Diner for 8

After a busy and intensive week and the first exam over I decided to cook diner for my friends from West Cork.

Here the menu from yesterday

Starter
Risotto with Porcini and Risotto with Butternut Squash

Maincourse
Venison Roast with Quince compott
Oven Roasted Carrotts and Parsnips
Romanesco
Brusselsprouts and Chesnuts  sautéd in butter
Gratin Daufinois à la Peter Brunner

Dessert
Orange and Satsumas Fruit Salad with Dates and Crunchy Walnuts
Coffee or Tea and Profiteroles with Vanilla Sauce filling and Hot Chocolate Sauce

All ingriedients appart from the chesnuts, citrus fruits, chocolate (Lindt) and the walnuts were produced in the region.  Most of them I bought on the Farmer Market in Midleton. The wild venison came from County Sligo.
So much about Slow Food!
I started with preparing the fruit salad, segmenting all the oranges and satsumas, added only very little sugar and one spoon of Cointreau and the sliced dates.
Then I cut the quinces in small cubes and cooked them in sugar Sirup, a little red wine, 1 cloce and a small cinamon stick.

I made the choux pastry for the profiteroles, it turned out I needed only 3 eggs, but I had used creme flour instead of strong white flour, and the pastry was a little too liquid, but I could still pipe them on a tray and off they went into the Aga, I had to watch them very carefully the Aga was slightly on the hot side. The pastry cream I had cooked the day before.
After that I boiled and peeled the chesnuts. In Switzerland we can buy the deep frozen ones which are much less laborous!
Then I prepared all the vegetables. First I cooked the green vegetables, the brusselsprouts were divided in half (remembering our teacher from the day before), and the romaneso cut in lovely little roses. I boiled both vegetables seperatly for 3 minutes and put them in iced water to cool instantly. I kept them in a cool place, before serving I sautéd the sprouts in butter with the chesnuts and boiled the romanesco for one minute to reheat it. Both vegis kept there nice green colour this way, were not overcooked and still had a nice bite, but most important: they were delicious. The carrots and parsnips were cut lenghtwise, seasoned with little olive oil, salt pepper and a little sugar and put on a baking try. I sliced the potatoes in very thin slices, put them in a cake tin in layers, potatoes seasoned with nutmeg, salt and pepper, creme and so for. They went into the oven to cook slowly for 45 minutes.

I larded the venison, made little cuts and put in a cube of lard and some thyme in order to keep the meet nice and juicy and season it at the same time with herbs. Salt and pepper were added shortly before sealing it, off in the oven it went. I have an Aga here and I find it very difficult to regulate it. Once the temperature is high it takes ages to turn it down, therefor I cooked the venison only at 150° for 80 minutes. It turned out nicely, it was still al little rosa in inside but not rare. The meat was tasty and soft.

Preparation for risotto was next. I sweated ognions and butter squash (cut in cubes), added a little milk, nutmeg, salt and pepper and let them simmer until the squash was almost disolved. This way the squash developes it's sweetness and it reminds me of the Ravioli alla Zucca they make in the Emiglia Romana.
The mushrooms were dry so I had to soak them first before cutting them.
For the squash risotto I prepared chicken stock and for the mushroom risotto 1 glas of white wine and venison stock. Parmesan was grated and sealed in a container to keep fresh.
I layed the table, found some nice twigs with red berries in the garden, the perfect autumn deco with some little candles.
Everything was ready now for the guests,  I had time for a relaxing break in the jacuzzi.

The guests enjoyed the meal. Only one person and myself had ever eaten venison before. One person said he had eaten 7 new things that night! they were butter squash, romaneso, chesnuts, venison, dates, quinces and profiteroles.
I forgot to mention the wine, for Aperitivo we had Prosecco, for the starters an Italian Pino Grigio delle Venezie from Folonari and for main course a Sangiovese from Villa Antinori, Toscana.

We finished the meal with a little taste of Aqua Vit from Norway but decided Jameson was much nicer and ended the evening with more then a wee drop!