The Thorngrove Table

Shellfish & Seaviews

I am sitting on the train, watching overcast English skies drizzling rain down - a somewhat depressing view - so I am attempting to cheer myself up with the thought the clouds bring to mind these Greenport oysters I ate during mine and Jenny's birthday celebrations.

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Platters of Greenport Oysters and clams

Although not the largest or plumpest oysters I've ever eaten, nor be singled out as having a particularly unique taste, nonetheless they were rich and some of the freshest I've ever had - a real gulp of the ocean. Clams, I hadn't eaten in years although they rate quite highly in my List of Preferred Seafoods, and these were particularly tasty little morsels. Accompanying these were various sauces, including a delightful shallot & vinegar Mignonette (see here for similar recipe).

It wasn't entirely sunshine for our birthday weekend however, as you can see from this photo across Greenport Harbour to Shelter Island.

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View across Greenport Harbour to Shelter Island

Photo: Hot & Sour Soup

Currently I am doing some testing for Pat Tanumihardja of Edible Words. She is writing The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook and I'll be trying out some of the recipes for her.

My favourite so far has been a very delicious Hot & Sour Soup, which has served me for lunches this week. My workmates have been deeply envious.

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Guacamole and Jade Princesses

Housemate dinner on Sunday was Pasta alla Cabonara, which, whilst tasty, doesn't really merit writing about. However we started off with some very yummy guacamole I whipped together:

Rough 'n Ready Guacamole
1 large Avocado, mashed
2 Tbsp Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise (I didn't have any cream)
3 Tbsp Fresh Coriander, minced (that's cilantro to you Americans)
1 tsp Garlic Chilli Sauce
1/2 Lime, juiced
2 small orange Capsicum Peppers, diced
Dash each of Salt and White Pepper (the latter purely for decorative reasons)

Mix all together!

Usually I use diced tomatos, but Mark is allergic to them (which can be a bit of a bummer when cooking Italian).

To go with the dip and tortilla chips, Mark had his usual gin & tonic - with added blue flashing icecube (bought, oddly enough, at Marks & Spencers). For Tanya and I the cocktail of the evening was a Jade Princess, a lovely drink I tried last month in The Garden of Ono Bar, a very swanky Japanese bar/restaurant in New York's meatpacking district. My first attempt was a bit too sweet, but the second was a lot closer to the remembered concoction:

Jade Princess
1 part Elderflower Cordial
2 parts Midori
3 parts Prosecco or Champagne, icecold

Stir together and serve.

Beth & Steve's Thanksgiving Dinner

I had my own especial reason for thanksgiving this past week - my friends Beth and Steve were visiting from Maryland in the US. To celebrate, some friends and myself had a houseparty and ate and drank and talked the weekend through, catching up on what we'd done in the past 18 months, current events and our plans for the future (as well as the requisite gossip about mutual acquaintances!). It was fun and relaxing and I feel wonderfully recharged, which, given that the Season of Dodgy Canapes is almost upon us, is definitely a good thing. Back to the food front, on the Saturday I cooked a long, leisurely dinner. Beth and Steve contributed a couple of lovely bottles of Spanish cava that lasted us through the snail and venison courses, and a bottle of Australian Shiraz accompanied the main and cheese. We started at 7pm and finished about 10:30pm, but nobody was in any particular hurry!

Amuse-Bouche: Kebabs of Lime Prawns & Caramalized Chilli Kiwifruit

We ended up with two each of these, which I suppose is a bit more than an amuse-bouche should be, but I refuse to waste food. I originally intended them to be cubes of ham, but unfortunately I spent Wednesday and Thursday in bed with a headcold, and was meeting Beth, Steve and several other friends for dinner after work on Friday, so by the time I got to the supermarket it was 00:10 Saturday morning (thank god for 24 hour shopping!). Needless to say, the meat counter was closed, and I was hugely reluctant to attempt the Vaguely Pork products in the chillers. Fortunately these organic prawns were available and fresh so they shuffled in as a substitute. The kebabs were pronounced 'delicious' and a very cool taste combination, so I think the prawns actually worked better in the end, as ham might have been a bit too heavy. I served these with a shot of chilled Lemon Schnapps, which slid down very nicely.

Lime Prawns & Caramalized Chilli Kiwifruit Kebabs
4 ripe but firm Kiwifruit
200 gm Prawns
Juice of 1/2 a Lime
2 Tb Butter
1 Tb Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
1 Tb Brown Sugar
1 Tb Tequila [optional]
12 small wooden skewers

1. Peel and then cut the kiwifruit into cubes, then cut into quarters.
2. Put 1 Tb of the butter, all of the sugar, sweetchilli sauce and tequila in a frypan and bring to a low simmer.
3. Put the kiwifruit in the frypan, making sure they are thoroughly coated, and then cook on medium heat until caramalised.
4. Put under low grill/oven and keep warm.
5. Wipe out frypan, put back on heat.
6. Add butter, limejuice and prawns.
7. Cook on medium heat until prawn flesh is white - about 2 minutes.
8. Skewer a cube of kiwifruit and a prawn together on a single skewer. Mind your fingers - they're hot!
9. Serve.

Entree One: Snails in Garlic & Shallot Butter with Wholemeal Baguette

This is definitely one of those 'love it or hate it' foods. No prizes for guessing which side I'm on! I bought a huge can of 5 dozen snails when I was in Bahrain earlier this year, and have been just dying for the chance to open them. I figured four snail lovers in one room was reason enough, although about 10 each was more than enough, and the leftover dozen (uncooked) snails made dinner a couple of nights later. We had two abstainers from the snailfest, but I fed them a can of Mussels in Galacia Sauce from a very nice, if expensive, Spanish product range I keep a little stockpile of - just for culinary emergencies such as this (their octopus is divine). The boys (yes, the abstainers were the male members of the dinner party. No comment.) cheerfully dove into the garlic sauce with the bread as well. The sauce is a fairly simple one from the back of the can but as it so often turns out, simple is best.

