Farewell, Trinidad

One last time, I sit in front of my view of the emerald hills of Cascade. Our little family is preparing to move to Panama, and the packing boxes that surround me foretell a change. We've said goodbye to friends, colleagues, our local fruit stand, Maracas Bay, bake 'n shark, soca, calypso, and the steel pan, and look ahead at a new adventure.


The best way I know how to say farewell to my island home is to pay tribute to one of its recipes, which has brought me so much pleasure. Corn soup. I told myself that before leaving Trinidad, I had to learn how to make this soup so that I could replicate it when the craving for it hits, which is usually on a melancholy and comfort-food seeking Sunday evening. Even though it won't be at the street food stalls of the Savannah, I will enjoy corn soup in my Panamanian home and think of the rhythms and Caribbean beats of my Trinbagonian home of three-and-a-half years.

Pimento peppers

Mayah, our lovely housekeeper, taught me how to make corn soup. She's of Indian decent, and it was interesting to speak with her about what she thought the origins of corn soup were. She said she thought that, like much Trinbagonian food, it was inspired by Indian food. A major ingredient in corn soup is dal, or yellow split peas, which are a staple Indian food. I've also had corn soup in Trinidad that contains pig tail, which shows that non-Hindu Trinidadians, like those of African decent, also created their variations of corn soup. See this previous blog entry about origins, and alterations, of Trinidadian food.

ingredients for corn soup

There are many variations of corn soup, and Trinidadian families make their version according to taste. This is Mayah's version.


Corn Soup


yellow split peas
salt
garlic
pumpkin
pimento peppers (mild chili peppers photographed above)
canned cream style corn
corn-on-the-cob (not sweet corn)


In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil. Rinse yellow split peas, and add them to the pot. Add  minced garlic and boil the peas until soft (at least 45 minutes). Cut pumpkin into cubes and add to the pot. Add minced pimento peppers and season to taste.

Once ingredients are soft, use a hand blender to puree them. This will create a soft texture without completely liquifying the soup. After blending, add canned cream style corn and pieces of corn-on-the-cob. 

Corn soup usually contains "dumplings" made of flour and water. This is not my favorite part of the dish because I don't believe it offers any added taste value nor is it very nutritious. 

maya's delicious corn soup

Trinidad offers plenty of comfort food options that we learned to know and love. Panamanian cuisine is much like the kinds of things we eat in Cartagena. For example, deep fried red snapper served with patacones (fried green plantains) and lulo juice (more on this to come) are a staple, and I know I can be very happy in a place like that.

All hail the Trinidadian avocado

Buttery, creamy sweetness. Green goodness. Tropical freshness.

giant trinidadian avocado

I miss a lot of things about Paris, but some times things like Trinidadian avocados come along, and make me remember that this island offers exotic deliciousness that you can't find easily in the farmer's market produce-heaven that is Paris.


Avocados are a pre-Columbian fruit, the word derived from the Aztec "ahuacatl". You may remember my praise of ancient Mexico's major contribution to some of the main foods we eat today, such as chocolate and tomatoes. 


Avocados have a long list of health benefits. Research shows that a substance in avocados may have the ability to kill cancer cells. Avocados also contain carotenoid antioxidants, can reduce the risk of heart disease, have anti-inflammatory benefits (may help treat arthritis), and promote blood sugar regulation.


Inspired by the gorgeous Trinidadian avocados I found at my local fruit and vegetable stand, I created these recipes to show them off.

Shrimp cocktail with avocado balls 


This is a shrimp cocktail that highlights the taste of Trinidadian avocados. I give the pink cocktail sauce a little kick with Pommery mustard I brought from France as well as a bit of Trinidadian red hot sauce. The sweet, buttery taste of the avocados match very nicely with this. 


Cocktail sauce: mayonnaise, ketchup, Pommery mustard, red hot sauce (such as Tabasco), lemon juice, salt, pepper.


Briefly saute shrimp for about 2 minutes in garlic and olive oil. Let shrimp cool, and mix with cocktail sauce. 


Using a melon baller, scoop balls of avocado and place a layer of avocado balls at the bottom of the serving glasses. Place a layer of shrimp in sauce, then another layer of avocados balls.

