The catch of the day,one should never assume.

  “Assunção da Virgem” - Nicolas Poussin (1630-1632)

Yesterday we planned another dinner here at Casa Rosada as part of our ongoing gastronomy project.Working closely with Salmarim  we co-host the occasional gastronomy events, like our food bloggers weekend, a lunch on the salt pans and an evening where Michelin starred chefs cooked with us in our kitchen. Last night we had a guest Belgian chef  Fons Claes in the house and two Danish journalists who are writing a travel guide to the Algarve. Fons uses Salmarim products in his restaurant De Koerier Brasserie. The Danes wanted to visit the Salmarim salt pans and have a dinner at Casa Rosada ,so we thought we would combine the two parties for a dinner and Jorge from Salmarim would cook some Robalo (sea bass) in a salt crust.My contribution to the evening was my latest Gazpacho, pate ovos de bacalhau (smoked cods roe pate),Muxama rosemary and garlic roast potatoes, an Algarvian salad and to end the evening a honey and cardamom cheesecake with fresh figs. 

First of all there was a catch. It was the day after Asunçao de nossa senora (The Assumption) and there was no fish to be had in the market, as not only had the holiday fallen on a Monday but the fishing boats had not been out on the holiday.We had wrongly made the assumption that there would be fish in the market.Jorge to the rescue and contacted Atlantikfish our local fish farm here in Castro Marim and head honcho Andre arranged for our own special catch ready to be picked up in the afternoon.our dinner was saved and could go ahead as planned.

  and when all was said and done...i guess we all enjoyed it