A little while ago I traveled to Panama with some loved ones. It was a ridiculously silly thing to do at the time and when we arrived it became an increasingly silly adventure to be on.

Upon our return two of our very good friends decided that they wanted to host a party where we would recreate the dishes that we served in Panama and film it for a TV network.

All in all it sounded like a great idea so here is a semi recap of the dinner we served in Panama being served to Americans in a loft in Brooklyn for television, with really nice lights and an unbelievable mean ambient temperature. Needless to say the moving picture version of this night will be broadcast sometime in future in a format beyond my control but hopefully with my diction.

Here is a small peak into what an amazing photographer and food stylist can do for the equatorially inspired food we made.

Menu
Butter Poached Lobster on Panamanian Tortillas with Cilantro Pesto and Candied Aji
Balsamic Pickled Peach Gaspacho
White Risotto with Black and White Prawns and Coconut Crisps
Mixed herb salad with fresh tomato, pixbae (pickled palm fruit) and toasted spiced nuts
Whisky Drizzled Crepes with goat cheese, mango and dark chocolate w/Cold Brewed coffee and tobacco whipped cream

Menu written with Mark Low and Danielle Florio

PS: If you look closely you can see Hunter.

All Photos:
Andrew Casey © 2008
Food Styling: Pablo Munoz (This man is an unbelievable talent.)

We started the meal off with a Panamanian style tortilla with a cilantro and chili sauce and a slice of reconstituted lobster meat that was poached in a beurre monte. A couple of candied chilies were place on top to cut through the richness of the lobster with some spice and sweetness.

We originally thought that putting the sauce on first was the best idea. But after some sober and personally introspective deliberation we agreed that the version pictured above and was amazingly less soggy and aggressive with it sauce delivery.

On to a delightfully refreshing dish we worked on all summer from our peaches party in July to this meal where it was retired due to the season change still unperfect but with great character. Pickled peach gazpacho with crème fraîche and compressed peach slices. When this balance between the pickled peaches and the fresh peaches finally works itself out this will a brilliantly refreshing dish. Topped with a touch of mint for greens-sake.

Look close to see the color break between the pureed fresh peach and tomato bases and the balsamic pickled peaches and cipolini onion core on which the fresh tomato slices sit.

Here we attacked the risotto and shrimp dish with a Coconut as the serving vessel, clearly showing that Mark has a flair for the dramatic. What seems to be a wasteful amount of salt and pepper used to hold the coconut in place was actually part of the final plating because it allow for the dish to be seasoned better by the guest as we had varying opinions on how spicy and salt the dish should be served.

I opted for super spicy with the blackened shrimp but we ended up toning it down a little after a guy on staff almost passed out. I will gladly serve this too you that spicy if you want and you too can almost pass out. I must say that if the test isn’t conducted in a room that is above body temperature and after a day of you holding a boom microphone out into space for 9 hours it won’t be completely equal.

Little herb salad with some delightfully ripe tomatoes and nuts, oh such spicy nuts.

This is dessert and we were really keen on the racing stripe for like an hour, and then I thought it wasn’t awesome. Then I ate it and thought it was great again. Then Pablo took this photo with Andrew and I like the background better than the crepe but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t tasty.

Did I mention that Mark’s Whisky Dizzle is stupid good.

Coffee and cigarettes rule the day again!

Panama was probably the best vacation I have gone on in a while. There are many reasons for this but the primary two are:

1. I had practically no travel responsibility; insomuch as all I had to do was wake up and be in paradise, eat, nap and then go to the beach.
2. I got to cook with some amazing friends, in an amazing country for some amazing people who were all really amazingly interesting and could dance averagely.

Here is a little chronology of the trip and the dinner that I cooked with my good friends Mark Low and Danielle Florio from The Whisk and Ladle in Panama City for some other amazing friends at Diablo Rosso.
Here is a short list of some of the things we tried while we were down there:
Butter Poached Lobster on Panamanian Tortillas with Cilantro Pesto and Candied Aji

White Risotto with Black and White Prawns and Coconut Crisps

Plantain Pizza with mango, aji, black beans and queso fresco

Chocolate Chip and Sea Salt Cookies

Aside from the cooking, while in country we were also witness to the country celebrating their first medal with the unbelievable long jumping of the amazing gold medal winning, Irving Saladino.  In retrospect this whole trip was in reverence to him and his accomplishments for himself and his country.

