Dinner, analysed

The abandoned dinner table.

The dish I remember with most fondness, now, was the red and white winter salad: slivers of Honey Crisp apples, radishes (both of whose skins made up the red), fennel and then hearts of Belgian endives, with some ruby pearls of pomegranate scattered across the top at the last minute. A vinaigrette of lime, hazelnut oil and the usual seasoning. I forgot to add the celeriac! But that means we can have it on its own, later, grated with a sharp, creamy, mustardy dressing. Yum.

It has been a long time since I felt a bit babbelas, as we say in South Africa, and it worries me, as I must be out of training. We started with Juneberry-infused Calvados topped with bubbly, then stayed with bubbly until we tried Ellen's Knotweed '09, which I think went very well with the rich pork.

Perhaps what did me in was the Grand Marnier souffle. The recipe is next door at (the Food). I was going to follow Georges Perrier's method religiously, but felt it needed lightening up, so added fluffed egg whites and orange zest.  His recipe also calls for beating a sugar syrup into the 8 (!) egg yolks for 15 minutes. I didn't fancy carpal tunnel syndrome so eschewed syrup for fine white sugar and whisked for maybe 5 minutes. In the end it was a hybrid of Georges Perrier and Roger Verge, whose frozen strawberry mousse is delectable, but has no egg yolks at all. I think next time that might be the way to go. It was too rich.