Sometimes the best food is the food someone cooks for you!

There hasn't been much interesting going on in my kitchen lately. It's busy at work and busy at home and its the time of year when I revert simple, easy, boring food. But thank God for ambitious friends!
Everyone needs a friend like Coral. Coral has found some interesting recipes lately. Coral wants to try them out. Coral calls me up like I would be doing her a favour by coming over and letting her try out some new recipes. Like the martyr I am, I say yes, Yes, YES! Green Coconut Curry soup with scallops and shrimp makes up the first course.
I go a little cuckoo for scallops - the succulent little pillowy morsels of rich sweet flesh make me groan with pleasure.

I remember once, long ago, coaching Coral for her first trip to the east coast of Canada. Like lots of people growing up on the prairie, she was a little nervous about eating seafood because the only thing we ever had growing up was frozen fish sticks and nasty canned or frozen shrimp. I had only discovered the joys of fresh seafood the year before on my first trip out east, so I passed along my newly found passion for Digby scallops and made her promise to at least try them when she was down there. As far as I can tell, she's never looked back since!

Oh, yeah - and the soup was damn tasty too. Not too spicy, with a hint of lemongrass. Veggies still crunchy. Yum.

Main course - Chicken breast stuffed with prosciutto and cheese, scalloped potatoes, and green salad with walnuts and blue cheese.
The chicken was coated in a tortilla chip breading, which made a lovely crunchy crust which contrasted nicely with the molten cheese and tender prosciutto within.

On an aside - I'm finding corn flour makes mighty tasty breading. My personal favourite lately has been corn flour with crushed pepitas with Mexican oregano as a breading for pan-fried fish. But I digress....

Dessert - Molten Chocolate and Espresso Fondants

These little lava cakes were OUT OF CONTROL. I don't know if any of you have ever had this experience, but this dessert reached out and punched me right in the face with the crazy flavour and texture! Then, just as I was trying to recover - another sucker punch to my taste buds! This dessert made me YELP right at the table!

Seriously. I'm not the hugest chocolate freak out there, but this was incredibly decadent. The almost-bitterness of the dark chocolate and espresso were offset so nicely by the cappucino ice cream. I couldn't finish the whole thing because it was so deliciously rich.

MMMMmmm. Molten.

This meal will give me the strength to make it through the craziness of December. And any spare moments will probably be consumed with thinking about how I can repay this meal!

Thanks, Chris and Coral, for a fantastic feast and good times!