A freezer party

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We will have an insane run in to the end of the year, and our move north, so we thought it time to have a dinner to clear out the freezer. We had a fantastic piece of Vietnamese roast pork belly and a chunk of venison to work with. I can’t be any more specific with the cut for the venison, as we got it frozen in a bread bag (wild shot!). We set our usual table for eight, with local friends making up the guest list.

 Ready for the evening's festivities

 Just some of the plates we required

The menu we served was perhaps the best we have yet served at any dinner party. I know that is a big call, but it was really good. We started with fresh breads and dips (beetroot hommus, and pumpkin and feta), with Persian feta and Rosnay olives (from the farm).

The menu proper was as follows:

·      Quail breast ‘Kilpatrick’

·      Linguine, tossed with garlic prawns, chilli, citrus and parsley

·      Smoked lamb cutlet, with roast cherry tomato and walnut sauce

A little annoyed that this was the only course that I didn’t photograph.

·      Vietnamese pork belly, pickled vegetables and Nam Jim sauce

·      Venison and parsnip pot pie, with roasted kipfler potatoes, asparagus and hollandaise sauce

·      Apple and caraway crisps with King island smoked cheddar

·      Cake…

I really enjoyed making this cake, and designing the build. I did have a design to work from, but that changed as I started to plan the elements. It ended up being a gateau with layers of chocolate and vanilla sponges, sandwiched with dark chocolate mousse. The cake was covered with a French vanilla butter cream and iced with chocolate ganache. The cake was then topped with a mascarpone and natural yoghurt frosting (which added a really nice acidic counterpoint to the cake), fresh berries and crisp meringue. It is a long description, but so totally worth it.

We drank a couple of really good bottles of wine, including a Rosnay ‘Garage’ wine that was an experiemt for the Rosnay team. The conversation was really good, and after dinner we played a card game named “Cards against Humanity”. The evening was brilliant, and MacK was exceptionally good too. It was even better that he slept until after eight this morning!

 A couple of the wines we drank. The label on the left is the Rosnay 'Garage' Cabernet Shiraz

 Cards against Humanity...

 Recovery breakfast at Mr Benedicts, Albury

There are a couple of other shots from the last couple of weeks. We did get up to the farm to do a general clean up and cut the grass around the house. There has been a lot of rain, and the grass has just bolted. There was no way that we could hit the grass with a weed eater (would have just taken far too long), so I was glad to have a scythe with me. Nothing like going ‘old school’!

 The shed looks a little better with a bit more racking!

The canola fields around the farm are very picturesque

Tyson at his Bucks... nice threads...

This poppy was one of a small patch that we discovered growing close to the house! We are very excited!