Snails in Butter Sauce
4 dozen Snails
250 gm Butter
3 Shallots
6 big cloves of Wight Garlic
Salt & Pepper
Bunch of Flatleaf Parsley, chopped
French baguette

1. Finely chop the shallots and garlic cloves.
2. Mix together the butter, shallots, garlic and season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Put the snails into shells or snail dishes if you have them, otherwise a wide shallow dish is fine.
4. Cover with butter.
5. Cook in a pre-warmed oven at about 400°F/200°C/GM6 for about 8 - 10 minutes until the butter is bubbling.
6. Serve dressed with chopped parsley and slices of French baguette.

Entree Two: Polenta Slices topped with Pesto, Venison and Balsamic Syrup with Rocket Salad

When you don't want to go overboard on the protein early in the meal, but want your guests to feel they've been treated (and that you're not being skimpy!) venison, with its delightfully rich heaviness, is the ideal meat. Of course, at the price most places charge, that's all you can afford for a dinner party anyway! This entree is a particularly economic use of venison, as it took one £2.50 steak to feed six. Of course you could use more than I did, but for a multi-course dinner party this was all that was needed. The boys especially liked this dish and the Balsamic Syrup - a new release from specialty food purveyor Merchant Gourmet - was such a hit that when we went to the supermarket on Sunday we were charged with picking up a couple of bottles for people to take home with them. It's smooth and distinctively Balsamic, but not too sharp, and it pours beautifully for all us presentation-fussy cooks. I'm not a great fan of giving recipes which require a particular branded item, but in this instance it's worth it. Sorry my US readers, but I have no idea if there's an American equivalent. In truth the ingredients are not much more than Balsamic vinegar, cornflour and water so perhaps it wouldn't be too hard to make yourselves. Other than that, this is easy and quick to cook and assemble, and was my favorite dish of the evening.

Polenta Slices topped with Pesto, Venison and Balsamic Syrup
1 Polenta cake
4 Tb Pesto
1 Venison Steak
Merchant Gourmet Balsamic Syrup
Fresh rough ground pepper
Olive Oil
Butter
1 bag of Rocket salad

1. Either make up polenta into a cake or, as I do, buy it already made.
2. Slice six 1/2 inch slices of polenta from the cake.
3. Cut the steak into thirds and then slice in half sideways, so you have thin pieces of venison.
4. Fry the polenta slices on medium in a mix of olive oil and butter until browned - about 5 to 10 minutes.
5. If necessary, keep the polenta slices warm in a low grill or oven.
6. Fry the venison about a minute and turn over when the blood comes through and it browns.
7. Fry on the other side until browned.
8. Plate the polenta slices and spread with a thin layer of pesto. Homemade can't be beaten of course, but at a pinch, jar pesto is convenient and will just have to do!
9. Place a piece of the venison on each slice of polenta & pesto.
10. Dribble the Balsamic syrup over it in a zig-zag.
11. Dress to the side with rocket. The slightly peppery, slightly iron taste of the rocket balances the rest of the dish very nicely.
12. Serve.

Main: Roast Duck with Mango Couscous Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce, Buttercup Squash Mash, Baby Potatoes & Mangetout & Almonds in Lemon Sauce

Duck is a huge favorite amongst my friends, in fact I believe it's the only meat that all of us like, oddly enough. So the roast of the day was quite a simple choice. This turned out to be an extremely tasty bird and I'm happy to say it cooked beautifully. I've been guilty of overdrying duck in the past - finickity bird! - so I stuffed it with a couple of slashed lemons and although I couldn't personally detect any lemon taste, I think the internal moisture defintely helped.

I had intended on making peach and pinenut stuffing but then I discovered a can of mangos buried at the bottom of the cupboard and was diverted from my course. This eventually became an amalgamation of mango, pinenuts, pork & sage sausagemeat and couscous (as I'm not a huge fan of rice stuffing) and was a definite hit - I think there were only a couple of tablespoons left over. The Oceanspray Cranberry Sauce was jazzed up a bit with some powder forte spice and homemade cherry brandy (because basically I'm incapable of leaving commercial sauces in their virgin state!).

Val makes an absolutely gorgeous sweet potato casserole which everyone loves, and although I made Squash Mash, I stole part of his recipe for the topping. Due to a lack of pecans we ended up with walnut and hazelnut topping, but it was just as delicious. The texture of the mash was a little too soft, as I always forget squash isn't as fibrous as the pumpkins I usually cook, but it tasted good.

I sometimes wonder if you can unlearn how to cook an item? The potatoes were boiled and put in the pan to finish off roasting, and although they were cooked, weren't at all crispy and roasted on the outside. Very disappointing. The leftovers fared much better in the next morning's fry-up. This is the third or fourth time I've had problems with my roast potatoes however, so obviously it's something I need to look at. The Mangetout tossed with sliced Almonds & Lemon Sauce are a standard of mine - it's a lovely sauce and conveniently makeable well beforehand, and the end cooking is nice and fast - almost as fast as they disappear!

Mango Couscous Stuffing
1 cup Couscous
1/2 can Mango Slices, diced
Mango Syrup
3 Tb Pinenuts
1 Tb Flatleaf Parsley, minced
4 Pork & Sage Sausages
Butter
Salt & Pepper

1. Top the mango syrup up to 2 cups with water.
2. Mix together the couscous, diced mango, mango syrup and water, pinenuts and parsley. Leave until the couscous has absorbed the liquid. It should swell to twice its size.
3. Squeeze the sausagemeat out of the sausage casings and partition into teaspoon sized lumps.
4. Fry the sausagemeat on medium in a small amount of butter until just cooked (i.e. no pink showing anymore).
5. Thoroughly mix together the couscous mixture and the sausagemeat.
6. Season.
7. Put in the oven with the duck for the last hour of cooking (i.e. on 400°F/200°C/GM6).
8. Serve.

Butternut Squash Mash with Val's Nut Topping
2 Butternut Squash
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
Salt and Pepper
1 Cup Nuts, preferably Pecan but Walnut, Hazelnut or similar are also good
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Flour
1 Egg

1. Cut the squash into eighths and deseed.
2. Roast the squash until soft and cooked - about an hour in a medium oven.
3. Skin the squash and mash. I use a potato ricer - wonderful invention!
4. Add the cream and season to taste.
5. Put in a casserole dish, leaving about a third room.
6. Beat the egg.
7. Mix together the nuts, sugar, flour and beaten egg.
8. Cover the squash mash with the topping.
9. Put in the oven with the duck for the last hour of cooking (i.e. on 400°F/200°C/GM6).
10. Serve.

