Thirteen courses, 2007

The menu, in Swedish

Last Friday, we not only had kittens - we also had our traditional thirteen course dinner. It was an absolute hit - but with way too much food. Thankfully there was a natural break when Glinda started going into labor, and thus we got a chance to relax our poor tummies...

And no, I didn't cook everything. The way this works - and why it works so well - is that each couple gets to bring three small courses. (an appetizer, a main dish and a dessert.) And to make it thirteen, since it's "thirteen day" in Sweden (epiphany) I'll give you the recipes for my own things later on. (I made four courses, the other three couples made three each - the other girls have blogs, and I'll share the links as soon as they post.)



We started with champagne cocktails with grape juice and vodka, and a lovely sugar-cinnamon-orange rim. (Recipe here.)



And tiny parmesan shortbread with roasted cherry tomatoes and marinated goat's cheese. (Recipe here.)



Then we had Lena's cheesecake with red onions, topped with bleak roe. It's on a bed of aragula (rocket) and served with a herb oil. Delicious! (Recipe here, in Swedish!)



Next out was Danne's small dish of fresh pasta with ceps (porcini), smoked salmon and black roe. Very unusual flavor combination - but it worked out great!



Dagmar treated us to a super tasty polish beetroot soup, Barszcz.



And our final started was a small salad I made, with aragula (rocket), toasted hazelnuts, roquefort and pears poached in white wine and lemons. Recipe here!



Time for actual food then - Tesse was first out with this amazing red deer roast, that she had left to marinate for two days. It was served with a juniper lingonberry sauce and a creamy potato gratin.



Dagmar made lovely little pasta pierogies, filled with cheese and bacon. Super!



And for more meat, Lena served whisky-flambéed tenderloin of beef, with Chèvre mashed potatoes. Very yum! (Recipe here!)


And just look at this cool picture!

No more food, please! Actually, now came the small cheese course, which was three tiny slices of cheese (a sharp blue, a Manchego and a creamy, very ripe brie) and a few small things to eat with it - half a dried fig, a tiny spoon of pear marmalade, and a little fragolaceto, home made strawberry and balsamico preserves.



Our first dessert, served after kitten number one, was Dagmar's amazing semifreddo with rhubarb and caramelized almonds. Ah! She has already posted the recipe - here.



Second was a licorice panna cotta with raspberry jelly and lemon mousse. Lena had slaved over especially the jelly - raspberries everywhere! - but it tasted great! (Recipe, in Swedish, here.)



Third out was my little truffle - it's a nut base with pistachios, hazelnuts and pecans, covered with a simple chocolate truffle. I topped it with a bit of finely crushed freeze-dried berries. (Although it looks like chilli in the picture - and that would probably be nice, too!) (Recipe here!)

I don't have pictures of our final dessert - I was busy with the kittens at that point - but it was a dish of lingonberries and meringue that Tesse called Meringue Surprise.

That's it! If you want to read what we had last year, check it out here, here and here.