We are hoping that the menus for Monday Night Dining will be predicted by the bounty of our garden : We have fresh herbs, rainbow carrots and Swiss chard, Roma and Heirloom tomatoes, cute stuff peppers, yellow and green beans as well as mesclun salad, red leaf lettuce and Red Romaine lettuce to guide us on our culinary journey. Steph has also planted an assortment of herbs and fresh vegetables that should make our Monday Night Dinners explode with freshness. Since we are still quite early in the growing season we only have spring salad and fresh herbs to help plan the menu, this week. But then again, we are in the heart of strawberry season in Ontario, so what else do you need. Along with our usual trio, we have invited Jen B and Lisa W. The clouds were looking a bit ominous for the barbeque, but it all cleared up in the end, and although it was 29 degrees, we had a lovely breeze and were able to enjoy the evening outside.
We had stopped by to see our fish guy (www.bluemarlinseafoodmarket.com). He was closed…. While reading his hours, he walked up to the truck and tapped. Turns out he was just heading out, but opened up for us, and he had beautiful fresh oysters. That sold it for us. We started the evening with grilled oysters. One great thing about grilling them, is you don’t have to shuck them. Place the oysters on the grill and when they pop open they are ready to be opened. We loosen the meat and keep them on the cupped side of the shell, with the liquor, and place them back on the grill. The Rose sauce is made, on the other side of the grill and is augmented with fresh rosemary from the garden. We had also whipped up herbed french baguettes, with more garden herbs. Perfect for sopping up the rose sauce.
This course also became the floor show. At first it was just fun to prep this dish on the deck, with our guests in attendance, but now that the thunder had moved off, we replaced it with exploding shellfish!!! Rushing to get the dinner underway, the charcoal had not quite settled into a steady burn, so every time I opened the lid, to remove shells and stir the sauced, which was often, the coals got hotter. Finally the small shellfish that had attached themselves to the oysters built up pressure and BANG!! It’s a bit disconcerting when you are prying oysters open, or spooning rose sauce. *** disclaimer – no oysters were harmed in the exploding shellfish… just cooked and eaten ***
For the main course, we paid homage to the World Cup and in particular, Argentina with a chicken marinated in fresh herbs, with a chimichurri sauce also made with herbs from our garden. The chicken was butterflied and bricked. This was served with spring salad, from the garden and a mixed tomato and feta salad. Last but not least, we had roasted tomato risotto which was heightened by our home- grown herbs. You cannot believe the sweet aroma that fills the house as they are brought in and prepared.
Trying to fit fresh herbs into the dessert was too much of a challenge, especially since I trimmed the mint with the lawn mower. It is however, the height of strawberry season in Ontario, so after a trip to the market… Fraises Margot, which is a Strawberry Mousse, with Chantilly cream, strawberries and pistachios, served with a strawberry coulis. The warm weather was not kind to Margot, but still very tasty and light.
Between courses, we had a real treat. Steph had just received a copy of the signed, hand written orchestral score, for Perry’s oratorio Judith!! We will be performing this in the spring at Koerner Hall, with Pax Christi Chorale. There is a tonne of work to be done, to take this score and produce a printed/electronic version. After dinner, we gathered round and sang a few juicy tidbits from Judith. So with old friends and newer, we had a lovely evening, featuring fresh herbs and other bounties of the earth, exploding oysters, animated conversation, wine, singing and companionship.
The grilled oysters in rosé sauce rises very near the top of my favourites list. It was adventurous having a couple of them explode, but really, on Monday Nights, good food seems to be enhanced by these dramatic elements. It was only a year ago that we had the Toronto flood of 2014. I hope you will tell that story on the blog at some point too : )
OMG… I love oysters!… So…I want to come again, but I want to contribute some money to the cost of the food please….