Perfection of any party or anniversary celebration is measured without a doubt by the quality of the invitees, and the products served to celebrate the event.

We had yet another anniversary, this one, we celebrated in a very “minor” fashion: Just us and one more guest a dear friend of old, 3 people enjoying a perfect company with some food and excellent wine to accompany the occasion.

A celebration always calls for Champagne and we opted for Roederer Cristal 2004 (55% Pinot Noir 45% Chardonnay), the one to suit our “humble” niblets :

         

Royal Beluga Caviar on home made Potato Blinis,

                 

Best of Scottish smoked salmon and Crème fraîche,

     

Pâté de Foie Gras with Black truffles, Fresh figs and homemade fig confiture and butter Brioche.

All of these, took us into a realm of delight and joy which could only be described by the ease and delight in which they were consumed.

As the large black eggs of the Huso Huso (the  scientific name for the Beluga or European Sturgeon), kept popping between our teeth were washed down by the wonderful yet slightly young Cristal , with its light straw golden colour and delicate small bubbles with a whiff of freshly baked bread nose, and elegant perfumes of citrus, and fresh red apple. On the palate, high acidity intensifying the fresh fruits and a red grapefruit finish, Elegant fresh but young.  We spoiled ourselves with three of the world’s most prized and exclusive luxury foods and wine.

The niblets went quite a long way, much longer than the one bottle of Champagne and so we opted to leave aside some of the champagne for a final toast and opened a more mature white Bourgogne, a Meursault Les Chevalieres Jean–Philippe Fichet 1996, with it’s golden colour of deep yellow center with clear rims and complex nose, still lively with its distinctive minerally and notes of herbs and marmalade of citrus. At it’s 17^th year of age it was still fresh with now with a complexity that evolved with time. The palate was fruity with flavours of tangerine, apricots and apples touches and a lovely nutty, touches with lemon marmalade and pear touches as well as herby vegetable characters. A really beautiful nose, Very intense and roasted nuts flavours with buttery toast notes. The high intensity nose offered rich almost tropical fruit scent.

As expected, the wine was quite ripe and rich in the mouth. However, it also showed nice acidity to keep it in balance and provide length. It had good complexity showing an evolution of almost a fine red wine in its complexity and structure.

Genuine caviar refers to Beluga (Huso huso), Osetra—with two Osetra varieties, Russian (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) and Persian Osetra (Acipenser persicus)—and Sevruga (Acipenser slellatus). All three types of sturgeon originate in the Caspian Sea. (from Wikipedia)

The Caspian Sea’s Beluga sturgeon lives predominantly in the wild and only a small number can be caught from the Sea annually, making it an extremely rare product. (and that is exactly what was served to the joy of all present. (BTW some delicacies should be served and shared only within a small group of consumers 3 is perfect!!) …and that refers to our Caviar and the Champagne.

We finished the Party eating the “left overs” of our niblets with eggs and coffee for breakfast the next morning. Delightful!!!

Real Potato Blinis recipe: (from Chef Israel Aharoni)

         

2 Large potatos cooked and smoothly pureed

3 eggs

1 cup (200grs) self raising flour

3-4 spoons of (sweet) whipping cream

salt and freshly ground pepper

a bit of ground nutmeg

Butter for frying

Puree the potatos with some of the cream until smooth, add the rest of cream, flour, eggs, salt pepper and nutmeg to reach a smooth mixture if too thick add a bit of cream (it should resemble a pancake mix), butter your frying pan well make small rings  8cm diameter, fry on both sides till golden with brown spots, serve warm.