The day after the whisky tasting, we spent a few hours recovering and putting ourselves back together. There was a dinner to prepare. Here’s the menu Alan and I had designed over the last few months:

I shall put the recipes and instructions on separate posts.

We did indeed spend the whole day shopping, cooking, shoveling the snow, and drinking coffee. Finally, at around 18:00, Angus and his wife Kiss arrived (together with the ordered kidneys and the lagerkage) and we were all ready for the feast. We sat down at ~ 18:30 and finished ~ 23:30. It was a real success. Nothing of what we cooked was left. It was a real foodgasm.

I personally loved the whole thing. Great people, relaxed atmosphere, excellent food and drinks, nice chats, no stress. Kind a of a weekend of “oblivion”. I want more and can’t wait to repeat the experience. Where and when should it be? Here again in the summer with a fish based grill session? or should it be in Campbeltown, with an associated trip to Springbank and Islay? Or something else? I’m veeery openminded

Thanks to all for the fantastic weekend!!!!!

Wee update. I forgot to tell about our Christmas eve at Manolis and Benedicte’s place in Cambridge.

Very pleaseant evening. Good food, good drinks, our share of emotions and excellent company.

We had a set of starters composed of salmon and cheese tartines, champagne with a great secret ingredient (I’ll tell you later), raw veggies with a great hot anchovie sauce (excellent if you like them hairy fishes), prawns and, finally, oysters with panic. All followed by a nice chicken dish with some tasty red wine.

Now, two notes:

- Oysters with panic:  NEVER EVER EVER open oysters with the wrong tools. A filet knife is not the best idea. Unless you want to carve yourself a pair of stigmatae. Wasn’t that painful Manolis? Additionally, do not try to open them from the “wide” part of the shell. Form the back, that were the “entry point” is.

- The champagne’s secret additive: this was brought from France by Benedicte and is littrally translated as “truffle aperitif“. It’s indeed a truffle liqueur that you add in your champagne. Fantrufflestastic!!!! Even on its own. I hope to find a bottle of this somewhere soon.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

See ya!

Here I am again.

So now for the menu. Here’s what we had:

Aperitif:

- Olives medley

- Walnuts

- Grissini

Washed down with Prosecco di Conegliano.

Lunch:

- tortellini in brodo

- roast turkey with potatoes and a carrots and butternut-squash puree

- endive, apples, walnut and cheese salad

- Strawberry charlotte

For these items, we drank an American wine. For the first time, I decided to try something new and asked the wine guy at Austin Liquors in Shrewsbury, MA whether he could recomend a wine that would remind me of an Amarone or a St. Emilion and woyuld not cost me an arm and a leg. He told me to go for a Chateau St Jean 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon. Sure, it’s nothing close to what I was asking for, he said, but if I like those wines I mentioned, I would be very satisfied with this one. Well, he was damn right. We really enjoyed it. And for 15 USD, I enjoyed it even more. Anyway, back to the food. Let me tell you about ho to cook those things.

Tortellini in brodo:

I have to admit that I cheated a bit on this one. Could not really bother to make the tortellini meslf, so I bought them “dry” from Barilla. But I made the soup meself.

- I bought two beef ones, some leeks, an onion, carrots and parsley

- I boiled the bones in ~ 4 litres of water (start with cold water) for about 4 hours. A lot of fat will come pout of the bones. Remember to regularly remove it, or your soup will be quite heavy.

- chop the leeks and the carrots and the onion(s) in half. Pass them in a frying pan woth olive oil for about 5′ and throw them in your beef stock

- cook for another 30-45 minutes.

- pass the whole thing through a sieve and cook the tortellini in the remaining stock

- add a spoonful of miso (gioves a nice twist to the soup)

- serve with some minced parsley and some grated parmigiano.

Rosted turkey:

This one is simple. We got a 14 lbs bird. Just shoved it onto our roaster and into the oven, at 350F for ~ 4 hours. Once the temperature in the breast was ~ 80C, we switched off the oven and let the bird cool down for 15′ at room temperature.

Roast potatoes:

Very simple as well. I cit hte potatoes in small cubes and brought them to the boil for about 5′. Removed the from the ater, put on an oven tray and shoved them in hte oven, close to the heating block, for ~ 40-45′.

Carrot and butternut squash puree:

- boiled ~10 carrots together with a medium sized squash until sift.

- added nutmeg (maybe half a tsp), salt, pepper and a drop of olive oil

- pureed the whole thoing until smooth and homogenous

Gravy:

This one was done by Hanne. still, very simple. Mix two soup spoons of flour with some of the bird’s juice in a small sauce pan, until the flours becomes kind of a thoink cream. Then start slowly pouring the rest of the liquid.

Finally, we also ad the salad, for which i have no picture and the cake mmmh cake Here it is

We finished woith coffee and tea and chocolate

Well, that was my christmas lunch menu. We enjoyed it, and that’s what counts.

Next, new year’s dimmer

Bye bye!

Fred