Haricots blancs, or white kidney beans in English, formed the base of last night's opening course of soup, frothed into a 'capuccino' and garnished with sliced truffles. We found this recipe nestled in the pages of Gordon Ramsey's
Passion for Flavour, a good book with simpler recipes than Gordon's other tome,
Three-Star Chef.
To follow, we served another of Gordon's recipes, this time trying our hand at his fairly simple aubergine caviar.
Aubergine, garlic, rosemary and salt; these four ingredients are all that required (other than time and talent ;-) to produce this silky smooth puree, seen here topped with freshly grated horseradish.
Raymond Blanc proved the inspiration for our French main-course of duck confit, casoulet of flageolet beans and pommes de terre puree. Confit is a classic dish from Southwest France which involves the salting of duck legs (which completely changes the flavour and texture), before slow-cooking in duck fat.
Not forgetting our valued vegetarians, we produced a North African tagine with cauliflower, dates, tomatoes and spices. To accompany the tagine we served a Tunisian pilaff with almonds, currants, cinnamon and orange.
To finish this wonderful meal, we served a white chocolate torte with dark chocolate sorbet.
Bon Appetite!
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