Sometimes it’s the simple gestures that touch us the most. At our Italian Christmas dinner, we had the pleasure of having Dr. Sheila with us. During the evening, we mentioned that we had been looking for a mold for steamed puddings. When next we saw Dr. Sheila, it was a New Year’s eve, and what did she gift us with… An antique pudding mold. That someone would remember the conversation, spot this beauty for sale and bring it to us, was very touching (people who were at the New Year’s party may remember Shawn being a little…. emotional over this gesture.) Now what should we make???
We wanted to make a pudding, but not a traditional Christmas pudding, so we turned to a variation of one of our favorites….. But that is the end of the meal. So we need to start at the beginning. This week our trio invited our dear friend Brian, to dine with us. A frosty winter’s evening, calls for a heart warming, rib sticking kind of meal. To start, we had a pumpkin and apple spiced soup, with apple crisps and candied pecans.
Pumpkin and apples are a match made in heaven, and a nice warming soup is always welcome on a cold winter’s eve. The surprise of an apple crisp in the soup, and then candied pecans at the bottom, just put the dish over the top… or was that the hint of cayenne? My money is on the cayenne.
Now that we had settled in, we opened Brain’s Gérard Bertrand Grand Terroir Pic Saint Loup 2011. We served this with Provençal rack of lamb and tomatoes, and roasted fingerling potatoes.
We have cooked lamb on many occasions, but I think this may have been the best we have done. The Provençal tomatoes were lovely, but the wine matched in a sublime way. This is a meal I was proud to serve to some special people.
Then on to a special dessert. To christen our new pudding mold, we needed something close to the heart, yet new. We came up with a steamed sticky toffee pudding., with rum sauce.
I have admit, I’m kinda proud of this dessert. Taking a tried and true favorite and making a steamed version… This was lighter than the original, but true to the tradition. AND what isn’t better with a rum sauce??? And for our “eggless” friend we whipped up a Pouding chomeur, a lovely concoction of caramel and cake… and yes, we added rum sauce to that too.
Rum sauce.
Some Monday nights are a bit rushed, sometimes we just have time to enjoy a communion of friends. It turns out, that is what this is about. And let’s not forget… this meal was inspired by a touching gesture.
YUM
You would know, as you sampled the leftovers, including both desserts.
I remember that conversation!
Provençal -both the lamb and the wine; a match made in heaven. And rum sauce makes the world go round!