Wow, what a day yesterday... Is it shameful that running pasta dough through a machine makes me nostalgic for my playdough days? I had so much fun cranking out the tagliatelle, watching the sun-yellow dough become smooth and paper-thin. I also made beetroot gnocchi, which would later be served in a horseradish, butter, and white wine sauce with pancetta and smoked eel. The little pillows came out soft as ever and went perfectly with the smokiness of the eel and pancetta. The tagliatelle was for a pork and lamb ragu, which we finished with a pat of butter, ricotta salata, and an orange pine-nut gremolata.
So, I ate all day again. But I also learned a lot of new things, like how to skin, debone, and prepare a smoked eel (which was the spitting image of those freaky wriggly ones from The Little Mermaid). I've never had smoked eel before, and I don't think it's something you can buy (at least easily) in the States. But it was so delicious, even just on its own. It's almost like a cross between tuna and mackerel-- oily and meaty, but really rich in hickory flavor. 
I also learned how to extract the meat from crabs, which was a lot tricker than I thought it would be. I've made the softshell ones before, but these were bigger and spiny and had all sorts of colorful guts to evade. By the end I finally got the technique down, though. I was happy to hear that the crab salad appetizer was our best selling starter the other night.
I can't wait until next week to get back in the kitchen again! Maybe I'll try to smuggle a couple eels back into the states when I go back... is that weird?
No comments:
Post a Comment