Welcome to our foray into fine French cuisine! This was our favorite meal from start to finish, to date!
Cocktail - Bellini
Mixture of peach nectar and champagne
.JPG)
How could you go wrong?
Appetizer - Fried Camembert Cheese with Raspberry Preserves
Insanely amazing. However, a couple of tips. First... I would suggest a flour dusting before the egg wash to help the breading stick. Secondly, we pan fried... bad idea. Use a deep fryer or at least a tall saucepan with a lot of oil so you don't have to "turn" or "flip" the cheese wedges. Because once the wedges hit the oil, it started to melt a little, and it was not easy to flip them. Regardless, it was so delicious.
Appetizer - Escargot a la Bourguignonne
Even if you don't like snails... just try this! The sauce was amazing and a great crusty bread for dipping is a necessity. The only changes we made were doubling the garlic to two cloves - and honestly, I think we could have easily used three or four cloves. (We're garlic lovers.)
Entree - Duck a l'Orange
The cooking method: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/foodnation-with-bobby-flay/pan-roasted-duck-breast-confit-leg-champ-spring-roll-foie-gras--orange-mead-sauce-recipe/index.html
Let's start with the cooking method. We didn't want to make a whole duck, so we found the recipe that used breast and duck leg confit and followed the cooking method exactly. First off - your duck leg needs more time in the oven. In fact, we ended up broiling it for an additional five or so minutes to get crispy. Secondly - the duck breast needs longer as well. (Perhaps ours were big, our duck breasts were approx. 1 lb each.) I would say add another 5 or so minutes cook time for med-rare. Succulent and delicious.
Now let's talk sauce. We followed the sauce recipe almost exactly. (Almost being that we didn't have any "duck parts" to make the stock, so we simply did the vegetable stock.) The sauce was started the day before, and at first, looked a little odd. It was rather red in color, and smelled a little like tomato soup. Do not let this scare you! Once we started cooking the dinner, we put the stock on the stove to reduce and let it simmer for about an hour before adding the rest of the ingredients. We then added the duck drippings from the roasting pan from the confit and the breast. After that, we strained the fat, and served. A-maz-ing. (And it creates a ton of sauce - we could have halved it and still had enough for 6 people.)
All in all - one of the best dishes we have eaten... ever.
Side Dish - Velvety Mashed Potatoes
Simple and perfect. These mashed potatoes are on the "liquid-y" side, so if you're a fan of a thicker, more "chunky" type of mashed potatoes - add less cream. But flavor was such a perfect backdrop to the luxurious duck.
Side Dish - French String Bean Salad
This one is going in the recipe box! The flavor was delicate, the prep was simple, and its served room temperature which made it so easy to coincide with the rest of our cooking times!
Dessert - Pistachio Popover Creme Brulee w/ Grand Marnier Syrup
Okay, I'll admit - our popovers didn't "pop". But we made do, cut off the tops and scooped out the filling. Then we filled it with what may possibly be the best creme brulee I have ever eaten in my lifetime. And the sauce - stunning! Keep in mind... we had this sauce reducing for almost an hour... it will take a while and it still looks a little "runny", but who cares?! It was just that good!
Appetizer Wine - 2010 Roussette de Savoie
Wine Rating - Not found
Perfection! Light and smooth with no heavy oakiness. It matched beautifully with the appetizers and did not overpower! (Also, oddly enough, brought out the garlic flavors in the escargot!)
Dinner Wine - 2009 Le Nain Violet
Wine Rating - Not found
This grenache had flavors of blackberry and cherry with hints of roasted wild herbs. It had great flavor and had light oak and medium tannins. Thanks again to Harry's Wine and especially Christelle who really took on our wine pairing challenge with great finesse! It was almost exciting to see three of their wine experts consulting on what would work best, and they did not steer us wrong! This wine went so well with the sweetness and earthiness of the duck! And Patrick has challenged us to an authentic Italian culinary Sunday... so look out, Patrick - we're going to make it as challenging (and fun!) as possible.
Dessert Wine - Alcyone
No rating
A red dessert wine? Served room temperature? From Uraguay? YES, YES, YES! This wine is a nice mixture of Barolo quinato, Marsala, and then its fortified with brandy. And it was simply delicious!
Next Week - Asian
No comments:
Post a Comment