Portuguese-Inspired

Our second buffet in this rotation had a Latin/Seafood theme. It was our last special buffet to work on so we really wanted to impress with great flavors and a beautiful display.

We had been preparing in the prior two classes for this night, my first drama of the evening was that I couldn’t find the frozen Bacalao fritters in the fourth floor kitchen. I raced around to other kitchens and finally found them in another freezer. It was important to get them out as soon as possible since they had to defrost before being fried. I made a pureed roasted red pepper and tomato sauce to go with the codfish fritters.

My big project for the evening was making a traditional Portuguese dish of Pork and Clams. I had the pork cubes in a marinade for two days and proceeded to dry off the meat and sear it in a large Rondeau. Once I was able to sear the meat in two batches I worked on caramelizing the aromatics that I used in the marinade. Once the Rondeau was deglazed I added the meat back with some flour to coat the meat. I stirred the dry mixture to cook out the raw flour taste and then added hot veal stock to braise the pork covered in a low oven (about 325 – 350 degrees).

After about 1½ hours I removed the pork from the oven, separated the meat from the aromatics and strained the cooking liquid. I began reducing the sauce and time was ticking away. The pork went back into the sauce and then the clams were added to steam open in the covered pot. It is very common to have roasted potatoes with this dish so I cubed Idaho potatoes and roasted them in duck fat in a convection oven.

Finally it was time to get our dishes out, I thickened the sauce with a mixture of room temperature butter mixed with flour. The sauce took on a velvety texture and I tasted it for seasoning. At the end of the night, I was proud of the dishes that I prepared and hoped that I brought a little of myself to the table.

Cooking with Heart & Soul

I often reminisce about food I’ve enjoyed either from trips abroad or even from my childhood. Flavors and scents will trigger memories for me – from the aroma of Mom’s marinara sauce slowly cooking on top of the stove all day even to the headiness of sautéing onions with dried Italian herbs.

Our second buffet is slated for next week and I’ve been inspired to cook Portuguese-inspired food. Our theme is focused on Latin flavors and my dishes will fall right in line with what we plan to present at the buffet. Chef must have read my mind because the other night when I came into the kitchen he said he ordered some salted codfish (Bacalao – as it is referred to in my home) I smiled and rifled though my papers and pulled out a recipe for Pasteis de Bacalao (codfish fritters) and showed Chef.

Bacalao (pronounced băh-kăh-yēow) is a main ingredient in many Mediterranean cultures. Recipes are found in French, Basque, Spanish, and Portuguese kitchens. It was a prized food in the days before refrigeration was perfected – the cod was preserved in salt and dried and could be held for long periods of time. It was prefect for the time, a product that was not affected by inadequate storage and the opportunity to have fish when fresh fish was not an option.

Growing up in a Polish/Portuguese household, I was exposed to lots of different foods that were not typically American. I think those experiences laid the groundwork for me to have a greater acceptance of food in all its wonderful variety and genres. Bacalao was a common ingredient at the Ramos home. I remember seeing my mom soaking cod for a few days in water to release all the caked-on salt. She would change the water a couple of times a day to ensure that most of the salt would be released.

When preparing codfish, most often we would have them as an appetizer of crisp, fried Bacalao fritters. Other times we would also have a salad of broken cod, with herbs such as parsley, with sliced boiled potatoes and really good extra-virgin olive oil.

I was really excited to work with the Bacalao that Chef ordered and having NEVER made Bacalao fritters I was charged with the challenge. In fact, I haven’t had them in ages so that’s another plus! A few days before class I was on the phone with my Mom asking her how she made her fried Bacalao balls. Then she consulted with our cousins to refine the recipe and double check procedure. Finally a 10:30 pm call from Mom resulted in the recipe and procedure for the dish.

Back in the school’s kitchen, I put a stockpot filled with milk on the fire and added my codfish so it would soften and be pliable. I kept the fish on a low simmer and let it steep in the milk for about 40 minutes. Next, I chopped onion, shallot and garlic in a fine mince and I began sautéing the onion until almost translucent with no caramelized color, then added the shallot and lastly the garlic just to release its flavor. Chef came by and added a healthy pour of extra-virgin olive oil to the mixture and said, “its Mediterranean, we need lots of good olive oil!”

Once the fish was softened, we drained it in a colander, mixed it with the aromatics in the sauté pan and I broke up the pieces of fish and coated them just for a few minutes. Into a large mixer with the paddle attachment we carefully mixed the codfish with some double cream and some more extra-virgin olive oil and some cracks of black pepper. Lastly, the addition of freshly chopped parsley and some cilantro gave the creamy white mixture a nice pop of fresh color.

We all tried the Bacalao and were pleased with the creamy, subtle flavor – Chef had his bite on a slice of fresh bread and remarked that he’d be happy with just that for dinner. My fellow students took charge in shaping and breading the 2 trays of Bacalao with an egg wash and bread crumbs we made that evening while I began two sauces for our cold seafood platter in advance.

Chef disappeared for a few minutes while we were working and came back with a handful of fritters that he had just deep-fried to perfection – I guessed he couldn’t wait any longer to try them!

One bite into the crisp outer shell of breadcrumbs into the warm filling and I was 7 years old tugging on Mom’s apron anxiously awaiting to have the first one out of the hot oil. Waiting for the Bacalao to cool on paper towels seemed like an eternity but it was worth the wait – I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder.

Feeding the Masses

The big night, our first buffet! We all got to the kitchen a little earlier than usual to make sure we met the 8:30 pm deadline. Chef instructed us on some dishes and made each of us responsible for many different items.

I immediately got to work on my pork loin’s stuffing. I mixed pork forcemeat, sweetbreads, apricots, dried plums, golden raisins and spices. The pork loin was sliced into one flat piece of meat, I rolled the stuffing in the middle, tied it off and tackled the pork roast by making a dry-rub that Chef suggested – it consisted of juniper berries, black pepper, all spice, coriander and salt. The aromatic dry-rub perfumed the kitchen mingling with the aromas of bubbling pots of veal stock, and oven-roasted meat.

Once I got the two pork mains into the oven, we seared the meat on a high temperature for about 20 minutes then dropped the oven down to 350 degrees. Since I had leftover stuffing mixture, Chef decided that I would make stuffed red peppers. I doctored the stuffing with some eggs to bind it, breadcrumbs and rice.

My fellow kitchen mates worked on salmon in puff pastry, a delicious rice salad, the Arancini was deep-fried, Marcella made a Tres Leches cake that everybody raved about and were sad when it ran out. It really was delicious and I can still taste its creamy texture and custard-like consistency. We had quail to sear and roast, polenta to cut and sauté to a golden brown, avocado salad, cucumber salad with a yogurt-dill dressing, roasted beat salad, two potato gratins to re-heat, roast veal to braise, fruit salad in carved watermelon baskets, pâté and rillette to slice and plate on large silver platters, a ham glazing in the oven – a lot of food to produce, complete, platter and present.

We worked so hard to get everything done and right about 8:15 pm we were pushing out trays of food to be set up. It really was an exciting rush to get it all done and the response was great. The quail, roast pork chops, Tres Leches cake and pork roast were attacked by the hungry mob of students, Chefs and kitchen staff. I hung around the table explaining to the diners how dishes were made and flavored.

At the end of the night, we cleaned the disaster we made in the kitchen, bowls, pots, sauté pans, sheet pans were everywhere! Lastly, we sat down and started to finalize our plan of action for next week’s buffet. We have a Latin theme and lots of tasty surprises in store, save your appetite, there’s more to come.