First day at the fish station (poissonier)- check! We had two dishes to make- the scallops in a butternut squash puree with pomegranates, brussel sprouts, and pomegranate-reduced glaze along with the saffron gnocchi with chorizo and mussels. Both dishes are extremely tasty, so I don’t know which one I would choose as my favorite. Yesterday, Pandora and I got the low down on how to create each dish from Lashandra.
For the gnocchi dish, you first make the gnocchi! G-d I love those little potato balls so much that all day I was popping them in my mouth (no, technically I wasn’t allowed to) as though they were little M&M’s on a coffee table. While I was making the gnocchi, Pandora was dealing with the mussels and chorizo. Once someone places an order for gnocchi , we wait for the chef to call fire. Once we hear the word “fire”, we begin to assemble the dish. Everything is prepped beforehand, so all we have to do is a little dance and bamn the dish is off to the costumer. In the pan goes the mussel stock with some pieces of chorizo and chorizo oil. You throw a big handful and then some of gnocchi in the water to cook. Once the gnocchi floats to the top, you add it to the mussel stock. Then you add eight or so mussels- let it heat up a little, add one mussel shell. Plate the whole thing- add a parsley leaf and that’s all she wrote. Easy, yet full of tons of flavor.
The second dish is the scallops with butternut squash puree, brussel sprouts, pomegranate reduction and seeds. I worked on the butternut squash puree.. At first, mine was a little too soupy because I thought chef said to pour the whole quart of milk that was infused with the sage, but apparently I misunderstood. Not to fret- I didn’t ruin it at all. We just added more butternut to the puree to thicken it. Not only was I popping gnocchi in my mouth like an addict, but I also was slicking the butternut squash puree off my spatula like a crazy person. It was so darn delicious! Yum! Either the picture of this dish isn’t doing it justice or our plating was a hot mess- but it looks like a wild thang (I still think I love you).
Tyler always jokes that whenever I have a dish, I get slammed with orders. Well today was no different, when I had the gnocchi dish we got 3 orders at a time and then when I was manning the scallops we got 5 orders at one time! It was madness, but the three of us worked together and got it done like brilliant chefs in training do.
Happy Weekend!
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