Silver Case

I had a bunch of friends from my office (amazing, yes, I actually do have them!) for a dinner. They left around 11:15. Although it was contentious with Ling, the dinner turned out well.

For appetizers…

Mushroom Gratin Crusty, heavy french bread with a baked layer of four types of mushrooms softened and sweated in a thyme, butter sauce, and covered with very nice parmesan.

Onion Gratin In my mind, the suprise winner of the night. Crustless french bread covered with a pile of very-thinly-sliced onions sweated with bay leaves, covered in a heavy crust of the same very nice parmesan.

*The trick with gratins… DON’T TOUCH THE CHEESE. Put it on heavy, but let it lie fluffy. It will brown forever, carmelizing beautifully, and never burn. Press it down, compact it, touch it, and it turns into some gross mozerella slop.

A Tuna Salad, Tonno Sott’Olio This absolutely sucked. Flavorless, heavy, crude, gross. It became the joke of the night. Enough said.

Nice goat cheeses.

Herb Frittata.  The thyme was distinctive and refined.  I well-salted this, so it had presence.

For the first…

Seafood risotto. 800g of risotto cooked with the crab stock from last year’s crayfish boil. Squid, prawns, sole, and scallops. It was very correct and people enjoyed it.

Secondo…

For a few who made noise, I marinatedi some rear lamb loins in Herbs De Provence for 3 days. Grilled on harsh heat until medium rare. They were well-regarded steaks, although I didn’t eat one.

For the rest of us, Salsa Genovese, braised pork shoulder with onions. For four hours I braised 8.8lbs (4kg) of pork shoulder (butt) in 3kg of onion and toasted chillis (from the stock I bought in the USA). The onion/chilli sauce really makes it nice. We have tons of this left over, so it will be nice mixed with pasta.

Desert…

Homemade Lemon Sorbet. I kept it pretty tart.

Torta al Vino (wine cake with grapes or berries). I used bluberries. Nice.

Apple Crisp Parfait made with Brown Sugar Crumbles: hand-whipped cream + brown sugar crumbles + softened, sweetened tart apples.

Wines…

Domaine Olivier Le Bievaux Santenay (2005)

Chateau Des Tourtes Sauvignon (2005)

Ruffino Riserva Ducale Oro Chianti Classico (2003)

Alain Paret 420 Nutts (2004)

for dessert, the most interesting wine, Floreal Maury. Much like port, but more civilized, feminine. Can still taste traces of wine in it — not a thumping port.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 at 12:49 am and is filed under Food.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.