I have a bunch of foodie friends who love to eat and also cook so well. Sometimes, we would think about the menu for a dinner set. We had an appetizer, soup, main course and one side dish. And we carefully picked up a wine, which best matches the dishes. I had the dinner with Lilian, an smart and easy-going Taiwanese girl. She loves pot luck a lot that she has a long pot luck guest lists on which she includes not only foodies but also good cooks. I was so honored to be on her list.
The main course was black truffle risotto. Risotto was Lilian’s favorite dish. She had tried various risotto recipes such as lemon risotto and mushroom risotto. When she heard me saying that I’m gonna cook black truffle risotto for my mom when I go back to Taiwan, she was so excited and was like why didn’t we plan a dinner for that. So we started to design the menu from appetizer to dessert.
Menu
Light Onion Soup
Cherry Tomato Summer Salad
Black Truffle Risotto
Chocolate Mousse with Fresh Berries
Spanish Sparkling Wine
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Since the flavor of black truffle was very delicate and elegant, we don’t want creamy french style onion soup to cover truffle’s taste. The natural sweetness from sweet onion lifted up the appetite, warming the stomach and making us ready for the highlight of dinner.
Lilian found a salad recipe on a food magazine. The ingredients are following.
Purple onion*1
Avocado*1 (dice)
Cherry tomatoes 1 pint, or mixed small heirloom tomatoes (halve)
Dressing:
white vinegar
extra olive oil
salt and pepper
This salad was undoubtedly fresh and yum. The avocado and the juice from tomatoes made the overall texture more buttery, creamy and harmonious. We cooked the truffle with chicken broth and small amount of heavy cream. When the risotto was almost ready, we turn off the stove and stirred in the truffle paste. The dish was ready to go. My heart was soaring when smelling the pungent truffle fragrance and my mouth kept watering.
As for the dessert chocolate mousse, you would never guess it because the mousse was made by tofu instead of cream and eggs. It’s undoubtedly a fantastic dessert for vegetarian. The instructions of making it was pretty simple and time-saving, very suitable for beginners. I just melted the dark chocolate and mixed it into Japanese silken tofu. I believed that different kind of tofus brought different textures and flavors, and I thought the texture of silken tofu was closest to the mousse. You can immediately tasted the dark rich chocolate at the first bite, and then the silky and smooth texture of mousse kept moving in your mouth and dancing with your tongue. Another bite with fresh sliced strawberry added up a fruity smell and layered up the flavors.
The dinner was pretty soul relaxing and joyfully. Lilian and I were talking about the sharing interest in gourmet. We both thought that food has been playing an important role in our lives and even in the relationships. Lots of my friends and couples considered enjoying food with each other an indispensable part in their lives. I would say food is like spice dressing up life. It makes you experience various flavors of lives. Thank Lilian for preparing such a marvelous meal.
