The first dish we made was a Beetroot and Carrot Verrine. A verrine is simply made by layering different textures, flavours, colours and even temperatures in a small glass. To make the beetroot layer for this verrine you boiled fresh beetroot then pureed it with olive oil, salt and pepper. To make the carrot layer you boiled the carrots then pureed them with cumin, salt and pepper. These two layers were alternated in a small glass to produce a very pretty, tasty, healthy dish. You could also add a layer or dollop of sour cream and top with fresh herbs if desired.
The second verrine was a Strawberry and Avocado with Sour Cream Verrine. This was made by blending some strawberries with a little sour cream and layering them with pureed avocado and sour cream. You can really play with each layer and add various seasonings as you wish. These two verrines did look very pretty. My favourite was the Strawberry and Avocado but everyone had a different opinion!
Next we made a Veloute d' Asperges which is an Asparagus and Potato Soup. This was very simple to make but absolutely beautiful! To make this soup you boiled fresh asparagus, potato and onion with a stock cube and water. Once this was soft you pureed it with milk and seasoned to taste. The soup was served warm in glasses with a dollop of sour cream and some parsley or mint. Yum!
Our main course was Papillote de Saumon. Papillote refers to the method of cooking the salmon in a folded pouch or parcel. We used aluminium foil to wrap the salmon in. You first brush the square of foil with olive oil to stop the salmon sticking. We made two different parcels. The first was a Prune and Mustard where we surrounded the salmon with pitted prunes, covered the salmon with dijon mustard and topped it with some dried herbs, salt and pepper.
For the second parcel we placed some fresh herbs under the salmon, surrounded the salmon with sliced zucchini, carrot and cherry tomatoes then topped it with some sour cream and more fresh herbs.
The parcels were folded to fully enclose the fish and stop the steam escaping and baked for 30 mins in a moderate oven.
The aroma was lovely as you opened the parcels. My favourite was the Prune and Mustard parcel but both were very nice and you could play with these using numerous types of fish and seasonings.
To top off our wonderful French lunch we made a dessert called Iles Flottantes, also known as "Snow Eggs". This dessert consists of floating islands of egg white or meringue on a vanilla custard. The custard is made by boiling some milk with a vanilla pod then slowly whisking in beaten egg yolks and sugar. The floating islands of egg white are made by beating the egg whites with a little salt until soft peaks form and then gradually adding sugar until firm. You then place balls of the mixture in boiling water and cook on all sides which takes about 1 minute. Once the balls are cooked you drain them on paper towel.
The balls are placed on top of the custard and served topped with caramel and toasted slivered almonds.The caramel is made by combining sugar with water and a squeeze of lemon juice then boiling until golden. Once it is golden it needs to be quickly removed from the heat to prevent it burning and drizzled over the balls. Personally I found the balls a bit too "eggy" in flavour but otherwise this was a nice dessert.
Thankyou to all involved in planning another lovely day of cooking!
