The Pembroke Hall prior to dinner on Friday. A temporary screen has been erected to block access to the High Table end which is currently under renovation.
The College organises a series of alumni events throughout the year, many of which include a dinner. On Friday, we welcomed back to Pembroke alumni who matriculated in 1980 and 1990, with the highlight of the reunion being a gala dinner in Hall.
Our chefs prepared a wonderful dinner which began with a cured wild salmon, crayfish, pea mousse and fennel salad. This great dish came from the cookbook Pier by Greg Doyle.
We followed the salad with a wonderful recipe from Gordon Ramsey's 3-Star Chef cookbook. Best End of Lamb with Confit Shoulder, Provençale vegetables, baby spinach, basil lamb jus and baby fondant potato.
This main course took many hours to prepare; lamb shoulders were confited in olive oil for several hours, after which the meat was shredded, rolled into cylinders and refrigerated until firm. Each of the baby fondants were cut by hand from large potatoes, and the lamb loins were quickly roasted until medium-rare.
To finish the meal, we served sumac strawberries with strawberry ice cream, white chocolate sponge cake and plum wine jelly. Sumac spice comes from the berries of a wild bush that grows wild in all Mediterranean areas, especially in Sicily and southern Italy, and parts of the Middle East, notably Iran. It is an essential ingredient in Arabic cooking, being preferred to lemon for sourness and astringency.
Bon Appetite!
I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the evening. I wrote a bit about it at http://tribbletasting.blogspot.com/2010/09/under-pressure-at-pembroke.html
ReplyDeleteThanks