Presidential Inaugural Dinner - sort of
I just had an amazing dinner with my friends Robert, Megan, and Gabe. I played with Gabe while Robert and Megan cooked up a meal in the spirit of the Presidential Inaugural Luncheon - roast duck (from Wooden Bridge Farm -thanks Dan!) with a cherry-cumin chutney (organic Oregon Bing cherries), molasses whipped sweet potatoes (also with a touch of cumin), dungeness crab cakes (with crab from the Oregon coast), a sautee of winter vegetables (asparagus, green beans, carrots, and brussels sprouts, first simmered in salt water them lightly sauteed), and an apple sponge cake casserole. We had a Covey Run fume blanc with the crab, a 2004 Rex Hill Pinot Noir with the main course, and a touch of pommeau from Wandering Aengus Ciderworks with dessert.
Delicious. All told, about four hours to prep and eat today (they made the sweet potatoes yesterday). If we’d thought to look more closely at the recipes ahead of time, we might have adhered more closely to the Inaugural menu - as it was, Robert and Megan worked wonders in the kitchen and left me burgeoning with leftovers.
Tags: apples, cumin, duck, fume blanc, orange, oregon dungeness crab cakes, pinot noir, pommeau, sweet potatoes, winter vegetables