji.  While I watched the news and diced the Fuji and some onion and a couple of small cloves of garlic, Suzette seasoned the chops with salt and pepper and started cooking the chops in a separate cast iron skillet and then started cooking the cabbage (see next paragraph for cabbage recipe) and then went to her computer to check her e mails. 

We learned our favorite recipe for sautèeing cabbage on a trip to Budapest about ten years ago.  A friendly restaurant owner of a small ethnic restaurant shared his recipe for sautéed cabbage.  He simply used good olive oil and seasoned the cabbage with ground cumin and a little garlic.  We have adapted his recipe, based on our love for pork by adding onion and apples and a bit of vinegar and sometimes a dash of sugar depending upon the freshness of the cabbage.    

About five to ten minutes later when I returned to the kitchen with the chopped apple, onion and garlic, I discovered that the cabbage had been left on high heat and some of the strips on the bottom of the pile next to the skillet had darkened considerably (toasted or charred).  I turned down the heat immediately and added the diced apples, onions and garlic and called Suzette.  I took out a few of the more blackened cabbage strips and tasted them and they tasted crisp and toasted.  Suzette added some butter to keep the mixture from burning any further and we continued to sautée the cabbage uncovered.  I went to change for mediation and Suzette added some apple cider vinegar to the mix and flipped the chops.  When I returned she asked if I wanted sugar snap peas and I said yes, so we stringed about ¾ cup of peas and steamed them for about five minutes, while I went to the basement fridge and fetched a bottle of a recently purchased Albero Rose Bobal 2010 (Trader Joe’s $5.99).  I opened it and it tasted decidedly dry, like a dry Rosado (not much fruit).  Rather than get another bottle, we decided to try it with the dish to see if it was food friendly.

I poured full glasses of the wine to let it breath and we then each plated up a chop, some of the sautéed cabbage and each took half of the steamed peas. (See picture).

We were eating by 6:20 p.m. and by 6:45 p.m. I was on my way to meditation.  

The wine was better with the food and after it opened up a bit, but it was still breathtakingly dry; drier than a Laxas albarino.  The Albero Rose would be great with a piece of grilled fish with lemon. 

Here is the story on Bobal: 

Bobal From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Bunch of Bobal grapes

Bobal is a variety of Vitis Vinifera, a red grape used in winemaking. It is native to the Utiel-Requena region in Valencia, Spain. The name derives from the Latin bovale, in reference to the shape of a bull’s head. It is grown predominantly in the Utiel-Requena DO where it represents about 90% of all vines grown, and is also present in significant quantities in Valencia, Cuenca and Albacete. It can only be found in small quantities in other regions of Spain: La Manchuela (Castile La Mancha), selected vineyards in Ribera de Guadiana DO, Alicante DO, Murcia, Campo de Borja, Calatayud, Cariñena, Valdejalón. Small quantities are also grown in Rosellón (south of France) and in Sardinia (Italy). A rare white variety of the same name also exists. According to the data from the Spanish Vine Registry (Registro Vitícola Español) of 31 July 2004, Bobal is the third most planted variety in Spain with 90,000 ha (8%), coming behind Airén 305,000 ha (27%) and Tempranillo 190,000 (17%).

December 5, 2011 Dinner – Steak with mushroom sauce and Baked Delicata Squash.

December 5, 2011  Dinner – Steak with mushroom sauce and Baked Delicata Squash.

We are now back into our normal mode of menu planning and cooking, which is to cook three or four simple elements in a meal; a meat, a green vegetable, a starch or carbohydrate and sometimes a sauce for the meat.

Suzette and I talked during the day and I asked if steak was okay for dinner.  When she said yes, I thawed out a thick cut rib eye steak (Costco $5.99 lb.).  When she got home I was still working and had to go to the bank and the post office, so she started baking the delicate squash I had bought the other day at the Coop ($1.25 lb).  Suzette, halved the delicata and stuffed each half with butter and chopped onion and pecans and then baked it at 350°F for     minutes.

