Provenance Food & Wine: What a Pear!
In May, Provenance in Collingwood held one of their semi-regular seasonal produce events. The latest was an autumn degustation to celebrate local pears, held over three evenings, with 7 courses for $75 and matched wines for an additional $22. Alastair and I rounded up Dany for a peary peariffic evening.
The first course was a Gorgonzola dolce pannacotta with salt pear coulis and crispy prosciutto. Interestingly, the panna cotta was fizzy on the tongue, which was a bit distracting. Apart from the fizziness, it was rich and creamy and sharp with the Gorgonzola, which I really enjoyed with the sweet pear coulis.
Next up was a pear tarte tatin with parmesan crisp, watercress, and rocket pesto. This was a gorgeous little tart – good flakey, buttery pastry and sweet pear. While the pear was sweet it wasn’t a dessert dish and managed to find that balance. The rocket pesto was a tad too bitter for my tastes, so I left most of it.
After the tarte tatin, we received a whole quail that had been partially boned, with a pear and pecan farce on cavalo nero and jus gras. This was the best savoury course of the evening. Thankfully the quail had been partially boned, so it was tender and easy to eat. The pear and pecan stuffing was great and the cavalo nero helped cut through the richness of the meat and jus.
This was a pear and Roquefort millefeuille with walnuts. Instead of pastry layers, slices of crunchy pear were used, with dabs of Roquefort in between and a bit of lemon zest on top. This was fantastic, and yet so simple.
The final savoury course was described as a partridge in a pear tree. On the plate was partridge breast that had been braised in pear cider, served with pear confit, and a few pear and ginger tortellini. The partridge wasn’t quite as nice as the quail, and the pear was strangely salty. I quite liked the pear and ginger tortellini.
The first of the desserts was a caramel pear pudding with double cream. This was a wonderful dessert, perfect for winter and cold nights and deserved to be eaten while sitting by a fire. Gorgeous! It was a real comfort pudding – soft, cinnamony goodness in a cup.
And finally, our last course and second dessert was coffee assiette – espresso poached pear, a rich, dark chocolate espresso mousse, and “pear-fogato” (ahh, we love a pun in this house. Sad but true.).
Read about a previous visit to Provenance here – the Valentine’s Day degustation featuring berries and an indoor picnic!
Provenance Food & Wine
288 Smith Street
Collingwood
Phone: 03 8415 0700
June 9, 2010 @ 6:47 am
Oh! So elegant…everything looks so tasty. Thanks for the pictures 🙂
June 9, 2010 @ 12:01 pm
The pear and roquefort millefeuille looks and sounds divine (and I'm very glad to hear that that dish, at least, didn't fizz.) Mmm, espresso-poached pear… I've made so many poached pears in my lifetime but have always done so using fruit juices, wines, or simple sugar syrups. This coffee thing is a Good Idea. Unlike my recent foray into fake-kissing girls on stage.
Love,
Miley.
June 9, 2010 @ 3:51 pm
Now that's a good-looking meal! I especially like the pear that looks like a Christmas pudding – neat!
June 9, 2010 @ 11:05 pm
Love a meal with a theme. It just brings everything together so well, esp when a seasonal ingredient is used as here.
June 9, 2010 @ 11:29 pm
Nice! Was thinking of going or their roast theme….
June 10, 2010 @ 10:42 am
Pearfogato! Haha! Oh I wish I didn't find that amusing but there's just no fighting it.
June 10, 2010 @ 10:30 pm
Juliana: we had a great night – it was all very yummy!
Miley: What's with the fake-kissing girls on stage thing and the skimpy clothing? You're only 17! Where are your parents? Go put some clothes on – and call me a prude but a white sheet and a pout do not count. Oh yeah, and coffee poached pears – excellent idea! More of that, and less of the bump and grind, thank you very much.
Bel: I am a sucker for cute things, so I loved the pear that looked like a Xmas pudding 😀
mademoiselle: I love a meal with a theme too! Particularly one where I don't have to choose anything and it just gets brought out to me.
Penny: Roast theme?! Is that going to be the next one? Oooh!
Conor: Pun lovers, unite! Let's not be ashamed of our tacky sense of humour any longer! We're punny, and we are not ashamed! :p
June 11, 2010 @ 11:46 am
I think my parents were too busy sewing the hooker-dominatrix costume for my nine year old sister to worry about me and my bump and grind. Don't tell anyone, but our last name was "Fame Whores" before we changed it to Cyrus.
Love,
Miley.
June 18, 2010 @ 1:57 pm
Hannah: who cares about food when we can pass scathing commentary on celebrities instead. 😉