For something a little different for lunch,
I recommend a mixed greens salad
with lettuces from the garden,
a poached pear, toasted walnuts,
fromage bleu,
and a reduced wine glaze.
First, I'm poaching a pear in a wine solution.
Ingredients:
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup sugar
1 TB lemon juice
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch cloves
And just forget about that apple up there.
I certainly did.
Mix all ingredients together, bring to a boil,
add peeled, cored, and halved pear to mixture,
and lower heat.
Simmer for 10 minutes,
spooning the liquid over top every now and then.
After 10 minutes,
turn pears over and simmer another 10 minutes,
spooning the cooking liquid over top.
Add sugar to lemon juice.
Pour in wine.
Add in cinnamon.
Add vanilla.
I liked this picture.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce to simmer and add pear halves.
Spoon syrup over top and cook for 10 minutes.
After ten minutes of simmering,
turn pears over.
Keep spooning syrup over top.
Simmer for another ten minutes.
Remove from heat and let pears cool in poaching liquid.
Remove pears from liquid.
Next you want to reduce your poaching liquid by half.
Barely simmer at the lowest setting.
Here's a Rosie Tip #487:
When reducing liquids,
place your pan in an iron skillet to diffuse the heat.
A diffuser is your nanny.
Trust Rosie on this.
If you put your pan with liquid in it directly over heat,
there's more of a chance of burning it.
A reduction can go south in a heartbeat,
so use the diffuser and watch the pot.
This is not something you can rush.
Take your sweet time.
When first starting the reduction,
take a dip stick to the pan.
Mark the level.
Every now and then,
throughout the cooking period,
come in here and shake the pan or stir.
My poaching liquid has thickened,
turned syrupy, and has reduced by half.
It's 4:40 PM and my syrup has reduced by half.
I started at 2:10.
2 1/2 hours of anticipation.
Like I said, you can't rush a reduction.
The flavors have intensified.
I picked salad greens from the garden
and added my poached pear.
I toasted the walnuts to intensify their flavor a bit.
Crumble some bleu cheese over the leaves.
Drizzle with the red wine reduction.
Perhaps some Balsamic vinegar
and your favorite olive oil.
And enjoy.
I have four of my favorite flavors here:
walnut
bleu chese
pear
wine.
Lunch at the Hawthornes today
was red snapper with pineapple salsa.
Rosie's Pineapple Salsa
1 cup diced fresh pineapple
1/4 cup chopped red onion
2 TB diced red pepper
2 TB diced green pepper
1 TB rice wine
1 TB sugar
2 TB chopped cilantro
1 tsp cayenne pepper flakes
Mix pineapple, onion, peppers, cilantro, and cayenne.
Amounts are up to you really.
Sprinkle sugar and pour wine in and toss to coat.
Taste test.
Adjust amounts if needed.
Make it your salsa.
Dice the pineapple.
Chop the red onion.
Dice the red and green peppers.
Mince the cilantro.
Mix all together and add in the cayenne.
Sugar in.
And the rice wine.
Toss to coat.
Mr. Hawthorne slice a red snapper filet in half and ...
... let it soak in buttermilk.
The breading mixture is equal parts Panko and Idaho Spuds.
Dredge each filet through the breading and ...
... place in hot oil.
Fry each side until golden brown.
Depending on the thickness of the filet,
3-4 minutes a side.
Drain on paper towels.
Serve snapper with fresh pineapple salsa
and Mr. Hawthorne's cole slaw,
which I have to say,
is getting better and better.
Cole slaw is like potato salad.
Everybody has a recipe.
And Mr. Hawthorne and I are usually at odds
over our recipes for these two things.
However, he's getting much better.
This was his best cole slaw to date.
Nice, fresh, light lunch.
I'm going to have to get his cole slaw recipe for you,
but he's being rather secretive about it right now.
Patience!