Sugar Sauce Base
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 Tb cornflour
Flavoring, i.e. 1 Tb lemon juice, 1 tsp essence, etc
4 Tb Alcohol

1. Bring the sugar, salt and water in a pan to a low simmer, dissolving the sugar.
2. Add a tablespoon of the hot liquid to the cornflour, dissolving it and add back into the syrup.
3. Simmer until the liquid is reduced to a thin sauce.
4. Add the flavoring and and half the alcohol, and simmer until reduced to a medium sauce. At this point you can leave the sauce overnight. It'll thicken up even more and the taste will strengthen.
5. Add the rest of the alcohol. Reduce to the consistency you want - I like it medium to thick.
   
   In the case of Lemon Sauce for Peas or Beans I use 4 Tb Lemon Juice and the rind of a grated Lemon, and don't bother leaving it overnight.

Cheese: English Cheeses, Grapes and Crackers

As Steve is British and missing the tastes of home every now and then (apparently the sad state of pickled onions in America is a sore spot!) I decided to buy an English cheeses platter for the dinner party. Included on it were Red Leceister, Gloucester with Chives, an English Brie, a vintage Cheddar and the inevitable Stilton.

Dessert: English Trifle

When I announced we were having trifle for dessert there was a marked lack of enthusiasm - years of soggy sponge, canned fruit and instant custard have relegated this dessert to the ranks of Unspeakable English Cuisine, which is a great shame. English trifle to me brings back memories of Boxing Day, this being the only time my lactose-intolerent mother ever made it, and although it wasn't my favorite childhood dessert (Bananna Custard was awarded that distinction) I still retain a huge amount of affection for it. Freshly made and alcohol redolent, trifle serves as an example of the best of traditional English cooking. And I'm happy to report everyone loved this version and the glasses were all scraped clean. . .

Trifle is one of those useful desserts that actually taste better if made the day before, and it lasts well too (I must confess I deliberately made extra helpings and ate them for breakfast the next couple of days). There are a hundred different recipes for trifle - mine includes a sauce for the fruit and only uses strawberries - but as long as you have the sherry-soaked sponge layer, the fruit layer and the custard layer, you're set (pun not intended!). Don't be tempted by cheap sweet sherry for this dessert - use good quality dry Spanish sherry. Your palate will thank you.

English Trifle for Eight (or six and breakfast!)
Sponge Layer:
8 Sponge Fingers or Cakes
1 cup good quality Dry Sherry
Fruit Layer:
250 gm fresh Strawberries (or other fruit)
Basic Sugar Sauce (see recipe above)
4 Tb good quality Dry Sherry
1 Tb Strawberry Essence (optional)
Custard Layer:
750 ml Heavy or Double Cream
5 Egg Yolks
1 Tb Vanilla Essence
1/2 cup Castor Sugar

1. Break the sponge fingers into three and put each in a glass (I used plastic throwaways - worked perfectly and no dishes afterwards!) or bowls. If you want, you can make it in one big bowl, but individual portions look much nicer.
2. Drizzle the sponge with the sherry, making sure it is soaked.
3. Cover, and leave the sponge at least 3 hours and preferably overnight.
4. Cut up the fresh strawberries or other fruit into halves or 1 inch pieces and put on the sponge.
5. Make the Sugar Sauce (see recipe above) and add the sherry and the strawberry flavoring.
6. When the Sherry & Strawberry Sauce has cooled (it makes a very pretty baby pink colour), pour it over the strawberries.
7. Heat the cream in a pot to a gentle simmer.
8. Beat the egg yolks until they pale slightly and add the vanilla essence.
9. Very slowly pour the heated milk onto the egg yolks, whisking all the time.
10. Pour the egg and milk (custard) mixture back into the pot and on a low medium heat stir the pot - usually 10 - 20 minutes. Make sure the custard doesn't overheat and seperate.
11. At this point, add the sugar to taste.
12. Stir the pot until the custard 'catches'. This usually happens suddenly, so don't get distracted by other things.
13. When the custard has cooled a little, pour over the sponge and fruit layers.
14. Leave the trifle to cool.
15. Garnish with wafer quills or chocolate or sugar sprinkles and serve.

Dan's Birthday Dinnerparty

My friend Dan celebrated his mid-thirty birthday last week, so this was a little celebration dinner, hosted by myself and attended by Dan and his partner Elizabeth. For some odd reason I had a 'No' in the diary column next to Elizabeth's preferences - but when I rang her up to ask how bad her diary intolerence was, she told me she didn't have one, liked diary, and I'd actually asked her that before. So much for my vaunted documentation! This was quite pleasing though, as it put the tumeric sauce I'd removed from the menu back on it.

Dan & Elizabeth brought the alcohol; a very nice bottle of New Zealand methode champanoise (not that I'm biased or anything!) and a smooth and lovely bottle of Merlot.

The meal was as follows:

Entrée: Panfried Scallops on Couscous with a Turmeric Honey Sauce
These were beautiful, hugely fat Scallops from the traditional fishmonger in Turnham Green. About £1 each, and an absolute steal at that price when you compare them to the thin, flabby specimens seen at Tescos for the same price. The Turmeric Sauce is a recipe I originally made up for fresh anchovies, and I fiddled with it a bit. It has quite a strong, mellow taste that really complements the shellfish. Sadly, you really have to use fresh turmeric with it - trying it with dried turmeric is the difference between freshly made macaroni cheese and boxed Kraft macaroni cheese. (ick) These recipes employ a reasonable amount of sherry, mostly because I think Scallops + Sherry = Match Made in Heaven.

Turmeric & Honey Sauce
150 ml very heavy cream
2 inches of fresh turmeric
1 Tb Honey
Sherry, several splashes/tablespoons
1 tsp cornflour
1 pinch salt

Peel the turmeric. I strongly suggest you use gloves.
Grate the turmeric. If you haven't used gloves, your hands by now are stained a delightful shade of Van Gogh yellow for the next week.
Put the cream and turmeric in a saucepan and heat gently for ten minutes to seethe the turmeric. The turmeric will not only colour the cream a brilliant sunflower yellow, but also any non-metal objects you care to stick in the pan.
With the sauce at a rolling simmer, add the sherry and honey and stir until the honey is dissolved.
Add some of the sauce to a teaspoon of cornflour and stir until dissolved.
Add the cornflour mixture to the sauce, stir in and then keep on a low simmer for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens.
Taste. Season. Use white pepper rather than black, if you have it (purely for aesthetic reasons).

Scallops
Gordon Ramsay, quoted from "Olive" Magazine, Dec 2004 issue, p.30

"Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan until it is just smoking. Put the scallops in the pan evenly starting at 12 o'clock and working around the edge, so you'll know when to turn them. They need about 30 seconds on each side so once you get around to the top again start turning them over, then when you reach the top again take them out. Put them on kitchen paper on a plate."

Couscous
1/2 cup Couscous
1 handful of Coriander, chopped finely
1 cup Water
1 dash Sherry

Put the couscous in a bowl.
Boil the water and pour over couscous.
Add sherry and half the chopped coriander and cover.
Let stand for 10 - 15 minutes.
Stir in the rest of the coriander just before dishing up.

Putting it all together
Reheat the sauce if necessary.
Ladle the couscous into the middle of the plate.
Place the scallops on top. We ended up with 4 halves each.
Ladle turmeric sauce on top of the scallops.
Garnish with a piece of fresh parsley and serve.

Soup: Chilled Chilli-Melon
This was really a bit of an experiment. I'd been looking through various cold soup recipes (it's been hot) and this developed from there. Initially I was going to try cucumbers, but then I decided a sweet base would work better with the contrasting ingredientss. Prettymuch all the European recipes had cream in them, but I wanted a crisper edge to the taste and didn't want to dilute the flavor with diary. So this derives from both Thai and European cold melon soup recipes. We decided that it needed a couple of tweaks - firstly, it needed to be processed longer, into more of a liquid (it also thickened a bit in the fridge). Secondly, more chilli needed to be added. Elizabeth and I could taste it but Dan couldn't (the man has an asbestos mouth when it comes to spicy foods though!). Dan (also a keen cook) suggested an alternate topping could be shredded and toasted Black Forest Ham - definitely a good idea. Other than that we all liked this and thought it was definitely worth repeating. Here's the revised recipe:

Chilled Chilli-Melon Soup
1 1/2 Galia Melons (Honeydew or any other similar sweet melon would work)
150 ml dry Cava/Champagne/Methode Champagnoise
1 medium hot green chilli (or hotter if you like "HOT!"), sliced very very thinly into shreds
1 inch cube fresh ginger, grated
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 rasher Bacon or equivalent of Black Forest Ham per person
Butter

Cut the melons in half and de-seed them. There's one half left over for breakfast.
Cut the flesh of the melon out and put it in the food processor (if you don't have one, it's a messy job with a hand masher for you!).
Add the champagne, grated ginger, pepper and most of the sliced chilli pieces.
Whizz until liquidised finely.
Taste. Adjust ingredients to taste.
It's best to leave this overnight for the taste to develop, so add any further chilli to the strength you require.
Just before serving, cut the bacon rashers/ham slices into strips and fry in butter until crispy.
Taste soup and if you aren't using bacon, season with salt.
Garnish soup with bacon/ham crispies and serve.

  Main: Stuffed Quail with Berry Sauce on Alfafa bedding, Sweet Potato Mash, and Asparagus & Pea Jelly
The Quail were bought at Macken Bros Butchers in Turham Green, neatly stuffed and trussed already. I love it when someone else does all the fiddly bits for me! They were absolutely delicious - tender, tasty, nice texture, and the herby stuffing complemented them well. I just popped them into the oven at GM7 for 25 minutes with a brushing of oil and then they were done.

The Berry Sauce was a reduction of a pot of Yeo Valley Organic Red Fruit Compôte (a blend of strawberries, apples, blackcurrants, blackberries and organic sugar) with a splash or two of red wine and some powder forte. The Sweet Potatoes were cooked the night before, then seasoned and mashed with cream and some chiffonaded flatleaf parsley. I reheated and then moulded it into rounds with rings (very twee!). Simple, but very yummy and went down particularly well.

The Asparagus & Pea Jelly, also made the night before, was a bit of a disaster - I put it in the bottom of my housemates' fridge, which was turned down too low, so it froze. Argh. The peas were inedible (Tina peas! Tina peas!) but the asparagus was OK as they hadn't absorbed the liquid so much. It was rather a waste of good asparagus though. Here's how it was supposed to go:

Asparagus & Pea Jelly
2 Sheets Leaf Gelatine
400 ml Boiling Water
50 ml Vermouth
200 gm Asparagus Spears
1 cup Peas

Soften the leaf gelatine in cold water.
Cook the asparagus at a rolling simmer until just tender (4 - 5 minutes). Remove from water.
Use the water to cook the peas. Remove from water.
Measure out 400 ml of the water. Strain any pieces out of it.
Add the gelatine to the boiling water and vermouth, and stir until it has dissolved.
Lay the asparagus on the bottom of your dish (or dishes).
Cover with the gelatine liquid.
Place the peas on top of the asparagus.
Cover with the gelatine liquid.
Let it cool on the bench for 15 minutes then put it in the fridge for at least a couple of hours to gel.

Dessert: Indian Jelly Sweets Whose Names I Don't Remember and Mango Sorbet
A very nice Indian sweetshop has opened at the new supermarket complex beside my train station, and I intend to eat my way through every single sweet. I started off with these delectable looking offerings - aren't the colours just gorgeous? The flavors were: Yellow - Pineapple, Green - Pistachio, Orange - Mango, Red - Raspberry. The Pineapple was tasty but almost impossibly chewy, although Dan was very keen on it. I thought the raspberry was uninteresting, but the other two were delicious. The Mango Sorbet was snaffled from my housemate Tanya's freezer and was also tasty.

Social-wise, I had a great time (thank you Dan and Elizabeth for being such lovely guests). Foodwise, it was a pleasant dinner. A few too many minor errors to make it wonderful to my mind, but not bad.

Dinner for an American friend

Sunday I was broiling - and I'm not talking about the cooking technique! It was outstandingly hot for London this weekend, with a high of about 32 degrees (yes, I know that's mild elsewhere, but this is England we're talking about). Everyone's appetites took a nosedive as the temperatures soared and the dinner party I threw for Rhona, a visiting American friend, ended up starting at 9:45 pm. Although dark, it was still warm so we decided to eat outside.

