What Do You Wish You Could Cook?

Can you prepare and serve most of the dishes shown in this post? If you have a particular type of dish or cuisine you would like to learn how to cook, please let Boquete Gourmet know what it is.

The Boquete Gourmet has developed this website and is constantly planning new events for the future. The big question is what do my readers want; classes on Chinese cooking, trips to farms, or leandctures about coffee? Anything is possible to arrange, well almost anything, given the resources and location high up here in the mountains of Chiriqui Province, Panama.

The purpose of this post is to ask you what you would like to experience that would add to your knowledge about the Boquete area, to your abilities to enjoy fine foods, or to improve your skills in preparing healthy and nutritious gourmet dishes.

We are lucky to be living in the “market basket of Panama”, where almost every type of food is available, and it’s fresh, abundant and very reasonable.

Boquete also seems to attract excellent cooks and professional chefs, many of whom are willing to share their expertise with locals and visitors alike. We have excellent party planners, bakers, and experts on growing and preparing local products, just to name a few.

Please let me know what type of cuisine you would like to explore, whether it’s anything pictured here, a particular ethnic style, candy making, or something you’ve always wanted to learn to prepare. Now is our chance to sharpen our culinary skills, so please let me know what’s on your mind, and I’ll try to make it happen for you.

Host Chef, Juan Linares will present the last class in a series of “Panamanian Beef: From Tough to Tender” on Thursday, June 29, beginning at 11:00am. Juan and expert butchers from our local Romero’s Supermarket will share their knowledge about various cuts of beef. Participants will learn how to buy the cuts of beef they want, and how to prepare them to make tender and delicious entrees.

If you’d like to reserve a seat for this very informative and entertaining event, please click the June 29 date on the calendar at the right and get your tickets now.

Hoping to hear from you soon at boquetegourmet@gmail.com,
Cora

My Passion for Passion Fruit Torte

We are lucky to be living in a tropical country where passion fruit is not only abundant, but very reasonable, about 20 cents each. In Boquete, Panama, we can purchase them in at least three colors.

The passion fruit is round to oval, either yellow, green or purple at maturity, with a soft to firm, juicy interior filled with pulp and numerous edible seeds. The fruit can be grown to be eaten or for its juice, which is often added to other fruit juices to enhance the aroma.

David and I grew passion flower vines in Gulfport, Florida, but we never saw them produce fruit. The delicate flowers are magnificent and there is a legend that relates the passion flower to Christ’s life, as told on Wikipedia. I always loved to show guests the vines and unusual flowers, at least they are unusual in Florida.

The fruit in this photo is mature for juicing and culinary use. For eating right out of the fruit, the fruit should be allowed to wrinkle for a few days to raise the sugar levels and enhance the flavor.

Passion fruit can also be cut in half and the pulp easily scooped out with a spoon. Passion fruit-flavored syrup is a popular topping for shaved ice, it’s sold in Boquete off push carts in our local parks.  Ice cream can be flavored with passion fruit, as well as many other desserts such as cookies and cakes. I really enjoy passion fruit juice at 99 cents a quart, mixed with our local rum, it’s a very “passionate” drink!

This unique recipe came to me from Boquete Gourmet Host Chef Juan Linares, and it’s one of my favorite desserts.

Passion Fruit and Yogurt Torte

1 can sweetened, condensed milk
1 can natural yogurt
1 can passion fruit pulp, strained
3 rolls Maria galletas (cookies) or 3 packages Graham crackers

Open and empty the can of sweetened condensed milk into a large bowl. To prepare the passion fruit, cut the fruit in half and scoop out the pulp into a blender. Blend and strain enough pulp to fill the empty milk can and empty it into the bowl with the milk. Fill the empty can again with yogurt and add to the milk mixture and combine.

Then, cover the bottom of a 9″ X 12″ pan with whole cookies or Graham crackers and pour some of the mixture over the top, then layer more crackers and mixture until you have several layers. Press and smooth the top of the torte, as shown in the photo. I kept a little of the passion fruit pulp with seeds to pat on top to make a nice, shiny top “crust”. Chill for at least 3 hours, cut and serve. You may garnish with whipped cream, a cherry and sprinkle with crushed graham crackers. A sprig of fresh mint brings yet another color to the dish, yum!

This dessert is very easy to make, especially when passion fruit is so abundant in Boquete. It can be made a day ahead, in case you have a busy day preparing the other dishes for your dinner. Actually, David and I had Juan’s Passion Fruit and Yogurt Torte for breakfast the day after serving it for dinner. It was even better then.

“Eat dessert first”, don’t they say???
Cora

Share Your Recipes – Write a Cookbook!

For years and years, I have collected recipes from every source imaginable; newspapers, library books, friends, family and even from movies. Remember Bubba Gump? My Grandmother saved recipes in a big old scrapbook that looked like this, but it was about 3 inches thick. It was so full of recipes, that some of the pages hung out under the sides of her tattered cover. We spent many an afternoon gluing scraps of magazines into her heirloom collection of old-time favorite recipes.

