Nov
17
Other peoples birthdays, that is. And yesterday was Steve’s. I had a field day. I spent the last week mentally preparing menus and choosing the right wines. Not to mention the delightful satisfaction of choosing and finding the right gift. I enjoy his birthday way more than he does. But he did pay me a great compliment – he said this was the best birthday ever. Of course it’s all about the food. The day started with freshly squeezed orange juice followed by pink bubbles (Prosecco Marzemino Roasato) and a bang-up breakie of bacon, fried eggs & potato/roasted red onion hash. Next a walk on the beach (yesterday was remarkably warm and clear – you could see every detail of the Olympic mountains across the Juan de Fuca) followed by a matinee of the new James Bond. A stroll downtown lead us to the Bengal Lounge in the Empress where we sipped Manhattan’s (I like bourbon ones) and watched dusk settle over Victoria harbour.
Now for the fun……home to dinner. Bear with me, there are lots of photos…..
I printed the menu and gave it a border of pretty wrapping paper.
In case that’s too difficult to read – here it is:
Stephen’s 42nd Birthday Dinner
November 16, 2008
Chestnut & Chanterelle Soup
**
Clos de Capuncins Riesling Schlossberg 2006
*******
Braised Rabbit with Polenta
**
Clos de L’Oratoire des Papes Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2005
*******
Radicchio & Red Leaf Salad with Toasted Pine Nuts and Lemon Vinaigrette
*******
Blue de Laqueuille
Dutch Beemster
Tomme Haute Richlieu
Black Mission figs
**
Passito de Pantelleria
First course is a chestnut & chanterelle soup with thyme cream…..I love the rustic fall look of roasted chestnuts. To roast them, first score flat sides with a knife, then roast in 375F oven until they pop open…about 15 to 20 minutes. They add a velvety texture to the soup, once it’s pureed.
Poor rabbit…not looking so good right here…. a little too naked. But have hope. I braised it in red wine with celeriac, orange peel, rosemary and lots of garlic.
Oh my, look at these beauties! Cooking for a sommelier can bit a little daunting. But I think I matched my wines well.
This is the finished soup. It was divine….the mushrooms are so incredibly rich. On any given day I would’ve been satisfied with just this – a little bread and a hunk of good cheddar (the raw milk seven year aged cheddar from Quebec), but there was more, much more to come.
The rabbit was surprisingly good. I still think it tastes like chicken but Steve thought it much gamier. The polenta was a good choice to soak up the sauce -and this was a saucy rabbit – the corn added another deep layer of flavour and the texture is so comforting. I forgot how good it is. There will be more polenta in my life from now on!
By the time the salad course rolled around I was more sauced than the rabbit. I needed a cheese fix so I added a crouton with blue cheese to the salad. Wrong, wrong, wrong. All we needed at that point was a tart salad to cleanse the pallatte. Radicchio and read leaf lettuce with a tangy lemon dressing and a few crushed pine nuts was quite enough. Blue cheese – overboard! My bad. So I ate Steve’s crouton. Hee hee.
And finally, what I had been waiting for all day…..the birthday cheese. Starting with the orange hunk and moving clockwise: Beemster, Blue de Laqueuille (from the Auverne in France) and Tomme Haute Richlieu (Quebec). A few dried figs and some dates for good measure.
We finished just before midnight….as all good things must come to an end. If anyone wants any of the recipes let me know. I should probably write them down in the next or day so I don’t forget them.
Cheers,
jennifer
