Our guests were two attorneys I am friends with (and who are friends with each other), their wives plus a guest of one couple who was visiting from Mexico (where that couple spends most of their time).
For the pre-dinner drink accompaniments, I wanted to break away from the usual nuts, olives and cheese that we frequently serve. So I had three kinds of nifty crackers, some roasted peppers marinated in a little garlic and anchovy paste, and a home made pickle cured in some Indian flavorings and some fresh turmeric root (first time I ever saw that in a store!)
Then we went on the sit down meal with a mini-tapas plate of a squash tortilla, some chorizo type sausage and cured ham.
Next was a cold cream of portabello mushroom soup. This was an adaptation of the soup I had a couple of weeks ago at L'Auberge du Chez Os. It's basically a mirepoix of onions, carrots and celery sweated with mushrooms and bay leaf. You add chicken stock and cook. At the end add a dash of dry Madeira. Then blend. My variation was to next strain out all the solids, cool and add heavy cream. Came out great.
The main course was chicken braised with bacon - I wanted the strong flavor so the chicken would stand up to a red wine. I added a brown roux when finishing the sauce for the same reason. It was accompanied by some broccolini sauteed with garlic.
A cheese course is mandatory in my opinion for any truly civilized dinner. To my guests credit they just about polished off the cheese!
Dessert was fresh peaches, with a toasted baton of home made banana bread and vanilla ice cream.
It was hard to keep track of all the wines but we started with a Tavel (rose from Southern France), went on to a Beaujolais, a Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa, two Chateauneuf du Papes, and finished off with Sauternes.
Pictures
My Squash Tortilla
I'm getting really good at these Spanish style omlets
I'm getting really good at these Spanish style omlets
The Cucumbers, the Turmeric root and the ground spices for the pickles
My roux bubbling away
Sauce for the Tortilla
Just some tomatoes cooked down fast with a little saffron and I added fresh basil at serving
The mini-tapas plate
The Chicken
I had cooked some small potatoes with the chicken
After reheating the chicken and the potatoes, I put them under the broiler for a bit to give them a little browning. If you click on the picture you can see the little bits of crispy bacon used to garnish.
Sorry, no dessert photo - by that time I was lucky to be functioning
9 comments:
wow, fantastic meal! Funny, that tumeric + salt is served all over in N India
oK. I officially think you guys need some new dishes. AS fabulous as the couple of sets you have are for many occasions. Sometimes plain white is what you need. Especially for food pictures!
Mmmmm, bacon.
Mirepoix? Really? Is that even a word or did your fingers get stuck on the keyboard?
I agree with Stef. Maybe we could use the auction money from the reunion. Or I could start looking at garage sales. Ha.
WHITE DISHES...WHITE DISHES...WHITE DISHES.
hehehe
Oh you cruel people - do you realize what you've done? I come home from work to find Wife with an Excel spreadsheet of various white dishes she has researched. Do you know what that means? That means dollars going to purchases is what that means.
I hold you all responsible.
Oh and Lakeview - look up a word first before exposing your limited vocabulary.
Come on Dad! You at least need a another set so when you are serving a meal like this you don't have to keep washing the plates in between courses!
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