Fine Dining

The result was unanimous, top prize for culinary skills at our hugely successful fine dining evening went to Jill for her dessert of morello cherry pie, home made ice cream, chocolate cups with cream and cherries and outstanding decoration. This was partnered perfectly by a Muscat de Beaumes de Venise.

The concept was simple enough dinner with a group of friends each preparing a course and bringing wine to compliment the dish.

Canapes got us started prawns with chilli mayonnaise, smoked salmon and lemon creme fraiche, parma ham wrapped pears and BLT cherry tomatoes with a glass of prossecco.

Sauvignon Blanc was the wine to accompany the creamy smoked salmon mousse with the clean fresh topping of limey guacamole. This was followed by a warm salad of pears with roqufort and shaved parmesan served with toasted walnuts with a light red Gamay to drink.

Next came pancetta wrapped stuffed chicken breast with mushrooms, braised onions, baby vegetables, fondant potatoes and a marsala, mustard cream sauce. The wine was a Chablis Premier Cru

An unusual and popular cheese course was a whipped camembert which has been steeped in wine served with a memorable Loire Valley L'Acacia Blanc.

The spectacular morello cherry pudding followed. Then came coffee with delicious home made petit fours.

At midnight our five hour feast drew to a close after a lively and fun evening. The beauty of this dinner is that the effort is shared, you put time and thought into your dish and relax and enjoy everyone else's.

Bridge House Beaminster

With its seasonally changing menus offering produce such as Lulworth rose veal, Witchhampton snails Mapperton lamb and Lyme Bay hake the restaurant at the Bridge House Hotel is a real treat to visit.

Situated in the picturesque market town of Beaminster West Dorset the 700 year old Bridge House was once a home for priests and is now a country hotel full of relaxed luxurious character. It offers exceptionally good food aptly described as "fresh modern with a hint of France"

www.bridge-house.co.uk

Our party of four visited on a Friday night when in addition to the the a la carte menu a fish menu was also on offer.

As you can see my starter of Lyme Bay crab mayonnaise, brown meat pate, confit tomato and spiced avocado ice cream was delightful to look at and a brilliant combination of flavours and textures. The scallops with crispy pork belly were equally impressive.

Our main courses included generously sized whole fried local plaice served with crispy thin chips and seasonal vegetables and soft tender steak with enormous rings of hot crunchy onions and salad.

I chose roasted monkfish with salt and pepper chilli squid with risotto, fennel and pac choi which was excellent

The desert menu looked inviting as well but we were just too full

With its choice of restaurant, brassiere or outdoor dining the Bridge House is well worth a visit.

Beaminster is a charming town and with its church, museum and individual shops there is plenty to occupy you for an hour or so. Mapperton House with its valley gardens built of three levels is just a couple of miles away www.mapperton.com

It is only a short drive to the bustling town of Bridport and the popular coastal spots of West Bay, Burton Bradstock and Lyme Regis.

Manoir De L'Aufragere & Moist Chocolate Cake

Some years ago I had a fun and enlightening weekend on a "gastronomic cookery course"  at Le Manoir De L'Aufragere an 18th century manor house in Normandy. Sadly this is not my opportunity to promote this great value break as L'Afragere is no longer open. (I am however currently trying to find out if the very talented Nicky has set up somewhere else)

One appeal of the dishes we cooked on this course was their speed and simplicity using great french ingredients with impressive results. Nicky showed how it is possible to prepare a dinner of three courses with canapés to start in a matter of an hour or so.

Moist Chocolate Cake was one of my top discoveries taking just 5 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to bake in the oven.

Take 200g Plain Chocolate (the cheapest supermarket own brand sold in packs of 5 bars - a Nicky tip during the french market town shopping trip part of the course)
3 tbsp hot water (from the tap)
125g Ground Almonds
125g Caster Sugar
125g Butter
4 Eggs

Heat the oven to 170 degrees and grease and line a cake tin
In a saucepan, melt the chocolate with the water, sugar and butter. Turn off the heat.
Add the ground almonds and eggs stir vigourously
Pour into the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes

Once cooked leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes then turn out on to a cooling rack

I served mine with raspberries and creme fraiche. This is a delicious dessert when really fresh and doubles up as  cake served with coffee the next day by when the consistency is more dense and fudge like. Assuming there is any left of course

Remembering that the L'Aufragere recipes are so worth sharing (with photos of course) gives me the legitimate excuse to cook them all again.

and here is the place itself