Dinner Party Menu
By Renee Poirier
Photography by Francis Tetrault
We encourage you to share your tasty treats with us. Delicious meal ideas – just like mom used to make. E-mail your recipe or suggestions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
New Year’s eve has an aura of excitement as we promise ourselves to be better and bolder, to try new things or reinvent the old. It is a superstition that to serve pork for the New Year will bring prosperity, as its stubborn stance and its fat content signifies wealth, in comparison to the chicken that scratches in a backward motion and the lobster that moves slowly along the bottom . So in our craving for decadence let’s recreate a favourite and be surprised by these subtle yet modern flavours. After all Grandma didn’t put jalapeño in her mashed potatoes. Cheers to all of our resolutions.
VANILLA ESSENCE PORK ROAST
Ingredients:
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 litre of cold water
• 3 crushed bay leaves
• 3tbsp. of thyme
• 4 vanilla stems or 2 tsp.extract
• 20 smashed pepper corns
• Pork roast (tenderloin; crown rib; rib roast)
How to prepare:
• Mix all your ingredients into a large bowl, minus the pork
• Wisk briskly until sugar has dissolved
• Place pork in very large zip lock bag
• Pour the mixture into the baggie, over the sink so to avoid spillage
• Press out the air, seal and rest your bag in the bowl
• Refrigerate for as little as two hours or overnight
• Preheat oven to 400F, place on shallow roasting dish or rack
• 15 minutes later turn oven down
to 325F and bake until internal
temperature reaches 160F
JALAPENO MASHED YUKON BAKE
Ingredients:
• 4 to 6 Yukon gold potatoes
• 2 jalapeño peppers
• 1 cup of milk
• 2 tbsp. of butter
• ½ cup of sour cream
How to prepare:
• Steam or boil potatoes till tender
• Add milk to large bowl so it reaches room temperature
• Add potatoes, butter, sour cream and mash
• With a hand blender whip mixture until creamy
• Satay minced jalapeño in pan with seeds removed
• Fold these into the mixture
• Optional creativity; place the potato in oiled tea cup or small bowl and tap it out for a moulding
• Best to do this on a baking sheet in single serving sizes and place back into the oven
BALSAMIC GLAZED BEETS
Ingredients:
• 6 to 8 beets
• 3 tbsp. of balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp. of mint tea leaves or fresh herb
How to prepare:
• Steam or boil the beets for 40 to 60 min; till tender
• It’s almost best to steam them the night before
• Preheat oiled skillet to med just before serving
• Place in sliced beets, balsamic and mint and cook for 10 min
DRINK OR DESSERT
• Vanilla ice cream finishes well with this meal
• A Spanish sparkling wine in champagne style such as Freixenet also finishes the evening nice