Birthday Ladies' Lunch with Salmon Coulibiac

What’s a girl to do as she gets older and birthdays come round with dreary reliability?

Arrange a Ladies’ Lunch for a dozen or so gals and give herself something to look forward to, that’s what!


Strawberries in Lindt chocolate and Ashgrove cream... hello love handles

On Wednesday, my Other Half took off to the aquatic centre to cut a dash in his Speedos in front of the posh ladies of Launceston and to occupy Smudge.

And at midday the ladies started turning up. The dress code was sparkles and diamante, tassels and pearls. It was lovely to see them turning up in their finery. Instead of the usual gumboots and jeans, there was a sequined bolero, a vintage bunny fur jacket from someone’s nana, quite a lot of bling and several tiaras borrowed from daughters, and one wedding tiara too. Not a common sight here in rural parts.


The lady optician wore falsies – eyelashes, that is. And all agreed it would be a good look for her at work. Despite all this, I’m afraid we were outshone by lunch, thanks to Steve Cumper's splendid Salmon Coulibiac.

Steve is the chef and owner of the Red Velvet Lounge on Mary Street, Cygnet, down in the south of Tasmania. He was also the winner of Country Style magazine’s Country Chef of the Year award last year and has published twelve months’ of scrumptious recipes in the magazine.

I’ve made his Salmon Coulibiac a couple of times now and consider it a winning addition to my repertoire. It’s not too difficult to make yet looks spectacular. It doesn’t require outlandish ingredients, but shows off one of Tasmania’s best.

Steve showcased it in the December 2010 issue as the main dish in his Christmas lunch. I made it for a Boxing Day party with guests, along with his brilliant Christmas Pudding ice cream – simply crumble a pud into a tub of vanilla ice cream, mix and re-freeze until you’re ready for it. What a wonderful Christmassy pudding for a hot country!


Salmon Coulibiac with spinach, salmon mousse and poppy seeds

Back to the Birthday Ladies’ Lunch. The coulibiac made an impression on emerging from the oven, and again when served in pretty pink wedges. I made Steve’s creamy sauce with leeks from the garden, instead of onion, and served it with freshly steamed green beans. I also offered a jar of my Other Half’s delicious mayonnaise made with our own home-laid Barnevelder eggs.

Since it’s not a heavy lunch dish there was still room for pudding – hurrah! We kept it light with a lemon and lime sorbet. It started out brown as I used raw sugar instead of caster sugar, but came good when the egg whites were blended into it – tangy and fresh on the palate.

Oh, and there were also two plates of chocolate coated strawberries, which were noticeably hogged by two ladies in particular. I won’t name names. You know who you are.

It has been hard to do the ‘diet starts tomorrow’ thing, as several ladies kindly brought chocolate too as gifts. I do like this French tradition. There were also flowers, lots of cards, and a television brooch made by the lovely Rose Vears of Tasmania, proceeds to Save the Children.

It was such a lovely day. It had crossed my mind that cooking for a dozen on my birthday might not turn out to be such a good idea on the day. How wrong can a lady be? Lovely food, wonderful company, and blessings galore!