“…belief in resurrection gives meaning to life….”

Not being a catholic boy of any sort, and it being the midst of passover, the idea of putting on an easter dinner was not something that normally would have occurred to me, but, so many people asked that we decided to offer one. Nothing directly traditional as best I could guess, but I decided to tie the theme of “resurrection” into the idea of resurrecting some dishes we particularly like – in fact, you’re going to see more of that (which will shorten up some of these posts), as I’ve really begun to feel that I’ve found my forte with Mediterranean dishes influenced by touches of fusion from elsewhere. Those tend to be the dishes we get the best feedback on – I mean, everyone finds it interesting and perhaps even amusing when we offer a dinner of cuisine from Swaziland or cryogenic preservation methods, but they don’t tend to wow anyone.

This was one of my favorite dishes when we first did it for Simone de Beauvoir’s 100th birthday – little thumb sized seppioline (baby cuttlefish), and I’ve played with it a couple of times, mostly in our classes. I think I’ve got it pretty much where I want it these days. The little baby cuttlefish weren’t available, but small squid were, so I cleaned them, cut them into bite-sized pieces and from there continued on the same way I’d done that first time (other than deciding to peel the cucumbers and change the presentation slightly).

And an all-time favorite soup that pops up again and again, our slow-cooked onion and bread soup, or panade, gradually refined to be just spiced the way we like it.

The tomato tarte tatin has become a near instant hit – even the vegan version we did a couple of weeks ago blew people away. I spiced this one up a bit more and like it even better, adding in some finely chopped garlic, stone ground mustard and cayenne to the caramelization process, and then a bit of chopped basil atop. The watercress around didn’t look so hot so I left the side salad off, though I think presentation-wise it’d be better to return that to the plate.

Continuing the work of refinement on my grilled lamb dish, I added a zigzag of piquillo pepper “mayo” to the plate to give it a little more zip both visually and on the palate. I’m happy with how this dish is now.

Although the flavors remained just as good, I think I screwed up the presentation on this one. I was trying for something in a different shape from the original “chocolate tower” and it didni’t quite work out. Still to be played with as far as presentation….