Sometimes when planning a menu for Monday Night Dining, we just don’t know where to start. This was one of those weeks…. We were just stumped. Until our friend Luke came over. We were eating Tim Tams and talking about Australian food, when he mentioned Halva. Shawn pulled out a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook, with a Banana Halva recipe and we knew it was time for Indian food. I know, seems like a stretch from Pavlova, pot pies, and fairy bread to Indian, but sometimes that’s how we get inspired.
So our trio gathered with perennial favorite Jennifer, to break bread Naan, and catch up. Once we had settled in, we gathered at the table to enjoy one of our favorites, Gingery cauliflower soup.
This soup has a lovely delicate taste, with subtle spices and a hint of heat at the end, from the chili powder. It’s a wonderful wintry soup. I also have to say the leftover soup was even better.
For our main, we had chicken supremes baked with green chilis and onions, basmati rice, Baignan Achari and Naan.
Well…. we have tried out many new recipes on guests, but this chicken, with indian spices and chilies for a hint of heat… Wow… And I can honestly eat baingan achari with every meal. Something about indian food is warming and familiar… I think we combined the warming and the familiar well here. Jennifer paired this beautifully with a 2013 Angels Gate Sussreserve Riesling, this is an off dry wine, due to unfermented grape juice being added before bottling (from the German susreserve technique).
After some catching up and a bit of shop talk, we ended our meal with the dish that inspired the meal. Banana Halva.
When I checked out this recipe, I thought that it could not be anything worth while…. lets saute bananas with some sugar….. I have to admit, the carmelized bananas, with crème fraiche, was a revelation. Simple yet elegant. We just have to work on the colour….
This night was a relaxed, yet invigorating night of food and friends. There are times when I kinda wish we didn’t have to head to rehearsal… Then again, I need the rehearsal time, plus we have the music director with us, so we must.
Now for the double bill part of this blog…. I have been remiss in our blog entries and with a busy work and social life (I’ve really just had a cold) have gotten behind in my entries. So this week will feature 2 weeks in one entry. That’s enough food porn to keep you going for a while.
This week we another of our favorite people Ann, join our trio for MND. I did not realize, but it was the perfect time to reconnect with Ann, as her family has an upcoming wedding to celebrate, so we had a chance to get some of the details.
When planning for this meal, we realized that we had some of the twice baked souffles in the freezer. This was the prefect opportunity to test to see if they really could be baked the second time, from frozen. You just plate them, add a little cream around the bottom and some bread crumbs and pop them in the oven. They puffed up nicely, with a little crust on the top. So our experiment was a success.
Our main is really what this meal revolved around. Shawn had found some beautiful Ontario Arctic Char. We broiled the Arctic char, with our almost famous mediterranean spice rub, and going with the char theme served it atop a charred tomato risotto.
We paired this with one of Ann’s favorite wines, a 2015 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough. This wine works wonderfully with fish. We had a hint of zing, from the spiced rub, which worked well with the subtle flavours of the risotto.
Originally we were concerned about time tonight, but we ended up with a nice relaxed time for dessert and tea. Our desserts were clove infused orange tartlets brulee.
This is lovely dessert, with sweet, tangy orange curd, infused with clove, nestled in a buttery tart shell, painted with dark chocolate. Just before serving, you add a golden caramel, brulee crust, with the blow torch, and a dollop of whipped crème fraiche. Lovely, subtle and light.
And as usual, we are off to rehearsal, to learn our acapella program for our big spring show.
Let me know the date of your restaurant opening or the release of your cookbook! Seriously!! This post has brightened up a very gloomy morning – thanks! Can you give me a couple of clues about your Mediterranean spice blend? I know I can’t create an exact replica out here because of different terroir (!), but I’m keen to try a close approximation!