Entrée: Panfried Crevettes with a Lime & Vermouth Sauce

We started off with Panfried Crevettes with a Lime & Vermouth Sauce, on a fan of blanched Mangetout and accompanied by Carmargue Rice with Pinenuts. Nothing breaks the formality barrier at a dinner party faster than prawns with their shells still on. It's just so impossible to eat them tidily! I got the crevettes from my Turnham Green fishmonger and they were huge - a good three mouthfuls of plump, sweet flesh each. Delicious. The Lime and Vermouth Sauce was a hit (Tanya later confessed to licking her fingers to get the last little bit of it). I'd originally intended to make a Thai-style chilli-lime sauce, but then decided it would be overkill with the dessert. I'm a deadkeen fan of gin Gimlets, so decided to give this a whirl instead.

I'd also originally intended using black rice, but decided it was just so hot I wanted something lighter and nuttier tasting. I cooked the Carmargue rice with pinenuts, a healthy splash of vermouth and minted water (that is, chilled water that has been standing with mint in it for a couple of hours) and then chilled them. For moulds I used little silicon bowls, a new acquisition. When I was in America my twin and her husband took me to a couple of kitchen stores and I went wild on silicon bakeware and utensils. So far I'm having a wonderful time - it's so flexible and easy to clean.


Panfried Crevettes with a Lime & Vermouth Sauce
2 crevettes per person (more if it's small prawns)
1 Tb butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 Tb cornflour
60 ml vermouth
juice and grated rind of 1 medium lime

1. Bring the sugar and water in a pan to a low simmer, dissolving the sugar.
2. Add a tablespoon of the hot liquid to the cornflour, dissolving it and add back into the syrup.
3. Simmer until the sauce is reduced to a thin sauce.
4. Add the lime juice and half the vermouth, and simmer until reduced to a medium sauce. At this point you can leave the sauce overnight. It'll thicken up even more and the taste will strengthen.
5. Add the rest of the vermouth. Reduce to the consistency you want - I like it medium to thick.
6. Heat the butter in a frypan on medium high.
7. Toss in the crevettes and cook for a couple of minutes each side, until the colour starts to go pinkywhite.
8. Pour in half the sauce and cook for another minute each side.
9. Plate the crevettes and pour the rest of the heated sauce over the top.
10. Serve.

Main: Black & White Lamb Noisettes with Mint Crabapple Sauce, Baby Potatoes, Steamed Asparagus with fresh Lemon Mayonnaise

Sadly my photo does the lamb noisettes little justice - they were the most gorgeously prepared meat I'd seen in a long long while. Little rounds of lamb were spiced up with an inset round of quartered black pudding and white pudding, reminding me of a set of Turkish inlaid wooden chequers I own. Now, I'll be the first to admit the black pudding you get in normal English Breakfasts is usually just plain nasty - but this was beautiful quality, as was the lamb. Even the black pudding haters liked these. They grilled for about 15 minutes each side on medium and then were served with a splash (or more) of the Mint Crabapple Sauce.

I suddenly realised as I was bringing in the entrée dishes that I hadn't put the baby potatoes on yet - eek! What an idiot. So I chopped them up and fortunately there wasn't much more of a wait between courses than normal. The asparagus was a lovely bunch of fresh English spears and as I didn't really fancy making hollandaise, I made my usual mayonnaise with lemon.


Mint Crabapple Sauce
1/3 cup water
1 - 2 Tb sugar
Handful fresh mint, chopped finely
1/2 Tb vinegar
2 Tb Crabapple Jelly

1. Simmer the water and sugar until dissolved and thickened (I must admit I just nicked some of the sugar sauce/syrup from the entrée sauce for this).
2. Add two-thirds of the mint and all the vinegar and simmer for five minutes.
3. Add the jelly and stir until dissolved. At this point you can leave it to cool and thicken for a couple of hours.
4. Reheat if necessary and add the rest of the mint.
5. Serve.

For 1/2 Cup Lemon Mayonnaise
1 egg yolk
pinch salt
pinch pepper (preferably white, for aesthetic reasons)
1 Tb lemon (as above)
1/2 cup oil (make sure it tastes good - I prefer hazelnut, walnut or macadamia, but any light, pleasant tasting oil will do)

1. Lightly beat the egg yolk until it lightens color.
2. Add the salt, pepper & vinegar and beat until slightly frothy.
3. A tablespoon at a time, drizzle in the oil, lightly beating it until it has blended with the egg mixture.
4. Repeat the above step until you've used all the oil.
5. At this stage you can add what you will - capers, chives, etc or more lemon juice, lime juice, etc to flavour.

Cheese: Mrs Appleby's Cheshire and Cerney Goats Cheese with Pepper

The delicatessen at Turnham Green has an impressive range of artisan cheeses, and although tempted to go cheese-buying crazy, I restrained myself and decided to get two only - a medium and a fresh - for this course. The Cerney, which came in it's own little thin wooden box from a farm in Devon, was met with universal approbation. It melted, fluffy and creamy, in your mouth with the added kicker of the pepper it was rolled in. The slice of Cheshire was a lovely golden orange, strong with a tangy aftertaste and with a good firm texture. I liked it even better than the Cerney. Both were definitely worth a repeat buy.

Dessert: Chilli-Chocolate Creams with Brandy-flambéd Figs and a Raspberry Coulis

A new dessert for me - and as usual, nice and simple to make. But very, very rich. I couldn't actually finish my Chilli chocolate cream and so had it for dessert last night as well. Rhona and Mark happily polished theirs off in one sitting however - obviously they're more hardy than me! The Figs were nice ripe Spanish offerings - Tanya amused me by admitting she'd never eaten one before and had thought they only came dried. Rhona was entertained (at a distance) by the flambéing which she had never seen done outside of television. I've doubled the chilli chocolate in the recipe below as it wasn't as strong as I wanted. The combination worked well though - the raspberry coulis was sour, the figs sweet, and the chocolate creams mildly hot and, er, creamy.

