Another Saturday Night

Yep, it's another Saturday night and we had friends around for dinner, that is both couples are friends of ours but not with each other. We enjoy bringing people together who don't know each other - its fun.
So while you read this post - enjoy a bit of Sam Cooke and, It's another Saturday Night.

Sue has been cooking up the perfect storm during the day while I clean ( Sue says..read that as putting his things away from the lounge room!) and vacuum, etc under instruction.
Oh, yes and I bought the wine for dinner - some sparkling, a couple of Italian Pinot Grigio and a lovely South Australian Coonawarra red blend of Cab Sav, Shiraz and Merlot.

Coonawarra is one our favourite wine growing district.

THE MENU

1st Course - Little caramelized onion and feta tarts. Also feta stuffed olives and semi dried tomatoes and some feta cheese. See a theme here? Bad household for non feta lovers. Thankfully there were none.

2nd Course - Cauliflower Soup. Served it with a little swirl of sour cream, some parsley and crispy prosciutto. Was meant to be the crispy beetroot shreds you see in the photo BEFORE I decided to re-crisp them in the oven. That of course was before I forgot about them. Ahem...moving on...

3rd Course - Bill's Coq auVin with scalloped potatoes, beans and carrots The Bill is Bill Granger, an Aussie chef, pretty widely know now I believe. This version is a lot lighter than the original. Cooked in white wine with the mushrooms which were cooked separately in butter and a huge amount of garlic before being strewn on top. Best to just associate with fellow diners after.

4th Course - Chocolate Souffles. Little ones, with a chocolate and honey nougat ice cream. They were good. I love souffles! Do you?

5th Course - Coffee and frirndly conversation....that went far too late for an early get-up!

A very pleasant evening with friends to christen our new dining room table. (That's new as in old, old,old. At least for Australia)

PS *whispering* Leon wasn't very well this morning and it had nothing to do with my cooking.

THE PREPARATION

Crispy beetroot shreds

Chicken, shallots, bacon, thyme, chili flakes, ready to go in the oven

Flat, shitake, enoki, slippery jack mushrooms sauteed in butter and garlic.

Scalloped potatoes

Nibbles of caramelized onion and feta tarts.

Moving into the dining room to the new "century plus old" table of Kauri pine.  

Cauliflower soup with a swirl of sour cream, crispy prosciutto and  parsley.

Bill Granger's Coq auVin

Always love scallop potatoes any time.

Carrots and beans add that little extra colour.

And lastly - the chocolate souffles.

As we are coming to the end of autumn, Melbourne is experiencing some lovely weather. This morning we woke to a low of 16 and a high of 20 and while I write this at 6.00 PM, it is still hovering on 19. Monday in Melbourne will see us move from a low of 14 increasing to a sunny 22. Its been great cycling and working in the garden weather which looks to be continuing through the early part of the week.