Mediteranean Style Ceviche and Creamed Paella

When Chris comes over I sometimes like to do something dramatic with presentation and photography combined. So the time before last that he came over I decided that it would be fun to try to recreate in a different setting the scallop ceviche from work and a creamed paella which ends up being a kind of French take on a Spanish dish (the saffron flavor comes primarily from the sauce which the rice is set on). The first problem was getting all the ingredients and things that I would need to cook this stuff with. The real hard part was me trying to find scallops in the shell - which I didn't. The original idea had been for me to set a slice of scallop in the shell with the appropriate accompaniments (red onion, cilantro, avocado, tomato, red pepper oil, ginger oil/juice, and a balsamic reduction) and to set the shell on a bed of rock salt mixed with aromatic spices and set the small plate that was in inside of a larger plate. Apart from my lack of ability to find shells it turned out pretty well.

I cut up a cedar place mat for the small plate to sit on so it wouldn't slide around and also to lend a little more texture to the picture. I had also cut up a black thatched place mat which Chris and I decided didn't look as nice - so we used it to border the cutting board and it worked exceptionally well for that. This particular ceviche is absolutely packed with flavor. For the shoot I had put two thin slices of scallop on the plates (we shot two different plates since there are two of us and chose the one we both liked the most for the final picture) and when we got to actually eat them the first bite just exploded with flavor, the second bite - not so much. Really if you want to enjoy something like this for all that it's worth you shouldn't prepare more than two small bites, otherwise you end up quite underwhelmed - plan to share.

Following the ceviche was the paella - which was prepared with duck breast, a Brazilian sausage from The Spanish Table, shallots, tomatoes, and copious amounts of parsley leaves and oil (as the border for the saffron sauce) This paella was good. It was really good - but because I tossed it in cream it lost the intensity of flavor that it should have had. The lesson that I learned here is to only apply cream to simple rice dishes - complex dishes like paella don't need the extra that cream can add. My hand slipped when I was getting the saffron out for the sauce, which accounts for its intense yellow color and an almost overpowering flavor - which was something that we had to be careful with when we were eating it, but with a little fresh parsley to garnish it was still one of the richest and most enjoyable meals that I have had in quite a while, and sopping up the extra sauce with some of my fresh made bread was easy to do - even though I knew that I shouldn't eat any more.

The absolutely amazing looking cutting board was crafted specifically for me by dad for Christmas.