Sharing the Table

Our seventeenth dinner. Seventeen! A lot of menus, a lot of planning. Especially for this group of guests, more than half of whom were repeats…four of them multiple repeats, in fact. So the challenge of 17 was how to keep it fresh. Foodwise, Sharing the Table is the opposite of a restaurant with its core menu of signature dishes. Foodwise, the intention is all about exploring ingredients.

Early inspiration for our Sharing menu-building came out of A Platter of Figs, a cookbook based around casual yet interesting dinners for eight by David Tanis, longtime chef at Chez Panisse. One of dishes that always intrigued me was David’s technique of roasting duck breasts, tying the two halves together, belly to belly as it were, and so the duck breast became our ingredient. And what a perfect ingredient it is.

Traditionally called a magret, the breast of the hybrid moulard duck is like a convenience food—plump, meaty, boneless, with its own flavorful layer of skin and fat, and perfectly portioned (half a breast, which is usually around a pound or more, feeds two; the full breast, four). It takes to a variety of interesting seasonings, and is so simple to make that anyone who’s half-way competent in the kitchen will turn out a perfect (enough) result, a delicious, juicy red meat with just the right touch of gaminess.

Here’s our menu:

Duck Liver Crostini • Radishes and Olives • Pitcher of Manhattans

Beet and Leek Salad with Walnut Sauce

Roasted Duck Breast with Red Wine Blood Orange Sauce, Wild Mushroom Farrotto, and Baby Bok Choy

Upside-Down Blood Orange Cake with Ginger Ice Cream and Chocolate-Dipped Crystalized Orange Peel • The Doctor

Adding to the duck theme, we served duck liver crostini as our bite. And instead of choosing a default Italian-style sauteed leafy green, baby bok choy added just the right echoing note of duck’s more prominent role in Chinese cooking. Here’s a picture, though it’s too brown:

Blood oranges are also in season, so we wove those into sauce for the duck, alluding to the traditional French pairing of duck and Seville orange, and the dessert, a pretty upside-down cake.

Best of all, we had such a lively group of guests! There was much laughter, much wine, seconds were eaten, and the dinner didn’t break up until well after midnight. Our charity was Toni’s Kitchen. Below are a few more photos, with more, as usual, on Flickr.

Share this:

{ 0 comments }