Authentic Foccacia and Antipasto with Pickled Onions

The word “authentic” means “authoritative, reliable, genuine, of undisputed origin” according to Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary, and this is exactly what Host Chef and Artisan Baker, Mort Rabkin offered his baking class recently in Boquete.

The Foccacia recipe took some work to make it exactly right for the weather conditions in Boquete, and Mort got it just right! It was fun to be invited to his home to “practice” his different Foccacia recipes. Each time the bread was baked, Mort used slightly different ingredients, he varied his timing, and he used an assortment of toppings. Finally, it was best Foccacia any of us have ever tasted!

When the Foccacia was perfected, we could plan the remainder of the class. Because there was time during the class to make two other authentic Italian dishes while the Foccacia was rising and baking, I decided the best accompaniments to a hot Foccacia were a fresh Antipasto, and for dessert, Zabaglione. Mort’s wife Barbara, topped the Zabaglione with her twice-baked Biscotti cookies, a real treat.

One of the toppings for the Antipasto would be Pickled Onion Rings, which was a new dish for everyone. The onions are easy to prepare and they cook in only 30 seconds. They’re perfect to serve with Antipasto to give it an interesting, unexpected tangy flavor. This Antipasto was served with black olives, a variety of cold meats and cheeses, freshly roasted red peppers and Green Olive Tapenade. You can see the Pickled Onions in the top dish, ready to be enjoyed along with this very colorful Antipasto.

Pickled Onion Rings

3/4 cup white vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
1 bay leaf
5 allspice berries
5 whole cloves
1 small, hot, jalapeno or chombo chile pepper, finely diced
1 large onion, peeled, and thinly sliced
In a small saucepan, heat the vinegar, sugar, seasonings and chile until boiling. Add the onion slices and simmer gently for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Transfer the onions and the liquid into a jar and refrigerate until ready to use.

Photographer, Betty Dabney couldn’t resist gathering everyone together for a “photo-op”. The Antipasto with toppings was beautifully arranged on a big platter, and the eight Foccacias were cut into sample-size pieces so everyone could try each of the breads. After lunch, the Zabaglione was ready to taste, the “icing on the cake” for everyone, made extra special with Barbara’s Biscotti. I’ll post the recipe for this luscious “authentic” Italian dessert soon.

Thanks to Betty for photos that captured Mort’s fun, educational and “tasty” class.

Don’t forget the Chianti!
Cora

Is Grilled Watermelon Hot?

The answer is YES, it’s served hot and it’s one of the newest, “hot” sensations to hit the culinary scene. Fine restaurants around the globe are beginning to serve tiny chunks of grilled watermelon on fancy, little plates and charging huge prices just to get a minuscule taste of this “hot”, food fad.

Author Kirsten of The Hungry Cow was lucky enough to be served an amuse bouche of grilled watermelon at Le Papillon Restaurant in the Red Dot Museum in Santa Clara, California. Can you imagine how much this little tidbit cost?

You can cut and arrange the grilled watermelon in lots of creative ways. Kirstin served her grilled watermelon salad stacked up, and she used mint as her garnish.  You could present your salad many, many ways.

How about making a salsa using grilled watermelon, tomatoes and chopped red onions?

Boquete Chef Dede Basden grilled watermelon at the Boquete Gourmet Cookbook Party recently, and it was a big hit.

I recently served watermelon as part of a skewer of fruit at Finca Lerida’s Underground Dinner and sprinkled it with real maple sugar. It was a huge hit, especially when it sat atop Executive Chef Danilo Moran’s mesclun greens served with 2 dressings. You’ll read more about Chef Danilo and his “Up-to-date Old House Dinner” in a post coming soon. Below is a photo of Finca Lerida’s Old House. Is that a watermelon patch in the foreground?
Thanks for the idea of grilling watermelon Dede, it is a most unusual, very trendy, and “hot” taste treat.
Try it!
Cora

Panamanian Bunuelos de Yucca

On page 61 of the Boquete Gourmet Community Cookbook, Chef Juan Linares shared his favorite recipe for Panamanian Bunuelos, made from yucca.  My first question was “What is yucca?” Then, “What is a bunuelo?”

Wikipedia gives the distribution range of Yucca, over 49 species, as covering vast areas of Central America, and it’s very plentiful in Panama.  Just from my experience in Boquete, the growing conditions are perfect here for yucca, subtropical, woodland, and mountainous.  Almost every market carries yucca and it only 29 cents per pound.

This vegetable isn’t very pretty, but when it’s peeled, boiled and shaped into a bunuelo, it’s quite lovely. Bunuelos are similar to beignets, the donuts for which New Orleans is so famous.
At our recent “Boquete Gourmet Community Cookbook Party #2″, celebrating the 2nd printing of the cookbook, Chef Juan was one of 12 chefs who prepared and served their recipes to party-goers.

