A French Inspired Saturday Evening

This afternoon I started feeling a little hungry. I tend to just give my tummy whatever it wants, but today my tummy wanted a five star meal that would cost me over $50.00 at any restaurant that I could consider. While trying desperately to decide what to do, I called my mother. She started throwing together something that I could make. I have to say, what she suggested sounded delicious. But I wanted seafood. After a long discussion with my mother I was nearly ready to give up and just get fast-food because I was so hungry. Luckily, my inner foodie was not about to have Wendy's in place of five-start French cuisine. I knew what I wanted and Wendy's was nearly the complete opposite. So instead I made up something to fit EXACTLY what I was in the mood for. What I created was incredible, not to mention just what I was craving.

First I began by mincing 6 oz. of baby brown pearl mushrooms and 4 medium sized shallots. I sauteed the both of those in 4 tablespoons of butter and about a quarter cup of Chardonnay. After thoroughly drying the bay scallops and the shrimp, and cutting the shrimp into bite sized pieces, I added them to the pan, with half of the bottle of Chardonnay. I allowed the seafood to 'poach' in the wine and the wine to cook down. Finally, I added 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, a tablespoon vanilla pepper, and three tablespoons flour. I left all of that to simmer as I baked the puff pastries. I fully believe that it is important to take the caps off of the puff pastries about 5 minutes before they are totally baked, and replace them in the oven (so they are baking opened up). This allows the pastries to be perfectly flaky, and not to difficult to cut into bite sized portions.

What came out as the final result was a thick gravy-like sauce over buttery puff pastries with perfectly cooked thick asparagus. I had to stop my roommates from just drink all of the leftover sauce. Lucky for us there was a little leftover. I get the impression that this will be one of those meals that tastes even better the next day, because the flavors have had the time to meld together all night. I am so glad I had the patience to wait and cook this instead of curing my hunger with cheap fast food.