Holidays Dinner- 12/1/2012
The wine
Cocktail hour is over and it is time now for dinner.
Here are some of the wine we are serving for the evening.
Our personal sommelier is not around so the wine list is not impressive as usual but it is decent.
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Caymus and Grgich hill estate |
Mo brought a bottle of champagne and a nice bottle of red wine. |
In the kitchen...
Here I am starting to line up the plates for the amuse bouche trio
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Putting the sauce on top of the Caesar Spring roll
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Adding the soup and shrimp croquette on the plate... cleaning up the plate and it is almost ready to be served.
5 Course dinner
I am done with platting and it is time now to sit down and enjoy the meal. The challenge tonight I have is I have a vegetarian and I also have another person that can not eat dairy products.
With a little planning I was able to accommodate everyone. Let's start!
1- Amuse Bouche Trio
Starting with an amuse bouche trio with asparagus vichyssoise, Shrimp croquette, and Caesar spring roll.
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The shrimp croquette were the biggest hit! I like how the presentation of the food came out.
The whole group without us.
This time with us in the picture!
2nd Course:
Cheese soufflé with béchamel clams sauce
Soufflé is an impressive dish to serve but the difficult part is timing and it has to be served ASAP if not the soufflé will be deflated!
Here is served it with a béchamel clams sauce to make it more decadent.
3th Course:
This recipe is from the French Laundry. The dish looks so simple but it is actually packed with flavors. The tomato confit is roasted in the oven at low temperature for 2 to 4 hours depending of the size of the tomatoes, and therefore yielding and incredible sweet and concentrate tomato flavor. The haricots verts are blanched and crunchy and the sauce is very light and simply delicious.
4th course
Sautéed shrimps with mashed potatoes in nage.
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The broth is very arometic! Made with shellfish and cook for a few hours until the broth is reduced to a few cups to pack in the concentrated flavor of the shell fish flavors.
I bought jumbo shrimps and they were
delicious!
5th course
Civet de canard served with Ratatouille
Civet de Canard is a simple duck legs or whole duck slowly cooked in red wine and vegetables.
The dish is definitely a comfort dish best eaten in the winter. Here I served it with crunch bacon bits and ratatouille.
5th course for vegetarian
I have one vegetarian so I serve a ratatouille wrapped in cabbage leaves with a crunch piece of bread in the bottom.
Desserts trio!
For Dessert I served a Chocolate Peanut and caramel filling, Clafouti aux cerises, and beignets coated with sugar an cinnamon with a drizzle of chocolate sauce at the bottom.
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This is a portion for two people. I have to tell you that there was not a crumb to be found on our guests' plate after they are done with dessert! |
This picture is not really clear but when you cut the tart, the caramel is runny and oozing out. It is actually a delicious tart. |
Our Guests
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Juergen and Catherine |
Halal and Mo |
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Larry and Dawn |
Conrad and Lucinda |
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John and Patricia |
Anita and Perry |
The evening was a real success! The food came out exactly as I planned, the desserts were also a hit. Our guests wiped clean their plate so it is a sign that they enjoyed the food!
Our guests did not expect such a fancy meal and they all were so impressed that the food came out at a regular pace and everything was hot and delicious!
They did not know I have been entertaining for years so this is fairly easy for me!
By the end of end of the evening everyone thank me for a wonderful meal!
Happy Holidays!
Filed under :BBQ/Thanksgiving/Holidays parties
