Dinner Party

My friends Patti, Annabel and Barry came for dinner. I enjoyed my usual relaxed pace making this meal:

1. I got a non-pork pate and saucisson for an appetizer with gossip.
2. The salad is beets and caramelized pecans and goat cheese with vinaigrette.
3. Halibut wrapped in prosciutto (except for Annabel) on risotto with white asparagus and spinach puree as the main, with whole carrots and chanterelles.
4. Apple tart and ice cream and more gossip.

Cooking the white asparagus is challenging. You have to get it out of the package, wash it, put it in boiling water for 3 minutes,  lift it out of the water, put it in ice water, lift it out of the ice water and dry it. Then you have to lift it into a butter mix. All that without breaking the very brittle vegetable. 

I tried the chanterelles a new way. Baking them in chicken stock and cream with shallots.

The risotto.

I've made the halibut dish before. It's marinaded in rosemary, thyme and salt, wrapped in prosciutto and baked then served on a bed of risotto with the asparagus in between. Carrots and chanterelles on the side.

Best tart yet!