When I returned home the squash was baking in the oven. I asked if Suzette wanted to add the leftover sautéed turnips to the mushrooms and she said, “Yes”.  So, I took a package of mushrooms and the PPI turnips sautéed in onion and thyme (from December 3, 2011 dinner) out of the fridge and grabbed two shallots and two cloves of garlic and sliced and diced all of those ingredients and threw them into a non-stick skillet with about one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of grape seed oil, because I wanted the mushroom sauce to retain a more woodsy mushroom flavor and olive oil would interfere with that flavor. 

Then I stemmed and put twelve stalks of asparagus in the steamer with some water and turned on the heat.  While I tossed the mushroom mixture and the old turnips in the skillet over medium high heat; Suzette began sautéing the steak in a cast iron skillet (no grilling tonight because of the below 32°. temperature).  After about five minutes, when the mushrooms began to soften and take on color as they absorbed some of the grease, I added about two tablespoons of Amontillado sherry to the skillet and covered the skillet with the wok cover to let the mixture soften and steam in the sherry atmosphere.  After a few more minutes Suzette reduced the heat under the mushrooms and turned off the heat under the asparagus, removed the baked delicate squash from the oven, and tested the steak for doneness. 

The steak was still deeply red in the center and it needed another minute or two, so I went to the basement and grabbed the bottle of Carneros Creek Pinot Noir Reserve 2007 that I had bought at Trader Joes’s the other day for $7.99 and opened it and poured a small sip for each of us in wine glasses.  We agreed that the wine was still somewhat tight and musty.  I suggested that I decant the wine, but Suzette said she only wanted to drink one glass and suggested filling the glasses with as much as we would drink for dinner so the wine would open up sitting in the glass and then corking the bottle, which I did.  I set the glasses with about 8 ounces each of wine on the table.  With squash and turnips, we decided on no bread.  So in another minute or two we cut of the heat on the mushroom mixture and I cut the steak in halves and Suzette cut the delicata halves in half. We plated up by putting the mushroom and turnip mixture on the steak and placing a one-fourth wedge of delicate squash and 6 asparagus on each of our plates.

The Carneros Creek 2007 turned out to be clean, without pronounced additives, and opened up after a few minutes and tasted like a 100% full bodied Pinot Noir should, so it is the winner of the under $10 pinot award this week.  Thanks Trader Joe’s.

The star of the meal for me was the mushroom mixture with its three onions (brown, shallot and garlic).  The mixture of those three onion family members with the sherry and the mushrooms with a hint of thyme from the PPI turnip dish had a really a special flavor profile and I was happy that I had decided not to go out to the garden to pick additional thyme.  The mushrooms and sherry merged with the butter to make a unified flavor that was dominant.  The onions and turnips created a secondary textural note and flavor. In this case the “less is more” principle worked beautifully. The sauce was moist, so it clung to the pieces of steak to make a lovely combination of flavors.  I fetl like I have achieved a successful technique for cooking mushrooms.  Usually I do not cover the mushrooms and they dry out and become wrinkled and tough and do not develop into a moist sauce that they developed tonight, so in the future I will always add a cooking wine and cover mushrooms, if I want a mushroom sauce for steak.

The Delicata Squash was tender and naturally sweet, so I was glad Suzette had not added sugar.  Again another example of “less is more”.  The onions and toasted pecans added flavor and a crunchy texture to the delicately soft squash. 

Bon Apètit

December 4, 2011 Dinner – Broiled Lobster on Seafood Risotto

December 4, 2011 Dinner – Broiled Lobster on Seafood Risotto

We were feeling very lazy, because we had gone to the Pegasus Jewelry Sale at 1:30 pm and eaten lots of Middle Eastern food cooked by Susan Conway, who is President of Pegasus, and others, such as falafels with yogurt-mint sauce, spanikopita, hummus and pita, and lots of lovely desserts and lots of Gruet Champagne poured by Bob Levy and others.  We bought a number of jewelry items for Christmas gifts.

We made fresh blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast.

