June 17, 2026 Bramble & Hare
Have to visit them once the spring harvest is in full swing and wow! what a dinner they’re doing tonight!
Tonight’s menu. They are not making it easy! Well, not quite true, with a porcini mushroom appetizer we already know what Martin (the hobbit) is going to have.
Here’s what came in from the farm today.
Martin’s appetizer, Porcini & Asparagus Soup. This just about stole the show! They spread the porcini as a dust on top. It gives quite a punch, but doesn’t overwhelm the asparagus. Martin says he wins on this one. There’s some spice to the dish from their house made chili oil
Bill’s appetizer, Duck Confit sprinkled with sesame seeds and accompanied by well brown or even blackened chickpeas and a few flowers from the farm. This was good, but not quite as good as the soup.
Tonight’s wine is Domain Santa Duc’s Aux Lieux-Dits. Their description:
PERSONALITY :Fruit driven, with fine herbaceous notes in its youth, it generally undergoes a slow evolution towards more spicy notes after several years’ cellaring.
was right on. This was a really fruit forward wine, with a bit of spiciness.
Their wonderful sourghdough bread, made from grain raised on the farm. The butter was a bit different, very lightly herbed instead of the usual bold notes.
Martin’s dessert was the Dark Chocolate Gâteau.
The chocolate has a hard shell over a cake filling and just wow! this was CHOCOLATE! A little bit of cookie on the bottom adds some nice crunch. There was even just a touch of lime in the chocolate and that pushed this dish over the top!
The coconut is the very stiff gel on the left side and it really doesn’t contribute to the dish that much, since it’s not really coconut forward and it was simply too stiff.
We both had the Tunis Lamb Strudel for the main course. Martin forgot to get a picture of the shared vegetable plate, the artichoke hearts from it were meltingly delicate and they were dressed with a light oil and vinegar dressing. We just wish we could do a dressing that light and acidic, crisp and clear at home. The carrots on the shared plate were bigger and more carroty than anything you can imagine.
The lamb is falling apart tender, the pastry crust is a really crispy and just an amazing compliment to the lamb. The farm tomatoes are as ripe as you could possibly get them without getting mushy. Chef Skokan finished the dish at table with a pour of a bit of red wine au jus that had been reduced to a syrup. The basil leaves added just the bit of brightness needed.
Bill’s dessert was the Farmstead Custard.
Bill’s fruit and cream dessert is exactly that - a variety of fruits and a custard cream. It is quite tasty but not easy to describe because of the numerous different and sometimes competing flavors of the fruits. We tied on this one, they both worked, but in very different ways.