Raamo

Finishing up the 09 Cab, Duroc pork chops were on sale, so I googled for Sauce ideas and this is Garlic, Mustard, Butter/Cream sauce. I went a bit crazy on the garlic but it's SO good. Tossed a little fresh Tyme on top and it's a but excessive sauce:

Tonight we continue with the 2009 cab. My wife does not do cooked beef (she will eat a good beef tartar) so she made a carmalized onion, pepper, and mushroom tart. I continued with my American waygu this time with onions and asparagus.

I often drink aged cabs, this was pretty unique as it had a lot more fruit left after 12 years then I would expect. This was not 100% cab, but cab with some other Bordeaux grapes mixed in (though by far majority cab) so that could be the reason. Usually I drink 100% aged cabs and the good ones are complex w/o any tannins left. I've been working on 2007 from my cellar, soon I'll break into the 2008. I got 2 bottles of this 09 cab, I'm going to save the other one for a year or two and see how that much age changes it further. I have had very well aged French wine at a high end French restaurant in Tokyo and I wouldn't say it's really any different to my palette being old world vs new. I just thoroughly enjoy aged wine.

Today I got my 1st Covid-19 Vaccine, and last week I received a 2009 Stone Edge Farms Cab. So why not celebrate and try a aged wine. So that means American Wagyu ribeye with some asparagus and fried potatoes. And some nice salt for the steak.

So I do like good quality Ham, but it's hard to buy in small quantities.. So I was shocked to see small steaks of high quality ham at my local upscale grocery. I improvised a glaze - the ham is ~9.5 ozs, served with mashed potato and paired with a Hagafen Dry Riesling (0% R.S.) which worked quite well.

Last night and tonight, and tomorrow night will all be the same thing! Duck Kefta Tagine from The New Mediterranean Table I've posted it before, it's one of my favorite dishes I've cooked at home so I figure I'll make it 3x a year or so. Paired with a 2014 HdV Syrah. Meat balls are not perfectly round, I sous vided these in a zip top bag so they were not as compressed, but still don't stay round

Another one of Giada's recipes from one of her cookbooks: Banger's and Mash, Sausage is chicken, there's celery root in with the potatoes.

Tonight Lemon and Chive Risotto from Food Network with Gianda: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/lemon-and-chive-risotto-5592292 Same episode as the sole - which we actually made for lunch today (though since I posted it last weekend I did not take pictures again) It's very good risotto, I modified the recipe method to use a pressure cooker ala the method in Modernist Cuisine at Home. So we didn't make 5 cups of the lemon stock but more like enough for 2-3 times.

Last night my wife got her 2nd covid shot, we stayed downtown and so got to watch Giada Entertains on Food TV this morning. She made this dish and we our local grocery had fresh sole in stock! https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/sole-with-lemon-caper-sauce-5592211 It's really good - I paired it with a 2017 Le Debut Chardonnay from HDV. I'm quite confident we'll make this again.

My wife wanted Pizza - so she made the dough on Friday. And then we made the pizza on Sunday: The entire pie: Once at the table we had fresh basil (from her office window) to add: Onions on the entire thing, my side Italian sausage, her's roasted tomatoes.

Teriyaki Pork Luau Bowls: Started out as provided by hello fresh, we make it ourselves now it's really good.

Lunch this weekend - Shrimp Tacos w/ Microgreens and Mango salsa: Homemade corn tortillas of course.

Dinner last night, only the best way to cook canned green beans ever Served with naan. Slow cooked with Tomatoes and 7 spice from (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

Ab's recipe for Shakshuka which may not really be Shakshuka but either way it's darn good

We first made this ~20 years ago, it was the first high end dish I ever made - served it to my wife's grandmother (she was around 80 at the time, turning 100 this summer) https://www.emerils.com/125224/wasabi-crusted-salmon-orange-ginger-sauce I remember the taste - this is SO SO SO good. The sauce does have restaurant levels of butter in it though. Wasabi Crusted Salmon With Orange Ginger Sauce:

Tonight Catfish breaded with Cornflour and succotash. We've made this plenty over the years - comes from America's Test Kitchen's 30 min meals. I love the color in the succotash.

Our local grocer is having a fish sale, and cod was nice and cheap... we also had 2 potatoes left from a 5lb bag after making lefse.... so it's fish and chips time!

Today for lunch, Pork Sausage pasta with red pepper and microgreens: My wife is growing these little plants from a kit - so it's interesting to try them on some things.

Today Chili, I made a huge amount of this yesterday and having it for the first time for lunch today. Fresh cilantro on top with some sour cream to finish it off.

I'd never had it before, there were 2 mussels in it and they were good, the soup it self was very lusciously and rich, I wouldn't want a full bowl of it at this richness. It worked perfectly to counterbalance the other 2 dishes.

It was for frying the potatoes, they gave us extra on purpose - I have a full duck in the freezer so I plan to use a bunch of it to confit the legs.

So restaurants around us can open if they want, but not all will. So our favorite local French restaurant Meritage occasionally offering Meritage a la maison which is French for Meritage at home. We like supporting them and the meal kits they offer always are cold so the final cooking / assembly is done at home. This time it was a large 4 course meal! I asked a good friend of mine at HDV what wine would go with all 4 pairings and he suggested their 2017 Chardonnay Le Debut (younger vines, they make 3 different tiers of Chardonnay) and it's in a French style - this wine paired perfectly, I drank at least 2/3 of the bottle over the course of the 2 hours. We would eat a dish then prepare the next to space it out. The rose was included for free as a thank you for supporting them. The first course arrived in 5 different containers: Fully prepared: These 3 small appetizers were all simply awesome. The dishes are all Japanese and designed for dipping sauces and tea but worked great for these dishs. The second course was in 3 containers, the crab was breaded but uncooked: This dish was again simply amazing! The plates for the following dishes are noritake china that belonged to my grandparents - the rims are platinum! The 3rd course involved duck, I had already cooked sous vide the duck to 135F and cooled it down, this was right before I rendered the fat: We were getting quite full so I only prepared a few of the potatoes and about 1/3 of the duck: I'm still not a fan of Brussel sprouts but my wife really enjoyed them. The final course required basically no preparation: It's chocolate and cake - I'm not really a fan but my wife loved it of course. It's very thematic for the day too. We're not the types to buy flowers or go out to eat today, so this was a neat treat to do at home. This card was included and I love the use of the mask in the heart. Covid-19 has meant a number of our local restaurants have permanently shut down so this is great we can support them.

Tonight we made a small pizza, we had a big lunch which I'll post in Lunch topic. My side was sausage and bacon My wife's side (not all pieces pictured) was pinapple: The Dough is MB's New York pizza dough.

Lunch today, wanted some fish to try out a 2017 Le Debut Chardonnay from HDV that should pair well with tomorrows 4 course french meal we picked up from our local French restaurant. Scallops were on sale so why not. Paired super well. The side is couscous with some red onion cooked in a chicken stock.

Tonight, Pasta with Cauliflower, Garlic, and Walnuts: One of our favorite recipes out of cooking for 2 from america's test kitchen.