It's been warming up around here, and I wanted to welcome it in properly. Also, I've been planning a dinner for May, and had some recipes that looked wonderful but didn't make the dinner party cut for one reason or another. So last night Craig and I had a lovely date. First we had Fennel Scallop Pancakes with Mustard Sauce (Epicurious), enjoyed with a Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco.
I'm not a huge fan of scallops, but Craig loves them, and even I thought they were wonderful in this. The fennel pancakes would be wonderful with other proteins--I was thinking some sort of lacquered duck.
For the entree I got brave and tried out an Emeril, Paneed Veal and Risotto with Asparagus and Onion. Instead of cracker crumbs for the veal I used some of the porcini breadcrumbs Craig made for that Jamie Oliver pasta, which I had frozen, and I added some prosciutto to the risotto--a VERY good idea. We accompanied it with a wine Ellie and Dave gave us, a 2001 Foppiano Petite Syrah.
On top of the veal is arugula and grape tomatoes tossed with lemon juice and olive oil (organic lemon juice--I'm trying out preserved lemons and no way am I wasting that juice--hot toddy, anyone?), an idea I saw in an Italian cookbook which really worked well. The whole thing was so good and really not difficult.
And our favorite dessert, cheese and Tea Rose Petal Preserves. The cheese on the upper left is a Point Reyes Blue, a wonderful creamy blue with a great bite at the end. To the right is Laguiole, which we had a few weeks ago after the seafood stew. Creamy and crumbly, how do they do that?? Finally, a Piave Vecchio, really warm and rich.
And as if that weren't enough, we finished it all off with Inchmurrin 12-year Single Malt. Perfect.
2 comments:
What about the wine? How was it?
The wine was really good--I had been concerned it would be too much for the meal, but actually there was a lot of flavor going on. Probably using those porcini bread crumbs helped. My only criticism of the wine would be it was almost too tasty and easy, you were tempted to just drink it down instead of checking out the flavors. But it was really full-bodied and very very good--thank you!!
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