Dear Ang,
When we arrived we stood and sat around the island in the enormous and raftered kitchen drinking all sorts of lovely things. The children ate spaghetti with a homemade sauce that had red peppers and more flavour than my spaghetti sauce has known ever.
When that was all done and cleared away the adults took to the dining room and had:
1. A selection of salad leaves with buffalo mozzarella, pearls of mozzarella, beetroot, and a drizzling of balsamic vinegar.
2. Potage rougemont: an apple soup named after the area in Quebec where the apples grow. A puree of apples, leek, celery, onion, with dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg. Served with seasoned and warmed tortillas, smeared with homemade hummous.
3. Rack of lamb served with mint sauce- fragrant as anything and freshly made with white wine vinegar- and couscous, green beans, and carrots. It was a small consolation to learn that the couscous was Ainsley Harriott's! Every little helps...
4. Homemade cheesecake. This was a cheesecake that had been baked in a bain-marie for most of the night. At 2am Marie-Eve had discovered that it wasn't cooking, so stayed up until 5am until it did. Served with homemade strawberry coulis. The trick in the coulis is to whisk the egg-white first.
Hoping you'll be as speechless as we were! The thing is, we will obviously now be inviting these cheffy folks back to Strawberry Land, where somehow the standard beef and Guinness casserole might not hit the mark. So, if you have any ideas about entertaining chic and sophisticated palates- do tell!
This being Stir-up Sunday, I will be making my Christmas Cake- since no-one eats pudding. And I will be signing up to Floss' Pause in Advent. And I will go on salivating at the thought of last night!
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2 comments:
Wow- that IS a banquet.
It's probably a bit cold now for your Jamie Carrot Salad. Cranks Carrot potage is easy and warming and CHEAP, but does not taste like it! serve with Rachel Allen's soda bread.
Beef and Guinness is GOOD [esp for Canadians for whom Guinness is exotic and foreign]
Offer two puddings - one light and fruit based, one of a more cake-like nature. Can supply easy, fail-safe banoffee pie recipe if needed.
And you have those excellent blue denby dinner plates on which to serve. Courage!! all will be well
Isn't serendipity so much fun!! I used to do go to THAT much trouble for people but I gave up on the work of it..did you read Pom Pom's reflection..getting befuddled when it's time to present it all to the table..it can often be like that, all that effort but sometimes...truly simple is better. Mags...just be you. Do what you know & what you do well. That said, I have a very simple lemon crunch pie recipe from the '70's that is so good & is even better made the day before & everyone loves it & I'm sure it would be perfect after a hearty beef & Guinness casserole ; ) I can email it if you like. Much love Catherine x0x0x
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