Having driven directly from our two day boar feast in rural Syracuse, NY to Newark Airport, my inability to properly grasp reality was at an all time high. After picking up a casual taco at the airport stand and some light periodical reading on science and spatial relations the airplane ride was amazingly uninvolved and sleep befit us proper and quick.

Upon arrival we were greeted by no one; it was an hour before our friends appeared with large grins and a night full of nonsense ahead of us. First stop was the 24 hour grocery store, as the island we were would be staying at was devoid of all provisions except beer, wine and beaches.

Mixing Ron& Cola was one of the better things I have ever been apart of.

The first thing that struck me as amazing was the variety of fruits that seemed to be taken for granted by our friends. They were constructed oblong, sharp and lumpy; bitter, sweet and acrid; colored as the flora of the streets we drove around the city.

The best game to play was: Bitter or sweet

Which is this one?

I hadn’t the strenght to inquire

The second thing was the apparent desire for a beverage made out of grain products.

After a brief discussion about the current state of the music industry and the obvious lacking that needed to be filled by our new band, we retired to prepare for the mornings travels.

Flying has never been a problem for me but when you are in a plane that is smaller than a garbage truck and can only hold as many people, including the pilots that you can count on your hands, the concept is pushed to the limit. Add to this formula a runway that is longer than the island we were hoping to land on but still not long enough for the plan to properly come to a full rest without pulling a sweet inner-city taxi style U-turn at the far end.

This island provided the perfect place to taste some local foods and do some sea level cooking at 100% humidity. Which in retrospect isn’t so far from NYC in August but still it seemed excessive.

These cookies were delightful and just could not be finished. We ate them all day and night, at the beach, in the little pool, on the hammock, in our beds. Danielle threw a little bit of this unbelievably resilient Panamanian sea salt in the batter and instead of breaking down and dissolving they just added a nice pop of savory in a cloud of chocolate chips.

The days got hard and Mark had to brew some of his now legendary cold brewed coffee to wash these bastards down.

This is Diablo Rosso’s café/art gallery transformed to be full of friends, while Mark, Danielle and I called to attention the room for a little culinary description and thanks to our gracious hosts.

This is Dr Salci and Saky Kosmas two of our gracious hosts. Thank you very much my friends and to the rest of the lovely people that extended their love and affection over what could have ever been imagined to make us feel comfortable and welcome..

Sunday Dinner – July 27th, 2008
Cold Service

So after weeks of fighting the oppressive heat that my kitchen was able to create this July we decided that the best thing to do (instead of baking, braising, or sautéing with all of our burners on high) was to gave in and cook a meal based entirely around cold and room temperature dishes. Although this accomplished the goal of reducing the amount of BTUs being unnecessarily dumped into the room, the idea itself created a stress on our meager home refrigeration equipment and our ability to prepare everything on the day of service so our guests could watch, participate and learn as we constructed dinner. Note to those of you who were not at this meal: do not attempt to make and serve ice cream, granita, gelée and aspic in the same day without a serious amount of cold- a very serious amount.

This meal was the first in which ideas that we set out to accomplish were unable to be executed, but these failures led to what I can easily describe as my favorite moments in a kitchen this year. As with most meals, dinner was around dusk but preparation started mid-day; and on this particular Sunday we had a great group of people show up early to get dirty and participate in creating that night’s meal. Our hope was to shut off all burners by 18:00 and get the room nice and cool by dinner. This lofty goal was attained, but as dinner started we noticed that the large white box in the room that was supposed to be making our food cold was doing a “poor” job at best.

