Upcoming Wine Menu

So we have decided that we are going to host our next wine dinner in September and have begun the process of getting pairings done. I just put together my first draft of the menu and will be conducting a food and wine tasting on August 6th. Once I taste the wines, it will be much easier to match the flavor profiles of each dish. Here is what I have so far:

Appetizer

Haystack Mountain Goat Cheese Tart

Grilled Artichoke Hearts, Arnoud Olives, Roasted Sweet Pepper

Soup

Wild Mushroom Tea with Rocky Mountain Beef Carpaccio

Salad

Crab and Avocado Salad with Grapefruit Vinaigrette

Entree Duet

Hot Smoked Salmon with Citrus Fennel Salad

Mission Fig Stuffed Pork Loin with Molasses Creme Fraiche

Dessert

Frozen Blueberry Parfait with Danish Pancakes

Foie Gras Carving Station

Here is a photo of a foie gras carving station that I helped with at a food and wine event. Michael Ginor is the owner of hudson valley foie gras and also author of the book "Foie Gras". When I asked him what we would be doing that day, he response was 3 different preparations of foie gras: a terrine, a flan, and a carving station. After looking at him puzzled, he said it would be just like prime rib in Vegas, excepts we would carve lobes of foie gras for the guests. We pan seared a couple lobes of foie gras and roasted them until they were warm in the center with some shallots and thyme. The foie gras was sliced and sprinkled with a pinch of clean sea salt as each guest walked up to our station. It's not very often that you get to work with such an expensive ingredient on a buffet style presentation.