"Should we open another bottle of wine? Why not?"

Last night Erik and I hosted a Canadian dinner party at a friends house (Pavel and Tatiana, who work in Erik's lab--they're at the end of the table, Pavel is holding the wine, of course). After stressing about the menu all week (what the heck is "Canadian" food, aside from poutine?), and racing through all the prep work yesterday afternoon, we made it out to their house in Lozere, with time to spare. We did all the prep work here, and basically just had to cook everything in their oven once we arrived. It went pretty smoothly, although we should have put the pork in sooner, and taken it out sooner (it was a bit dry), and we also forgot that Bicher, one of the guests, is Muslim, and although he was a good sport, we both felt horrible for serving pork. Ahh the things you learn...


Dinner for 8, to go...waiting for the RER at Denfert Rochereau

So, here is the menu:
Appetizer-Puff pastries filled with smoked salmon and spinach and ricotta filling. Forgot to take a picture of this one, but they were quite tasty. I liked the fact that we got this recipe via Joan, Howard and Karina's trip to Japan, and that it was written in French (creme fraiche isn't really a very Canadian ingredient, is it?). We served it with a small mesclun salad on the side with maple hinted vinagrette.

Plat-Pork tendeloin with maple dijon glaze; Elsie potatoes and roasted asparagus wrapped in proscuitto and goat cheese (who could have known that the asparagus would be more expensive than the pork?). As I mentioned, the pork was a bit overcooked, but still delicious. The potatoes were fantastic, and Erik even managed to find cream cheese (called fromage a tartiner), although he bought way more than was needed, and put it all in before realizing this, and the asparagus was also good, but not at all Canadian.

Getting ready to plate


Elsie potatoes just out of the oven


Erik carves the pork tenderloin


Voila!

Cheese course-Pavel bought the cheese, and there was a great selection. My favorite, Brillat Savarin which is a triple creme and super yummy; a chevre; a Comte; a Parmesan; and a soft Corsican cheese with a rind, like brie.

Dessert-Apple pie with cheddar cheese. Yum yum yum! I wish there had been some leftovers of this, because it turned out really well. My big challenge was to make the pastry without shortening, and I found a recipe that used all butter. It was great! Sweeter than regular pastry, but still great. I used Golden Delicious apples, and we served the cheese on the side. Very well received.



As always, it's fun having dinner at their house. Pavel is into wine, and always has an interesting selection to try. We brought two Canadian bottles, thanks to our trusty winerunner, Karina: a Blasted Church Pinot Noir, and a Jackson Triggs 2002 Meritage. This was the first Canadian wine we'd had since leaving, and we found the Pinot Noir to be a bit flat, and 'juice-y' tasting. The Jackson Triggs was quite good though, and we thought a reasonable competitor to the French wines that we're used to now. Pavel also served a South African wine, a French Baune, and one from Luxembourg that Pere and Alice brought. I think in all we went through about six bottles, which really isn't bad considering there were eight adults, but Pavel kept asking if we should open another bottle. And he wasn't afraid to get out more glasses so people could have more than one wine on the go. Good fun.

Here are the recipes, for anyone who's interested:

Feuilletes aux epinards et au saumon (thank you Joan for typing up and sending this recipe, at the last minute!)

Pour 3 personnes Preparation: 10 min. Cuisson: 25 min.

*I tripled the recipe to serve 8, and had some spinach mixture left over.

1 pare feuilettes prêt a derouler (puff pastry)

100 g de saumon frais (smoked salmon)

50 g d'epinards haches (surgeles ou de conserve) (chopped spinach, we used the frozen kind)

1 cuilleree a cafe de crème fraiche epaisse (one tsp of creme fraiche--I used tablespoon by accident!)

1/2 cuilleree a cafe de jus de citron (1/2 tsp of lemon juice)

1 oeuf (pour la dorure) (egg for the glaze)

sel, poivre

Prechauffez votre four th.7 (220C). Si besoin, faites decongeler les epinards.

Deroulez la pate feuilletee et decoupez 3 carres de pate. Gardez les chutes pour decoration.(ah, the creative part you get to do later!)

Melangez les epinards, la crème fraiche et le jus de citron. Salez (un petit-my advice) et poivrez.

Repartissez ce melange au centre de chaque carre, puis deposez un morceau de saumon prealablement sale.

Reunissez les 4 coins du carre au centre. Pressez legerement la pate pour que les feuilletes ne s'ouvrent pas a la cuisson.

Decorez les feuilletes avec les chutes de pate puis badigeonnez-les d'oeuf battu (there are pictures but you'll just have to do your own creativite thing with those little pieces of pastry).

Faites cuire dans votre four 20 a 25 minutes

ROAST PORK TENDERLOIN WITH MAPLE, DIJON MUSTARD AND SAGE (or as Erik called it, Pork for Nerds)

2 Whole pork tenderloin (called fillet mignon in French), about 13/4 lbs (800 grams), trimmed

1/2 cup Maple syrup 125 mL

1/4 cup Dijon mustard 60 mL

2 tbsp Coarsely chopped fresh sage, or 2 tsp dried crumbled

Coarse sea salt, cracked black pepper

Place the pork in a sided dish just large enough to hold it in a single layer. Prick the meat a few times with a fork.

Combine the maple syrup, mustard and sage in a bowl; pour over the pork. Cover and marinate in the fridge for four hours, or overnight, turning occasionally.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with parchment. Place the pork in the dish; spoon over the marinade. Season with salt and pepper. Roast 35-40 minutes, basting occasionally, or until just cooked through.

Remove and rest the meat five minutes before slicing and arranging on a platter. Spoon over some of the pan juices if desired.

- Preparation time: 10 minutes

- Cooking time: 30 minutes

- Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Elsie Potatoes

Asparagus with Proscuitto and goat cheese
-there isn't really a recipe for these. You can easily adjust the amounts, just use what you need.

Boil the asparagus until tender. Spread goat cheese on a slice of proscuitto, and roll bundles of five asparagus spears in the proscuitto.

Sprinkly with olive oil, and roast in the oven, or BBQ until the proscuitto is crispy.

Best Ever Apple Pie (from the Complete Canadian Living Cookbook)
-8 cups (1.2 kg) thinly sliced peeled apples (they recommend Northern Spy apples, or Golden Delicious)
-2 tbsp lemon juice
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-3 tbsp flour
-1/2 tsp cinnamon

-I used this butter pastry recipe for the crust.

Toss apples with lemon juice (I'm sure I used more than 2 tbsp. It was almost a whole lemon's worth of juice).

Stir together sugar, flour, cinnamon; sprinkle over apples and toss until coated. Scrape into pie shell. Add top crust, or lattice crust.

Brush with beaten egg, and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for about 45 minutes at 180C until the filling in bubbly and the apples are soft.