Mystery box #2: lobster, Asian pears, spinach.

The lobster was actually Chef’s idea, but this time it was probably a good idea since lobster tends to be expensive, and we just got our tax return so could afford it. After this week, the meats are probably generally going to have to be fairly inexpensive. He also picked up some dandelion to play with as something different.

I was really impressed with his eagerness to cook despite the fact that it had been a long, stressful, and frustrating day. We had a couple of major shopping trips, his credit card got frozen, we had to take our older male cat in to the vet, it was snowing (and he’s a California boy, so not used to driving in snow), and dinner had to be made quite late. Usually a long day like this frustrates him and he doesn’t want to cook. But last night, he didn’t let it bother him and got into cooking as soon as we got to the point where he could. This is something he needs to learn to do all the time since there will be days on the job when it’s going to be frustrating and long and stressful, and he will need to cook anyway. So I’m proud he managed it last night. Here’s hoping he can start doing it more consistently in the future.

First course: A spinach, dandelion, Asian pear, and feta salad:

This wasn’t as successful as the salad he made for his first Mystery Box. The dandelion is bitter, and I think there was too much used here because the salad came off more bitter than anything: I didn’t taste the spinach at all, and the other ingredients didn’t blend.

For the dinner, he had to prepare the lobsters:

and stuff the mushrooms:

The mushrooms are stuffed with a mix made of cilantro, garlic, spinach, mushroom, lobster, lobster roe, and lime juice. In the future, he’ll add some kind of bread crumb to give it more texture, but it was otherwise a very nice stuffing. The mushrooms did need to be cooked a little longer, but it was overall a wonderful appetizer/side.

The really impressive thing was his final plating:

This looks very high end to me. It probably needs a little tweaking, but this is the first plate he’s done that has truly reminded me of a fine dining or competition plate. The stuffed mushrooms are resting on a spinach leaf. Now Chef said he thinks it needs something. I suggested a sauce in a circle around it and a fellow student suggested some risotto.

This Mystery Box ended up being a mixed bag. The salad wasn’t so successful, and the mushrooms, despite being under cooked and the stuffing needing a little texture, was almost as wonderful as the lobster (can anything be as wonderful as lobster?). The presentation was just beautiful.

Two boxes and he’s already stepping it up. I may have to start giving him less time to think about it sooner than I expected.