Time for my French dinner during Paris in July. We had invited good friends, one couple, to this special evening. Well, as we all know we are still in the grip of a pandemic and they had recently had covid. Although they had recovered, they were still not feeling well and had to cancel. That left Martin and me all on our own. I had prepared a menu de dégustation with some nice wines to go with it (menu below). It turned out to be a very long French dinner, probably like they do it in France. We started slowly at around 3 pm and ended some time in the late evening. I cooked as the menu went ahead so very relaxing.
With such a menu I needed a little bit of help with the serving. Let me present Arnaud!
To start with an amuse bouche: Chèvre Chaud With Pumpkin Seeds followed by a Crème Ninon soup. To this I served champagne. Both dishes were excellent. I have done the soup before but not the chèvre chaud. Apart from the soup, the other dishes were all new to me.
The third dish was a shallot cake with roe (I found a French translation of oeufs de corégone for roe? If somebody knows how to translate it, or if it is correct, please let me know). It did not taste so very much so no reason to redo it for another dinner. With this we drank a Pinot Gris from Alsace. Beautiful wines from this area.
The Bouillabaisse was very good. First time I tried a French recipe. I usually do a similar kind of fish soup which I think is much nicer, but this one was fine enough. We drank a Muscadet Sévre et Main Sur Lie with the soup. Excellent wine that went very well with the soup.
First time I made a Bavaroise. It is similar to a panna cotta, but I think I would go for the panna cotta next time.
After that I must admit we were rather full. What was lacking was a beautiful stroll through the streets of Paris. Enjoying the atmosphere, maybe pop in to a small bar or café for a coffee or a small night cap. That has to be for another time. But for a couple of hours we could feel the French atmosphere and enjoyed a good meal with excellent wines.
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Bon Appétit! It's a shame your friends had to cancel. I hope tehy'll soon feel well again. And I do know that white pot behind the bavaroise. ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you Marianne, they are better now. It just meant we had food for two days.
DeleteThat's also not to be sneared at. ;)
DeleteI was thinking about your question for the oeufs de corégone. When my mother brought fresh fish from the Paris market she often bought them with eggs in them, we just called them “oeufs de poisson.” I think the oeufs de corégone are mostly found in Sweden. Of course another fish egg is the caviar, but it’s so expensive. On my bagel and cream cheese I like to place the œufs de lompe which is a sort of red caviar from Denmark, it’s red, not so salty. There are also eggs from salmon, they are like red caviar but a softer type, very tasty, or trout eggs. Here in the US I don’t find oeufs de poisson as much as I did in Paris for some reason; maybe they remove the eggs from the fish. Another one I like is the tarama, a Mediterranean egg fish mixture (from some cod fish I think) from Greece or Turkey.
ReplyDeleteYour dinner sounds delicious with a great wine selection.
Thank you Vagabonde. I think in French the correct term would be ...de lompe. It is the red (Danish as you called it, although we also have it in Sweden) very mild. Caviar is of course the very best, but so expensive. We eat a lot of the roe in Sweden. I also love Tarama. We are going to Greece in the autumn, so expect to eat some it there.
DeleteYour wine waiter is neat!
ReplyDeletebest... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Yes Mae, he is really great.
DeleteThis is just fabulous! I love how you did this -- your friends missed a grand meal! Arnaud is tres chic! It all sounds wonderful and like such a grand time. I love that you did the whole thing, right down to the right wines for the right dish! C'est magnifique!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jeanie. I do love to combine the right wine to the right food. I am member of a wine group and have also taken a course, and given one lesson, in Food and Wine. The wine tastes so much better if it is the right wine to the right food.
DeleteWhat an incredible meal. I was most taken with your Chèvre Chaud With Pumpkin Seeds followed by a Crème Ninon soup. Thank you for allowing us to join you. Fabulous.
ReplyDeleteThank you Deb. I have a soft spot for chèvre chaud, usually eating it with a sallad. This one was simple to do and very good as well.
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