This coming Monday our trio will not be together for Monday Night Dining, due to the observation of All Souls Mass at our church, so instead we decided on a Halloween night dinner instead. The advantage this has, is that we get to take our time, without rushing off to rehearsal. The original plan was to have a late season barbecue, but with snow and cold rain in the forecast, decided a cozy French fall menu, cooked indoors would be better.
Along with our trio, we also invited Norm and Dermot, to join us for Halloween. With the candles and jack-o-lantern lit, we started in on Bacon Leek and Chevre Tartlets and a selection of cheeses.
Norm got our spooky evening in the right mood, with a reading of Poe’s The Raven. Dermot followed with the tale of the fingerless Piper of Duntrune.
We moved to the haunted dining room, for our next course, Cream of Chestnut Soup. In France to this day, there are avenues lined with ancient chestnut trees. In the past when the harvest was bad, people would replace bread with cooked chestnuts. For the evening meal, the chestnuts would be placed in a bowl and hot milk would be poured over them. This recipe is our take of this tradition.
For the second course, we served a Pork Rib Roast, with Green Peppercorn Sauce, and Confit Byaldi. Thomas Keller (of The French Laundry fame) was the food consultant for the movie Ratatouille and Confit Byaldi was the signature dish he created as a new take on the traditional Ratatouille.
Now for the scariest part of the evening… The last time I attempted this particular dessert, I got cocky and did not treat it with respect. This resulted in a total dessert disaster. Feeling brave on this spooky night we finished the meal with a Maple Ginger Soufflé with Maple Crème Anglaise.
During our meal we talked of music and choir tours, fundraising and life in general. We only had a few trick or treaters, because of the weather, but there were enough to empty the treat bowl of all of the favoured treats. They even took the apples. Late in the evening the last two tricksters came by, with only boxes of raisins left in the bowl, and the one lad said “I love raisins, but I can’t pick them up with my bone hands!” Steph gave him a helping hand.
Norm capped the evening off with a reading of Alfred Noyes – The Highwayman, in dramatic style. He also made a gift of a beautifully appointed Clavichord. The evening was cold and wet outside, but inside we had warmth, candle light, and companionship, along with our chestnuts and soufflés and ghosts…. Oh my what an evening.
A very memorable Toronto Hallowe’en, with the moon a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas. The clavichord was, frankly, the best hostess’ gift ever, along with a print tom an 1879 article on Anna Williams, who sang the title role in the premiere of Parry’s JUDITH.