This vegetarian appetizer dish from the beach city of Huanchaco in Peru features potatoes, which originated in Peru, and seaweed harvested in the Pacific off Huanchaco's popular beaches. I found a recipe for this dish in The Exotic Kitchens of Peru by Copeland Marks. I followed his recipe but left out the paprika, which Marks stated was for color, because I thought that the dark seaweed would contrast better with white uncolored potato. Marks indicated in the recipe that he would tell us more about the seaweed in the glossary, but that never happened. What I did was go to my local Oriental food store where I selected dried hijiki seaweed from Korea. The directions on the packet said to soak it in water for thirty minutes before using it in dishes. To make the dish, I sauteed some onion and garlic in olive oil and then added peeled and quartered boiled potatoes and a cup of the drained rehydrated seaweed. My seaweed selection turned out to be perfect visually as well as in texture and taste. The potatoes tasted like they came from the sea, and it's delicious!
Location: My Home in Desert Hot Springs, California. Date: October 31, 2021.
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Caponata is a sweet and sour Sicilian eggplant dish that is often served with fish, though to keep it vegetarian you could have it as an appetizer, usually at room temperature, with crusty bread. I made mine with a base of sauteed onion, bell pepper, and celery. I cooked the eggplant separately, in olive oil, until it was really soft; the other vegetables still had some crunch. I combined the vegetables with a small can of tomato sauce, some capers, olives, and raisins, and I seasoned with salt, white balsamic vinegar, honey, black pepper, and bay leaf. I cooked the salmon on one side only in bacon fat. When it was done on the one side, I covered the pan and turned off the heat. After a few minutes, the salmon was perfectly cooked through. Caponata can include pine nuts, but I shopped at a Mexican grocery today and so I substituted pumpkin seeds which I used as a garnish for the fish; they added some flavor and crunch.
Location: Private Home, Whitewater, California. Date: April 26, 2021. My brother and I were invited to our friends' home for a seafood feast. The husband prepared and grilled the seafood while his wife cooked a penne pasta dish. After draining the pasta, she added olive oil, butter, black pepper, garlic powder, oregano, and parsley flakes. She wanted my opinion when I tasted it, and I said it needed parmesan cheese, which she promptly provided. I had two helpings of it. The seafood was lobster tail grilled in its shell, some really nice sized skewered shrimp, and cedar plank salmon. All the seafood was grilled to perfection and served with seasoned melted butter for dipping. This was a case of really good ingredients done simply but well.
Location: Private Home, Whitewater, California. Date: March 29, 2021. Black rice is usually made with squid ink, and it has a seafood theme, but my vegetarian version uses black corn fungus (huitlacoche) and has a mushroom theme. I used fresh champignons and oyster mushrooms. I cooked the champignons in butter with soy sauce, lemon juice, and honey, but I cooked the luxurious oyster mushrooms more simply: just olive oil, salt, and pepper. For the risotto, I sauteed onion and garlic in olive oil, added Spanish rice and white wine, and when the wine had evaporated, I slowly added broth I made from onion, carrots, and celery, stirring to make the risotto creamy. I then added a can of huitlacoche imported from Mexico. When the rice was cooked, I finished the risotto with Irish butter and Parmesan cheese. I garnished the risotto with chopped chives from my friend's garden, sweet, sour, and spicy corn and chile salsa, and more grated Parmesan. I scattered some champignons around the rice and placed some oyster mushrooms on top.
Location: Private Home, Redlands, California. Date: February 27, 2021. Friends roasted a whole turkey for Thanksgiving, and they saved the carcass for me to make turkey broth with. I added celery, carrot, onion, a whole head of garlic, and at the end I added fresh herbs from the garden. I then made a sofrito of fresh tomato, onion, garlic, Spanish saffron threads, and Spanish smoked paprika, and sauteed it in olive oil in my paella pan. Then the rice went in with turkey broth, and I kept adding broth until the rice was done. I added chopped turkey meat on top of the rice and garnished with blanched green beans, jarred red sweet pepper that I cut into strips, and lemon wedges for squeezing. I've made various types of paella in the past, but this was my first attempt at a turkey paella, and it looked and tasted festive.
Location: Private Home, Redlands, California. Date: November 28, 2020. Huitlacoche is a black fungus that grows on corn and is highly prized in Mexico for its mild truffle-like flavor. After procuring some cans of Goya brand huitlacoche, I decided to make these quesadillas for my two friends in Redlands. I first sauteed some onion and jalapeño slices and put them aside. After grating some Fontina cheese, which is a good melting cheese, I assembled the quesadillas. I covered corn tortillas with huitlacoche, topped that with cheese, and lastly some onion and pepper. We then inaugurated my friends new table top pizza oven. I set it to bake (375ºF), not to the pizza setting (600ºF). In five minutes we had delicious fungus flavored quesadillas. Of course, you could use a regular oven or even a broiler. The jalapeños were not very hot, but they yielded nice pepper flavor and were still a little crunchy. We had tomato salsa and hot sauce on the table.