This is the recipe Chef Juan used to make the best yucca bunuelos you can imagine, and he served them with syrup made from block sugar, available in most Latin American markets.

Panamanian Bunuelos de Yucca

3 pounds yucca, peeled and cut into 1-inch slices
1 egg
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon anise seeds, crushed
3 cups dark brown sugar or blocks of panela cane sugar
1 cup water
7 whole cloves
Vegetable oil for frying

Cover the yucca with water and boil for 20 minutes, so it’s tender enough to grate but not too tender. Grate the yucca and add the egg, salt and crushed anise seeds. Knead and let rest. Meanwhile, make a syrup with the water, sugar and cloves and boil until it turns syrupy. Wet your hands and roll yucca dough into 1-inch balls. Fry them until golden brown, about 2 minutes, and drain on folded paper towels. Serve with warm syrup. Makes about 30 bunuelos.

If you’re looking for a fun activity to share with your dinner guests, get some yucca, prepare the dough ready for frying, and place it in the refrigerator. Make the syrup, but keep it at room temperature.

When dessert time is near, heat up the oil, ask guests if they’d like to help roll the balls, and fry away! Everyone will love them! You could also serve bunuelos dusted with powdered sugar or a mixture of cinnamon and sugar, my favorite topping.

Thanks Juan for sharing your recipe, and thanks Betty Dabney, for photographing Juan in action. After thinking about it, why not “eat dessert first”?
Cora

Bake a Short Cake

Short cakes are not shortcakes, like I used to eat as a child, dripping with mashed strawberries and whipped cream. No, I’m talking about the new craze to serve a small portion of a short, rich cake after a fine, gourmet dinner. Of course, I would serve it with a steaming cup of delicious Boquete coffee!

I just baked a short chocolate cake in a nine-inch round cake pan and frosted it with peanut butter icing. It was easy to make, and everyone really loved the familiar flavors.

Over the last year and especially lately, short cakes are all the rage around Boquete, showing up on dessert menus and at fancy dinner parties. When serving a short cake, make the portions small, they are so tasty and rich, “smaller is better”.

Short cakes don’t need to be served with any garnish, but with a topping of fresh fruits, a sprinkling of confectioners sugar, whole nuts, or a dollop of whipped cream, they will be remembered forever!

This recipe is one of my favorite short cakes, “Date Walnut Cake”. I found it many years ago in Gourmet Magazine and adapted it slightly. It’s fairly easy to make for a large dinner party, and I like serving it with real whipped cream.

Host Chef Renny Kranich taught me to whip cream with my big whisk in a stainless steel bowl sitting in ice water. No sugar is needed when you serve fresh, whipped cream atop your short cake.

Date Walnut Cake

1/4 cup boiling-hot water
1 1/2 cups pitted dates (1/2 lb), finely chopped
1 1/2 cups walnuts (5 oz), toasted and cooled
3/4 cup sugar, divided
2/3 cup Panko or fine bread crumbs
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Generously grease a 9- by 2-inch round cake pan with softened butter or vegetable oil and dust with bread crumbs, knocking out excess. Pour hot water over dates in a large bowl and let stand 15 minutes to soften. Pulse walnuts in a food processor until chopped, then add 1/4 cup sugar and pulse until nuts are finely ground. Add Panko, zest, cardamom, and salt and pulse until combined. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt in a bowl using an electric mixer at medium-high speed until they just hold soft peaks. Add remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a slow stream, beating until whites hold stiff glossy peaks.

Whisk yolks into date mixture. Fold one third of yolk mixture into whites, then fold in remaining yolk mixture gently but thoroughly. Fold all of nut mixture into batter. Spoon batter into cake pan and bake until golden and springy to the touch and cake just begins to pull away from side of pan, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 30 minutes, then invert onto rack and cool completely.

“Peach Buckle” is another of my favorite short cakes. It’s quick to make and I top it with peaches and cinnamon crunch before it’s baked. No need for anything else! You’ll find the recipe for “Peach Buckle” in the Boquete Gourmet Community Cookbook, which is a gift to all ticket-holders at the Cookbook Party #2 – SALE and SWAP coming up on Friday, August 26, beginning at 3:00pm. And, you may be able to taste my “Peach Buckle” at the party.

Get more information by clicking “Register Now” on the calendar at the right above. Chef Renny will prepare her famous “Pico de Gallo”, Chef Juan will cook up some “Bunuelos”, Chef Betty will serve up her “Boquete Tamales”, and Chef Dede will be grilling watermelon at the party, just to name a few.

Yolanda will be mixing “Pisco Sours”, Betty will bring her rich and delicious “Espresso Cheesecake”, David will “Pickle Eggs”, Anita will bake her very tasty “Olive Cheese Balls”, and many other celebrity chefs featured in the cookbook will be there presenting dishes to the party-goers. Live music, free cookbooks, Cookbook Sale and Swap, and lots of other fun activities will be available, so come and party with us!

Cora