I have a dream. It's not quite as profound as Martin Luther King's. To be honest it's not even as profound as Abba's. I dream simply that one day Lolz will give a pasta dish a 9/10. I'm not that greedy - I don't need a 10 - just a score which elevates one of these dishes above the level of mediocrity. I'd even take an 8 to be honest. But I'm running out of time and recipes - just four pasta dishes separate me from now and the end of the year.
Today's pasta dish did at least had one thing going for it - it looked very different to your average pasta/sauce combo, different even to the average 15 minute pasta meal. I would be breaking out the bamboo steamer - a piece of kit which was "procured" specifically for this challenge but up to now has only be broken out once, for the not entirely successful coconut buns. In it I would be steaming some fish (yum) and scallops (fancy) to be served with spaghetti and home made pesto (foolproof). Sounds good...
My main concern was whether the steamer would actually be an effective means of cooking the fish - the problem with the aforementioned coconut buns was that they were undercooked. I bought two haddock fillets which weighed in at just under the recommended 400g, but with the scallops, could barely fit in the steamer. Secondly, although the individual elements of the dish sounded good, would they go well together? Pasta tends to work best when you can just chop everything small and mix together - with a big fillet of fish and scallops that's not really possible.
I needn't have worried - the fish was well (perhaps even slightly over) cooked and when added to the pasta it flaked apart so that it all went quite well together. That's not to say it was a complete success though - the scallops were probably a bit unnecessary and although the pesto is nice, I felt it was lacking something to really take it to the next level. Lolz also made the comment that it was a bit dry - probably needed an extra splash of cooking water.
Lolz gave the dish 7/10 (I felt it deserved an extra mark due to a remarkable lack of mess in the kitchen, but she wouldn't budge). Difficulty rating 3/10.
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