Anniversary dinner

We celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary yesterday. Dinner was salad with flank steak, roasted sweet peppers and potatoes, red onion confit and shallot vinaigrette. The shallot vinaigrette is from a recipe in the June 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine. I crushed a garlic clove with salt and some anchovy paste in the salad bowl before adding the greens and dressing. It gives it a bit more kick.

I love having salad as a meal. The potatoes over the top idea comes from a brasserie called La Marmite on the corner of our street in Paris. They throw roasted garlic potatoes over all the salads they serve. In the mornings, on the corner sidewalk, there are always sacks and sacks of potatoes delivered to the door of La Marmite.

Anniversary dinner salad, before

Anniversary dinner salad, mid-meal

I decided a few days ago to bake a plum galette (free-form tart) for our dessert. We got married at the justice of the peace and afterward, friends attending the wedding were invited back to our place for a bite to eat. Jean-Francois makes a lovely apple tart and I asked if he could also make a plum tart for the guests. He sort of looked at me funny, but did so anyway. It was hit. I made this tart with a base of breadcrumbs, brown sugar and pecans. The base helps to soak up the juices of the fruit and keeps the crust from getting soggy. Again, an idea from Linda McCartney's cookbook On Tour. Very tasty!

Red plum galette with pecan and brown sugar base