We had company Saturday night, so I started on Friday. I made the dessert and nuts. I have made and blogged the rosemary cashews
before. They freeze well and everyone
seems to enjoy them, so I keep them on hand.
We went to a new restaurant in the neighborhood called 360 Wine Bar Bistro. I had a very good goat cheese and beet salad
and wonderful mussels for my main course.
The wine menu is fabulous and they had Armagnac on dessert menu.
Back to company dinner.
The salad, pork tenderloin and dessert all came from Sunset
Magazine. The carrot dish comes from
Fine Cooking. We started with an assortment
of cheeses, olives, and the cashews. Jim
served a 2003 Rosenblum Zinfandel from Carla’s Vineyards. For our first course I made a Warm Walnut Spinach Salad. As one of my guests does not eat mushrooms, I
left them out. But the dressing was fabulous.
Ingredients:
½ C chopped red onion
2 C sliced mushrooms
1 T butter
½ t kosher salt
1 T honey
1 T Dijon mustard
3 T mirin
¼ C roasted walnut oil
5 oz baby spinach leaves
¼ C coarsely chopped roasted walnuts
Directions:
1.
Sauté onion and mushrooms in butter in a large
frying pan over medium-high heat until softened and starting to brown, about 4
minutes.
2.
Remove from heat. Add salt, honey, mustard, and Mirin to warm
pan, whisking to combine.
3.
Slowly whisk in oil. Set aside.
4.
Put spinach in a large bowl. Pour dressing on top and toss gently. Sprinkle with walnuts.
Our entrée consisted of Rosemary
and Garlic-Roasted Pork Tenderloin and Carrot
and Sharp Cheddar Gratin. Earlier in
the day I cut the silver skin from the tenderloin.
Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin (I made 2 and doubled the remaining
ingredients)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 t chopped fresh rosemary leaves
½ t ground cumin
½ t kosher salt
¼ t pepper
2 T EVOO
Directions:
1.
Mix the garlic, rosemary, cumin, salt and pepper
in a mini food processor.
2.
Dry rub the mixture on the tenderloin. I did this earlier in the day. I wrapped them in wax paper and kept them in
the refrigerator until 1 hour before cooking.
3.
Heat the oven to 425 degrees.
4.
Heat the oil in a large ovenproof frying pan
over high heat. Add pork and cook,
turning as needed, until outside is completely seared about 3 minutes total.
5.
Put pan in oven and roast pork until done the
way you like, about 10 minutes for medium.
6.
Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
I served the salad while the meat was resting.
Ingredients for
Gratin: (This serves 8-10, I cut it
in half)
2 T unsalted butter
Pam spray for the casserole dish
1 ½ T EVOO
1 medium yellow onion, cut in ½” dice (about 1 ½ C)
Kosher salt
1 C plain panko
2 T chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 t chopped fresh thyme
1 C heavy cream
1 T Dijon mustard
Freshly ground black pepper
3 # large carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise and cut
crosswise into ½ “thick half-moons
4 oz coarsely grated sharp Cheddar (1 Cup)
Directions:
I made the dish up to the point of baking earlier in the
day. When my guests arrived, I put it in
the oven to bake.
1.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2.
Spray Pam on a 9 x 12 baking dish.
3.
In a 12” skillet, heat the oil over medium-high
heat.
4.
Add the onion and ½ t salt and cook, stirring
occasionally with a wooden spatula until golden-brown, 7-10 minutes.
5.
Meanwhile, melt the butter and pour into a
medium bowl. Add the panko, parsley, and
thyme and toss will.
6.
Whisk the heavy cream, mustard, 1 ½ t salt and ¼
t pepper into the onion, scrapping up any browned bits, and then stir in the
carrots.
7.
Bring just to a boil, cover, lower the heat to
medium low, and simmer until the carrots are crisp-tender, 10-12 minutes.
8.
Spread carrot mixture evenly in the prepared
dish. Scatter the Cheddar over the
carrots, top with the panko mixture.
(You can make to this point earlier in the day.)
9.
Bake until the carrots are tender when pierced
with a fork and the crumbs are golden-brown, 30-40 minutes.
10.
Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Jim served a 1996 Vosne Romanee Premier Cru burgundy with
the main course.
For dessert I made a Hazelnut
Chocolate Mousse Tart
Ingredients for Crust:
6 oz. thin chocolate wafer cookies such as Famous Chocolate
Wafers
½ C skinned roasted hazelnuts
6 T butter, melted
Ingredients for the
Chocolate Hazelnut Spread:
1 C skinned roasted hazelnuts
4 oz. semisweet chocolate
2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
½ C powdered sugar
½ t vanilla extract
1 t vegetable oil
Pinch of kosher salt
Ingredients for
Mousse and Topping:
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughtly chopped
2 T sugar
2 large eggs, separated
½ C whipping cream
2 T hazelnut liqueur such as Frangelico
½ C very roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts
Directions:
Roast hazelnuts in a 350 degree oven for about 18
minutes. I bought hazelnuts that did not
have the skin on at Whole Foods.
1.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a food processor, whirl cookies and
hazelnuts until finely ground.
2.
Add butter and whirl until crumbs start to clump
together.
3.
Press crumbs over bottom and up sides of a 9 ½ “tart
pan with removable rim.
4.
Bake until crust is set, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely.
5.
To make the hazelnut spread, whirl the hazelnuts
in a food processor, scraping as needed, until it looks like peanut butter.
6.
Melt 4 oz. of semisweet chocolate in a small
saucepan over low heat, stirring often; let cool slightly.
7.
Add melted chocolate, cocoa powder, powdered
sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and vegetable oil to the food processor and whirl
until smooth.
8.
Spread the hazelnut spread over the crust. Chill until spread is firm, about 30 minutes.
9.
Melt chocolate and sugar with 2 T water in a
small saucepan over low heat until smooth, stirring frequently, about 10
minutes. Set aside.
10.
Beat egg whites in a medium bowl using a mixer
until they hold stiff peaks.
11.
Beat cream in another bowl until stiff.
12.
Stir egg yolks and liqueur into chocolate
mixture.
13.
Gently fold chocolate mixture into egg whites, and
then fold in cream until no streaks remain.
14.
Pour mousse into crust and spread evenly. Sprinkle with chopped nuts and chill until
mousse is firm, at least 3 hours and up to 2 days.
This serves 10-12. I
served way too big of pieces. But
everyone ate it and Jim finished mine.
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