The Culinary Tales Week 35: New World Orders

October 6, 2014

International cuisine comes home in our fifth week of the term and we tackled dishes from South America, the Caribbean, Mexico and America, including the ever fashionable “fusion” cuisine.

 

First up was South America (individual dishes) and we learned to make feijoada and moqueca (soups), ceviche, hallacas (hominy and ground meat wrapped in banana leaves) and achiote basted pork chop. There wasn’t enough time for each of us to attempt the matambre – a delicicous concoction of hard-boiled eggs and vegetables wrapped in flank steak – so we settled for watching chef do a demo of it.

 

 

Mexico night was a restaurant fire exercise, and having run out of dishes to prepare, I was put in charge of the amuse bouche, a creation I called a shrimp “taco” although it was bite-sized. I toasted dollar coin-sized tortillas and layered wine-poached shrimp and pico de gallo with a side of chili sauce. It was cute, not to mention tasty.

 

 

Caribbean Night was banquet style, and I teamed up with Stoner Guy and Dancing Queen to make coconut-crusted prawns with pickapeppa sauce and mango salsa. It was a huge hit, primarily due to our sensational plating (see photo below.)

 

 

Our last group effort of the term was a sit-down dinner; our class was divided up into two groups and we had to serve each other. With a critique at the end. Our team served Philadalephia pepperpot, crabcakes made two ways with mango salsa and remoulade, chili con carne with jerky and cornbread, mac and cheese and blackened catfish. I worked on the remoulade and helped with the crabcakes and Arnold Palmers once I was done. Glad for a bit of a break because I sliced my finger real nice chopping up parsley for the chimichurri on South American night.

 

 

The other group served fusion cuisine, putting together a nice meal of cioppino, roasted corn chowder, grilled shrimp, seared tuna and duck breast.  It was a great effort on both teams and I believe we tied, each team with a fair share of hits and misses.

 

If anything, we might have had the slight edge because our presentation was better. Food always tastes better when it looks nice.

 

 

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