One of the items on offer at the NFLA auction earlier this month was a wine dinner for 6 with all the trimmings. Chef Morgan Hart’s goal for this year’s auction dinner was to source ingredients locally to the greatest extent possible. This effort included not only taking advantage of the trout pond and gardens at HartsCore but also accepting generous donations from North Fork neighbors Lee Secrest, Molly Shepherd, Debo Powers. Morgan also visited local farms including Kalispell Kreamery and Farm to Market Pork as well as shopping at the Whitefish Farmer’s Market and Glacier Produce. The search for a locally sourced piglet was, however, thwarted.
The guests for the dinner arrived at the Hart’s early in the evening on Sunday the 25th and were greeted with sparkling spanish wine and local fave wrapped in prosciutto. Other delicious dishes included:
- Trotta in Saor: Fried HartsCore trout in a sweet and sour marinade with raisins, onions and pine nuts.
- Deconstructed fried zucchini flowers: fried zucchini flower chips, fried anchovy skeletons, fried caper berries, oil and pepperoncini soaked salt cured anchovy, small mozzarella balls, and cherry tomatoes on a skewer.
- Lasagna Verde a la Bolognese: Spinach pasta with beef ragu and béchamel.
- Lasagna Con le Verdure Locale: Egg pasta with HartsCore carrots, HartsCore and Secrest zucchini, and Flathead broccoli served with fresh tomato and pesto sauces.
- Porchettina: Boned and Stuffed Suckling Pig with North Fork Fritedda which is North Fork fava beans and peas sautéed with HartsCore onions in Big Horn Sheep stock.
- A roasted peach with home-made Kalispell Kreamery Crema Catalana ice cream.
And of course the wines were excellent as well. They included:
- Segura Viudas, Brut Cava, Torrelavit, Spain with the antipasti
- Castello Banfi, Brunello di Montalcino 1990, Montalcino, Italy with the lasagnas
- Chateau Leoville Las Cases, 1990, Saint-Julien, Bordeaux and Chateau Leoville Barton, 1990, Saint-Julien, Bordeaux with the main course.
- Monaste Passito di Pantelleria, 1990 with the dessert.
We want to say thank you to the Meekers for their generous donation towards the refinishing of the Hall floor as well as thank all the wonderful guests who came. We also want to thank all our neighbors and friends for the generous contributions from their gardens. Finally, we want to say a special thank you to Debo for helping with all the preparations and serving. We couldn’t have done it without her.
Here are a few choice photos:
More pictures of the shopping, preparation and dinner itself may be found at Mago Meal – North Fork 2013: Pictures.