More food

Yes, more food. We barely recovered from Christmas that's it's already New Year's Eve, i.e. another big dinner (and lunch the following day).
This year we had my parents, my aunt and uncle with us and I wanted to make a great dinner for all of us. After weeks of compiling magazines of recipes and careful selection, the menus were the following:

New Year's Eve

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Amuse-Bouches a l'ananas et au jambon

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Tartare de saumon

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Roti de boeuf et mini croquettes

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Salade & Plateau de fromages

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Omelette Norvegienne

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Writing it in French makes it sound more sophisticated, so I was told.

The amuse-bouches were very easy to make and something I should repeat as it was very good. So was the tartare but to be fair this one was more work as someone has to cut in small pieces the salmon and the avocado. But above all the peeling of grapefruits is not an easy exercise.

The beef was closely monitored as I had never cooked such a piece of beef and I didn't want to overcook it.

Desert was the most complex part. I prepared in the morning the biscuit and ice cream part and put it into the freezer. Right before serving a prepared the egg white, applied it on top and placed the whole thing in the oven for the meringue to bake. The challenge is to put ice cream under the grill and get it out still cold...

New Year's Day

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Foie gras sur pain d'epices

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Chapon Forestier

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Mousse au chocolat

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For today I decided to bet everything on a bird, namely a capon (a castrated rooster). I stuffed the beast with boudin and cooked it in the oven for 2 hours. Thanks to the precious help of Wolfram, we watered the bird every 20 minutes (did I ever mention how high the oven is and that I can't reach the top of a chicken when it's in?) so it would not burn. Once cooked, I had to dig up the boudin from inside the beast. It was challenging to squeeze everything in. Getting everything out was even more greasy fun :) I mixed the boudin with bacon and girolles (a variety of mushrooms) and served the stuffing on brioche (a bun).

In parallel we toasted the pain d'epices I baked a couple of weeks ago and sliced the foie gras prepared by my dad. This combination, together with Montbazillac wine, is simply divine.

Desert was a simple mousse au chocolat. I assumed we would be stuffed after the first 2 courses, and I was right.

For pictures, please refer to Wolfram. Past 48 hours I focused on cooking and let the pictures taking to him. After all he is the expert.