Sunday, November 15, 2009

A great food weekend

We had been looking forward to this weekend for quite a few days.  Larry - AKA Agent Larry, Chef Larry had invited us over to a multi-course meal at his place.  Saturday night, we had dinner with Larry and Angela.  We met Larry Tollen as our real estate agent, but we quickly became friends.  The fact that he found us our home really quickly and used to be a chef may have a lot to do with it!        
Larry planned and made a multi course meal - he made most of the food and we chipped in with a couple of courses.  Since we ended up eating eight courses over a span of 4 hours, good food, good drink and good company = a happy weekend.


In this post I'll go through the multiple courses and follow up in future posts with pictures and recipes.  Larry was generous in  sharing his recipes. 

 Below are the courses:
Course 1 by Larry
Cocktail with Cashew-Bacon brittle.
The brittle was perfect and in keeping with the current trend of using bacon in deserts, the chef started us off perfectly.  The cocktail was a blended Canadian whiskey, Cinzano Vermouth, Pelligrino and a cherry.




Course 2 by Larry
Twin Sesame Tuna
Seared yellow-fin tuna, crusted in sesame (black and white), and seasoned with Hawaiian pink sea salt.  Served with with wasabi lime sauce, and accompanied with fresh cucumber relish and pickled ginger.  The wine paired with this course was a Marlborough New Zeland white wine with a strong Pear and Grapefruit hint – really good wine.




Course 3 by Larry
Psychedelic Soup
A golden beet & leek soup swirled into a red beet with melted fennel soup – delicious!  Tasted individually they have completely different personalities - brought together is a crazy heavenly marriage :)





Course 4  by us
Singapore chilly crab on a Dosa (Rice pancake) served with seaweed salad and avocado.  Accompanying drink was a  Mint infused Mango & Lychee gin martini.  




Course 5 by us
Wild mushroom ravioli served with a yin&yang sauces (a cilantro walnut pesto and a apricot-mustard sauce) – oh yes – homemade ravioli.  Since we couldn’t make the ravioli dough thin enough Larry decided frying it might be better than steaming or boiling it.    At home we ended up taking the left over ravioli dough and making fresh fettuccini with spinach butter – holy yum.




Course 6 by Larry

NC Shrimp served with Laksha curry and accompanied by Emperor’s rice (a seasoned rice).  Larry interpreted a Laksha curry and used it as a sauce to be served on grilled jumbo shrimp – very tasty.  The Emperor’s rice tasted just like mom’s masala bhat (masala rice) – prepared very differently but very similar taste.  The wine pairing was a great Cab.






Course 7 by Larry
A mint and lemon balm (a herb) granite accompanied with a strawberry and watermelon salad. The mint popped out of the bowl and the lemon held it back - will definitely be trying this at home on a hot summer day.





Course 8 by Larry
Illicit Chocolate – a hot cocoa topped with Chantilly cream (how good is hand whipped cream with vanilla – very very good). 



 

2 comments:

  1. WOW!! I need to find some more friends with special talents!!

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  2. The White wine we enjoyed that evening was Drylands Sauvignon Blanc the red which Salil inadvertently listed as a Cab was in fact Courtney Benham reserve Pinot Noir.

    Typically when I have friends and clients over for dinner, I do all the work. Saturday's meal with Salil and Avani was a lot of fun and a real pleasure. The theme of "small plates" was ideal, we all got to do a little something and enjoy a really eclectic menu. I'm certainly going to use this "small plate" concept where invitees bring a dish or two again.

    I love it when clients I meet helping them with their real estate needs turn out to be fellow "foodies". Some of the best meals my wife and I have enjoyed over the past several years here in the Triangle have been with the clients turned friends.

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