Fusion!

Fusion cuisine is always something that has intrigued me.  It is not something that I have often tried my hand at, as, in my opinion it is necessary to have a very thorough and very diverse knowledge of cross-cultural cuisine.  It is something I am diligently working on, but not something I have mastered, by any means.

I can say, though, that I have eaten some really nice examples.  Peter Gordon's restaurant and tapa bar in Marylebone High Street are an excellent example of how South East Asian flavours and dishes have been fused with European (and, of course Kiwi) cooking to create a superb assemblage.  

Whenever I go out to eat I prefer to pay for something that either I cannot make myself, or do not like to cook.  The only exception to this rule are Indian restaurants, which I flock to given the slightest glint of hope.  These days I do not eat out that often, but when I do I like to ensure that I am trying something new, or eating something spectacular.  

As is quite often the case on a Sunday night, I was scrabbling around the back of the fridge trying to find something to concoct.  It's a little like playing lucky dip - without the sawdust.  I needed to make something quick and tasty.  The 4 cooking chorizo seemed to be beckoning me.  I decided to make a chorizo pasta.

I had a chat with a fellow blogger the other day regarding certain websites that promote food photography.  I am definitely of the opinion that taste should come first, and if it looks good then that's a bonus.  I do try to make my dishes look attractive, but it seems, from the above photograph, that last night I was oblivious to the streaks of orange-toned oil smeared around the rim of my bowls.  I do apologize for this temperanillo-fueled oversight.

This dish was really a subtle tweak on the carbonara recipe I made earlier.  Initially I tossed the pasta in the rendered chorizo juices, then, instead of using egg yolks I folded a little unsalted butter into the pasta to create a silky coating.  

Again, I used the tripoline pasta which yields an appetizing bite when cooked al dente.