Its lack of coolness presented the greatest challenge to our pot lickies aspic, which at 15 minutes before plating still refused to get solid. So we took our problem to the room and to the 18 guests and chefs. Over wine and carbonated beverages, we turned a broken aspic into a beautiful pan sauce to dress the pâté.

I say this was one of my favorite moments in a kitchen because it accomplished everything that we hoped to have happen with our cooking: to get our guests to not be passive participants in a meal but active members of a dining experience, with a vested interest in everything that happens and to take ownership of the food they eat. This was no longer just a meal we were presenting to them; this was a meal they created with us throughout the day and together we were able to overcome the problems that our less than ideal conditions created.

Menu
Peach Gazpacho – White peach and mint gazpacho, finished with balsamic pickled strawberries and lime purée

Insalata Caprese – Buffula mozzarella, roasted tomato gelée, with basil oil and balsamic syrup

Wild Mushroom Brulée – Maitake and gorgonzola custard with pancetta brulée

Pâté En Croute – southern style pork pate with collard green pot lickies aspic wrapped in puff pastry

Raisin Granita – Raisin, Ancho and Serrano Ham Granita topped with candied Serrano chilies

Honey and White Pepper Ice Cream – locatelli and black Cypriote salt

Menu created with Daniel Castaño and Mark Low.
Cooks: Andrew Rosenberg, Daniel Castaño and Mark Low

Peach Gazpacho – White peach and mint gazpacho, finished with balsamic pickled strawberries and lime purée
I have never been a fan of gazpacho. I used to work next to a very well respected and critically acclaimed Mexican restaurant which had their gazpacho mentioned in every article or review but even its elegancy escaped me. Until one equally hot afternoon in July where peaches became the new shellfish and a frozen peach soup was born to help cure the heat. This is an evolution of that dish which garners nice compliments every time we serve it but still has not completely sold me on the idea these types of cold soups.

The addition of pickled fruit really helped to brighten the dish and give it better balance. With something like this the refreshing quality is what is important and I think the next time we take a stab at this I would like to see it equally as spicy as it is acidic. Giving the spice balance a little kick might also step up the cooling factor as well.

Insalata Caprese – Buffula mozzarella, roasted tomato gelée, with basil oil and balsamic syrup
This was just a reinterpretation of the classic Italian dish that will become a fixture on my table over the next month as this summer’s tomatoes come into season. Here we just replaced the fresh tomatoes with a concentrated roasted tomato gelée, hoping to create a smooth uniform mouth feel that would be able to sit in unison with the creamy density of the mozzarella. The flavors and textures were almost perfect and Mark’s superb knife skills saved the gelée which like the aspic refused to completely set.

Wild Mushroom Brulée – Maitake and gorgonzola custard with pancetta brulée
This was my favorite adventure of the night. Being a fan of Italian cooking I frequently enjoy room temperature dishes that you might see served cold or hot. This savory dish was something that I am happy to say was delightful at any temperature.

I know you can say “add bacon and blue cheese to anything and you pretty much have a winner,” but the consistency and creaminess of the savory custard was just delightful and the crack of the spoon on the pancetta was just as satisfying as breaking through a crust of turbinado sugar.

Pancetta Crackers

Pâté En Croute – southern style pork pate with collard green pot lickies aspic wrapped in puff pastry
In hopes of fusing southern pork flavors with a French preparation,this very standard pork shoulder and offal dish was designed to be our entrée in this meal. This, of all the dishes we have ever attempted to serve, was wrought with the most difficultly and failure, but was one of our greatest accomplishments.

• The pork protested the attack of the food processor
• The puff pastry cracked and refused to hold the aspic
• The aspic rejected the cold and did not set

But the dish was a success of flavor and texture and we accomplished it as a group.

Raisin Granita – Raisin, Ancho and Serrano Ham Granita topped with candied Serrano chilies

With six courses of cold food, two deserts are only to be expected if not demanded, but not wanting to give into our sweet tooth too easily we tried a semi-savory Granita. This was based on a simple Serrano Ham stock which we clarified the night before and added raisined fruit and peppers to flavor the dish until the sweet caramelized flavors overtook the rich creaminess of the pork. The candied chilies gave just a kick of spice that reminded your palate that you had not completely been given desert yet.

