I made seafood paella for dinner last night. Or what I think is seafood paella because I can’t quite remember how paella tastes like. It didn’t turn out so well.
I didn’t cook the carnaroli rice long enough before adding the seafood, resulting in us having to eat wet paella and over-cooked seafood. Orso, I burnt the rice at the bottom of the pan so the poor pan is undergoing a major soaking exercise.
As part of the prep work for the paella, I roasted red peppers in the oven (which I forgot to use in the end…*darn*). I now know that red peppers roasting in the oven produce delightful smells.
For starters, we had insalata caprese. The plum tomatoes were good but the buffalo mozzarella that I bought this time didn’t seem to have much flavour to it. (According to Wiki, insalata caprese is also known as a Tricolore salad due to its three colors, which mimic the Italian flag).
Thinking that we needed more vegetables, I also made a mesclun salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing.
The chocolate mousse turned out decently. Light and not-too-sweet as it was made with mostly bittersweet chocolate and egg white – the recipe didn’t call for heavy cream.
Have to try making the paella again someday. Can’t expect to get it right the first time.
