Tasting Menu, or What I've Been Doing This Week

[lillibet]

Tasting Menu
Saturday, 16 October 2010

cucumber-dill sorbet

pear-goat cheese crostini

creamy parsnip soup
with guanciale

grass-fed tenderloin tartare

Italian onion soup
with onion-fontina bruschetta

mushroom-artichoke bread pudding

duck egg salad
with mixed greens and warm anchovy vinaigrette

poached haddock in saffron broth
with chorizo, steamed greens and celeriac

roasted leg of rabbit
with chestnut-potato purée and Dijon mustard sauce

slow-cooked goat in puff pastry

peach tea sorbet
with ginger syrup

a tasting of aged Reypenaer
with apple-porcini pate

maple pots de creme
with fresh strawberries

gingerbread-pear cake
with vanilla ice cream and melted chocolate

a selection of nut brittles & chews

Comments

[muffyjo]

Mmm...I can't wait to hear the reviews!

[gilana]

Sounds amazing! How was it? Any standouts?

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

The cucumber-dill sorbet was really good--I had a version of it at Journeyman that we agreed was too sweet, so fixing that was a goal and I think I really hit it. Very refreshing.

The crostini were a fantastic combination of flavors. I wish the recipe were online--it calls for tossing the pecans with honey & brown sugar and the pears in honey & butter and roasting them, so those are sweet and warm and balance really nicely with the salty goat cheese and bitter/spicy greens.

Other people listed as their favorites the parsnip soup (which I thought came out well, but didn't blow me away as much as the creamy artichoke one I did last time) and the mushroom-artichoke bread pudding, which was good but not as impressive to me as other things. I am incredibly fond of the duck eggs with warm anchovy vinaigrette and greens, but no one else seems to dig it the way I do.

We all loved the haddock--the mix of flavors there is really wonderful and the intense flavor of the tomatoes really came through. The rabbit got some good comments, but I think didn't hit other people's tastebuds as straight on as it did mine. The goat was really less good than anything else, but on there for novelty value, which it definitely had.

The desserts were both really good, but everyone seemed to think the pots de creme were the winner.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

yow. there's some tasty right there.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

Drool!

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

If you give me some warning the next time you're headed this way, I'd be happy to whip you up six courses or so :) Not that you're not worth fourteen, but it would take more serious scheduling talk.

[muffyjo]

What wines did you pair these with?

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I don't have all the information recorded, but here are the types: prosecco with the sorbet and crostini, sauvignon blanc with the parsnip soup, grenache rose with the tartare, Hob Nob pinot noir (I know that one) with the onion soup and bread pudding, riesling with the duck eggs and haddock, chardonnay with the rabbit, shiraz with the goat stew, then sauternes with the cheese and pots de creme, and port with the gingerbread.

[iamlisabee.livejournal.com]

I am mightily impressed!

How are the duck eggs prepared?

YUM!

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

The duck eggs are soft boiled, so the yolk is still a little gooey. So good!

And, thanks. I'm pretty impressed with myself.