Chilli Chocolate Creams
280 ml double cream
50 gm chilli chocolate
100 gm good quality cooking chocolate
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp salt

1. Break the chocolate into your food processor.*
2. Bring the cream to a gentle simmer.
3. Just before the cream boils, pour it over the chocolate and whizz until thoroughly mixed.
4. Add the salt and egg yolks and whizz until the consistency of thick cream.
5. Pour into individual little ramekins or glasses. I got 4 servings from this amount, but it's so rich you could easily stretch to 6 servings.

*NB: If you don't have a food processor, grate the chocolate and use a handwhisk to beat the ingredients. Lots.


With the meal we had a small bottle of Chardonnay - I forget which, though I didn't find my small glass as unpleasantly sharp as most. Still not a big fan of chardonnay however. We also drank a bottle of Apple Wine which was a present from Christmas, and which proved to be a nice medium white. All in all, it was a very pleasant and sociable dinner and evening. However, I think it's time for me to invest in a table lantern!

Snails & Suchlike in Cambridge

On the weekend I went to Cambridge with my friends Tanya, Meesha, Fiona, Mark, Val and John, renting the house of an acquaintance of Meesha's. It was a lovely relaxing mini-holiday spent eating, drinking, gossiping and roleplaying, and on my part, a bit of embroidering (basically just sewing French beads and freshwater pearls onto a new summer bag to jazz it up a little). We also went for a wander and ended up sitting by the river opposite Queen's College, watching the punters. Much to our amusement three people fell in, the last one uttering the immortal words, "I'm too pissed to punt!"

On Saturday I made Snails with Garlic Butter as an entree, using the can of French snails and shells I brought back from Bahrain. John, Meesha, Fiona and Tanya were suitably appreciative. Even though they'd never tried them before, Val and Mark abstained on the grounds of the general ickiness of eating slugs. Boys can be such wooses at times. Personally I adore the earthy taste of snails, and I like the texture also. With a round of French bread to mop up the butter they're also a quick, easily prepared entree. And if it's a dinner party of strangers, they're the perfect icebreaker!

Snails with Garlic Butter
18 snails
100 gm/6 Tb unsalted butter
1 spring onion (or alternately a shallot), sliced finely
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped finely
salt & pepper
1 stick of small French Bread, sliced into thin rounds
18 snail shells or equivalent snail plate

1. Heat the oven to 350/180/GM 4.

2. Beat together the butter, spring onion, garlic and a dash of salt and pepper. Note: You can stick chopped herbs such as parsley in this 'sauce' as well, but I prefer to keep it simple, and the spring onion already adds greenery in both flavor and appearance.

3. Put a dab of butter in each shell.

4. Put the snails in the shells.

5. Put another dab of butter on top.

6. Put the snails in the oven and cook until the butter is hot and frothing.

7. Serve hot, with the French bread.

You can buy fancy snailshell holders and forks, but I've found a napkin and a corncob fork work just as well and save you a ridiculous expense for something you use once in a blue moon. Snail plates are useful for other thing however - as proven by my favorite cheap-n-cheerful French bistro, Savoir Faire, who use them for cooking grilled mussels. You can even use the same butter sauce.

For Saturday's main I made Spaghetti alla carbonara with ham, lemon, parmesan and lots of cream (Mark is allergic to tomatoes so Val's proposed bolognaise was out). For dessert Val made a Strawberry Cobbler. To be honest I don't actually like cobbler, but he's an excellent cook so I ate a piece and found it pleasant enough (ouch! damned with faint praise, but alas, I just can't raise any true enthusiasm for the dish). On Sunday I made a large Frittata for lunch/early supper. None of the dishes were particularly hard (although the frittata took ages to finish off in the oven), I got to do some relaxed cooking, and there was enjoyable food all around. Definitely the way to spend a holiday.

Cambridge is an expensive little town though. Admittedly we were probably only seeing the touristy bit, but the high street was just as overpriced as London and Meesha & Val were shocked at the wineshop and market stall prices. I thought the latter were reasonable myself, as it was all organic, gourmet or handmade produce and items (this was the little foodstall market in the square behind King's College), but certainly if you were a poor student you wouldn't shop there. I bought some Almond Tea (a favourite of mine which is very hard to find the decent stuff of, so I was thrilled and made sure to get his mail-order leaflet) and some Japanese Cherry Tea (which I've never tried before), an Ostrich Burger (delicious! as well as good for you) and a bottle of Crabapple Jelly.

I was charmed by the fact Cambridge is dotted with little Ice-Cream trolleys, which sold singles for a pound. I tried the Raspberry Ripple, Rum & Raisin, Mint Choc Chip and Maple & Walnut - all delicious and creamy. Very greedy of me I know and definitely not good for the lactose intolerence!

Belated Burns Night Dinnerparty

Sometimes you invite a lot of people over for a dinnerparty and then think afterwards, "Friday? What the heck was I thinking?" My Belated Burns Night dinnerparty was definitely one of those. But we all have these moments of temporary stupidity insanity. . .

Entrée: Carrot & Orange Soup
Given I'd have only about an hour or so after getting home from work before the guests arrived (disregarding the probability they'd be 'fashionably late'), pre-preparation was definitely the way to go. I decided to make a soup for the entrée, one that matured overnight, and going with the Scottish theme decided on a Carrot & Orange Soup. The recipe was based on a combination of a couple I found on the web. The carrot and orange turned out to be an excellent taste combination, and the resulting soup was slightly sweet, slightly spicy, very mildly herbed and with a pleasant purée texture.

Carrot & Orange Soup
[For 8 people]
1 kg gm carrots, cut into sticks
800 ml fresh orange juice with bits
300 ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 handful of chopped parsley
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp freshly grated white pepper
Pinch sea salt

1. Cook the carrots in salted water until tender.
2. In a food processor, whizz the carrots with half the orange juice.
3. Put the carrot/orange juice mix back into the pan and heat gently.
4. Slowly add the orange juice and stock.
5. Add the parsley, nutmeg and seasoning, and cook for a further 15 minutes until the soup reduces slightly.
6. Leave overnight to mature.
7. Reheat, and garnish with a swirl of cream and a sprig of parsley.

