Sunday, November 08, 2009

Tetsuya extravaganza

We had friends over for dinner last night - an event booked months in advance due mostly to their social calendar. The last time we ate at their place we were served a magnificent feast involving rabbit and goat and many things fabulous, so I decided it was a good excuse to go for a full meal of recipes from Tetsuya's book.

We started with a cold soup of carrot and saffron with beancurd, served with a Vinden Estate Alicante Bouchet. I found the soup a little rich, but very tasty. Crash clearly liked it, he ate my left overs.

Next was a tartare of tuna with goats cheese served with a Petersons Sauvignon Blanc. This was amazing, although if I make it again I'll be much more careful about the goats cheese I buy - I had no idea how it was going to taste, so I didn't know what I was looking for. The wine was a pleasant surprise too - I'm not generally a fan of Australian Sauvignon Blanc, but this one was pretty good and went really well with the intense flavours in the tuna.

Then we had prawn and scallop ravioli with tomato and basil vinaigrette and a Chardonnay brought by our guests that I can't remember. The ravioli was made with wonton wrappers which was uncharacteristically simple for Tets recipes. I found the vinaigrette a little sour for the whole dish, but no-one else did. Next time I might just put in a teeny bit more sugar. The chardy was excellent with just enough bite left in it to cut through the creaminess of the ravioli.

Next up was quail legs with ginger and five spice powder served with a Marsh Estate Shiraz. This was pretty easy actually (apart from a great deal of chopping I'd done earlier in the day) and was most fine. In fact you could use the flavourings to cook other less formal things, which I will keep in mind. The shiraz was probably a touch heavy for the quail, but it was bloody wonderful and the quail legs were small, so the shiraz kinda became its own course, which is hardly something to complain about.

My last contribution to the evening was granny smith apple sorbet with sauternes jelly. It was a palate cleanser, so no wine with this one. It was pretty straightforward (once I'd sorted out the ice cream maker - thanks R!), and I loved it. Light, refreshing but with a slightly burnt flavour in the jelly that gave it a bit of depth. Definitely one I will do again.

The dessert itself was provided by our guests - a ricotta and sour cherry tart - and was a really good finish to the night. It was light and tasty with strong hits of cherry flavour. Yum.

In between cooking and eating there was some great conversation and all in all, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Hopefully so did everyone else. :)

PS. There are no photos of any of this, because frankly that was one too many levels of preparation for my poor little brain.

1 comment:

  1. "so the shiraz kinda became its own course..."
    Kinda sounds like something W.C Fields would have quoted lol.

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