It will be no surprise to you by now that Mr Ask and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary last week. We cooked a huge meal, preparing two courses each to celebrate. I’ve already posted recipes for the courses I made but I thought I’d I go through the whole menu. I can’t tell you the exact recipes Mr Ask used because he’s an improviser. However, I can link to something pretty close.
I loved every bite of this meal! It was simply amazing. We blew each other’s minds! A couple of days later I fed leftovers (everything but the main, that was eaten already!) to Mummy and Sister Ask. All I heard was ‘OMG this is soooo good’, the whole way through! Each course is essentially vegetarian but with oysters and duck breast added for Mr Ask. Which is super handy if half of the people dining are vego!
Fifth Wedding Anniversary Menu
Deconstructed Greek Salad w Natural Oysters
Marinated fetta stuffed cucumber cup.
Bloody Mary garnished with olives & celery
Oysters on the half shell
Polenta Chips w Guacamole & Salsa
Deep fried panko encrusted parmesan polenta chips
Edamame & avocado guacamole
Pineapple, chilli & mint salsa
Pan roasted asparagus
Blood Orange, Lemon, Lime & Bitters Sorbet
Cauliflower Gnocchi Pan Fried in Butter w Brussel Sprouts & Parmesan
Handmade cauliflower gnocchi
Garlic butter sauce with bussell sprouts & Parmesan
Pan seared duck breast
Five Senses Dessert
Chocolate ganache tart
Raspberry Rose Sherbet
Turkish delight, raspberry popping candy, rose facial mist
You can find the Deconstructed Greek Salad here and the Five Senses Dessert here.
For the Polenta Chips w Guacamole & Salsa, Mr Ask made polenta like this and poured it into a baking paper lined lamington tin and allowed it to set in the fridge overnight. He cut the polenta into ‘chips’, dredged them in plain flour, coated in beaten egg and then panko crumbs. These were refrigerated until needed, then deep fryed until crispy. The edamame gaucamole was similar to this recipe and the pineapple salsa was similar to this recipe.
The Blood Orange, Lemon, Lime & Bitters Sorbet was made pretty much like this sorbet but with the juice of 1 blood orange, 2 lemons, 1 lime and a dash or two of Agnosturna bitters.
The main, Cauliflower Gnocchi Pan Fried in Butter w Brussel Sprouts & Parmesan started out with a cauliflower gnocchi recipe like this, made the day before and refrigerated on a large tray in one layer. They were boiled and pan fried in butter and garlic with lightly cooked brussell sprouts that had been ‘shredded’ with two forks. Once they were crispy and delicious, they were served with freshly grated parmesan. Mr Asks duck breast was cooked the same as this recipe.
What a wonderful meal! The great thing about this menu is that lots of it can be prepped ahead of time. It’s fancy but you won’t have to spend all night in the kitchen. This easily feeds four people but if you happen to be celebrating a fifth anniversary, this is full of fives! There’s five courses and the dessert is five senses and even the two main dessert elements have five ingredients! Speaking of that, did you know the traditional fifth anniversary gift is wood? I’m sure you can already see that I’m into these hokey elements of anniversaries, so you know I would want a wooden gift. Since we don’t really ‘do’ gifts, I had to think of something small but perfect. Then I thought, what about a wooden card? Google brought up an Greeni Go Australian company, both custom making them and selling a selection of pre made greeting cards. It struck me as odd that they had no 5th anniversary cards, so I emailed them lettign them know about the wood thing and they custom made me one! Super cool, right? You can see it at the top. I just thought I’d mention it, just in case your plotting the perfect anniversary! They have since added a few anniversary cards but you can get the exact one I gave Mr Ask here. And if you are planning an anniversary dinner – Happy Anniversary xxx

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