Dinner with Friends - 6/13/2009

Appetizers The kids Sit down Dinner

Sit down dinner

As someone who has a lot of experience throwing party for a large crowd, I made a conscientious effort to serve small portion to my guests!  I am always afraid that my guests do not have enough to eat so I somehow over feed them by serving generous portions of food, but since most of us are watching our waist line, it is preferred to serve each dish in small quantity and have people still wanting for more or saying: "Oh I wish I could have one more bite of that!".  

Tonight on the menu there are four courses and here they are: 

First course: Foie gras au torchon served caramelized apples and mixed green with vinaigrette sauce (click on link to see preparation)

Foie Gras au Torchon (Foie Gras in towel) is a recipe from the French Laundry. 

Basically, this is a cured Foie Gras, rolled up in a dish towel, cured and quickly poached.  It is a 4 day process and the result is a creamy, delicate, and tasty Foie Gras dish.  Thomas Kelly called this dish an overindulgence!  How can you over indulge?   I guess you can with the Foie Gras in Torchon.  This is probably the best way to eat cold Foie Gras but I think we all agreed that pan-seared Foie Gras is tastier but it is too difficult to cook and serve 18 people in a timely manner.

 

The Foie Gras is served! Each couple is sharing a plate.  Hoa thoughts that the Foie Gras is too generous and I could cut the portion a bit thinner!  I am not sure if everyone agrees on this!

 

Doan and Tuan ready to taste the Foie Gras.

Phuong is getting her portion as Thuy is pouring some sauterne wine, courtesy from Anh Dung!

 

Group portrait before eating the first course!  Everyone has a bright smile one!  

 Our table is too small to fit 18 people so Hoa put 2 extension tables in order to accommodate everyone. 

 

Hoa and I are happy to have everyone over to share a good meal! 

Kelvin serving himself with the Foie Gras

 Phuc looks like he is totally concentrated on the Foie Gras dish.  

 

Second course: Saffron risotto cakes with sautéed jumbo shrimps served in a coconut curry pesto sauce (click on link to see preparation)

 

I got this recipe from Bobby Flay but I changed the sauce to make it more exotic and a bit spicier by mixing the green curry and Lemon grass. The saffron cakes was also very good, crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside.

 

Third course: Duck breast with Bordelaise sauce served with caramelized onions, carrots and sautéed mushrooms in a light cream sauce (click on link to see preparation)

 

The duck was perfectly cooked!  The Bordelaise sauce complimented well the dish. I personally enjoy the texture of the duck Breast and I also really like the sautéed mushrooms in a light cream sauce.

 

Fourth course: Daube de boeuf à la provençale (click on link to see preparation)

This was the last dish of the evening! The Daube was very good and very flavorful especially with the addition of pig's leg.

Daube is the ultimate one pot meal full filled with flavor!

 

Cheese course:  I served some Brie, Comté, and Roquefort.  Cheese course is a very important course for the French because if you did not have enough to eat for dinner you can compensate by eating the cheese.  In the U.S. it is different, cheese are often serve as appetizers.

Brie, my favorite cheese!

Comté is also called Gruyère de Comté

Roquefort.  Hoa loves Roquefort! 

 

Desserts: I spent most of my time cooking and have very little time for dessert, so I was only able to made a sticky pudding cake and I bought some Turon (see below) for dessert.

Sticky toffee pudding is always a hit but the sauce is so rich so I only serve a few plates for the whole group. The Sticky toffee pudding is very good with a scoop of ice cream.

Store bought Turon!

Turons are Filipino Banana Rolls, containing sugar, ripe plantain bananas, sliced lengthwise and wrapped in lumpia skin, deep fried and then coated with sugar and cinnamon.  They are great with ice cream too.

 

We finally came to the end of the meal!  For the first time we finished our meal around 10:30PM!  I can't believe the meal lasted for about 3 hours, this is a really rare occurrence!  I guess we are eating at a really slow space like the French usually do!  I am sure the guys would like to finish earlier so they can squeeze in a game of poker but in the end, they still played poker but they only had about 2 hours to play!  Never the less, the evening was a successful one and I am sure everyone did have a good time. 

 

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