Pheasant and Quail Terrine, beetroot salad, raisin purée

Terrine: pheasant leg and breast, quail breast, chicken livers, prosciutto, seasoning, white wine.
Beetroot salad: grated fresh beetroot, dressing of red wine vinegar, lime juice, soy sauce and honey.
Raisin purée: plumped and puréed, plus verjus.

Paried fairly well with a very youthful, lemony and (unfortunately) only slightly toasty Roederer Brut 2005.

Scallop, baked pumpkin, fried chicken gyoza, green curry foam

Scallop, baked pumpkin, fried chicken gyoza, green curry foam (not shown)

Scallop: seared.
Pumpkin: baked in Sherry, garlic and ginger.
Gyoza: minced chicken, spring onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce; poached then fried.
Foam (not shown): essentially a Thai green curry sauce that’s heavy on the aromatics (i.e., coconut milk flavoured with shrimp paste, fish sauce, lemon grass, garlic, ginger, galangal and kaffir lime).

I was pleased with this dish concept, and it proved one of the most popular dishes of the day. The flavours are classically complimentary and the dish offers a variety of textures. The gyoza needs to have the sufficient crunch (not executed to perfection here), and it seems lecithin may be foam-challenged when it comes to coconut milk, but otherwise successfully executed.

Condrieu, Burgundy

Prosciutto Mushroom, dill green beans, Bordelaise sauce

Proscuitto mushroom, dill green beans, Bordelaise sauce

Mushroom: slow baked with butter, garlic, thyme and white wine; formed into a cylinder wrapped in prosciutto.
Beans: fresh garden greens, poached and tossed in melted dill butter. (I recommend pairing dill and green beans.)
Bordelaise sauce: veal stock, red wine, shallot, marrow.

Domaine des Croix Beaune 1er Cru Bressandes 2006
Savoury cherry, almond, cherry wood and a little compost on the nose. Not a spectacular nose, but subtle and savoury. Well balanced, with pleasantly soft sandy tannins. Whole and gently expressive even if not impressive. Being neither fruit forward nor funky, and savoury in nature, this actually complimented the dish surprisingly better than many other Pinots might have.

Lamb Medallion, eggplant/aubergine purée, peas, mint, rosemary jus

Lamb Medallion, eggplant/aubergine purée, peas, mint, rosemary jus

Essentially a simplified version of this dish (or this dish). Execution suffered a little here. It’s important to have flavoursome eggplant/aubergine.

Tasmanian ‘Brie’, croutons, poached nectarine

Tasmanian 'Brie', croutons, poached nectarine

MSR Auslese Riesling

Persian pavlova, saffron meringue, cardamom cream, rose water strawberries, pistachios, rose petals

The saffron didn’t work here (though it’s possible the quality of the saffron was to blame), but otherwise a suitably delicate, light, summery dessert.

Richmond Grove Barossa Riesling 1999
Showing some age as hoped, with a dried lime-pith, dusty-hay and tar-like nose. It’s like the fruit has dried up but it hasn’t quite developed much honey/kerosene/diesel. The palate is light, fresh and a tad limey on the finish. Maybe it’s in a “shut down” phase, or maybe the fruit has all dried up and there’s not much more to come. Nice enough in any case.

Clam and mussel soup, curry drizzle

Bacon wrapped roast pheasant, chestnut-potato rösti, red wine sauce
I just wanted simple barded pheasant, but with a slightly different incorporation of chestnuts. The dish divided us (it wasn’t my fav) and that perhaps swayed the opinion on the wine matching. I would say the Barolo did work well with it – not fantastic, but good.

Fontana Fredda Barolo 2000
Just a hint of brown in the pinky red colour. The nose shows very bright fruit with some spice (plum in vanilla for me, cinnamon apple for others). It has great purity and maybe a touch of leafy forest floor underneath. The palate has moderate fine sandy tannins, stewed plum and maybe some stewed fig flavours. Not quite what I’d expect of “traditional” Barolo, but it’s not really “modern” either.

Bacon wrapped roast pheasant, chestnut-potato rösti, red wine sauce

Camembert, rosemary poached apple, cider vinegar, croutons
The Camembert is the one previously posted about. It was cut at just-before a fully-runny ripeness stage (in the photo it is still cold), so the result was a creamy, salty, and ripe Camembert-style cheese which I felt would make for a good combo with a sweet wine. Indeed, it did – this course went with the Taminga fantastically. The rosemary flavour also added to the effect, bringing another dimension to the wine.

Trentham Estate Noble Taminga 2002
IMO, this is a great little sweetie at a good price. “Sunshine yellow”, full-on sweet tropical fruit (like guava) nose, and a well balanced sweet palate of caramelised honey and fresh pineapple.

Camembert-style cheese, rosemary poached apple, cider vinegar, croutons

Camembert-style cheese, rosemary poached apple, cider vinegar, croutons

Edible gin and tonic
Provided some fun palate refreshment.

Edible gin and tonic

Roast pear, white chocolate and yoghurt icecream, caramel
The pear was roasted with sugar syrup, vanilla, star anise and black pepper, so it had some more complexity to it. This actually went fine with the Taminga, well the pear did anyway.

Roast pear, white chocolate and yoghurt icecream, caramel

Panna cotta, coffee gelée
The “coffee” course, so no wine here.

Panna cotta, coffee gelée

White truffle custard with mushroom ragout

Based on the French Laundry’s, but with a mushroom ragout instead of their black truffle ragout. I like it this way because (i) mushroom and truffle is a natural combo for me that works well, (ii) it’s ovo-lacto vegetarian friendly, and (iii) mushrooms are cheaper than black tuffles but still taste great.

Pan seared scallops with a creamy soy-Madeira sauce, nori rice and spicy glazed vegetables

Caesar salad with creamy mustard dressing

I like to see Cos, crispy British bacon and well browned croutons.

Braised shin of beef on roast parsnip mash with melted leeks and Brandy beef-reduction

Brandy works so well in a reduction of shin of beef braising liquid.

Braised shin of beef on roast parsnip mash with melted leeks and Brandy beef-reduction

Roast pheasant with a beetroot-mulled wine reduction, chestnut sauce and braised cabbage

The pheasant was barded and stuffed (largely with sausage meat, which can be seen in the photo below). It’s so important to keep it moist while roasting. The chestnut sauce is basically sauted mire poix with Sherry and roast chestnuts added, then slightly thickened.

Roast pheasant with a beetroot-mulled wine reduction, chestnut sauce and braised cabbage

Chocolate tranche of Earl grey cream over bitter-sweet rich chocolate-orange Marquise over chocolate sponge with hard-caramel date

Assorted cheeses

Since this was a wine matching dinner and there were (going to be) a few dessert wine options, I wanted to offer a variety of desserts for diners to experiment with: fruit and toffee, creamy fruity mousses and rich dark chocolate.

Spiced poached apple and pear with toffee sauce

Marbled white chocolate and raspberry mousse with black pepper tuile

This has dried lemon and raspberry powders on top which add a nice piquancy. Black pepper provides an interesting combo with raspberry.

Chocolate tranche of Earl grey cream over bitter-sweet rich chocolate-orange Marquise over chocolate sponge with hard-caramel date

Dessert

Dessert