Family dinner...

Table set

Our Canadian family guests requested a lighter dinner after a two week tour of Ireland. So I tried!! Crudités and a local soft cheese with my home assembled curry powder, crostini topped with strips of flash fried fillet of beef marinated in olive oil and basil served with a lot of champagne...

To start, a salad of locally smoked duck,  grapefruit segments, lamb's lettuce, tomatoes with garlic and thyme croutons.  The dressing was the juice of an orange reduced (think marmalade) with lemon juice added when cooled, a dash of mustard, olive oil, salt (Malvern) and white pepper.

 Roasted salmon followed.  I  filleted, skinned and de-boned the salmon, filling it with  mascarpone spiced with 'espelette' chilli powder, herbs and smoked salt.  I baked it in a foil envelope with a splash of champagne, at a very low temperature for an hour.  The new potatoes were roasted in olive oil in a hot oven for an hour and finished the last hour on a low heat with the fish.  No sauce was needed as the salmon was very moist and the mascarpone added a softness.

A rather large plate of cheese followed.  Finally, a small but perfect, crème brûlée with a glug of a friend's pear William liqueur.