April 4, 2010 - Day 2 of Easter Weekend Gorging

This was the official Easter dinner with family and friends. I need to make sure the bottles of wine are in the picture so I can remember what we have had! I only remember that we started off this first course with a Premier Cru Champagne.

First Course: Sous-vide scallops with Grapefruit Beurre Blanc, Grapefruit, Fennel and Arugula Salad

Description pretty much tells it all but this was delicious!

Second Course: Black Cod, Spinach and Parsnips with Saffron-Vanilla Sauce

This is from a French Laundry cookbook recipe. The saffron-vanilla sauce was an entirely unique flavor combination with the two most expensive ingredients in the world (needed to figure out how to get truffles in here!). This sauce was a "lick-the-plate" type of sauce!

Third Course: Braised Short Rib Linguini with Gremolata

A very time consuming endeavor considering that the short ribs are braised for 6-8 hours, then the sauce made before going over pasta. I was toying with the idea of doing this as ravioli but then figured I didn't need to add making ravioli by hand for the first time to the other complexity of dinner. With the gremolata this is almost like the pasta version of osso bucco.

Fourth Course: Duck Confit with Pomegranate Ancho Chili Sauce, Sous Vide Carrots and 3 Colors of Roasted Sweet Potato

I actually did Thomas Keller's duck confit recipe here and I liked the way it turned out since it limited the amount of salt by the weight of the duck. I found that this came out less salty than other variations. The sous vide carrots were a lot of work considering that they tasted like...carrots. I have done the pomegranate ancho sauce before and I loved it with the duck. It gets a bit of smoky raisiny flavor from the dried chiles and the pomegranate caramel balances out the heat with the sweetness. Used a circle cutter and roasted the different colors of the sweet potatoes.

Fifth Course: French Bakery Sampler Platter

Our friends asked what we wanted from the French bakery for dessert and I requested eclairs. We got much more as can be witnessed by the photos and believe it or not we ate it all...