The Dinner Party

Last Saturday the Wife and I had a few guests over to enjoy a night a good food, nice wine and great company. It was amazing! We had such a good time. Starting early Sat morn we woke and started preparing the food for the evening. I had to get somethings done early so they could marinate and so some flavors would develop according to plan. While I was busy doing this the Wife started getting the house presentable for guests. It was still in kind of a disarray b/c of me working on the front bathroom. We took a break mid morning to go to our favorite wine store, Wine Authorities, and taste a few wines and ask some last minute pairing questions.

The party was set to start around 6. The guests started arriving and we mingled a little while I proudly showed off our new bathroom. Once everyone was here we opened the first of many wine bottles. Our first was Cremant de Bourgogne, A sparkling wine done in the style of Champagne. What Cremant is is the next step below actual champagne. This was our "gathering wine", a wine to drink whilst we mingle and I got the first food of the night ready.

I herded everyone towards the table as I prepared the amuse bouche, a french term for little mouth or small bite. The purpose of this "little bite" is to whet the appetite and get one in the mood to eat. For this, I had made a watermelon gazpacho. I put this in champagne glasses for aesthetic purposes. It was delicious and a nice compliment to the Cremant.

The first course was little tomato salad in a filo dough nest with aruglua tossed in citrus and aged balsamic vinegar. The tomatoes were sungolds and cherries that I had grown in the garden. With this course we paired Browns of Padthaway - Verdelho - 2004. It was slightly minerally and matched well to the acids in the tomato and citrus on the arugula.

For our second course, Cast Iron seared Scallop, Spaghetti Squash Pancake, Shaved Zucchini and Tarragon Yogurt. This was paired with Alma Negra - Sparkling Rose Malbec - 2006. This dish was amazing! The pancakes were the tricky part. I roasted off the squash and scraped the insides out (which looks like spaghetti, hence the name). After which, I lightly caramelized some onions and mixed that, along with one egg some bread crumbs, herbs and salt and pepper, together with the squash. In a saute pan I lightly melted butter and formed little "pancakes" and browned each side. They were soooooo delicious!

The entree for the evening was Costa Rican Coffee rubbed Pork Tenderloin, Wild Rice, Charred Vidalia Onion, with a Hard Cider reduction Sauce. This was paired with Bilton Wines - Matt Black - 2005. The Matt Black is a blend wine made up of 35% Merlot, 27% Shiraz, 23% Cab Sauv, and 15% Petit Verdot. It is a well rounded big red wine, not to bold and easy drinking. It matched well to the pork. I cooked the pork to medium rare to the surprise of some of the guests who had never eaten pork under well done. I love it that way, and now so do they.

The final course of the evening was dessert prepared by the Wife. She made Chocolate Souffle. This was paired with Iron Gate Winery - Once in a Carolina Blue Moon - 2007. It is a wine of limited production made from a blend of Traminette (45%), Reisling(29%), Sauv Blanc(17%) and Seyval Blanc(9%). The reason for it being so limited is in the spring of 2007 North Carolina experienced an out of the ordinary cold spring that almost killed some vineyards. The winemakers were forced to decide, either lose all the grapes and lose money that year or make a small batch that could almost be considered ice wine. They chose the latter. And for all the sweetness it offered it matched divinely with the souffle served with vanilla ice cream. The Souffle was the perfect ending to a great night of food. I don't think I've ever eaten one so fluffy and moist.

My thanks to those who came and let me use them as my testing grounds. Also for helping with clean-up and the dishes. You didn't have to do that. We look forward to our next dinner party, at which the Wife has decided will be a beer tasting. I'm real excited about the possibilities there.

If you would like to see pictures of the food and evening please click the link in the side column to On My Pole. This is the Wife's blog and she's the photographer.