Friday, July 20, 2012

culinary perfection - hear me when i come

For the first time I can ever remember, I cooked something that was *perfect* - I would not change a thing. I am at peace, full of bliss, ecstatically satisfied.





I often eat in front of my computer (woe is me, yadda yadda, the joys of living a solo existence). Tonight I sat down here, with blaring dubstep/drumstep on. I took a bite. I turned down the music. I took another bite. I got up, left the room, went to the living room where things are quiet and calm and rather bland. I took another bite, I closed my eyes, I tried to eat slowly. Culinary bliss.

I swear this is not hyperbole. If I ever made this again - which I want to do (for obvious reasons), but don't want to do (because I don't think I can ever recreate the experience, nor do I want to diminish its meaning) - I wouldn't change a thing. I VERY rarely feel that way about anything I make. And that's ok too. That's part of what I love about cooking; it's a process, a journey of constant learning, like life. That's part of why I keep this (and my other less-organized) cooking journals. So I can adapt, alter, strive for that perfect balance, without ever reaching it. This was so perfectly balanced....so....perfectly expressive of its ingredients. It's like - I just finished a wine course (WSET Advanced level, and by "just" I mean 2 months ago but I'm still waiting for my results) - and when judging a wine's quality part of it is it's balance, but part is also its ability to express that particular grape or regions character. This pasta reminds me of that. Because yes, it was sweet, tangy, earthy, fresh, creamy, toothsome, meaty. The combination of browned (slightly accidentally overcooked) garlic, browned (slightly accidentally overcooked) butter, and chewy/crispy balsamic carmelized shallots, with the sauteed morels and shiitakes was like...heaven... like (I imagine) fresh truffles would be. Combined with the sweet crunchy corn and sweet creamy creme fraiche, with bursts of fresh, grassy parsley...well, its the best thing I ever ate.




I know its a bit unsavoury to post about something that is pretty much identical to another blogger's recipe. However, I *LOVE* dashandbella.blogspot.ca Her writing, photography, realness, approach to parenting, stream-of-consciousness style writing. Its all so beautiful. And I've been dreaming about making this dish ever since I first came across it. No matter that corn + pasta sounded so strange to me at first. In fact, it was this blog that first prompted me to make creme fraiche (so easy, SOOOO delicious!)

My chopping and prepping was done with this ragga mix on (god I love king of the bongo). I went to Skrillex last week and it. was. sick. LOVING the reggae/dubstep thing he's got going on. Wow, there's a lot of love in the this post. I think that's a good thing :)


I could have feasted on just the sauteed shallots/garlic/mushrooms.

The pasta almost seemed superfluous. But tied everything together.


And now I'm making raspberry jam.

1 comment:

  1. omfg. i love this post! you made my night.
    phyllis (dash and bella)

    ReplyDelete