Cheftastic

Boyfriend Matt and I both like to be in the kitchen. Matt prefers cooking; I like baking. He can invent recipes based on whatever we have in the fridge; I am a rigid-recipe follower. He is patient with his food; I get impatient whenever the smallest thing goes wrong. He cooks often and is always trying new things; my baking happens less often and when I do it, experimenting is rare (brownies from a box are much more likely).

A cool thing happened yesterday, though. We both made successful - and interesting - dishes! I guess this is not unusual for Matt, but since it's unsual for me it's blogworthy.

Matt made filet of sole wrapped around stuffing, perched on a bed of asparagus and topped with a beurre blanc sauce. The picture doesn't capture the presentation or deliciousness of the meal, but it gives you an idea.

For dessert, I made creme caramel. This creme caramel has been in the making for a week or so. I tried it once and scorched the caramel beyond edibility. I tried again and the caramel hardened too much. The third time, I was a bit more patient. Though the caramel hardened again, I kept it over low heat and stirred it for an extra ten minutes until most of the hard caramel bits were dissolved. The custard part took an especially long time to cook, 15 or 20 minutes more than the recipe called for. I forgot to grease the ramekins and was convinced that the dessert would be stuck forever, glued to the walls of the little cups. Thank God for Matt. He encouraged me many times: not to throw my pan of custard across the room, not to check the oven every 10 seconds, not to break down crying after splashing myself with hot caramel in a bit of a scraping the pan incident. Result? It worked! The dessert had to chill for a day in the fridge, and when we overturned it onto chilled plates last night, it looked almost perfect. It tasted damn good as well.


Not bad, right? Thanks to Matt, my kitchen resolutions are a) try new things, and b) don't panic when they go awry. :-) What should be next on the dessert menu?