New Year’s Eve, or a Slow Night In Part II – The Making

A Thursday reconnaissance trip to the suburban supplier of gourmet comestibles with my friend MMF and her steadfast and remarkably patient husband JF secured the goose and the oysters, but the figs were nowhere to be found. So pears were substituted. The menu now looked like this:

Fois gras and pear amuse bouche
Oysters with mignonette
Wilted greens with carmelized nuts
Roast goose with roast chestnut puree and mixed potato and mushroom gratin
Ginger sorbet
Flourless chocolate cake with chocolate sauce

On Friday morning I looked up sorbet recipes. I found a grapefruit and ginger combination that would be a perfect palette sharpener – we really would need a break between the goose and the cake. So make one more change.

There were already wines associated with some of the courses. Cleveland Park Wines is one of our wine connections. Tony helped me select a special Champagne, and knew my taste in red wines to direct me to the perfect Bordeaux. But I was stuck on a wine to accompany the fois gras (Sauternes are most often paired with it), and I knew that we already had a Sauterne paired with the flourless chocolate cake. He selected a big, full white wine and sent me on my way.

So now the menu and wine pairing was this:

Fois gras and pear amuse bouche with Primo Palatum 2000, Côte du Rousillion
Oysters with mignonette, Champagne Paul Goerg 2000
Wilted greens with carmelized nuts
Roast goose with roast chestnut puree and mixed potato and mushroom gratin, Bouquet de Monbrison 1997, Margaux
Ginger-Grapefruit sorbet
Flourless chocolate cake with chocolate sauce, Sauterne

Friday night was time to start preparing things. The cake needed to be made, as did the sorbet. So out came the baking sheets to toast hazelnuts and roast chestnuts. The chestnuts were scored. All were roasted. (None of this “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” nonsense, either. The oven works just fine, thank you.) Toasted hazelnuts had their skins removed. Chestnuts were laboriously peeled and cleaned. Grapefruit exploded into sections, and ended up in a saucepan with shredded ginger and sugar. Many eggs were cracked and separated, and were beaten – well, actually wisked – into submission.

It was a late night in the kitchen.

The DP kept swinging in to see if there was something he could do: the answer, no – for two reasons. First, we have the smallest kitchen I’ve ever worked in. So there’s not room for two people to work at the same time – unless you have a fetish for injuries caused by sharp objects or second degree burns from contact with hot surfaces. Neither appeal to us. Second, a meal like this is a labor of love – and the love of food and entertaining is my passion, not his. So I kept on working at the bits and pieces of the meal, finishing a preparation and washing the dishes. The sorbet set, and when I tasted it, I was stunned. First course completed. The flourless chocolate cake came out of its water bath, and I set it out to rest for its moment of glory. Finally, at 3 in the morning, I collapsed into bed.

The alarm rang too soon, and I pulled on clothes, picked up the Zipcar, and went on the grocery run. Balducci’s, then Giant – and a momentary sense of horror: did I have all of the ingredients? (Yes, I checked the list.) Was this a horrible mistake? (No, I know what I’m doing.) Was this just plain wrong? (This meal was a tremendous extravagance.) No – because more than once both shoppers and staff asked what I was doing, and when I explained what I was preparing, the listener’s faces lit up, and said they wished they could enjoy a meal like the one I was preparing.

I rolled home, and put away the groceries and the car. The DP prepared a lovely lunch, and once I cleaned up, I pulled out the knives and started the next round of prep: shallots, onions, garlic, parsley, apples, pears. Then I set about rehydrating figs and dried cherries. The DP did sneak in to work the mandolin to prepare potatoes – and thoughtfully simplified the potatoes to Potatoes Anna. The goose was cleaned, then blanched with boiling water to loosed up its subcutaneous fat, and was stuffed with a mixture of apples, figs, dried cherries, sage, and shallots -- all soaked in port. The wines were set in to cool to the right temperature. Finally, everything was ready.

Things started moving very fast. The chestnuts were sautéed, then pureed with goose stock. The goose went in the oven, and then the potatoes. There was much basting and checking of temperatures. I made a mignonette with shallots, champagne, black pepper, and lemon zest for the oysters. We showered and dressed. The table was set – with a damask table clothe, china, crystal, and silver. V. called to say she was on her way. The cake came out of the refrigerator to warm up. Wines were opened to breathe. A quick drink was prepared, and the moment we toasted, V. arrived – with her wine, a bottle of Chateau d’Yquem.

You wine queens reading will know what this means. For the rest of you, we’d just received pretty much the most written about wine made. I never believed all the hype – and the price alone put me off the idea of sampling. Now, here it was. The menu was complete

We chatted for a few minutes, and asked if we were ready to start. At the last moment, I suggested the oysters as a first course. The DP and V agreed, and the champagne was opened. It began.

New Year’s Eve Dinner, 2005

Oysters with mignonette, Champagne Paul Goerg 2000
Fois gras and pear amuse bouche with Primo Palatum 2000, Côte du Rousillion
Wilted greens with carmelized nuts
Roast goose with roast chestnut puree and Potatoes Anna, Bouquet de Monbrison 1997, Margaux
Ginger-Grapefruit sorbet
Flourless chocolate cake with chocolate sauce, Chateau d’Yquem 1999, Sauterne