Busy Saturdays and dinner parties
This last Saturday we had company over for dinner. Aidan and Finn ran around and exhausted each other while I ran a marathon in the kitchen. Piet, his wife (and their son), brought over some excellent gravlax and sauce. I made some sourdough pumpernickel bread. This was my first time making pumpernickel, it was surprising that so few stores have pumpernickel flour. I tried Ukrops, Krogers, The Fresh Market, and Elwood Thompson's. As a last attempt, I tried the organic section of the Ukrops by my house. They had a small bag of dark rye flour, this is not pumpernickel flour, but it was really close, and closer then anything I had found. The addition of coffee and the molasses from the brown sugar made a very dark crust, and a deep, rich colored crumb. 
Next was a little kitchen science. This was my first attempt at the elBulli staple: Liquid Pea Ravioli. This is a simple mixture of peas, mint, and two chemicals, topped with a tiny mint leaf and a bit of sea salt. This was interesting, the texture of the peas is much thicker then the fruit juice mixtures I've been doing. It took a little experimenting to get a clean release from the spoon, but once that was solved, we had a handful of pea ravioli to munch on.During this entire time, we were sipping miscellaneous drinks. We had carbonated Bombay Sapphire Gin, foamy absinthe mojitos, and passionfruit whisky sours with passionfruit foam. The mojitos were made in the soda siphon, and the passionfruit foam was made in the gourmet whip. We broke up the red wine and white wine for dinner.
I had been rolling and cutting pasta all afternoon. The KitchenAid attachment makes this so easy. If you like to make pasta, I highly recommend the attachments. No hand cranking, variable speeds and size settings. I've rolled pasta by hand, without the aid of a crank machine, and they all produce the same quality, but the amount of work involved in making the pasta is minimal with the automated tools. Once the pasta was rolled and cut, it rested for a few hours in the refrigerator. Next up was more food prep. Pancetta and bacon from Belmont Butchery. The smell of cured and smoky pork. Mmmmmmmmm.This was sauteed in white wine, then tossed with the hot pasta with eggs, parmegianno reggiano, pecorino romano, and garlic. More commonly known as Pasta alla Carbonara. This was accompanied with some sundreid tomato, basil, and parmigiano sourdough bread. We had a fresh heirloom tomato and olive oil topping for the bread. The pasta cooked in two minutes and thirty seconds, one of the nice things about fresh pasta.
I had a intermediate course planned, but we were all full from dinner. I'll discuss this down at the bottom of the post.For dessert, we had a chocolate tart with caramel and peanuts. This was my second recipe from the Baking with Dorie cookbook. This came out very well. I made ti a few hours before company arrived, and have been enjoying it for dessert each night this week.
The skipped course. I was planning on sfering some cantaloupe and serving it with prosciutto. Sunday night, amid the thunderstorms, I was in the kitchen. Like Dr. Frankenstein, I was making something come to life as the lightning struck around me. Drip Drip Drip Drip. One by one, droplets of melon were going into a waterbath and being transformed into melon caviar. I've made fruit caviar a few times, and I have the technique down.
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The pea ravioli was amazing. First thought would be that it would be like a ball of pea paste. The only way I can describe the consistency would be a ball of mercury. Jiggling without coming apart. the taste was delicate reminding me of an amuse bouche in a fine restaurant leaving you wanting more.
The gravlax I made would not have come off so well if it wasn't for the bread. The cured wild king salmon and the honey mustard dill worked together but for some odd reason I added coffee to the sauce and you added it to the bread. Couldn't have been planned better! And it wasn't!
I know I couldn't handle all that!!
The sourdough pumpernickel looks grand. I really enjoyed Mary's that we made and my husband must love it because he asks for he now.
Gosh, I never tried pumpernickle - that fact just amazed even me! But yours looks soooo good I have to make a point to now, thanks!
That carbonara pic is making me so hungry! Even though it is 9 AM ;) So, I've only had homemade pasta a couple times. My experience is that it has generally been chewier - not al dente - but chewy. Were they doing it wrong or it that how it is supposed to be and I just don't know from good pasta?