If you see food on the table, can you stop yourself from eating at least a little bit?  If it happens to be fresh seafood, does that make it any easier to resist?  (Allergies aside, just in case any of you are in fact allergic to fish and/or shellfish).

The truth is, food has great powers because it appeals to some of our senses – what we see, smell and, ultimately, touch and taste.  The funny thing is that the former two trigger the desire to do the latter two.  In fact, even the fifth sense might be involved.  How many of you start to salivate when you hear sizzling sounds coming from a frying pan?  Bacon anyone?  Our senses are essentially prisoners to culinary creations.  Nothing wrong with that, I say.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I hosted a dinner party for five of our friends, but the amount of food I made could easily have fed fourteen.  You see, all my senses were captivated by the contents of my kitchen and I might have gone a bit overboard.  Allow me to explain.

I happen to have some very close Italian friends who happened to bring back Tipo ‘OO’ flour from their motherland, all because I had mentioned to them one time that I loved making homemade pasta.  You might well be wondering what’s so important about using ‘OO’ flour to make pasta.  Basically it has to do with the gluten (or protein) content.  If I were baking bread or pizza, I would need a flour with a higher gluten content.  A mid-protein flour (Tipo ‘OO’) is needed for pasta.  In case you’re wondering, pastry is best made with a lower protein flour.  But I divert a little here.

At the time, I  happen to have procured 6 pounds of fresh lobster at J$300 per pound.  I kid you not.  That’s how reasonable it is when you buy it directly from a fisherman who lives in the southern tip of Clarendon.  I was lucky enough to be given as much fresh crab by a very kind person, procured in the same place as the lobster.  I also happen to always keep Arborio rice (risotto rice), smoked marlin, cream cheese, bammies and ginger nut biscuits in my freezer.  Not kidding.  So, my menu pretty quickly came together in my head, made easier by the staples in the liquor cabinet and those that I buy for my fridge on a weekly basis – tomatoes, thyme, scotch bonnet, scallion, garlic, onions, limes/lemons and grapefruits.  It was really only down to getting heavy cream and shrimps.  Dinner plans were sorted.

Well, I thought they were……until the morning of the occasion, when I made two stocks – a white fish stock for the crab risotto and a shrimp stock for the lobster pasta.  With both completed, I kept the shrimp stock boiling so as to reduce it to the most intensely flavourful concoction you could imagine.  It would be the key to the success of the pasta sauce.  Alas, I became distracted and, heading back to the kitchen from outside, I knew what I would find.  That was the end of that.  Out to get more shrimps in their shells! (The shells are used to make the stock).  Fortunately for me, my Italian friend took it upon herself to make the errand to PriceSmart and I was able to remake the stock in time.

Lest you all start beating down my proverbial door for the menu, here it is:

Hors d’oeuvres  

Smoked Marlin, Cream Cheese, Scallion & Scotch Bonnet Spread with Baked Bammy Triangles

Demi-Tasse de Roasted Tomato & Thyme Soup

Starter

Fresh Crab Risotto with Saffron & Sautéed Shrimps

Main Course

Homemade Pappardelle with Fresh Lobster, Roasted Mini Plum Tomatoes and a Shrimp & Rum Infused Cream Sauce

Palate Cleanser

Grapefruit & Campari Sorbet with Mint

Salad (courtesy of SB)

Arugula (Rocket), Tomatoes, Cucumber & Feta with a Simple Vinaigrette

Dessert

Jamaican Coffee, Ginger Nut & VX Rum Tiramisu

Needless to say, dinner was stretched over five hours, because my senses were way bigger than everyone’s bellies.  That said, they saw the food and they ate it all, because it was impossible for their senses to say no.