Anthony and I were lucky enough to snag the dessert course for our first dinner party.
The entree for our meal was extraordinary - our friend Euan outdid himself with a seven course amuse bouche starter. We started with an aperitif of champagne, then a mouthful of corn & garlic soup served in a shot glass. Beautifully presented on a platter were four more courses - a salmon sliver served with a champagne sauce, a quail egg cooked in a brioche slice, steak tartare, and an onion tart with a goat's cheese foam. The "final" course of our entree was a champagne jelly. Truly an amazing start to the meal.
The main was a flavour packed cassoulet - tender duck and spicy sausages slow cooked with white beans and herbs. Filled with different flavours, it was a traditional country dish that we all loved. Served with this was a salad with roasted beetroot and orange segments. Delightful!
Our dessert was a three course feast. We started with some beautiful cheeses from the French stand at the Queen Victoria Market - a triple cream brie, a raclette and a triple cream blue. We served these with toasted hazelnuts and dried pear halves, all accompanied by a beautiful Sauterne wine.
Second course was a dark chocolate tart served with Cointreau poached black cherries. Now is the time for recipes.
Pastry:
225g plain flour
125g chilled butter, chopped
60g powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tbs chilled water
Method:
Place the flour, butter and icing sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and water, and process until the dough just starts to come together. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Shape into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a 4mm-thick disc. Line a round 3cm-deep 23cm (base measurement) fluted tart tin, with removable base, with pastry. Trim excess. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.
It is incredibly important to let the pastry rest or it will shrink when it bakes.
Preheat oven to 200°C. Line the pastry case with non-stick baking paper and fill with pastry weights or rice. Place on a baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and pastry weights or rice. Bake for 10 minutes or until crisp.
Tart Filling:
150g good-quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
185ml thickened cream
1 tbs cocoa powder
2 eggs, lightly whisked
Method:
Reduce oven temperature to 180C. Place the chocolate, cream and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat. Add the egg. Whisk until just combined. Pour into the pastry case. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until just set. Set aside for 3-4 hours to cool.
Cherries:
60ml (1/4 cup) Cointreau liqueur
60ml (1/4 cup) water
100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
800g fresh cherries, pitted
Method:
Place the Cointreau, water and caster sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil. Add the cherries and cook, stirring, for 5-8 minutes or until the cherries soften and the syrup thickens slightly. Use a slotted spoon to remove the cherries to a container. Let the remaining syrup reduce to half its volume.
Serve the sliced tart with cherries and a drizzle of the Cointreau syrup.
The tart is delicious - rich but not overwhelming. Also it didn't travel very well to dinner...and I was not happy with how it presented. Fortunately we ate it by candlelight so I didn't get a lot of complaints, but I knew it didn't look perfect. Be gentle with it is the message here - the crust is light and flaky and oh so fragile. Also, it melts in your mouth. Yum.
For our final course we made a trio of sorbets - apple, lemon and raspberry. For the apple sorbet, I just juiced some pink lady apples and added some lemon juice - then put it in the ice cream freezer. To be honest, I was quite disappointed in the apple sorbet. The texture was too icy - I think it required some sugar syrup and if I were to do this again I would definitely do it differently. The other two sorbets were delicious, and came out exactly as I intended.
Lemon Sorbet:
3 cups water
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
1 T lemon peel, grated
Method:
In a saucepan, bring water and sugar to a boil. Cook and stir until sugar is dissolved (about 5 minutes). Add lemon juice and peel, and then cool in the fridge. Once it is cool, freeze according to ice cream maker instructions and then allow to firm up in the freezer for about 2 hours.
Raspberry Sorbet:
500gr raspberries
Juice of 2 oranges
Juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups sugar
Method:
In a food processor blend raspberries to a purée with the lemon and orange juice and sugar. Strain to discard raspberry seeds.Freeze according to ice cream maker instructions and then allow to firm up in the freezer for about 2 hours.
If I perfect my apple sorbet, I promise to share the recipe.
The dinner party itself, whilst full of great food and good friends, had a few surprise bonuses that I didn't anticipate. Firstly, it was all much more chilled out than I had thought it would be. Because the stress of the dinner party was shared across three couples, no one actually really got stressed. It also was great to see people being creative with food.
Our next dinner party theme is "finger food". I'm wracking my brains for a good menu - we are going to be doing the main course. I'm thinking of a sort of "retro" fingerfood approach...but haven't yet settled on a final menu. Suggestions welcomed!
No comments:
Post a Comment