Hello! Not to alarm anyone but this is Christmas week! Hopefully all of you are caught up with your lists and will be ready to enjoy themselves this Saturday.
Here are this week's menus:
So let's get on to the menu.
The Soup this week is Tomato. Just what it sounds like this is a good old-fashioned tomato soup, no cream or gluten.
The cheese this week is Wensleydale with mango. Wensleydale cheese is from the north of England in a village bearing its name. The cheese is from cow's milk, slightly crumbly and with a definite honey aroma that pairs well with many fruits, which is why this variety has mango already in it. We pair it with a sour cherry jam (which should counter the slightly sweet cheese) and salted crackers. I recommend something slightly fruity like a Pinot Gris or a Riesling--the Kung Fu Girl brand on the menu would be nice with this.
The appetizer this week is warm Brie in Pastry. Warm, buttery and topped with berries this is served with sliced French bread.
At lunch this week we have a Salmon Wellington. of course a true Wellington is made with beef and paté, but we use Boursin cheese with our Atlantic salmon and it is topped with a raspberry and red wine sauce. if you are partaking, I would recommend Pinot Noir with this.
We have two different Bison dishes at lunch this week, first is a Bison Barbacoa Soft Taco made with slowly-braised bison short rib served on house-made tortillas with tomatillo salsa, crispy fried avocados, and pico de gallo slaw. The next one is a bison burger topped with pepper Jack cheese and served with sweet potato fries. If you've never had bison, it tastes a lot like beef but it is much leaner. The flavor is nice, these are farmed (of course) but if you like your burger well done Bison might not be the best choice for you.
We have a Cuban pressed sandwich at lunch too, with lean sliced pork loin, ham, Swiss cheese and pickles grill-pressed in a French roll and served with roasted sweet plantains.
By popular demand we have the original chickpea burger that we served years ago. Made of garbanzos, breadcrumbs, herbs and lemon, this is griddle-fried then finished in the oven. we serve it with red pepper hummus, and bean sprouts on a whole wheat bun and potato wedges.
At dinner, the buffets will feature Carved Rack of Pork with rum applesauce, beef tenderloin meatballs in ratatouille broth, Lamb chops with apricots, Pan fried Cod with a really yummy oyster and dashi broth. On Christmas Eve the buffet will feature lobster tail and carved beef tenderloin, and of course we will have a holiday celebration on Saturday from 11-1:30 with carved Prime Rib, Glazed Ham, Chilean Sea Bass and more.
I hope you have a wonderful Holiday week, and I look forward to seeing you. Of course we will still be having our weekly Culinary Corner meeting in person on Monday morning at 10 am in the Dad Clark Bar.
