garden to table

Our friend Sebastian is proud of his garden, as are we, so last year he suggested a meal, featuring produce from both gardens. Well this week we made that a reality. We picked up produce from his garden and then planned out a menu, that would show off the bounty of the earth that we had in hand. Tonight our trio was joined by Sebastian, Jared and Martha, for a garden to table inspired meal.

So with a big bag of tomatoes, of different types and sizes, an armload of swiss chard, fresh poblano chillies, lots of herbs, edible flowers and more, we greeted our guests with a glass of Crement de Alsace and shortly after brought out bruschetta, with cherry tomatoes and herbs from both gardens, and a charcuterie board, with some pickled artichoke hearts and peppers.

With fresh tomatoes and a bit of goat cheese, the bruschetta was fresh and tasty. I was surprised, while in Alsace, how popular the charcuterie boards were, so this was a little homage to what we saw.

If you read the last post on this blog, I hinted at a connection to this entry…. As it turns out, Jared and Martha were in the same apartment in Andlau, just before we arrived, as Martha is the daughter of last week’s guest of honour. This was quite a fun opportunity to compare notes on our trips.

When our friend gave us the produce, from his garden, we were quite excited to see fresh poblano peppers…. I have to say we had a little discussion about what to do with these delights, and although my idea was not what we ended with, I am glad. We served Chile Rellenos de Queso.

This is a dish we have made before, but never with produce this fresh. stuffing the peppers was actually a challenge, because they were so tender and wanted to split. When people see a pepper on the plate, they often think hot and spicy. This is a lovely fresh luxurious dish and the sauce and herbs (also from the garden) elevate it nicely.

We were going to make an entirely vegetarian menu, because there is so much you can do, but decided a little fish might not go amiss. I went to our fish monger with salmon in mind, but instead they showed me some beautiful, fresh halibut. Halibut is one of my favorite fish, so our main was planked halibut with dill and a citrus glaze, charred tomato risotto and swiss chard gratin.

The fresh dill and herbs for the fish, with tomatoes and swiss chard picked fresh. This turned out flavourful and a bit rich. The fish was light and the gratin creamy. I loved how the citrus gave a little acidic zing at the end.

I just loved sharing stories of Andlau and Alsace, the apartment, wineries and canals. So the legend goes that when the Ste Richardis was looking for a place to build her abby, she went into the hills and looked down to the valley. She saw a she bear pawing the ground and that is where she built her abbey…. We visited the abbey and prayed in front of the saints remains. What our guests informed us, is that there is a trap door behind the altar and if you lift it up, you can see the bear’s claw marks in the rock….. How did we miss that???

Desserts from the garden can be a challenge, since we have no fruit trees, nor berry bushes. There is, however something that Steph loves to grow, that might work. We have a wonderful crop of lavender. We also have an ice cream maker…… Unfortunately our freezer was not getting the container cold enough and we almost gave up on this idea. Instead we semi-froze the mixture and re-mixed it and ended up with nice ice cream, so Honey lavender ice cream with lemon curd and raspberries in tuiles is was.

I have done tuiles before…. but we wanted cones… it took a couple tries, but we finally got them right….. then they sagged. It turns out if you put a packet of desiccant in with them (yes the little packets that come packed with electronics) it removes the moisture and your tuiles will be fine. This dessert had that “wow factor” that everyone wants with a dessert, but also had local honey and of course lavender that was picked not 15 feet from where we were eating. Our garden to table meal was a success and we (and Sebastian) could not be more proud.