Tuesday night - Pave d'Espadon Grille, Cannelloni de Crab et Vinaigrette Tiede au Coriandre
We had only a single practical - grilled swordfish steak (marinated in ginger, garlic and pepper first) with crab and leek cannelloni, pea puree and warm coriander (cilantro) vinaigrette. Late start (6pm) so I had time to meet a friend for coffee, channel ET and call home, stationary shopping to get some supplies and find holiday cards that don't all say Christmas on them and fill out part of my Cuisine portfolio - although I'll have to check the numbers because I was falling asleep while I did them.
It's the first time I've made pasta dough in a while. The last few times we've made it, it was in pairs and somehow my partner usually ended up making the pasta while I did other stuff. I was glad to do it again, although I missed Chef EB's ninja move during demo when he put in a teeny tiny bit of oil. I couldn't figure out why dough was so dry...and when I checked, he told me to start again. Drat! On the other hand, I'll never make this mistake again because, as he said, I felt the pain. There was also a minor incident with my stove - somehow the burners were reversed (the hot one wasn't getting hot, the cool side was so hot the cooktop was white) - and I ended up burning my leeks for the cannelloni stuffing so I had to re-do that one as well. Still, I finished on time. The others finished a bit earlier but some of them worked in pairs and another one didn't mess up her dish, so it could have been worse. It could have been better too.
I thought I had been quite careful about the amount of cayenne pepper I put in my crab / leek stuffing. Um, not quite careful enough. It's a slow burn and initially Chef said it was a bit too spicy - then it really hit the back of his palate. I hate to see a grown man almost cry - and I have never seen it happen over my cooking. So sad that they weren't tears of bliss...the pasta ended up fine even though I had some concerns over how dry it looked. No longer intimidated by making fresh pasta on my own, or using a pasta machine on my own either. There's a bit of hands crossing over each other to feed the dough in and to collect it out the bottom bit, but pianists deal with considerably more difficult coordination so this is humanly possible.
Anyway - it wasn't horrible. Actually, Chef said it was good today - but maybe because he saw that I was a little bummed out that it wasn't that great. Still, except for the too much pepper thing, the other comments were little things. They add up but for the moment, I think I might make an acceptable home cook.
So until next time - may the tears you (or the grown man next to you) be because they are so happy and not because the food is too hot.
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