Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Paella - the verdict

Yes, the book is called The Body is the Barometer of the Soul. It contains pearles of wisdom such as "Sore hips? Consider your relationship with your father" and "Sluggish digestion? Maybe you should be letting go of old regrets" and my personal favourite "Smelly feet? This may be due to lack of intimacy with your partner. Shower together as a way to grow closer and save water."

Yes, we all left dinner a little wiser.


The Review

I like food, a lot. And I've eaten quite a bit of it in my time. Most of it tastes good, but usually much like something I had last week/month/at an ethnic wedding. This was super yum, and unique. Smokey....tomatoey....not fishy but marinesque somehow. Great textures, popping peas, smooth rice and creamy onion-ness.

The biggest compliment I can give it is that I've never liked mussels before. ever. I ate them all. Plus prawns: heads, brains, shells, spindly legs included. Crunchy and aromatic and somehow disturbing, but fun. Queen of prawns indeed. Superb effort Joel.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Paella - farewell queen of prawns


A dinner to farewell a dear friend as she embarked on a future with no script.
Paella, a fitting farewell.

Oil and salt produced sweet, translucent diced onion and garlic. End of season de-seeded tomatoes were added together with smoky roasted red peppers and lemon wedges. Sweet paprika created a red background to which the real star of the dish was added, saffron, the stigmas of which had been infused in shellfish stock. Rice came next with more of the salty stock and parsley stalks offset the intense orange sunset filling the pan.

As the rice reached al-dente, fresh green peas bounced their way into the steaming pan. And then came the sea creatures: mussels, prawns and baby squid all played a part in lifting a pan of rice into a pièce de résistance.

Parsley to garnish and lemon wedges to serve.

At the table we had a iron woman with quads of steel, a Irish fly-in and out (four hours in Melbourne are always best spent eating in order to avoid 3,500 feet hunger pangs), a guy that can't be trusted in the presence of a smoke machine, a young lady with executive power and Jessamy, the original HLB.
Good luck with the horses, the grizzly bears, the maple syrup and the cowboys.
Verdict to follow.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Paella

Saffron.

Covered the streets of Rome to welcome the triumphant return of the Emperor Nero.

Enjoyed at Roman orgies as a broth to ensure Venus, the goddess of love, could be worshipped, energetically.

The colour of choice for Buddhas robes.

And most importantly, the founding flavour of the Paella.

A dinner party with only one course. Paella.

Sunday 30 March 2010. 7pm.

To reserve a seat at the table, email me globalgobbler@gmail.com