Latin Week 9

Last week in Latin we made a lot of food and finished in the allotted time. Only wish the group would learn how to clean and stop screwing around. We finished at 9:00 and didn't get out until 10:45...I hope some of them who are there to receive their diplomas; get some discipline before getting a job in the real world.

Our menu for this week consisted of the lower Antilles...Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Trinidad, etc...
We made pepper pot soup, yuca mufongo with cilantro aioli sauce (we made mufongo with plantains instead), camarones sofrito (shrimp in red sofrito), salad of hearts of palm with passion fruit vinaigrette, Sorullos de maiz, guava fool, and corn pudding.

Let me start by saying this week's food was awesome! I made the Pepper pot Soup and the Hearts of Palm Salad; with passion fruit vinaigrette. The pepper pot soup is a mixture of greens, simmered meats, shrimp, scotch bonnet pepper, root vegetables, boniato, taro root, okra and coconut milk. Chef said the taste, color and texture were perfect. I should have used a different garnish instead of the chives...obviously this one slipped past me with green on green. Our salad was great; the vinaigrette according to chef tasted great and it was very refreshing. I should have cut the cherry tomatoes in half and cut the hearts on the bias. Other than the fore mentioned; the salad was great...a good mix of red onion, hearts of palm, tomatoes, red bell and green bell pepper.

The mufongo was made by Maria and it contained pork rinds, plantain chips, fresh garlic cloves, plantains...it was AWESOME! We filled the mufongo with Loida's Camarones Sofrito. We made the red sofrito instead of the green and it turned out great. Chef said the shrimp were perfectly cooked, the sofrito tasted great and the mix with the mufongo was great! In fact chef had us bring around our mufongo for everyone to try...

Henry made the sorullos de maiz from Puerto Rico. They are made with fine corn meal, water and salt...then you fill them with queso fresco. WOW! Maria made a dip that was basically mayo, ketchup and lime juice...what a perfect compliment. Mike made the guava fool and corn pudding...chef thought both deserts were great and I thought the same. Guava Fool is basically guava puree (confectioners sugar and softened guava) strained and chilled. Then you fold the puree into whipped heavy cream; garnish with mint leaves and almonds if you wish. The corn pudding is a can of creamed corn, milk, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and coconut milk. You blend the corn, coconut and half the milk; pass through a strainer and add the rest of the milk. Then you add sugar, vanilla bean and boil. Reduce the mixture to a simmer add the cinnamon; dissolve the cornstarch to make a slurry and add to the mix. Once the pudding is thickened, turn off the heat and remove vanilla bean. Pour the pudding into individual cups and dust with ground cinnamon.

Overall it was an awesome week...we finished on time and we made awesome food! This week is our practical final...look for my pictures on this awesome dish!