After all these years, I’ve thought many times of making my own collection of my very favorite recipes, including some of the early dishes I remember eating as a child. When I collected the recipes for my own Boquete Gourmet Community Cookbook, which I published last year, I was thinking only of living in my new Boquete community, and I wanted to share with everyone what types of foods we enjoy here in our little mountain town in Panama. The Boquete Gourmet Host Chef Program participants shared some of their favorite recipes, which is a special attraction of the cookbook, and several local charities and long-time residents donated recipes for everyone to enjoy.

The book has been a huge success, so successful that I don’t seem to get to the outlets quickly enough to keep their shelves filled. I’ll make my rounds again before I head to Florida next week. If you haven’t had a chance to buy a copy, please get it now while supplies last. Believe it, they are getting in short supply. So – - – now I’m thinking of beginning my next cookbook, one that will contain more recipes that reflect my own background.

I’ll include recipes from my childhood days in Kalamazoo, Michigan, some from the menu of the first restaurant I owned in California, “The Hilltop”, and a few from my school teacher days in the tiny country town of Lake Placid, Florida. If you’re like me, you could go on and on about where your recipes were collected. I remember how some outstanding meals of my past looked, even how they tasted, and how long-lasting were their aromas. Can you remember such meals?

Because I’ve published a cookbook recently, let me share how it happened, just in case you might be thinking of turning your own memories into a lasting publication. It wasn’t easy to select a publisher, there are many such companies available on the internet.

After much research, I chose The Cookbook Company to publish my book because their site was very friendly, prices seemed reasonable and the owner personally answered every question I sent to him. I couldn’t find a better publisher, one that followed through on every promise made.

The finished product is beautiful, wouldn’t you agree? It’s just the perfect size, and it was produced reasonably enough to keep the selling price low, only $8.00.

So, if you’re ever interested in compiling your own cookbook, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me and I’ll send you any information you might want.

Thanks to everyone for buying my special collection of Boquete recipes in the Boquete Gourmet Community Cookbook, and please look for my new cookbook coming out late next year.

Thanks for your support!
Cora

Third of Three “Hot” Brunches

THE CANTINA BRUNCH

Strawberry Morning
Crepes with Crab and Hollandaise Sauce
Wilted Cucumber Salad
Fresh Herbed Country Cheese
Crunchy Lemon Muffins

This third brunch just couldn’t wait for an introduction. These five dishes were prepared in the Cantina during the “Bring on the Brunches” class early on Sunday morning, and they were enough to wake up any taste buds and to “shake out the cobwebs” from the previous week’s work.

The Boquete Gourmet hosted Minnesota Chef, Alie MacArthur, and she led the class of 16 local cooks to prepare a total of 15 very different recipes, each offering unique qualities of flavors, textures and appearances.

When Englishman Guy Beringer made the first “brunch” ever, he said the purpose of this all-new meal was to stir up the senses with colorful, hot, cold, spicy, sweet, sour, and mild flavors.

This “Cantina Brunch” menu has it all, including a very hot and spicy Watermelon Morning drink pepped up with a good helping of cayenne pepper. It might sound strange, but try it, you’ll like it! The only ingredients are a few frozen chunks and several fresh pieces of seeded watermelon, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper and ginger ale to fill the blender. Try it, it’ll wake you up!

The main dish of this menu is Crepes with Crab and Hollandaise sauce, which is as beautiful as it is delicious. Coni learned how to make the perfect Hollandaise sauce and assembled the dish with her own artistic flair, as you can see in the top photo.

Then, Linda mixed up the Crunchy Lemon Muffins and baked them in an arepa maker, rather than using an oven. The only thing she would have improved the next time she makes them, is to put more lemon glaze atop the muffins. Good advice, Linda!

Probably the easiest dish to make, and it can be made the day before the brunch, is the marinated local, fresh Panamanian country cheese.

FRESH HERBED COUNTRY CHEESE

1 round fresh Panamanian white country cheese, removed from wrapper
2 cloves garlic, cleaned, pressed and chopped
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon dried herbs or 4 tablespoons fresh herbs, chopped finely
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Measure all ingredients into a small plastic zip-lock bag and mull. Add the whole cheese and seal tightly. Turn the bag over and over to coat the surface completely. Chill at least one hour. Serve on plate with crackers or toasted pita points.

When everyone had tasted all 15 dishes, it was impossible to decide on which recipe turned out the best.

The “hot” watermelon drink was a winner for surprising flavor. From the second brunch, the Mushroom Crusted Quiche won for most creative concept. The Wilted Cucumber Salad won for cool and tangy taste and the Herbed Cheese took the prize for the best use of a local ingredient.

I think I could go on and on naming winners, but at the end, they were all dishes that anyone could make and enjoy at their own home with friends.

Only one last question, what happened to this spatula that Alie is holding? It definitely “bit the dust”! Talk about “concentrating on your cooking”!

Thanks to Alie for these 3 amazing brunches, and thanks to Betty Dabney for her gorgeous photos.

The final wrap-up and more photos of all three brunches will be coming soon.

Prepare a brunch today, no need to wait until Sunday!
Coral