Vegetarian Dinner at the White House

President and Mrs. Obama hosted their first state dinner this evening, for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India. He's been a strict vegetarian all his life, so the menu was a bit of a change from the Bush years. According to CNN,

The first course will be a potato and eggplant salad made with White House-grown arugula and accompanied by an onion-seed vinaigrette. Red lentil soup with fresh cheese follows, and then a choice of entrees: roasted potato dumplings with tomato chutney, chickpeas and okra for vegetarians, or green curry prawns and caramelized salsify with smoked collard greens.

Dessert will be pumpkin pie tart or pear tatin with whipped cream and caramel sauce. Each course is paired with its own wine, all of American vintage.

Nobody has recipes, but the pear tatin looks very much like one of Dominique's favorite desserts. The Washington Post blog has a nice writeup, with more details about the chef.

I just had dinner an hour ago, but now I feel hungry again.