5 Course Harmony
I was thinking as I drove in this morning…
I want to share everything with you…
As clearly as I possibly can,
But I can’t.
For one, not everyone is a fan of being included as examples in this conversation, so I have to be careful when I share experiences and thoughts that I don’t give too much away about individuals. I want to respect the privacy of those closest to me and those who work with me and those who share with me. So that is why sometimes I have to generalize at times when a specific example might be most useful.
Second, I only have two or three pages per day (less the funky spacing ;-), so I can’t share EVERYTHING that is in my head at once. And, when I do, it comes across as a laundry list of incoherent thought.
SO…
We’ll keep going one conversation at a time, and make the best of it!
You always do make me smile…
There are two things in my life that I feel unusually comfortable with… my ability to DANCE and my ability to COOK.
I think perhaps there is a similarity in both.
In both as in “life”, you have to proceed with confidence, knowing that if you make a bad step or use too much of one ingredient, you can almost always get the groove right back and make the forget the momentary lapse in rhythm.
(This is easier in dancing than in cooking, because in cooking the taste sometimes lingers ;-)
Anyway, we will have to explore cooking and dancin’ more in the future.
This weekend we had some good friends who are our neighbors over for dinner. I am ambitious sometimes. I realize that we don’t do the “dinner” thing too often, so I decided to make a 5 course meal (plus dessert). I didn’t fully realize at the time that making a 5 course meal, is A LOT like making 5 individual dinners.
As often happens, life got in the way of my initial schedule, but thanks to my lovely wife, we had procured all of the ingredients we needed by Friday night.
I had a great night on Friday cooking. My boys helped some which is always a treat, I had some music playing… but the night wore on, and hours after everyone went to sleep the cooking continued.
I really enjoyed cooking, in that, I really appreciate this crew of friends. They are a sophisticated and lovely bunch that has been treating us with wonderful holiday parties and just general personal warmth of now 11 years that we have lived nearby.
Here was our chance to show them a special night.
When people come to dinner at our house, I don’t want to FEED them. I want to INSPIRE them. I want them to know that they INSPIRE us!
It doesn’t have to be over the top (though I was trying to make this dinner a little over the top). It just has to be special.
Light the candles…
Play some music…
Eat in the dining room that awaits to be used…
Cook something different…
Whatever… just make it special…
I truly find that you can make any dinner special, just by taking an extra moment and placing the food on a better plate, and putting a small decorative touch…
All of a sudden its not just “food”, its “a thoughtful moment”.
Anyway… we had 10 people come over, and the crowd was lively. We watched football, drank Pisco Sours (national Peruvian drink). I had made traditional and passion fruit because ofcourse one wasn’t enough ;-)
The boys (my sons) ended up sitting at the table with us, which was a treat. They are old enough now to participate in the conversation, but more than anything I love that they share a sense of pride in opening up our home and sharing a meal, and they do participate more in the conversation.
So, we did the scallops in parmesan, then the ceviche, then the escabeche (fish), then the aji de gallina, then the lomo al seco. The boys would help me decorate the dishes and then we would bring them out.
People were enjoying the meal. We were able to leverage the new music system that we got for the holidays.
It was a special meal, and I was a little taken back not just by how appreciative and complimentary our friends were, but by how much my boys absorbed it. My littlest guy was having a blast decorating the dishes and passing them out. I could feel his pride in his smile.
You know me.
I am a pain in the *ss! I know what was good and what wasn’t. And, there was a lot of good that night.
But, nothing is perfect. And, I am ok with that! (Except maybe my flan ;-)
The parmesan scallops were the best that I have ever made. I used the small toaster oven to use a more direct heat, and that worked. But, I bought a new type of parmesan that was cut large and I had a little too much cheese to scallop ratio, which made some of the dishes too salty.
The ceviche was good, and the fish was a little firmer than usual, so in the perfect world I would have let it marinate in the lime for another hour or two.
The escabeche was good, and I should have given everyone a little more onion (that is the special part) and I forgot to pull out the “living” lettuce that I was going to put the fish in a nested leave. My bad.
The aji de gallina was good. No real mods there.
The beef! OH the beef! The beef was terrible! WAY overcooked! The sauce that the beef was in is this concentrated cilantro sauce that was very good, and the rice with the fresh Peruvian corn and peas was solid. I actually sautéed the corn and the peas with the cilantro infused rice, and then through on some additional cilantro puree right before serving. It worked.
But, no one said the beef was overcooked ;-( Obviously, I didn’t expect anyone to, but I would have had NO issue had anyone made that remark. In fact, I would have appreciated it. It would have made all of the other comments more valuable, because it would have increased the level of candor and truth.
The dessert… my flan always makes me laugh. I have never cooked dessert in my life really, and this was my second flan ever. And, there is something about making flan that entertains me. You can’t screw it up. I used a blended recipe, I screwed up the caramelized sugar, and still the darn thing came out WONDERFULLY. I should post a picture. I poured blackberries on top, and it was a great finish to the meal.
It was a wonderful night. Lingering at the table listening to music… sharing some quality time with friends. It was a lot of work, and a lot of fun. As, it should be.
The beef was way overcooked. I know that, and its ok.
Next time, I will make the sauce and cook the beef separately, and drop the beef in at the final minute.
That’s harmony.
It doesn’t have to be ‘without flaw” to be a “perfect” night.
It doesn’t have to be “without flaw” to be an inspired night.
It needs to be intentional.
It needs to be deliberate and thoughtful.
It needs to be authentic to who you are…
My wife said, not everyone is “ok” with someone telling them that the “beef is too tough”. I get that, and I agree. And, I should have stated it out loud.
Sometimes I don’t because people feel like I am being overly critical.
Sometimes I don’t because people feel like I am being ungrateful for the compliments…
But friends, THIS IS such a delicate reality of harmony…
There are those that tell us ONLY that the beef is tough, and we don’t like those people.
There are those that tell us that the dish was perfect, and we don’t believe those people.
And, then there are those that tell us that the dish was delicious and the beef could have been a little less done…
And, those are the people that make us better versions of ourselves.
Life and harmony are about balance… and “perfection” doesn’t require everything to be perfect..
It just requires that you linger at the table, hold hands with those you love, and take the in the moments. I felt the pride of my boys and the gratitude of my friends and the warmth of our home. On Saturday night, I felt blessed and in the most wonderful kind of harmony.
Life is the ULTIMATE multi-course meal…
Cook with confidence with love and inspiration…
Yours in harmony,
Nestor