I ruined some really good food. Or an idea of good food. I had this great recipe lined up. Seared scallops with orange saffron cream. While the sauce was going on the stove I started to arrange the photographs, the still lifes, like I do. For the first time ever I got to play around with my dad’s fancy digital camera. And…I got carried away. So that when I finally remembered the sauce, finally checked on it, it had…broken.
And when I say broken I mean this sauce was devastated. Unsalvageable. This is what happens when you ignore sauce. You leave butter and cream unwatched on the stove for too long and it will overheat. And when a fatty sauce overheats it de-emulsifies; it separates into its basic elements, grease and protein, and you’re left with chunks of milk curd floating like pond scum in liquefied butter. When this happens, you throw it away. There’s no saving it, no going back. I had to figure out something else. Continue reading
