In Law Dinner

Craig's parents and his brother Kurt came over for dinner on Saturday night.  I've been pondering this menu for a while, and I was happy with the results.  We started with asparagus soup with lemon creme fraiche (Epicurious).  I've made this before and it's lovely.  You strain it so it's really light, and it's much lower-fat than it tastes, until you add the creme fraiche, of  course.  We served a 2006 Tiziano Pinot Grigio alongside.

For the entree I chose honey roasted pork and Mediterranean stuffed escarole, also from Epicurious.  I couldn't resist the escarole recipe when I read it, and I'm glad I didn't.  It's blanched and wrapped around a mixture of arborio rice, pine nuts, golden raisins, capers, and roasted red pepper, held together with egg and parmesan.  I doubled the recipe and had extra filling, so I baked that off to serve alongside--it all got eaten!  The pork was a boneless rib roast, and very good, albeit slightly overcooked (we can't seem to keep a working thermometer in this house).  It marinated for an hour at room temp in honey, coriander, thyme, lemon juice, and olive oil before roasting.  Pretty mild, but a good company standby, which we enjoyed with 2004 Mirassou Cabernet Sauvignon.

This was the dessert I'd been thinking of when I began preserving lemons a month ago.  They turned out well, I think.  I've never had them before, so I guess I wouldn't know, but they seem like something that would be good in a lot of things--I'm going to have to learn Moroccan food now I think.  Anyway, last night we had them chopped finely in lemon panna cotta with blueberry sauce.  The blueberry sauce and sort of the panna cotta were Emeril, and I really recommend the sauce.  Very smooth and intensely flavored--I used blueberries Ellie and Dave picked and froze last summer.  I'm not sure I would have thought the panna cotta recipe was worth much without the preserved lemons, but with them it was very nice.

And a springtime bonus!  Last year I discovered asparagus growing on the very edge of our yard, and this year I've been very diligent about harvesting it.  It is so sweet and delicious, miles beyond the grocery store variety.  I just steam it with a little salt, so good.