Guacamole 


I don't like to mess too much with avocados when making guacamole. Some people add chopped onions, chili peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, etc., etc., etc., but since I love the taste of avocados so much, I simply add a bit of coarse salt and fresh ground pepper to accompany an already heavy dish, such as these nachos supremos I made for a client last week. The nachos had all sorts of favors, peppers, spices, so I let the avocados do their thing to balance out the dish and offer some relief from the spicy dish.

my nachos with guacamole

Toddlers and restaurants

This morning I read an article entitled Non, non and non: Discipline and three-course meals on economist.com that struck a familiar cord. Enter the two-year-old into a Parisian cafe. French customers eating at tiny tables nearby (about 3mm away from your own table since there isn't much room in there) glare down from their Le Monde to give you a sly, almost threatening, look. The look says "you better be able to control that child while I sit here and sip my cafe and read my paper!"

I can proudly say that I am one of the moms who can control my toddler. He was raised to sit calmly and quietly while enjoying his hot chocolate and croissant. Usually a small toy car can hold him off while we wait for our meal. Other times, we rely on i-touch toddler apps. It's not always perfect, of course because he can get frustrated and antsy, but he's sat through (and enjoyed!) meals at michelin-starred restaurants, our regular crepe cafe, among others. One day, some friends invited us to an Indian restaurant near Opera, and they were shocked to see that my son, then barely two years old, sat through the whole meal reading books, chatting, and flirting with our friends. None of them has children, and they told me that they were inspired by our dynamic and were excited to see that it is, in fact, possible to take toddlers out to dinner if you know how to teach then to just chill.

Culture shock: a cafeteria at Disney World. I've talked a bit about the unhealthy options available at US sporting events. Well, the same goes for theme parks. Sugar, preservatives, sodium, fat, more sugar, and yes, more fat. That's what there is to be had at Disney World. We were there over Christmas break and even though we had a wonderful time, after three days of hot dogs, corn dogs, pizza, fish n chips, and coke, I was ready to give my kingdom for an asparagus, or anything green. At Sea World, I was able to find a chicken caesar salad, and the closest thing it came to green was wilted lettuce with the salad. However, Parisians give their kids sugar, and they give their kids fat. My son loved his hot chocolate and croissant - how much more butter can you get? And if sugar makes kids hyper, then why can Parisian parents get their kids to stay still, while the parents at Disney World cafeterias sat there while their kids ran circles around the table?

Parents that were sitting next to us at these theme park cafeterias had terrible table manners, and their attitude at the table was completely different than the kind of restaurant culture you'd find in Paris. In Paris, the meal is the center of attention, each dish is considered and appreciated, and eaten with cutlery. It's harder to see a toddler in the US using cutlery than it is in Paris. In the US, parents usually cut up chunks of food and place it on a placemat, or simply on the table in front of the child, and the child grabs the chunks and stuffs it into his/her mouth. My son has always used a plate, and he's been manipulating spoons and forks ever since he was six months old. Granted it's not perfect, but his eating etiquette is far more pleasant to look at than what we saw in those cafeterias.

Yes, it can be difficult to encourage a two-year-old to sit still through a meal. But if you create a comfortable dining experience and explain to a child that a meal is an important place for a family to come together and enjoy delicious food and take the time to point out the lovely cutlery, plates, flower arrangements, and also the flavors and details of each ingredient, then they are far more likely to appreciate the meal for what it is, and stay still.

Practice makes perfect. Take your toddler out for a 15-minute hot chocolate break at a nearby cafe, and start there. Bring a book, enjoy the drink, and then leave. Talk to them about the restaurant, the decoration, the people, the table, and talk to them about anything at all. I guarantee this will make the experience far more enjoyable for everyone involved.

food available at Disney's Animal Kingdom

food available at Disney's Animal Kingdom

food available at Paris's Rolland Garros - "legumes" means vegetables

drinks available at Paris's Rolland Garros - tropicana fruit juice and sparkling water

Cleansing

Because it's still January, and I venture to guess that many of us are still in "resolution" mode, I thought of sharing some low-calerie detox recipes I've been making for my boys. After the gluttony of the holidays, junk food at theme parks, and gigantic portions at Florida hotels and restaurants, our family needed to cleanse. 


The first is one of my favorite salads. It contains a lot of beautifully balanced flavors, including sweet, tart, nutty, and vinegar, a lot of protein, and a lot of color!

Ingredients: 1 can Kidney beans*, 1 can corn, 1 apple, 1 romaine lettuce heart, walnuts (the more, the merrier!), baby spinach (ditto), 1/2 cup Craisins, and a splash of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and coarse salt as a dressing.


