By sandy
At a recent restaurant dinner with three women friends, we were decrying the lack of crème brulée on the menu, and I promised to host them at my place someday for my homemade version. That day arrived yesterday. Given the mixed backgrounds of the attendees -- one from Singapore, one from Sri Lanka, one French-Canadian and one Anglo-Canadian (me) -- I wanted to cook something that they would remember but not spend the entire day in the kitchen. Additionally, all of my guests are professional women with small children, which means that their usual "dinner party" involves kids running around and more hurried menus, so I put on the full table: Riedel decanter and wine glasses, hand-painted Italian plates, Provençal table linens, candles on the table, and some light guitar music in the background.
We started with a glass of 2004 Errazuriz Estate Shiraz Rosé before dinner, a lovely dry, fruit-forward rosé tasting distinctly of its varietal. I just discovered this wine a month ago, and have thoroughly enjoyed it on several occasions during our still-hot days.
We moved on to a simple but tasty dinner:
- Mixed organic greens with pumpkin seeds and a dressing of Dijon, balsamic vinegar and olive oil (my "everyday" salad)
- Slow-roasted tomatoes (easy and incredibly delicious, especially the leftovers the next day)
- Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic (the garlic roasts to sweet perfection)
- Fresh baguette from Manoucher
My guests had wanted to contribute to dinner, so I suggested that they bring along a chianti classico or a pinot noir to accompany the rustic chicken dish. I was rewarded with a 2002 Antinori Pèppoli Chianti Classico, which I served with the mains. I knew that it was all a hit when one guest reached for her third helping of the slow-roasted tomatoes, and we spent a long time chatting and eating the remains of the soft roasted garlic on bread.
The main event, the reason for the dinner, was the crème brulée, which I adapted from a recipe that I learned while at Villa Delia in Tuscany. The only ingredients are heavy cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla bean, and I'm a firm believer that simple, high-quality ingredients are the key to this dish's excellence. I have a small butane torch to "brulée" the sugar crust, and torched the little ramekins of heaven in front of my expectant guests. To accompany it, I served a Campbells Rutherglen Muscat (NV).
I could count the ways that this violates my macrobiotic lifestyle (particularly the creme brulee!), but that would put a damper on the experience. Besides, the leftovers today have been divine.
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