Lobsters, Truffles, Saffron...And Chocolate

Last night we got together with some dear friends to cook and consume our annual pre-Christmas dinner. The tradition started a few years ago, when we decided that we would rather give to one another the gift of our time and share with one another the gift of good food than exchange stuff.

We started our little tradition by going out for a fancy feast in December; but whereas two of us really enjoy the the menu planning and food preparation and two of us don't mind cleaning up after the chefs, well, why not make an afternoon and evening of it? Why not spend 7 or 8 hours together fixing and feasting, soup to nuts? And so we have. I look forward to it every year!

This year we began our menu planning with a couple of themes...lobster would be our featured ingredient and saffron - brought from India by friends of our friends - would be our featured spice. Once I'd plunged deep into the planning phase, I expanded our scope to include truffles, of all things! And this is how it all went...

We started with a simple fonduta - an Italian fondue - with fontina cheese, egg yolks, milk, and shaved black truffle. Then, thus fortified, we began working on the rest of the meal: a truffled lobster risotto, grilled asparagus with saffron aioli, and a simple salad of mesclun with a truffle-infused sherry wine vinagrette.

It was delicious, if I do say so myself, but, of course, we couldn't stop there. A fancy meal deserves to be finished with a fanciful dessert. The chocolate-ier, the better. And so, as our grand finale, we prepared Champurrado's (www.noonessfool.blogspot.com) Chocolate, Walnut and Raspberry Torte, finished with fresh raspberries and whipped cream and served with champagne. It was an unbelievably delicious ending to an incomprehensibly fantastic meal in the company of incredibly wonderful friends.

(The only thing we didn't do that we should have done was to manufacture dark chocolate rose leaves to serve with the torte. Call us lazy. Call us heathens. Just please don't call Champurrado to let him know of our patisserie failings!)