Tuesday 20 November
Holt actually likes to cook a big
dinner for other people on his birthday.
So we rounded up a group of good friends: Julie; Diane; and Kathy and
Russel, who actually have the same birthday as each other, and it's only a day
before Holt's.
Planning went on for weeks before
the day itself, especially once Holt decided to get a whole beef tenderloin and
make Beef Wellington. Here's how that went together.
The appetizer
course was more opportunistic: Lauren had brought us a tasty local St.
André cheese, Patrick had brought us a whole foie gras de canard, and Holt made a salmon paté (with cream
cheese, scallions, lemon juice, and white pepper) out of the smoked King salmon
that Andi and Joel sent us. And a toast
of bubbly Chandon that Kathy and Russel provided.
The fish course was pretty
elegant: pickled shrimp on a bed of zucchini fettucine (thanks, Benriner!),
accompanied by home made pickled daikon, red onion confit, and fan-sliced
cornichons, plus store-bought pickled ginger.
But nothing could beat the
elegance of the main course: the big Beef Wellington in browned brioche dough
with assorted mushroom duxelles, served with poufs of pommes duchesse and roasted asparagus. The meat was perfectly cooked, and the Bandol
Holt brought up from the cellar (yes, it's really a cellar) was perfect with
it.
Of course, we had to have a
birthday cake, or rather, individual cakes: our favorite Australian friands, scattered with raspberries
and blackberries in triple-sec, and a dab of lemon curd.
A great meal, and time, was had by
all.
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