Location: Private Home, Redlands, California. Date: November 9, 2020. There were two inspirations for me to cook a Pakistani menu at a friend's home. I was gifted a whole filleted Alaskan wild salmon from the Alaskan owner of Smokin' Burgers in Palm Springs, and I had picked up some packets of Shan brand spices on a recent trip to San Diego; I used the recipe on the back of each packet to make my meal. I used the Lahori Fish Mix for the salmon. This mix has wheat flour in it to coat the fish as well as spices like ginger, black cumin, green mango, clove, and cinnamon. I cut the fillets into cubes, coated them with the mix, and left them to marinate for a half hour before frying the pieces in coconut oil. I used the Butter Chicken packet to flavor the chicken breast pieces which ended up, after marinating with yogurt, in a rich tomato sauce with butter and cream. For the vegetable dish I used the Pav Bhaji spices. This was a mixture of salt, red chili, coriander, cumin, black pepper, green cardamom, dried mango, and some other spices and ingredients. It's very spicy and has some fruity notes to it. I used it with the recommended mash of potato, cauliflower, and green peas, but I left the peas whole. I made some Raita for the meal, which is yogurt with grated cucumber, chopped mint, and salt and pepper to taste. It's used in India to cool the spiciness of the curry dishes. I also bought some Sweet Mango Chutney to add a sweet element to the meal. I thoroughly enjoyed trying my hand at this, and the diners seemed to appreciate my effort.
Location: Private Home, Redlands, California. Date: November 7, 2020. This was a collaboration between myself and my friend in San Diego. He had a beef steak that he wanted cooked, but he didn't want to eat it as a steak. I decided to trim it, slice it thin (against the grain, of course), and I seasoned the slices with salt and pepper and then seared them quickly on both sides. I removed them from the pan and added chopped onion and then some Madras curry powder and some Sadaf 7 spice (a Middle East spice mix whose first ingredient is allspice). I added cooked carrot and potato pieces, along with the seasoned water I'd cooked them in, and then I added coconut milk. When it had all come to a boil, I turned off the heat and added the meat and some chopped cilantro. I let it sit for an hour for the flavors to meld, and in the meantime my friend conjured up a delicious organic salad of yellow bell pepper, radish slices, cucumber, red onion, julienne of carrot, raw mushroom, romaine lettuce, candied pecans, and dried cherries, with a sweet and creamy poppy seed dressing on the side. It turned out to be a lunch that I will not soon forget.
Location: Private Home, San Diego, California. Date: October 24, 2020. I made this dish at a friend's home using one of the recipes from my book “Delectable Dishes of Panamanian Cuisine”. It's not so easy to make a Panamanian tamale by steaming it in exotic leaves, but this pot tamale dish captures the flavor and texture of tamales in Panama, and it's easy to make. I simmered pork stew meat in broth and white wine until tender then added it, with the broth, to a mixture of sauteed onion, garlic, bell pepper, and a pinch of saffron. Next you add a can of tomato sauce and just enough masa mix (Mexican tamale mix) to make a smooth and creamy dish when cooked (the ration of mix to liquid is about 1 to 4). I like to serve it with a sweet and sour topping of onion and fresh chopped tomato cooked in olive oil to which I add raisins, olives, fresh lemon juice, honey, capers, and chopped flat leaf parsley. I don't usually garnish this dish with avocado slices, but we happened to have a nice ripe one in the house, and I think it made for a better picture. I call this dish the polenta of Panama.
Location: Private Home, Redlands, California. Date: September 20, 2020. What do I do when a friend provides fresh North African style lamb sausage? I make merguez tajine, of course. I took my tajine pot to his house, along with two Moroccan spice mixes, saffron, preserved lemon, prunes, and Castelvetrano olives (those very green and buttery ones from Italy). I started with a base of onion cooked in olive oil and then added the other ingredients along with some chicken broth. My friend had some little red peppers from the farmer's market that day, and so I added some for color. The end result, which I garnished with chopped cilantro, was a delicious dish that was a little spicy, a little sweet, a little lemony, and with a nice balance of savory from the merguez sausage. I served the dish with couscous, which is traditional in Morocco.
Location: Private Home, Redlands, California. Date: September 19, 2020. |
AuthorChef Roland has been a legal resident of seven countries and has travelled in over thirty, documenting food along the way. He currently resides in the desert in Southern California. Categories
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