Judith is triumphantly behind us. We sang to an almost sold out house. After months of rehearsals, we have brought a lost work back to life. Singing at Koerner Hall for 950 people, with the full orchestra, and amazing soloists, under the careful leadership of Steph. Just WOW! The comments and reviews have been fantastic, and this week for dinner, we have the pre-eminent Parry scholar coming for dinner.
Joining our trio this week are Jeremy and Alison Dibble, Michael and Ann Trott, Chris and Rosemary, and Brian. With 2 couples from the UK and one from Vancouver, we decided to try to feature some Ontario ingredients, and wines. For our pre-appetizer nibbles… No wait I ran out of time to make them, what to do? With inspired timing, Chris and Rosemary gave us a gift of the carmelized onions we enjoyed in Worcester. We had a baguette on hand and with ingredients from the fridge, Shawn whipped up a quick little app of baguette with goat cheese and carmelized onion chutney. Nice save.
Unfortunately we then found out that the Trott’s were delayed, by a train schedule issue. In true MondayNightDining style (just ask Brian) we soldiered on and started the main event. They will have to catch up later.
For the appetizer, I think Shawn came up with something truly special. Savory Crème Brulée, with Watercress Salad, Pickled Kohlrabi and Smoked Ontario Rainbow Trout. I was concerned that the sharpness of the Kohlrabi would be too much for the other subtle flavours. My concerns were for naught. This was a match made in heaven. Creamy savory and very smooth, the crème brulée made a lovely base for the other ingredients, and one dinner guest could not get over how smooth and creamy it was. The meal was paired with a lovely Ontario Malivoire Gamay.
For our main we served Braised Ontario Lamb Shanks, with Sautéed Spring Vegetables and Mint Gremolata. I love Ontario lamb, but when you braise it for hours with fresh aromatics, broth and wine, you know it’s going to be amazing. One nice thing with this recipe is the braising liquid is whizzed up with an immersion blender and used as a sauce. The only problem was keeping them from falling off the bones, before serving.
During the main our last two guests arrived, and we started them on the appetizer, so they could catch up with the rest of the meal. Then we went on to a special palate cleanser. We wanted to use some rhubarb that we had in the freezer, so Shawn came up with Rhubarb Granita Spoons with Crème Fraiche. The granita is basically a rhubarb ice, that is scraped, like shave ice. The base was a sliced strawberry, the Rhubarb and crème fraiche, with a little zing from lime zest… Great flavours in a small bite.
We finished with Lemon Mascarpone Cake. This is cross between a cake and a trifle. It is one cake that is better a day or 2 ahead. 4 layers of chiffon cake, with lemon custard and a Mascarpone frosting, with some of the lemon custard mixed in. We paired this with a special request, Ontario Iniskilin Icewine.
Once dinner was done, Ann and Steph started us on the musical part of the evening with a little piano duet. We eventually moved on to some selections from Judith, with Jeremy Dibble on piano. At some point we got into a discussion of language differences between Canada and the UK. We then heard unusual food terms, such as Spotted dick, Cretins and Mangy Twat………… Well guess what we’re having for dinner next week. We also covered the humorous difference between pants and trousers.
It was so special to reconnect with our dear friends from the west coast (although I still think Chris is a bad influence on Shawn, or is it the other way round?) to meet new friends from overseas and spend time with old friends from closer to home. It was a great time to recap our big performance, review a few nice sections of the score and just relax and take our time for once. Monday Night Dining off-season has begun.
Always be prepared to improvise! This was the “Icing on the cake” of an unforgettable weekend of reunions, new introductions, music, history, food and friendship. As always, I am in your eternal debt for making everything just right. xoxo
The Dibbles told me how impressed they were with the food, the wine and the company, astounded that we do this sort of thing on a weekly basis! They have had a number of very pleasant surprises on this trip about what Ontario has to offer, and in fact didn’t want to leave! They certainly enjoyed our Monday meal immensely.
We were thrilled to participate in a real life Monday Night Dinner (insteaed of the sock puppet version we’ve recreated in Victoria!!) Amazing food, lots of laughter and, of course, music! Truly a highlight of our visit to Toronto!
And, speaking of “Spotted Dick”…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK5S-IuzIt8
Even the elegant Helen Mirren would enjoy an evening with Shawn and David.