*I like to wash canned red kidney beans to remove the extra sodium.


You could also add Rochefort or Blue cheese to this salad because the flavors pair beautifully with the beans.


Here's a vegetable quinoa soup that was a big hit on a cold (76 degrees - HA!), rainy, Trinidadian Sunday afternoon:

Sweat onions and garlic in a pot with a bit of olive oil. Add chopped carrots, zucchini, celery, peas, and green beans (in this order, considering their cooking times). Add enough chicken or vegetable stock to cover all the vegetables, and season with coarse salt. Add 1 cup of quinoa, let it poof, and bingo! 


These recipes make your body and soul feel good. Go forth and cleanse.

A New Year and an Anniversary

This month marks Blue Ribbon Chronicles' one-year anniversary. It has been an enjoyable, even therapeutic, experience writing about everything from street food in Trinidad, tajines in Morocco, hot chocolate in Paris, to my trials in Le Cordon Bleu kitchens.


The blog has gotten almost 9,000 hits, and I've received encouraging comments from followers (both people I know and total strangers from different countries around the world). 


I feel I have so much more to say, so many stories to tell about food adventures inside my kitchen, at outdoor food markets, in posh restaurants, and by the side of the road. 


My son will start attending pre-school regularly next week, so I've resolved to take that time to write blog entries, test recipes, and launch my business as a personal chef. I created a website www.chefveronica.com and printed business cards. 


2011 was a magical year of cooking in Paris, and now I'm ready for real life. The real world of looking at your dreams in the face, and saying, "I'm going for it". I'm sure there will be plenty of disasters like last month's croissant catastrophe, but I'm hoping these experiences will only help me get better at this cooking business. 


It's only the 6th of January, and I've already achieved two of my new year's resolutions. 


One: cancel cable tv. My husband did that while we were away in Paris, and I haven't gotten it hooked up again. I haven't watched it in 10 months, and don't miss a thing. I feel more productive and less, well, stupid. I have a shameful addiction to vampire shows, to be specific, and they were making me stupid. Let's ignore the fact that I have them all on DVD, shall we? But those are for special occasions.


Two: I'm now making two different vegetable dishes with every meal in an effort to bring down my husband's cholesterol. I'm proud to say that the other day, my husband made us Mac 'N Cheese (yes, from a box), and green beans on the side, and my two-and-a-half-year-old ate only the greens and not the Mac 'N Cheese. Nice.


My third resolution is to begin my career as a person chef, full blast. With the condition that I love it. I'll let you know how it goes. 


Oh, yes, and I plan to continue writing this blog. Thanks for reading.

Finally...in synch with the elements

I felt better after my croissant catastrophe once I had my dose of spaghetti and parmesan with olive oil (my ultimate comfort food) and a viewing of Pride & Prejudice. I was ready to get over it and face the tropical elements once again. This time, I blasted my air conditioning, armed myself with valor and positivism, and set out to make a classic French apple tart. A tarte aux pommes.


A tarte aux pommes consists of a sweet pastry dough crust, apple filling, and apple slices for decoration. I'll cut to the chase. It was a success! Even though this recipe involves butter, and mixing it at just the right temperature and in just the right way, the elements seemed to cut me some slack, and bingo! This was the result:

yesterday's french apple tart

Here's the recipe. Try it for your Christmas meal, and let me know how it goes.

French apple tart (adapted from a Le Cordon Bleu Paris recipe)

Sweet short pastry

200g flour

100g butter (cold)

4g salt

20g sugar

1 tsp water

1 egg

vanilla

Apple filling

3 apples (Golden Delicious work best)

30g butter

30g sugar

30ml water

vanilla 

cinnamon

Decoration/topping

3 apples (Golden Delicious) for decoration/top of tart 

butter

brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius (350 degrees fahrenheit). Prepare a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, and butter a circular tart mold.

In a bowl, add flour, salt, butter (cold), water, egg, vanilla, and sugar. Make the movement with your fingers as if you were counting bills to mix the ingredients together. Once mixed, top your workspace with a bit of flour, dump the mixture on the surface, and use the heal of your hand to press and push the dough in order to mix the ingredients further. Be careful not to mix too much, or else the butter will start to ooze. If you feel that your dough is too warm, put it in the fridge for a few minutes before rolling out the dough.

