Apr. 4th, 2010 10:55 pm
Spring dinner
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muckefuckHow many iterations before you have a tradition? For the second year running, we had ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
welcomerain and spookyfruit over for Easter dinner. This meant nuts are still banned from the stuffing in the leg of lamb, but fortunately there are enough other good things in the world (goat cheese and spinach this go round) that no one has missed them yet. Predictably, monshu opted for asparagus, but no one could've foreseen that he would serve them as the tricolour of the municipality of Orgaz.
The woody stems ended up enriching the stock that formed of the base of my fresh pea soup. Not a patch on the bowl served me at the Gage, but I was well-pleased. Before I served it, I spiked every bowl with five lardons "to recall the five wounds of the crucified Christ". Sadly, I had less success with the gougères. The first batch so filled me with hubris that I filled them with ham salad and shared them with the GWO for lunch. Then the second batch failed miserably (a combination of removing them too early and then setting them in the draught from the open door), and I was left with only three to offer my guests.
Their contribution was a dissembling dessert: dense chocolate mousse under a mantle of crème anglaise which had us expecting a mild custard. A dramatic thunderstorm kept us off the deck after dinner, but at least we were all able to sit out there for our apéritifs. (I indulged in an Attention, which is what comes of having an Aviation on the brain but pastis on the lips.) I felt better about holding them into the rain slackened to a drizzle, but I really wouldn't've minded kicking back in the parlour for another hour or so, even if all we were doing was kvetching about the annoyances of bourgeois urban life.
welcomerain and spookyfruit over for Easter dinner. This meant nuts are still banned from the stuffing in the leg of lamb, but fortunately there are enough other good things in the world (goat cheese and spinach this go round) that no one has missed them yet. Predictably, monshu opted for asparagus, but no one could've foreseen that he would serve them as the tricolour of the municipality of Orgaz.The woody stems ended up enriching the stock that formed of the base of my fresh pea soup. Not a patch on the bowl served me at the Gage, but I was well-pleased. Before I served it, I spiked every bowl with five lardons "to recall the five wounds of the crucified Christ". Sadly, I had less success with the gougères. The first batch so filled me with hubris that I filled them with ham salad and shared them with the GWO for lunch. Then the second batch failed miserably (a combination of removing them too early and then setting them in the draught from the open door), and I was left with only three to offer my guests.
Their contribution was a dissembling dessert: dense chocolate mousse under a mantle of crème anglaise which had us expecting a mild custard. A dramatic thunderstorm kept us off the deck after dinner, but at least we were all able to sit out there for our apéritifs. (I indulged in an Attention, which is what comes of having an Aviation on the brain but pastis on the lips.) I felt better about holding them into the rain slackened to a drizzle, but I really wouldn't've minded kicking back in the parlour for another hour or so, even if all we were doing was kvetching about the annoyances of bourgeois urban life.