There’s a sauce for everything, and sometimes it’s all about the sauce….. I’m sure that’s a quote from something…. Or maybe not. This week marks our last rehearsal, before Pax Christi Chorale’s fall show with the Gloucester Cathedral Men and boys choir. Steph had just flown in from Victoria, after the premier of her new piece, based on their beautiful stained glass window, at the cathedral. This was the final piece in her triptych of pieces written for the cathedral. I am proud to have sung the first of these pieces, and am looking forward to hearing the final one. The last few weeks and been a whirlwind, so this week, decided to go back to our original tradition and have just our trio.
We had some time to catch up on Steph’s trip west and the premier of her new piece, then we moved to the table to sample Broiled Shrimps with Butter Garlic Sauce – based on a recipe from Eric Ripert’s – Le Bernadin Cookbook.
This seems like a very simple dish, and I’m not one for telling tales out of school, but let’s just say that certain guests were slurping the sauce from the ramekins…. Yeah, I did it too. Not like us to forget the bread.
For our main, we had a very interesting dish. Halibut en papillote, with Eggplant Daube, paired with a 2011 Aure – Pinot Noir.
The original recipe calls for hake, but states “the fish really doesn’t matter in this dish. The eggplant daube is so good.” Being from good Newfie stock, the fish ALWAYS matters. The halibut was cooked in parchment bags, with white wine and herbs. The daube is eggplant braised with vegetables and herbs in red wine. I have to say, that although the fish was amazing, the eggplant daube was brilliant…. and that sauce….. This time I put out spoons, because we did not want to miss a drop.
For dessert we wanted something truly seasonal. Pumpkin spice cake with caramel cream cheese frosting.
The cake came out much lighter and more moist that I expected and the frosting, with the hint of caramel was a nice balance. This is the first time I have caramelized confectioner’s sugar. It goes from powder to burnt very quickly. We took the leftover cake to rehearsal and it was gone in no time.
Although we love to entertain, sometimes it is nice to just have our original trio together and slow it down, so we can catch up and reconnect. Now we move on to Pax Christi’s fall concert with the Gloucester Cathedral men and boys choir. I am very excited to share the stage with this group. Tonight’s meal was scrumptious, but in the end, the sauces won the day. And that is a good thing.
