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Don't have much time to chat, but I thought you might want to know that Saturday's post-Thanksgiving dinner party seemed to go over well. I may go through the preparation of some of the dishes in later entries, but for now, here's the menu:

Originally I'd planned to make just the Crab Corn Chowder, since the regular corn chowder recipe uses chicken stock and we had an ichthyophagous guest, but Rebecca likes the original a lot and encouraged me to make both.

Truth be told, they both came out kind of weird. The crab version was kind of lemony. It's amazing what just a little too much lemon zest will do. The sun-dried tomato version tasted kind of...southwestern. All in all, a bit of a disappointment, considering how refined these soups have tasted when I've made them in the past. But still quite edible.

I can't comment on exactly how well the wine went with the dish, as I was in the kitchen prepping for the next course while this one was served. But the idea was to match the sweetness of the corn and the creaminess of the ...cream with a wine that was smooth, full, and had just a bit of residual sugar. A second choice would have been a malolacticized California Chardonnay, but since I was serving a Chablis with the next course, I decided to diversify a bit.

I made this dish earlier in the week as I was desperately casting about for a second course after many failures. It exceeded my expectations quite a bit. Rebecca says this second try was even better.

It consists of three items stuffed into a puff pastry shell: slices of king salmon filet, a diced red pepper and mushroom mixture thickened with beurre manie, and a simple salmon-sage mousse. I found some great mushrooms this time: a mix of cinnamon cap and portabello. This gave much more character to the mixture than the previous effort.

I still can't make a decent curry cream sauce to save my life, however. Not sure what I'm missing, but evidently it's something very, very important.

I served my first try at this recipe with the white Cotes du Rhone that I served with the previous dish. It didn't pair well at all. In this case, the slight sweetness of the dish and the creaminess of the sauce seemed to demand an acidic bite to cut through it. The Becasonne seemed cloying and sticky. But I still wanted a wine with some richness, so I went with this very nice Chablis.

I thought the pairing was a success. The placement left something to be desired, as the Becasonne is bolder and richer and the Chablis, subtler, suffered a bit from being served right after it. If I had it to do over again, I may have gone for more contrast and served a Sauvignon Blanc or something with this course.

The same recipe as the one I made a few weeks ago, with some of the mistakes corrected. It still doesn't do justice to its source material, my friend Eman's Bourguignon. But it was pretty good. It seemed to draw raves from the invitees.

For the pescetarian I seared a sea bass filet and served it with a mango salsa.

I asked one of the guests to bring a Burgundy to serve with the Bourguignon, and he brought this lovely Rouget. Silky, earthy and spicy, it was the perfect counterpoint to the dish.

Golden raisins were nowhere to be found. The produce guy at Whole Foods murmured something about small harvests in Turkey this year or something; I didn't care. I was distraught. I was forced to use Thompsons Seedless. It just didn't turn out the same. (Listen to me whine! Pretty good, eh?) Actually, the raisins were only part of the problem. Wish I knew what the other part was. The first time I made this it was fantastic. I was convinced it was nearly as good as the goat cheese dish I'd had at the Laundry. Not true of this version.

Overall, though, the menu was a success. No major disasters, and a couple of strong entrees. I promise to give the Wellington recipe in a later entry, as it's easy to make but can be quite dazzling. As long as you promise to improve on the sauce and send me the recipe.

December 1, 2002 in menus, old_site | Permalink

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