Reasons to be Thankful, Part 2

Though Westwood was quiet as a [insert obscenity here] over Thanksgiving weekend, I had the fun fun fun of spending Friday with Sunny, freshly tanned from her trip from Mexico. This was to be a good night - food, gossip (YES!) and probably a decent amount of alcohol. Given Sunny's love for pasta and my new meatless (again, permitting all seafood) diet, I went with a shrimp and scallop linguine in a light tomato cream sauce. I LOVE THAT SAUCE. We ended the night with my attempt at a white chocolate mousse cake which I am determined to master in the near future.

SHRIMP AND SCALLOP LINGUINE IN TOMATO CREAM SAUCE (serves 2)

~ 10 medium sized shrimps, peeled and deveined
Adequate amount of baby scallops
4oz preferred pasta (I used linguine)
3 tbsp tomato paste
125ml heavy cream
1 tsp lemon juice
5 gloves garlic, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely sliced
Handful of chopped fresh parsley
Butter
Ray Charles in the background while cooking

Add enough water to the tomato paste to make a mixture of 125ml. Combine with cream and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Add a knob of butter to the pan and heat until foamy. Add garlic and shallots and cook until slightly browned. Add the shrimp and scallops and cook until the shrimps turn pink and the scallops are opaque. At the same time that the seafood is cooking, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta to al dente texture and drain. Add the tomato cream mixture to the cooked shrimp and scallops and cook until the sauce thickens and has reduced by about a half. Add the parsley, stir through quickly and turn off the heat. Toss the pasta in the sauce and plate. Serve with a Orange-coconut rum (2 parts coconut malibu, 1 part orange juice. Shaken with ice and strained into tall glasses).

We rounded off the night with my first attempt at dessert using my new "ring molds" which, in reality, were a couple of aluminium cans with the two ends taken off. I had no idea whether or not they would work like proper ring molds. They SHOULD but I've still to figure out how exactly. I would have been satisfied with the white chocolate mousse cake had it not been for the dark chocolate "glaze." It was over runny (I must have miscalculated the gelatine ratio) and started running off the sides, ruining the whiteness of the mousse. That pissed me off big time. Tastewise, I liked it a lot but I just couldn't get over the visual imperfections. So I refuse to post the recipe until I get it 100% right.