Styles Of Cooking: Turning A Kitchen Disaster Into A Specials Board Success

Wednesday 27 January 2016

Turning A Kitchen Disaster Into A Specials Board Success

I have realised that my mind constantly churns for several hours each day about new, and enticing, dishes for The Nook.
As well as scouring the internet for recipes I always try to think outside the box for new ideas.
This week my mind is filled with pate flavours!!
The various vegetable pates I often have, on the ever changing menu, are always popular so I thought I'd attempt a tomato based one for our new, Italian themed menu.
I think I knew straight away it wasn't going to work but I persevered to see what happened.
I used the same method as my other recipes and sweated off chopped red onion and garlic in tons of butter! Then I added chopped tomato, basil and tomato puree.

Caprese Style Sauce Ingredients in Pan

At this point I maybe should have reduced the moisture in the mixture more but I rushed the process and added chopped Buffalo Mozzarella to the pan only for the mixture to go stringy and start sticking to the pan.
Sometimes I kick myself for not having any patience but I still carried on with the mixture and whizzed it in the processor with a little cream cheese, salt and pepper.
It all went into the fridge then, and I prayed for a miracle!!

Unfortunately the miracle of setting into a pate when cold didn't happen and I was left with a semi solid sauce that tasted gorgeous!
My mind went into overdrive thinking in what way I could use the sauce and then I had eureka moment based on a dish I served many months ago.

Into the oven went 2 Portobello mushrooms with Italian Taleggio cheese tucked in the top while I toasted some sourdough, which I then topped with some of the warm sauce. When the Taleggio was melted I put the mushrooms on top of the sourdough.

The waitresses' mouths were watering so I let then taste the trial dish and asked for their verdict.