Honey and White Pepper Ice Cream – Locatelli Cheese and black Cypriote salt
This dish was dreamt up one night, many months ago with my friend Danielle over a glass of wine and a lifestyle and food magazine. As Ms. Florio flipped through the pages we talked about dessert, my aversion to it, and her quickly growing mastery of ice cream and granita making. At some point we got to talking about the ridiculous flavors of ice creams that we had been seeing around the city and how it seems as if people were trying to out silly one another. Not to be outdone we started on a verbal journey of nonsense that produced a long list of ice cream ridiculousness that we decided we had to try. This dish was the one I felt was the strongest and I believe was inspired by a brand of perfume that was either advertised in said lifestyle and food magazine or that was being worn at the time by Ms. Florio.

Locatelli cheese was added for its amazing salt and MSG levels, with the smoky flavor of the volcanic black Cypriote salt adding a touch of savory into the otherwise light and sweet dish. The white pepper gave each bite a touch of kick which you attempted to satisfy with the next bite of sweetness only to be placed at the beginning of the circle again. The slice of cheese was the savory ending to the brutal cycle of spice and sweet and left the cold meal finished.

Peaches are the new shellfish

At least they were on Sunday July 6th, when the purveyors at the Fulton fish market told us that there was no way that the shellfish we wanted to cook would still be alive come Sunday afternoon. Then they proceed to tell you not to eat any seafood anywhere in NYC, unless it is frozen, dried or canned on Sunday because it most definitely is a week old. So the Creole style seafood boil/bake was quickly converted into a peach smorgasbord.

Since this wasn’t a proper sit down dinner, it got good and messy; real messy. We ate, drank and danced our way into another Monday morning much longer than many expected and in between we succeeded in sweating our asses off while accomplishing a few feats that were though silly/impossible by the naysayers.

Some of the less dangerous attempts we made were a beautiful Tomato and Peach Salad (this was the impetuous for the whole switch to peaches by QV), a sous vide pork loin with crisp kale and confitted baby onions, cous cous with peaches, nuts and love and stuff squash blossoms. (These fine gentlemen are seen double teaming the blossoms)

Some of the more dangerous dishes were involved pickling peaches in all sorts of diabolical ways. In one form the results were pickled then caramelized peaches and burrata, and yes it was delightful.

© 2008 Cassidy DuHon www.duhonphotography.com

I am convinced that sous viding is the best way of cooking meat. Thomas Keller and Nathan M, both have books coming out on the subject in the next year and they are both worth purchasing as the two 4kg pork loins that we cooked to 53C were perfect. A quick blast in the deep fryer to give them a nice maillard crust and gentle slice and we were off to the races.

The big debate for the night was whether or not to trim the fat off the back of the loins before they were seared and sous vide since the heat and time wouldn’t be high/long enough to properly make it dissolve. Here you can see the nice fat cap that was said to be delicious by one or more foreigners who were in attendance.

Here we are in final dressing.

Wine reduction, onions, kale, copper platter and an amp that I had to drive to pick up in Elmira when I was living in Boston, in a Cadillac that was quickly letting me know that its final days were upon us. Table cloth by the genus

This was the star of the night.

These peach halves were poached in a pickling broth based on balsamic vinegar and a ton of sugar. They were spiced with Baliesian long peppers, cloves (just one I am sorry), garlic, red onions and a wee touch of coriander and dill. The flesh held the sweetness well and the bright spice and acid from the pickling made the peaches balanced well. They were then super chilled just before freezing and then caramelized with clarified butter (I know gratuitous) by Parcé to create a nice crisp on the round top. The pickling liquid was reduced by 70% (which subsequently burned the eyes of everyone in the kitchen for the better part of an hour) and then emulsified with xanthan gum to give it a nice stickiness. The burrata was slightly warmed and torn apart, throw in the center and sprinkled with basil. Easily delightful, and worth trying for those of you who are afraid to pickle sweet things give this a shot.