What is a innocent soul to do if out of 8 ingredients 3 aren't there? Epsecially if one of the missing is salmon! Oh darn,I shouldn't have revealed that! :)
Well I reached my first milestone. Cooked the popular dish from my dream destination. Originally Smoked Salmon with Pasta and Simple Lemon Dill Cream Cheese Sauce, mine would be renamed simple cream cheese pasta. It was simple to make ! No don't lose hope in me yet. Amateurs should have a better vote of confidence. It turned out well and the opinion was seconded by my roomies.
Shopping for the stuff took me dangling between 2 Psars and almost Tsar malls. Salmon sadly wasnt available anywhere in B'lore. One enthusiatistic salesman at the mall suggested adding mullets instead of salmon. Wonder what Chef Michael would say to that!
Statutory warning : Dill pickle cannot be substituted for dill leaves! And always ,always check those mall shelves for the less expensive mustard pastes. The higher end versions are kept right in front of you to burn a whole in your not-so-deep pocket.
And there's nothing more joyous than catching hold of the exact ingredients. Dijon mustard, Penne pasta and cream cheese. Yipeeee!
So Tuesday being Republic day holiday, I cooked up my milestone dish with a lot of enthu, dash of apprehension and lack of salmon.
Boiling the pasta took more time than expected. Then I impatiently added the cheese,mustard paste, spring onion,unwanted dill pickle chopped, lemon juice and peppered the whole experiment. While my puzzled roomie cooked the dal-next-door I was thinking of 'what ifs'. What if the whole thing was a sham, what if i ended up having plain jane dal, what if everything turned sour....but when the delicious aroma of the cheese spread the kitchen, I knew this was it! :)