Working quickly, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until it is about 3mm thick. Make sure your dough is at least 1-2 cm larger than the circumference of the tart mold. Then use your rolling pin to place your flattened dough on it, and carefully roll it onto the tart mold. With your thumb and index finger, press the rim of the tart mold to ensure that the dough is properly attached to the mold. Leave a bit of dough on top of the tart mold, and use your rolling pin to roll over the lined tart mold to trim the excess dough. Place the lined tart mold into the fridge (or freezer if you're in the tropics)!

You'll need at least 2 1/2 - 3 apples for the tart filling. Roughly chop these apples and saute them in a pan with butter, sugar, water, vanilla, and cinnamon. Saute until golden brown. 

Place your filling into the tart base, creating a mound in the center. 

Slice your decoration apples in moon shapes and create a design to top your tart. The photo above shows a circular pattern, but placing the apple slices in diagonal lines also works well.

Top the tart with bits of butter and brown sugar, and place in the oven for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

May the elements work with you on this one!

Battling the elements...and losing

This is my sad report about how I failed making croissants and pain au chocolat yesterday. I had to find ways to satiate a craving...and they didn't end well.

On Saturday, after writing about my early-morning craving for pain au chocolat, we headed to a new pastry shop that apparently makes good pain au chocolat. We arrived at 8:10am to find that the pastry cooks were just getting to work. When we asked about the pain au chocolat, they said we could have some that had been made at 4pm on Friday, and that the fresh Saturday morning batch would be ready around 10am. Hmm. 

I know I've been spoiled by the fact that you can get fresh croissant and pain au chocolat at nearly every corner in Paris at all hours of the day. Even though I understand this is not the case everywhere in the world, I can't help thinking...stale pain au chocolat for sale? 10am? Really? Since when do pastry cooks begin work at 8am? 4am is more like it, isn't it?

To be honest, I'm not sure if the demand is there. We were the only patrons at the pastry shop, so I don't know if it's worth it for this shop to make fresh pastries early in the morning because perhaps Trinidadians aren't interested in pain au chocolat that early on a Saturday. 

Could it be that by making French macaroons and craving pain au chocolat I'm trying to impose something new on a Caribbean island that may not be interested? My French macaroons sold well, but I had to lower the original price since people aren't familiar with them, and I had to explain what made them special. Some people are very excited about my macaroons, and others probably couldn't care less and would prefer the usual run-of-the-mill stale cupcakes.

Well, my kitchen sure thought I was imposing something new. And it wouldn't budge. It was a sweltering 90+ degrees in there yesterday morning as I embarked on my pain au chocolat-making effort. This was an adequate environment for my yeast dough, and it rose beautifully in the warm humidity. 

When I began rolling out the dough with the butter inside it, however, things started to get ugly. The best butter to use is dry butter, which contains less water content. I couldn't find dry butter in Trinidad, so normal butter had to do. It was a mess. Butter was oozing out of the dough, the dough didn't have it's necessary elasticity, and I was getting frustrated. I turned and rolled the dough twice (you must do this five times in order to achieve flaky croissants), and threw it into the freezer to try to control the oozing. Once out of the freezer, I turned and rolled again, and even though I did my best, this was not working. 

I had to keep moving because my brunch guests had arrived and I needed to put those babies in the oven, no matter what. I rolled the croissants and pain au chocolat into their shapes, let them rise a little more, brushed them with egg wash, and into the oven they went. 

A few minutes later, my husband came in asking if something was burning. As I opened the oven door, a giant cloud of smoke came out. A revolting smell of burnt butter filled the air of my kitchen, and I saw my hopes and dreams of eating nice pain au chocolat disappear into the sweltering air of my Caribbean kitchen.

Gooey, slimy, yucky. That was the result. I felt awful because I wanted to impress my friends. I let myself down, and all I wanted to do was roll up into a little ball and do what makes me feel better - make pasta and watch Pride and Prejudice (with Colin Firth, of course). Honk if you're a fan.

I was not my own fan yesterday. I was sad, disappointed in myself, and frustrated by the fact that I think I want to import France into an hot and humid environment that seems to be pushing culinary change away. My macaroons were successful, but hated the humidity after I made them, so it was a battle to keep them in proper shape to sell them. 

This story does have a happy ending, however. I'm going to practice, test, and remake, even if it means a battle against the elements. Wish me luck.

the other dishes for the brunch were lovely