Main: Haggis, Chicken Breast with a Whiskey & Marmalade Glaze, Clapshot, Green Beans with Mustard Sauce
Haggis is an absolute requirement for Burns Night, but time restrictions made the stuffing of a sheep's stomach with various bits of liver, heart, lungs, etc unfeasible, so I bought a commercially-made Scottish haggis instead (that's the excuse I'm giving at any rate!). As some people are a bit touchy about eating offal I served it on a seperate dish rather than plating it with the rest of the main (which is why it isn't in the photo). Once again however my friends surprised and pleased me by all partaking and enjoying. It isn't the first time I've fed it to a couple of them, but apparently Adriana was our only haggis-virgin.

A belated Twelfth Night Dinner Party

This weekend past was a much-belated Twelfth Night Celebration for my friends and myself. As I had the whole day to cook, the meal was a trifle more elaborate than normal, comprising five courses.

Amuse-Bouche: Grilled Cape Gooseberries in Thyme, Maple Syrup & Bacon

I love little boxes - those small, pretty trinkets your friends and family give you to hide your shiny baubles within. Gooseberries (or physalis as they are known in the Northern Hemisphere) have always seemed to me to be the fruit version of this - you pull open the wispy husk to reveal the glowing yellow berry and a whiff of sweetness. Wonderful. They also remind me of summer weekends spent with my sisters working in my father's large vegetable garden; weeding and popping the occasional berry into our mouths - and rather hurriedly spitting them out when we got one that was a little too sour!

As I had the time, I thought I'd introduce my friends to the idea of the amuse-bouche. They approved (except for Val, who liked them so much he wanted his couple of mouthfuls as an entree instead). It's not too fiddly and the combination of tart, sweet and savoury with a tinge of lemony herbaceousness is a delightful mouthful.

1. Grilled Cape Gooseberries wrapped in Thyme, Maple Syrup & Bacon
   8 Gooseberries, dehusked
   fresh Lemon Thyme, chopped finely
   Maple Syrup (the real stuff, not the flavoring)
   2 large (or 4 small) rashers of Bacon (I used rindless bacon)
   16 Toothpicks

1. Cut the rashers in half, and then cut each half diagonally so you have two triangles.
2. Brush the bacon with the maple syrup.
3. Sprinkle lemon thyme lightly over.
4. Place a gooseberry in the center of each piece and wrap the bacon around it, overlaying each corner.
5. Spear a toothpick through to keep the package together.
6. Put under the grill for 5 or 6 minutes, turning a couple of times so each side is cooked.
7. Serve immediately!

Entree: Scallops on Puy Lentils with Sherry Sauce

I got the idea for the sherry sauce on scallops from Gordon Ramsay's masterclass in January's Olive magazine. Making three different sauces the day before was a bit much for me however (I still had to run around and tidy), besides which I doubted I'd get the guys to eat the cauliflower puree. As it was, I only informed them I was feeding them lentils as I placed it in front of them. All of us have vivid and rather visceral memories of the lentil dishes occasionally served to us at various medieval re-enactment feasts. . .

I especially like Puy Lentils however - they have a bit more pepper and bite to them than their little orange cousins. I boosted this with a bit of chilli and added a touch of bitterness with some parsley. The lentils were then topped with quickly pan-fried scallops and the salty/sweet sherry sauce. I managed to convert them - there wasn't a lentil left in sight! Even Mark, Lentil & Greens Hater Extraordinaire, ate all his - though I believe that was more on account of the sauce.

Remember the sauce is to complement a main item, so try to imagine what it would taste like on the scallops, rather than just what it tastes like on its own.

Sherry Sauce
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cornflour
3 Tb sugar
4 Tb dry Sherry
1 cup water

1. Put water, sugar & salt in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
2. Rolling simmer for about 5 minutes until the sugar is dissolved and liquid has reduced slightly.
3. Taste. It should be a slightly salty/little too sweet mixture.
4. Pour a tablespoon of the heated liquid into a separate bowl with the cornflour and stir until dissolved.
   Add the cornflour to the sauce and simmer for about 5 minutes until the liquid thickens.
5. Add about 2 tablespoons of the sherry to the sauce.
6. Taste.
7. Continue to simmer lightly until the sauce reduces.
8. Add a tablespoon or so of sherry.
9. Taste.
10. Continue to simmer, add sherry and reduce the sauce until it’s of a thickness and suitable sherry taste you are happy with.

Puy Lentils
1/2 tsp fresh Chilli (flesh & seeds)
1 large handful of Flatleaf Parsley, chopped
150 gm Puy Lentils
Water

1. Put the lentils, chilli and majority of the parsley into a saucepan and cover with twice as much water.
2. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 - 20 minutes, until cooked al dente.
3. Drain.
4. Mix in the rest of the parsley just before dishing up.

Scallops - Gordon Ramsay, quoted from "Olive" Magazine, Dec 2004 issue, p.30
"Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan until it is just smoking. Put the scallops in the pan evenly starting at 12 o'clock and working around the edge, so you'll know when to turn them. They need about 30 seconds on each side so once you get around to the top again start turning them over, then when you reach the top again take them out. Put them on kitchen paper on a plate."

Putting it all together

1. Reheat the sauce if necessary. I have one of those very invaluable little tealight & saucepan rigs that keeps the sauce warm without boiling. I recommend them - couldn't live without it.
2. Ladle the lentils into the middle of the plate.
3. Place the scallops on top. We ended up with 3 halves each, though you could get away with 2 as the lentils are very filling. (I fried up the roes for dinner the next day with some of the leftover lentils and sauce, and it was very nice).
4. Ladle sherry sauce on top of the scallops.
5. Garnish with a piece of fresh parsley and serve.

Main: Roast Beef, Wasabi Mustard, Red Wine Jelly, Persimmon & Roast Capsicum Pepper Salad, Lemon & Almond French Beans and Green Rice with Pumpkin Seeds

  The Beef was an Argentinean Tenderloin Roast. I rubbed it with mustard and then basically followed Nigella Lawson's roasting instructions from How to Eat. It was pleasant, but a little too tough on the outside. I think next time I'll avoid the '15 minutes on high' idea. I'd also forgotten my friends have a different attitude towards their dead cow than I do. Imagine a Steak Restaurant:

Waiter: How would you like your steaks?
Val: Well done, please.
Meesha: Very well done, please.
Mark: Indistinguishable from a charcoal briquette, please.
Me: Just bring it mooing to the table.

Fortunately there were enough 'just pink' slices to go around. I worked out this is the first beef roast I've cooked in 7 years - my BSE paranoia has meant I've avoided them since I left New Zealand.

