Happy Anniversary!

It was a week late, but Rob and I celebrated our fifth anniversary today. We toyed with the idea of going out to a fancy restaurant, but with me being unemployed and paying for school, that was ruled out. Our actualk anniversary was the 15th, but we had guests in town, so we opted to postpone the celebration. I got this crazy idea in my head to do a seafood tasting menu! Thanks to my education, I have mastered the art of MEP (mise en place), which means that I had to spend very little time at dinner in the kitchen. So here goes the meal. I missed taking a photo of our starter, the everpresent oyster, but we had them raw and naked on ice.
I followed that with a portion of yellow tomato gazpacho and lime and chili cured prawns. The gazpacho blew me out of the water and I foresee making that in the future.


Of course, we had "champagne" with the oysters and shrimp ~ a half bottle of Stellar's Jay.

About a quarter cup of that went into the next course, Gallo (local) mussels with a saffron and champagne broth. We sopped up the juice with a fresh baked mini baguette.

Now we are 3 courses in. The fourth and final seafood course was a salmon confit with Pemberton potatoes and swiss chard. By this point, my plating was getting a little erratic.. (champagne anyone??). We enjoyed a Jackson Triggs 2004 Viogner with this.


Dessert was a vanilla and yoghurt pannacotta with a greengage plum and brandy compote. Thank you to Rachel for the recipe!



I really enjoyed doing this, way more than I might have going to a mediocre (all we could afford) restaurant.