Well, we been at it again.  This time with an 11 course dinner.  Our trusty photographer had the flu so the pics didn’t turn out like they should, but it was all very yummy.  Luckily, Adam was nice enough to take pics with our camera.  Thanks Adam!

1st Course – Amuse Bouche

The first course was a savory sorbet.  I really love savory sorbets as they get your palate going in such a smooth and sophisticated way.  This was a beet and honey sorbet with tarragon.

Holly and I Plating the Sorbet 

2nd Course – 1st Appetizer

This appetizer was a foie gras pate, smooth sheep’s milk Italian cheese, dried plum, and parmesan crackers made in my pizzelle maker.

3rd Course – 2nd Appetizer

This appetizer was a Braunshweiger, olive, pimento pate, formed into a rose and served with a chevre kale tartlett.

4th Course – Seafood

This was a sauteed scallop with scalloped potatoes, leaks, and mushrooms, all served in a white cheddar sauce and garnished with a caper and some sauteed tree mushrooms.

5th Course – Pasta

This picture doesn’t really portray this dish very well.  These are homemade pancetta spinach 3 cheese raviolis with a roasted red pepper cream sauce.  It is served with a parmesan cheese crisp and balsamic vinegar reduction.  Also, not seen in any photos, we served some sourdough mini-loaves made from my homemade sourdough start.

6th Course – Pork Belly

Probably one of the more challenging courses of the night for some of our guests, yet also personally one of the best, was the slow braised pork belly with slivered gingered sugar peas and a roasted peach with cardamom creme fraiche.  Top Chef and Casey deserve the recipe that inspired this dish.  Though I did make several changes, manly in the preparation of the pork belly and the slivered sugar peas.  I also removed some of the garnishes, showcasing the pork more.

7th Course – Palate Cleanser

After such a heavy course we then moved on to the palate cleanser which was a blood orange-cranberry sorbet with thyme.  It was sweet yet "zingy" and a favorite of some of our guests.

8th Course – Salad

The salad was inspired by a salad done at a restaurant called Blue Hill at Stone Barns.  It is a green bean, pistachio, golden raisin salad with slivered mushrooms and a green garden gazpacho.  It is topped with a warm hazelnut encrusted egg that has been soft boiled so that when you break it open, the soft runny yolk mixes with the vinegary gazpacho and created a sort of a dressing.  It was cool, refreshing and yet elegant.

9th Course – Main

Sadly, this pic doesn’t do the main course justice, this is a roasted rack of lamb topped with a chianti-lamb reduction and breaded in a kalamata olive tapenade, served with an asparagus risotto.  It was wonderfully tender and succulent.

Prepping the Rack of Lamb

10th Course – Dessert

For dessert we had a cocao nib panna cotta with a blueberry red wine syrup with a hint of cinnamon served with a milkless chocolate mousse.  We have a blast making the caramel spiral and hazelnut spike that we used as garnishes, they looked really cool.  The panna cotta is one of my favorite desserts now, we got it from Alice Medrich’s book Bittersweet. 

11th Course – Petit Fours

For the final course we finished with a Chocolate Truffle made with Belcolade Peruvian Single Bean Chocolate.  I garnished with lavender so that when you picked up the truffle, you would smell the lavender, yum, yum.  Holly’s truffle’s are about perfect at this point!

It was so yummy and fun, but now I’m beat!