Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Autumn Harvest Dinner

This past Saturday we served 70 guests our latest Five Course Chocolate Tasting Dinner: Moroccan Spice, to much satisfaction. This was our seventh dinner to date and I continue to be surprised at our chocolatey faire. When I did the first dinner back at Valentine's Day, I remember feeling as though I had exhausted all savory-chocolate potential after working on the menu for nearly two months. Apparently I am becoming well-seasoned at the exercise, because more and more ideas seem to be flowing from my cocoa-crazed mind.


Our next dinner is Sunday November 16th, with seatings at 2, 4.5, and 7pm. Don't wait to RSVP as these dinners always sell out. Send your information to info@eclipsechocolat.com or call direct 619.578.2984. Here's the next line-up:

Autumn Harvest Dinner:

Amuse Bouche Trio including:
Chilled White Chocolate Roasted Corn Pudding
Cocoa-caramelized Onion Tartlette
Cranberry-peppercorn Champagne Aperitif

Roasted Asparagus Soup with White Chocolate Creme

Savory Bread Pudding with Dark Chocolate Jus

Roasted Root Veggies with Cocoa Butter-Smashed Potatoes & Shaved Parmesan

Milk Chocolate Creme Brulee Duo of Cranberry and Pumpkin

And if you missed it this past weekend, heres what our guests enjoyed:


Moroccan Flatbreads with Green Olive Tapenade and Cucumber-Mint Salad

Fried Chickpea Fritters with Dark Chocolate Harissa Sauce

Honey-glazed Baby Carrots with Kalamata and Cocoa Nibs

Spiced Red Lentil Soup with White Chocolate-Olive Oil Crostini

Moroccan-Spiced Cocoa-Chicken with Roasted Butternut, Celeriac, Shallot, & Fruited Couscous

Cheesecake with Toasted Sesame-Macadamia Crust and White Chocolate-Saffron Sauce

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your dinners have all looked amazing. The next one looks fantastic as well and very vegetarian!

I have to say I'm a little disappointed in your choice of asparagus for an "Autumn Harvest" menu....? Surely you know that asparagus are strictly an early spring crop, and if you're getting them in November, they're from the other half of the world and aside from the obvious environmental concerns, aren't going to be all that fresh, local, just-picked asparagus could be.

Unknown said...

Good points!

We actually had an amazing harvest of local asparagus back in the late Spring that we roasted to make a pretty potent puree for the soup. I was a little worried about having the dinner saturated with so many hearty rooti veggies and thought it would be a great time to pull this baby from our frozen storage. I think we will finish it with some fresh roasted shallots, too.

Whenever possible, we order from local produce from our provider, Moceri. They are pretty great at letting us know what is currently fresh and seasonal in So-Cal.

Anonymous said...

Oh, well if it's frozen from a local spring harvest, go for it! :)

Alice Q. Foodie said...

Actually, I think we are having a fall harvest of asparagus too here in San Diego - I bought some at the Little Italy Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago - it could be gone by now though. We also had a second round of strawberries recently!