Dinner at Longshadows

We do exactly one benefit dinner a year, and it is for the YWCA.  Why the YWCA... well they asked a few years back and it has turned into a bit of a tradition.  The last two years the Graze Catering Dinner at Longshadows has been the top money getter.  And the same people who bought it last year, bought it again this year.  We were pretty proud and flattered.  (And super nervous... do you know how nerve rattling it is to cook dinner costing a couple of thousand dollars?)


You, gentle reader, didn't buy the package, but here is a tour of the dinner... bad phone camera shots and all. (I have been photo-ing food since this blog started, and I think I finally appreciate how incredibly hard it is to take really good food photos.)

First course.  Pureed cauliflower soup, truffle salt, fried brussels sprout leaves, fried cauliflower leaves, and under the leaf business is a chunck of french triple cream cheese.  It was pretty decadent.  Served with the merlot blend Pedestal.

Second course.  French lentils, creme fraiche and crispy duck confit (they are under the greens), celery seed, topped with a salad of celery leaves, radish, and italian parsley.  Served with the Poet's Leap reisling.

Third course.  A total gear switch.  A bed of red wine beef ragu, topped with pasta and sauteed garlic and curly endive, extra virgin olive oil, shaved parmesan... and not pictured a crostini rubbed with garlic and smeared with a parsley picada.  Paired with the Saggi.

Fourth course.  A bed of millet (its under there somewhere), roast carrots rutabegas onions and brussels sprouts, leg of lamb, and lamb reduction sauce.  Paired with the Sequel syrah.

We finished the meal off with cake from the patisserie and the super awesome dessert wine, Poet's Leap botrytus reisling.

Cheers