We haven't had the pleasure of mom's company for dinner on Sunday night for a few weeks as she has been under the weather with a bad bronchial infection. Today she felt well enough to leave the house so we invited her over for a dinner inspired by the cooking class we enjoyed earlier this week.
Paul and I started off with a blender of our favourite 'summer drink' of the moment . . . Bananas on the Side. The recipe is simple:
1/2 cup Banana Liqueur
1/2 cup Mango Rum
2 cups tropical fruit juice blend
Place all the ingredients in a blender with ice and blend until creamy. You can make ice cubes out of the juice so that you do not water down the drink as the ice melts.
The drink is light and refreshing!
It must be good because Paul had 4 and promptly turned beet red (alcohol does that to him).
Mom and Paul enjoyed a cheese tray that Paul had put together while I grilled the next course. Paul is quite good at the cheese course. He puts out a nice variety of cheese, dried cranberries, candied Spanish walnuts, pecans, an assortment of crackers and flat breads, and some sort of tart jelly. Tonight it was Fabia's Berry Blast (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, and jalapeno peppers) . I think mom overdid it on the cheese!
The first course was a simple one. Grilled figs wrapped in prosciutto. All you do is wrap a fresh fig with a slice of prosciutto. I did three this way and for the other three I cut the figs almost from top to bottom and inserted a piece of Gorgonzola dolce in the centre, closed it up again, and wrapped it with prosciutto. You just lightly brush them with oil and grill them until the prosciutto is slightly crisped.
I served them with a balsamic reduction. We each got two - one with the melted Gorgonzola dolce in the centre and one plain.
The main course was a grilled beef tenderloin steak served on a bed of sauteed mushrooms, leeks, and shallots. I served it with roasted fingerling potatoes and sauteed rainbow chard and fiddle heads. I have never had chard before but it always looks so interesting in the store that I decided to buy some and enjoy it - I am so glad I did because it was wonderful!
The chef at the cooking class showed us how to garnish the plate by placing a 'salad' of baby lettuces/sprouts on top of the steak. I bought the mixture of pea, onion, beet, and broccoli sprouts at the market and mixed them with a bit of olive oil and some red wine vinegar which had been infused with rosemary. Yum - a simple but elegant way to finish off the dish.
While everyone relaxed I made dessert. It was the same dessert from the cooking class: Strawberries with Ice Wine Sabayon. The sabayon was not as difficult to make as I had anticipated it would be. I think I used too much ice wine, the recipe called for 1/2 a bottle but ice wine comes in a multitude of shaped bottles, all with a different volume. Grrr Oh well, now I shall have to experiment. Don't get me wrong though - it was still amazing but had more of a kick than I remembered.
I served it in a large martini glass and tucked in a Ossi dei Morti that Paul had bought me for our anniversary. They were really good dipped into the sabayon!
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