We had already eaten so much good food this day that we decided to make a simple dinner using the PPI seafood risotto and our lobster tail.  So we cut a slit in the lobster tail we had purchased Saturday at Costco ($19.99/lb.) lengthwise and Suzette stuffed butter and lemon slices into the crack and grilled it on the grill outside for a few minutes, while I went to the basement to get a bottle of 2010 Lacheteau Vouvray (Trader Joe’s $6.99) and snapped about one cup of sugar snap peas and put them into the steamer with some water on the stove to steam.  After about five minutes of grilling we tested the lobster tail by cutting it in half along the slit we had previously made along the tail.  It was uncooked in the middle so we put the two halves back on the grill for a few minutes more of grilling.

When the lobster was fully cooked we plated up the microwave heated risotto, steamed sugar snap peas and lobster on a plate and poured the Vouvray.

We loved the lobster and seafood risotto combination, but the wine was a disappointment.  It was too sweet.  I looked at the bottle again and saw that the label described it as semi-dry and not “sec”, so I guess I  purchased what I should have gotten.

But I will choose to pay the extra $6.00 or $7.00 for the Champalou Vouvray every time in the future.  Our taste tends toward dry wines, especially with the types of food we cook.  I could see pairing this wine with a spicy Mexican dish or a heavy cassoulet, but not an elegant seafood risotto and lobster. 

I t is worth noting that Vouvrays fall into two general categories; the normally sweeter category such as this Lacheteau and the dry or “sec” category which the Champalou more closely approximates. 

 Bon Apètit

December 6, 2011 Dinner – Roasted Duck with Mango/Orange Sauce

December 6, 2011 Dinner – Roasted Duck with Mango /Orange Sauce

            I was still working after 6:00 p.m. when Suzette came home. She asked me what I wanted to do for dinner and I suggested that we make an easy dinner.  I suggested that we use the duck halves in the meat compartment in the fridge. She suggested heating the remaining one-half delicata squashes and I suggested cooking some asparagus.

So, while I was still on the computer, Suzette took the two duck halves, pricked their skin and placed them in a heated oven for 25 minutes to roast them and plated the PPI delicate Squash stuffed with pecans and onions. Then Suzette got on the computer to check her mail and I went to the kitchen and took the old PPI Sauce L’Orange out of the fridge left over from before Thanksgiving and our trip to Mexico and stirred it and let Suzette taste it and I tasted it and it was fine.  I asked if she wanted me to add fresh orange slices and Suzette said, “No, I think we need to use the fresh mangos we have, so please use them.”  So I went back to the kitchen and cut up a mango and put it in the PPI orange sauce that still had its strong madiera flavor, so I knew could stand more fresh fruit.  The mango was golden yellow so in prime condition.

I also made guacamole out of the six remaining avocados, because they were at the end of their freshness.  I chopped about three tablespoons of onion, pressed two cloves of garlic and scooped the meat of six avocados into a bowl and added the juice of one and one-half limes and a generous sprinkle of Cholula chile sauce and few grains of sea salt into the bowl and mixed it with a spoon.  We ate some of the guacamole as an appetizer with corn chips while the duck was cooking.  I forgot to add fresh cilantro but will do so on Wednesday, December 7, 2011.

I then took ten stalks of asparagus from the fridge and stemmed them.   Suzette then came in and put them in the steamer and started them steaming while I heated the orange sauce and re-heated the squash in the microwave.  Suzette did not like microwaving the sauce so she put the sauce into a small enameled sauce pan on the stove to simmer for a few minutes longer. 

When the duck had roasted 25 minutes the halves were fully cooked and juicy and hot and the skin was slightly crisp.  I was able to easily separate the breast and wing quarter from the thigh and leg quarter.  We then plated the leg and thigh quarters and sauced the duck with the mango/orange sauce and added the asparagus and the heated squash quarters to our plates and poured out the remaining Carneros Creek Pinot Noir 2007 (about one-half bottle) and commended ourselves on a delicious meal that took less than 10 minutes of actual prep time.  This is one of the greatest benefits of utilizing PPI ingredients and we have the breast quarters of the duck and the Mango/Orange sauce available as PPI ingredients for another meal. 

