Category: Food

New Year’s Eve Eve dinner

For the past few years, our New Year’s Eve activity has been to prepare a gourmet dinner for two. This year, however, Jean was interested in going to Verses for their New Year’s Eve dinner. So, we decided to do our gourmet dinner the day before—on New Year’s Eve Eve. Time will tell how wise it was to plan on two multi-course meals in a row.

In the meantime, this year we remembered the request to post descriptions and pictures of what we made for dinner. 

Appetizer: Dried Cranberry Scones with Stilton

Source: LCBO Food and Drink Magazine, Holiday 2005

Matching “wine”: Fonseca vintage 1988 port

Dried Cranberry Scones with Stilton

Description: Baked scones with dried cranberries, cut in half and filled with cranberry-orange marmalade, topped with Stilton cheese, more dried cranberries, and chives.

Assessment: The Stilton really “pops”, but is nicely contrasted with the cranberry and the touch of chives. The scones turned out really well—fluffy and tasty. Both scones and marmalade were made the day before, which meant only assembly was required.

The port was amazing—complex flavours, smooth going down but a little bite afterward. And a good match for the cheese.

Salad: Apple and oyster mushroom salad

Source: Cooking with Foods That Fight Cancer (cheery, huh)

Matching wine: NZ Kim Crawford Pinot Noir (Vintages)

Apple and oyster mushroom salad with Pinot Noir

Description: Apples and oyster mushrooms cooked in a little butter and placed over arugula coated with olive oil and cider vinegar. Topped with walnuts.

Assessment: The mushrooms, in particular, tasted quite nice, and went well with the apples, arugula, and walnuts. The Pinot Noir smoke was a good match for the mushrooms, as hoped.

Fish course: Lemon-Shallot Scallops with Sugar Snap Peas

Source: Cooking Light Magazine, June 2002

Matching Wine: NZ Whitecliff Sauvignon Blanc

Scallops, snow peas, Sauvignon Blanc

Description: Scallops are first pan-seared in a little olive oil, then shallots and garlic are cooked in a little butter, and simmered in white wine. Scallops are then tossed with the sauce and topped with fresh parsley.

Sugar snap peas are simply steamed.

Assessment: Simple but effective. The key is to not overcook anything. The Sauvignon Blanc is a typical NZ type, with a nice bite to it.

Meat course: Loin of lamb with fresh herbs, served with oven fries and cinnamon sweet potatoes

Source: A Taste of Quebec Cookbook (lamb), The Best Light Recipe Cookbook (oven fries), LCBO Food and Drink Magazine, Holiday 2002 (sweet potatoes)

Accompanying wine: Spanish Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon blend (not available in Canada; we brought it back from Spain)

Lamb, potatoes, sweet potatoes, red wine

Description: The boneless lamb is pan-seared, then baked at 450. Meanwhile, a red wine, beef stock, and fresh herb sauce is prepared for it. The oven fries basically involve soaking the cut potatoes, then mixing them with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and baking them. The sweet potatoes are cut into disks and baked. They get topped with a mix of brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt for the last 10 minutes or so.

Assessment: I’d never cooked lamb before, but this turned out quite well—nice flavour, not overdone, good sauce. I had done the two potato recipes before, and they both turned out fine, even though we had to compromise on cooking times and temperatures in order to get everything done together.

The wine was really fantastic. Big and fruity but not overwhelming.

Dessert: Chocolate Torte with Dried-Cherry Port Sauce

Source: LCBO Food and Wine Magazine, Holiday 2004

Accompanying “wine”: We went back to the port!

Chocolate torte, cherries, vanilla ice cream, port

Description: A totally decadent mixture of quality chocolate, butter, and eggs, topped with a port sauce mixed with dried cherries. Not too hard to make, and all doable the day before. Served with vanilla ice cream as well.

Assessment: We had to wait a bit before digging into this, but it was certainly good. And a small piece is perfectly satisfying.

Full gallery at https://photos.app.goo.gl/8u2LKohrknHgusXBA

Dinner was served

I don’t do dinner parties very often, and when I do, it’s only after a lot of planning. Often the planning is so exhausting, I don’t get to enjoy the actual party. But this time I managed. I kind of had to, given the effort Tim and Kristi put in, helping us renovate the living room. Thanks were definitely in order. So we invited them, and added Karen and Herb, whom we owed dinner to, and whom we thought would balance things out well.

We’d hoped to be showing off a largely finished living room, but were deterred by our new couches not having been delivered yet. (We’re getting them tomorrow, about a month late.) As a result, other finishing touches weren’t quite done yet, either: paintings not put up yet, area rug not purchased. But people still needed to sit, so “move downstairs couches upstairs” had to be added to the list of tasks to do.

The planning challenge for this meal was the combination of a vegetarian, a meat and potatoes guy who doesn’t really eat vegetables, and an idiosyncratic eater. I came up with the idea of a multi-course Italian menu, figuring that each person would eventually get to a course featuring food they liked, and then they could stick there. That actually worked out! Here was the menu (which I also typed and put at each place):

Apertivi

Black pepper pâté, brie cheese, crackers

Wine: Cuvée Catherine, Henry of Pelham (Ontario)

Antipasti

Fresh oysters [for the daring]

Wine: Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand)

Prosciutto-wrapped melon (or just Melon)

Wine: Collavini 2005 Pinot Grigio, Villa Canlungo (Italy). “Crisp, lively, and jolting. This will get you going.”

Primi

Vegetable Lasagna

Source: The Best Light Recipe. “We wanted to make a vegetable lasagne comprised of tender noodles enveloping evenly cooked vegetables… Creamy cheese and tangy tomato sauce pull the dish together into a hearty crowd pleaser for vegetarians and carnivores alike.”

Wine: Fontanafredda 2004, Barbara d’Alba (Italy). “Plummy meets rustic”

Secondi

Parmesan-herb chicken with Herbed roasted potatoes and seasonal steamed vegetables

Source: In Shape magazine, HM magazine. Brady’s chicken coated in herbs and Parmesan; Crisp-roasted, small gourmet red and white potatoes; Ontario broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots in butter and maple wine vinegar.

White wine: Mike Weir 2005 Chardonnay (Ontario). “This charmingly impressionable wine is easy drinking on its own or a great accompaniment to food. It’s the wine for all, and all occasions.”

or

Red wine: Domaines Bernard 2005 Côtes du Rhône-Villages (France). “Gorgeous, fruity, peppery flavours and a ton of charm and vitality.”

Intermezzo

Easy romaine salad, with basil, balsamic, and pine nut dressing (on the side)

Source (dressing): Jamie Oliver, The Naked Chef Takes Off. The way to get Jean to eat his greens—add meat, nuts, and fruit.

Wine: Your call!

Dolce

Tiramisu

Source: Cooking Light magazine—their most requested recipe ever

Chocolate gelato

Source: Whole Lotta Gelata Waterloo).

Wine: Rush Creek Wines Framboise. “Rush Creek’s premier dessert wine. Very rich and full bodied bursting with luscious raspberry flavour and smooth raspberry essence.”

Coffee, tea

Minimal last-minute preparations were required, other than throwing things into the oven at the right times, and everything seemed to turn out well. More importantly, though, everyone seemed to have a good time. Things were pretty relaxed, and fun, and several of us are getting together again in a couple weeks!

So maybe I’ll do this again sometime. But not for a little while.