Anyway, the beef was topped with a couple of sauces. I made the Red Wine Jelly from Clothilde's Gelee de Pomerol recipe on her marvelous foodblog Chocolate & Zucchini. Rather than Pomerol I used a Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz and added a ground long pepper - the resulting sauce was strong, vigorous and very very alcoholic. It definitely would have overpowered a more delicate meat. The Wasabi Mustard was as follows:

Wasabi Mustard
1/2 cup Double Cream
Wasabi Paste
Whole Grain Mustard

1. Add a teaspoon of wasabi paste and 2 tablespoons of mustard to the cream (I used Lakeshore Wholegrain Mustard with Guinness, a fabulous Irish mustard with a rich mellow fire).
2. From there, add in small increments until you have a horseradish/mustard/cream taste you think will go well with beef.

Persimmons were one of my discoveries when I first came to the UK. I had only come across them in books previously, but had never seen one in the flesh or indeed, even a picture of one. I was immediately attracted to their beautiful yellow-orange colour and shiny skin, and was delighted to find out that not only could you eat the whole fruit, skin and all, but they were as delicious as they looked. Most often the particular variety sold in the UK is called Sharon Fruit (coming as it does from Israel), which was a trifle confusing until I consulted that great sage, the Internet. Chunks of persimmon add a sweet touch to ordinary salads, but as a main constituent with sweet peppers, it's a simple sweet salad that can hardly be beaten.

Persimmon & Pepper Salad
2 Persimmons, stalks removed and diced
2 Long Red Capsicum Peppers (the very sweet ones)
1/2 Tablespoon Basalmic Vinegar
Pinch of Salt

1. Cut the stalks out of the peppers and remove as many seeds as you can without chopping the peppers up.
2. Put them in an oven pan and drizzle them with olive oil.
3. Roast on a medium oven [GM 5 / 375 ºF / 190 ºC] for about 30 - 40 minutes until the skin is slightly blackened and has loosened.
4. Remove and leave until they have cooled to lukewarm. If you put them in an airtight plastic bag at this stage, it will also help loosen the skins.
5. Remove the skins.
6. Cut the peppers into strips about 1 inch long.
7. Mix with the diced persimmon.
8. Add the basalmic vinegar and the pinch of salt.
9. Either serve immediately (it's nice warm) or chill for later.

It was years before I would willingly cook Beans as an adult. To me 'beans' evoked memories of large, tough Runner beans with the texture of leather, or weedy, mushy French beans from out of the freezer. Happily, I have since discovered beans are lovely vegetables, especially when fresh and tender.

Lemon & Almond French Beans
200 gm fresh French Beans, julienned
1 Lemon, rind grated and juiced
75 gm slivered Almonds
Sea salt
Water

1. Put the beans into lightly boiling, lightly salted water and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Check to see if they are cooked. If not continue cooking until they are.
3. When done, drain.
4. Toss with the lemon juice, lemon rind and slivered almonds.
5. Serve.

Cheese Board: Stilton, Brie & Snowdonia "Red Devil"

We opened the ceramic crock of Blue Stilton we hadn't managed to consume at Christmas, which turned out to be a very nice Stilton indeed. By the Ilchester Cheese Company; gorgeous creamy texture, pungent smell, and a real blast of a taste.

Red Devil was a truckle of lovely Red Leicester with chillies & peppers from the Snowdonia Cheese Company. Rich, fiery, beautifully coloured and a must-eat for chilli-lovers. We had a truckle of their Ginger Spice (obviously a Geri Halliwell fan!) at Christmas. It was a slightly crumbly Mature Cheddar embedded with chunks of stem ginger, and just as delicious in a different way. The company also produce an Extra Mature Cheddar, Mature Cheddars with Whiskey and Garlic & Garden Herbs and a Mild Cheddar with Chocolate Chips. The last sounds. . . interesting.

The Brie was nothing special but Meesha also brought along some small bronze grapes, which were bursting with flavour and proved a nicely sweet counterpart to the stronger cheeses.

Dessert: Chocolate Fondant with Vodka & Lime Cream

Desserts, I must admit, are one of my failings as a dinner party host. Despite the fact it's the first thing I look at on a restaurant menu (the "Eat dessert now - you may be dead tomorrow!" philosophy), it's usually the course with the least amount of care and attention lavished on it on my own menus. This time I was determined to offer up a treat however.

I'd found a recipe in the Telegraph's food and wine section that contained an awful lot of chocolate (which all my friends love, and Tatanatanya had fortuitously given me some organic cooking chocolate for Christmas), was simple to prepare beforehand, and baked quickly. Sold! To cut the very rich taste and sweetness I made a tart cream to go with it. Despite being served to 5 instead of the intended 4, and the mysterious disappearance of my ramekins (I shall have to go shopping. Oh dear.), the fondants came out quite well in a rectangular configuration. They were very intensely and heavily chocolate however, so definitely needed the tartness of the lime to offset them.

Chocolate fondants - recipe by Xanthe Clay from the Telegraph Wine section, 13/11/04
Serves 4
Butter, sugar and flour to prepare the ramekins
3 eggs
3oz/85g sugar
A few drops vanilla extract
5oz/140g dark chocolate, melted
1 tbsp plain flour

1. Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Butter four ovenproof ramekins or teacups. Dust with caster sugar, then flour.
2. Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together until pale and frothy. Stir in the melted chocolate. Sift over the flour and fold it in.
3. Divide between the cups or moulds and place on a baking sheet. Bake for about 10–12 minutes, until the puddings are risen and dry to touch. Unmould on to plates (loosen the sides with a sharp knife if necessary) and serve straight away.

Vodka & Lime Cream
1 227 ml pot of Double Cream (Yeo Valley do a lovely organic one)
1 shot Vodka
1 Lime, juiced & rind grated

1. Whip the vodka, lime juice and grated rind into the cream until it thickens.
2. Chill.

Accompaniments to all of this were a bottle of one of my favorite Australian bubblies, Hardy's Crest Methodé Champenoise; a bottle of Australian Chardonnay (which I didn't try as chardonnay tends to give me indigestion); the rest of the Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz; and the last bottle of Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages 2003 left over from Christmas. All told, the menu was a success, with elements I'll probably repeat again sometime in the future.