Harvest Dinner

Last night was the first meeting of our dinner club. It was a nice evening. Very relaxing. And we weren't hungover this morning! I did the main course. I went with a stuffed roast beef, potato galettes, butternut squash ragout and chianti glazed beets.

Overall I was not impressed with my performance. The roast beef was more on the medium side then the rare side. I used my meat themometer but I still went a little too long. The potato galette was good. I made individual ones but I didn't fill up the dishes enough so when they cooked down the dish was only half full in the end. I filled them to the top but I should have gone over. A potato galette is simply some shallots sauteed in olive oil with some fresh chopped thyme tossed with some thinly sliced potatoes. I used my mandoline to make the potato slices. Layer it in a round dish with cheese between each layer. I used parmesan and gruyere. It's that simple! Bake it in the oven for 45 minutes or so until golden. It was my favorite part of the meal.

The butternut squash ragout had mushrooms (I used cremini) and brussel sprouts done in a white wine sauce. It was a weak sauce for such strong tasting veggies. The chianti glaze on the beets also was weak. I should have just oven roasted the beets and butternut squash, tossing them in balsamic vinegar and olive oil then about half way through, added in the brussel sprouts and mushrooms. Oven roasting veggies brings out the sweetness and is simple. Instead I had to try and get complicated and it didn't taste any better... One day I'll learn!

The next dinner club I will be doing the dessert. I don't usually make too much of a fuss about dessert which is why a dinner club is so much fun, you get to focus on your dish since you only have the one. I think I'm going to do a creme brulee. I have the torch and the right dishes. And I'll serve it with some Bailey's. We now have them in the different flavours and they will pair beautifully with a nice creme brulee!