13 courses for twelfth night, 2014

My drink & pre-dinner snack - "A Passion for Bacon" with a sparkling Passionfruit drink, and Bacon Parmesan Shortbread.

Any long term readers of this blog, you already know that every year, a group of my friends get together to make a fabulous dinner. We started back in 2006, and it happened to be on trettondagsafton, or Twelfth night, as January 5 is also called. (In Swedish, it's "13-day-eve".) It's definitely one of my favorite traditions - it marks the end of the holidays, and also the start of a new, fabulous food year.  (We cheated a little and held it on January 4 this year, out of convenience.)

We are four couples, and each couple make a starter, a main course and a dessert, all tiny, to make up a large tasting menu with many surprises, as no one knows what the other people are making.  I make an extra dish each year, a drink and a small snack, in order to bring it to 13.

We've done a bunch of themes, as well as completely theme-less. This year, we decided to randomly divide flavors between us, to make sure we'd get a good variation. Very fun theme, and we really did get a wide variety of dishes.


Erika & Micke's starter  - Beef Salad with Raspberries & Mint (Flavor: Raspberry, Mint) 


Dagmar's starter - a Blood Orange Salad with Almond Honey Caramel and Feta Cheese (Flavor: Orange, Honey)


Lena's starter, a Duo of Ceviche. (Flavor: Lemon, Chili)


My starter - Seared Beef Carpaccio (Flavor: Coriander, Sesame, Ginger) 


Lena's main dish - Saffron Gnocchi with Bresaola and parmesan (Flavor: Saffron, Parmesan)


My main dish - Licorice-Glazed duck with Figs in Port and Sunchoke Purée (Flavor: Licorice) 


Erika & Micke's main dish - Feta-topped salmon with garlic & pink peppercorns (Flavor: Pink pepper, Garlic) 


Dagmar's main dish - Moose stew with dark chocolate & Hasselback Potatoes (Flavor: Chocolate) 


My dessert, Hazelnut Mousse with salted hazelnuts. (Flavor: Hazelnut) 


Erika & Micke's dessert, a Caramel cake with Almonds (Flavor: Caramel, Almond) 


Dagmar's dessert, Violet ice cream with candied violets (Flavor: Violet) 


Lena's dessert, Coffee Chocolate Mousse with chili-marinated melon cubes (Flavor: Coffee)


Wanna read about our previous dinners?


2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011 - Around the world theme
2012 - Movie and TV theme
2013 - Different main ingredients