Black Art

Caroline

Winter 2017

Inspired by an article called Black Magic from a back issue of Food and Drink magazine, I chose black as the theme for our October lunch. Yup, black and nothing to do with Hallow's Eve. As the date approached, I amassed a number of black ingredients to build my main. Fermented garlic jam, mullet and herring roes, black truffles, black fermented garlic, French blood pudding, charcoal sea salt from Spain and cuttlefish ink (commonly known as squid ink).

Black is the colour...

A lot of thought, planning and testing goes into the preparation of our Epitourists lunches. After much thought, I settle on an amuse-bouche and a main to utilize as many black ingredients as possible.

Menu

Amuse-bouche of pan fried French blood sausage with black garlic jelly

Mexican black bean soup

Squid ink risotto, seared scallops, wild mushrooms
with all sorts of bells and whistles

Dilano's Black Lemon cheese and Leinala's Bakery potato bread 

Ginger cake and lemon curd whipped cream

Amuse-bouche of Pan Fried
French Blood Sausage with Black Garlic Jelly

Who would have thought that this unlikely combination of sweet and savoury would be so tasty not to mention dramatic. A quick flash is a hot pan was all that the sausage needed to be ready. A smear of jelly on a plate, 1, 2, 3 morsels of blood sausage and let your taste buds be amused!

Mexican Black Bean Soup

Kaarina delighted us with this delicious black bean soup with sophisticated toppings. First the dried black beans were soaked 12 hours and simmered for 3-4 hours along with chopped onion, 2 garlic cloves and salt. She excluded the chorizo, used two Poblano peppers, half a jalapeño and toasted corn kernels instead of tortilla strips.

En route to our Epitourists' lunch, I got word that a friend was offering a pound or so of freshly picked, wild mushrooms for our lunch. How exciting! How exotic! How wild! How wow! I was thrilled to detour in his direction.

Wild shrooms!

After many oohs and aahs over the wild mushrooms, we cleaned them as best we could, sliced them and fried them in olive oil, seasoned with charcoal sea salt and finely sliced green onions. After removing the lovelies, the pan was deglazed with 1/4 cup of sherry and a generous cup of veal stock. Once reduced to half, I plopped in a heaping tablespoon of butter to finish. Now, for the rest of the main... I had decided on Black Squid Ink Risotto with Seared Scallops topped with Charred Shallots and Black Garlic Aïoli. And for a splash of colour, a slice of lemon dotted with mullet and herring roes. Phew! 

My lessons learned: 1. Risotto is not photogenic. 2. The Thermomix is not risotto's best friend. 3. "...less can be more and abundance can still be achieved with fewer ingredient." ❧ Yotam Ottolenghi 4. The mixing of too many exotic ingredients can cause certain tummy malaise.

The not-so-photogenic risotto and his friends

Paired wines: Anselmi San Vincenzo, a Garganega blend from Veneto, Italy and Colomé, a 2017 Torrontés from Argentina.

In keeping with our theme, Laura brought a wedge of Dilano's Black Lemon cheese which, as the packaging states, was "excitingly different". I think we would agree that it was so more in look than in taste. And to keep the dutch gouda want-to-be company, Kaarina offered some lovely sour rye from Milbree-Viking in Newmarket.

Rye and charcoal!

To finish, Laura plated an elegant dessert of moist ginger cake topped with lemon curd whipped cream — David Lebovitz recipes which I will definitely be making this holiday season.

Elegant!