            The Carneros Creek Pinot Noir 2007 was still good, so it had staying power and is worth considering buying again.  Although the Carneros Creek Pinot Noir was not a great drink, because it did not have either the fruit forward character or long lasting finish of a great Pinot Noir, it was a clean pinot tasting red; perfectly adequate to the task of providing a satisfying complement to this delicious dinner. 

            My opinion is that great wine will greatly enhance a great meal and even turn a good meal into a great meal.  Likewise, bad wine will ruin a great meal.  But average wine will not diminish or enhance a good or great meal.  I think this kind of awareness is a characteristic of a food oriented person but not a wine person.  I consider myself a food oriented person; always much more focused on the food aspects of a meal than the wine aspects.  Suzette tends to be a wine person.  So we make a great food couple, because she will never agree willingly to let us drink bad wine and I will never willingly accept eating bad food (bad ingredients or preparation or cooking technique).  That is why we cook at home so much, because we can control the ingredients, the prep, the cooking technique and the wine selection necessary to eat good food and drink good wine most of the time. For an example of a great meal where all the aspects of the food and wine are great, see the November 30^th, 2011 meal we ate at Bill and Elaine Simon’s house. 

            The difference in price between a good meal and a great meal is a factor of at least 10 to 1 in cost, so it is a big difference and one we can not afford to eat great food and drink great wine every night, not to mention the time it takes to shop for and prepare the meal.  So we try to keep our meals simple (easy and quick to prepare), good (good cooking technique) and inexpensive (the best ingredients and wine available at moderate prices).  Sometimes we fail, but we succeed far more often than we fail and far more often than local restaurants and for far less (at least by a factor of between 4 and 6 to 1) than what it would cost to eat a similar meal at a local restaurant.

Bon Appètit

December 3, 2011 – Dinner – Grilled Leg of Lamb

December 3, 2011 – Dinner – Grilled Leg of Lamb, sauteed Turnips and asparagus

On Wednesday, we bought a one-half boneless leg of lamb at Costco (about 2 ½ lbs. $4.99/lb.) and on Friday I started marinating it in a plastic bag using about one cup of leftover Cutler Creek Vineyard cabernet sauvignon, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, four cloves of garlic smashed and a hand full of fresh rosemary. 

We did not cook Friday night but we did cook on Saturday evening, but wanted an easy meal, so we prepared about eight or nine turnips from our garden that had been stored in our vegetable crisper for at least one month.  I diced the turnips and blanched the turnips for about five minutes in boiling water, because that is what Julia Child suggested to relieve the bitterness of turnips before cooking them, except young spring turnips.  Then I diced one Jonathan apple and about ¼ cup of brown onion, about fifteen leaves of sage sliced into strips and two cloves of garlic in a pan with about two ounces of heated butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil for about twenty minutes, until they began to take on a brownish color and began to wilt a bit.  Suzette grilled the marinated leg of lamb for about twenty minutes. After about ten minutes I stemmed and steamed 12 asparagus stalks for about eight minutes.  We got a mint sauce and the bottle of Suzette’s green tomato chutney out of the fridge and I opened a bottle of Three Knights Pinot Noir from Sonoma County ($7.99 at Trader Joe’s).

When the lamb was cooked we covered it for a few minutes and let it continue to cook a bit more to consolidate the juices.  Then I sliced the lamb.  It was still rather rare in places, but on the well done side at the ends and a fair amount of medium and medium rare.   The lamb has been fully impregnated with the flavor of th garlic and rosemary and was tender and moist.

The turnips and lamb with a bit of mint sauce or green tomato chutney made a great bit of food.

I cut and toasted three slices of fresh French breach (Paris Bakery $3.99 for a double baguette).  After dinner I spread St. Andre cheese on two slices of bread.  The cheese was a triple cream cheese and very delicious)

Then we opened the box of chocolate covered cherries in liquor from Trader Joes ($4.99 for 14 oz. or 30 pieces).  The cherries were Hungarian and not as sweet as American cherries). 

The wine was not as long lasting as we had hoped and seemed to have additives that gave us each headaches, so we will not be buying any more of it.  I am still looking for a delicious Pinot Noir for under $10.00.

Bon Apetit