What’s To Eat And Drink: Dinner With Friends
L and I had the good fortune to have dinner with our long-time friends B and D this week. Both of us love to cook for B & D, so we prepared some of our current favorites. Here are some notes and pictures from that very enjoyable evening.
I need to keep a little menu handy in the kitchen to remind me of what we’re actually making. This one is obviously not in the correct order.
First, some random pictures of the prep.
Fresh Chipotle Pasta is on the menu. The dough had a beautiful yellow eggy color.
Here it is being rolled out. Don’t worry, normally I don’t stop the rolling in the middle like this, but I had to free my hands to take the picture. Yes, I’m lazy and use the Kitchen Aid instead of a hand roller.
Sheets of pasta ready for cutting.
The cut past.
We picked up some beautiful purple scallions from Blue Heron. Also pictured, fresh thyme (behind the purple scallions), chives (blurry on the right) from L’s garden, wonderfully sweet tomatoes (blurry in back left) from Charlton Orchards Farm and Winery (Lexington Farmer’s Market), and a pile of diced shallots. All of this is destined for a simple pasta sauce.
A little Spanish olive oil on the croutons (for the cheese course) prior to toasting them up.
Ready for action. Pea tendrils are on the right.
B & D brought a delicious spread made of peas, fava beans, garlic. Hmm hmmm.
I don’t get to open sparkling wine often because it’s hard to drink it all in one sitting (duh!) so I used this chance to uncork a nice Westport Rivers 2002 Brut Cuvee RJR. Even at 10 years old, this was still drinking very nicely.
L made a really nice amuse bouche of Watermelon and Balsamic that she had tried out on me a few days earlier. D suggested that we try adding something a little salty to it (like a Pecorino), but having none of that on hand, we tried some little pieces of Parmigiano Riserva. It was different, and we enjoyed both with and without fromage.
L’s Sticky Rice with Fried Egg on Pea Tendrils and Garlic Crumbs. The nice runny yolks added beautiful texture variation to the dish.
Homemade Chipotle Noodles; marinara, purple scallions, chives, parmigiano riserva. Escalavida. It tasted great in spite of the messy plating.
The cheese plate. All the cheeses except one were from Formaggio. Clockwise from the bottom, toasted almonds and walnuts, fresh Ricotta (cow, domestic), Bonne Bouche (goat, Vermont), Cacio di Boso Tartufo (sheep, Italy, available at WFM), Brebis du Haut Bearn Fermier (sheep, France), Cato Corner Hooligan (cow, Connecticut), caramelized onions, a second piece of Hooligan (oops, bad plating), Stichelton (cow, England), crouton (bread from Hi-Rise Bakery). In the center, golden raisins and cranberries. On the left side off the plate, homemade apricot syrup. The syrup went nicely with the Ricotta, the Bonne Bouche, and the Stichelton.
More of the same in case anyone didn’t get enough.
To finish, we did the Salted Caramel Ice Cream blind tasting. B & D picked Coop’s over Ranc’s by a nose.
