A year ago, we returned from a fantastic trip to South America with our neighbour Natasha, her friend Marina, and some others. Chile and Argentina for almost two weeks - wow, there was some fantastic scenery. Some good food. Some lovely wine at one winery.
We've barely seen Natasha these past couple of months, and its been ages since we've seen Marina as well, so it was nice to see them both last night as the Pasadena members of the trip got together for dinner here last night. Reminiscing a bit, catching up on the year since, drinking Chilean wine, and having a good evening of it.
Van arrived early, so the three of us enjoyed a cocktail made from a gift Allison sent us for Christmas, clove and rosemary gimlets.
I vacillated between thinking the clove was too much and enjoying the drink, but Van rather liked it.
Natasha and Marina are both Russian, so I found a way to incorporate caviar into the dinner. I made a puree soup to start, parsnip and cauliflower. Into each bowl I placed a seared scallop, then garnished it all with chives, creme fraiche, and a little caviar.
For the main course, I marinated halibut in chermoula, baked it, and served it with some reserved chermoula, a bit of cous cous, purple carrots, and green beans.
I hadn't done the recipe in some time, and it was good to revisit it. I thought the fish cooked up nicely.
Dessert was a recipe I used back in November and decided to do again: wild rice pudding with a caramel sauce.
As I did back then, I also made a raspberry sauce for people to enjoy, but I stuck with caramel only. I have such a sweet tooth.
The Chilean wines were good, and the evening was a success. We have one more bottle of wine from the trip in the wine refrigerator, and one day we'll open it and enjoy. I'm just glad, though, that we were able to get together and have a nice quasi-anniversary dinner together.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment