‘Quintessentially American’ meal to be served at state dinner
Guests at the White House state dinner honoring China’s president Wednesday night will be served a “quintessentially American” meal, capped with none other than apple pie.
The first course features a D’Anjou pear salad with farmstead goat cheese, fennel, black walnuts and white balsamic dressing, according to the White House.
It will be followed by a course of poached Maine lobster — accompanied by a canapé of fresh seafood including shrimp from Ipswich Bay, Mass., and smoked rainbow trout from Idaho — with orange glaze carrots and black trumpet mushrooms. It will be paired with a 2008 “Russian River” Dumol Chardonnay.
Following a lemon sorbet, the main course is highlighted by a dry aged rib eye with buttermilk crisp onions, double stuffed potatoes and creamed spinach, paired with a 2005 “Columbia Valley” Quilceda Creek Cabernet, a “top-ranking vintage from Washington state,” according to the first lady’s office.
For dessert, guests will be served old-fashioned apple pie with vanilla ice cream. The dessert will also feature honey harvested last summer from the White House grounds and will be paired with a 2008 “Botrytis” Poet’s Leap Riesling.
The White House Kitchen Garden supplied thyme, rosemary and sage used for sauce reductions and other elements of the meal. Other ingredients came from The Chef’s Garden, a family-run business based in Huron, Ohio.