We haven’t decided if we’re going to use this in the restaurant yet, but here’s Chef’s cold appetizer for his final reception.

A cold, creamy, spicy Avocado Soup with fried tortilla strings and a small bit of Pico de Gallo. We need to work on the heat level a little (it kicks in late and builds up, and this is before the soup has been chilled the full time it’s supposed to be, so I’m imagining the heat will be a little too high when it has been chilled the full 4 hours), but it’s otherwise a good soup.

And quite pretty too!

Yes, it has been a long time. I’ve actually considered deleting this journal because I’ve been so busy and it’s become such a huge spam trap, but since next to no one reads it, I guess it’s all good.

Chef has finally come up with the first official appetizer for the restaurant: Caribbean Egg Rolls with a Spicy Sweet & Sour Sauce.

These were developed for his Garde Manger class. For the final, each student must come up with one cold and one warm appetizer for 24 people. This is his warm appetizer.

He took a Caribbean salad recipe and made the following changes:

» replaced the lettuce with cabbage and cut down the amount a little
» added shredded carrots
» added some chicken

Now the salad had a dressing which he used as a marinade, but couldn’t be used as is in the actual egg roll. So he made the salad as usual with the above changes, marinated it all in the dressing, and then wrapped it in egg roll wrappers and fried it like usual egg rolls.

He also modified a hot sweet and sour sauce. He didn’t want it too spicy, but with just a little bit of a kick. The two items marry well, and the sauce has a nice sweetness of flavor that works well with the sweetness of the egg rolls, but that spicy kick is enough to keep that sweetness from being too overwhelming. You can’t see it, but the sauce has a nice texture and speckling, and it’s a much lighter color than this picture shows, almost a golden red-brown. Very pretty.

And in a few, he’ll be working on his cold appetizer: an Avocado Soup in Tortilla Bowls.

I found this recipe on TasteSpotting last night, and we decided to give it a try today as a possible alternative to the standard Mozzarella Sticks. The recipe here is pretty much what was posted to TS, but I did make modifications in the procedure based on what we learned today. Changes we’ve already tried will follow the recipe, as well as a few other notes.

Puerto Rican Cheese Fritters
2 c. water
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 c. cornmeal
1 c. shredded cheese
oil for frying

Boil water and salt, remove from heat and slowly stir in cornmeal to avoid lumps, add cheese. Let cool, then place in fridge for about 30 minutes (cover to avoid having the top drying out and getting crusty). Heat oil to about 350*. Using about 2 tsp per fritter, form cornmeal mixture into oblongs about 2″ long. Fry until golden and done on the inside.

The first thing we noticed is that the cheese we chose wasn’t particularly strong enough: there wasn’t a whole lot of flavor. In fact, the fritter seemed more like a cornmeal version of hush puppies and were pretty bland. (We were trying them without any dipping sauce to get an idea on their flavor before we played with them; and we’d fry one, taste, make a few changes, then fry another.) We used queso fresco crumbling cheese, and the mild flavor of the cheese was overwhelmed by the cornmeal, at least at these measurements.

So, we increased the cheese until we had about 2 1/2 cups. We also added about 1 1/2 TBL paprika and 1/4 to 1/2 tsp red pepper. While all this helped, we’re thinking about adding some cubano peppers. We still have some of the dough left, so we’ll make the adjustment and I’ll edit to indicate how it came out. We like to taste the food we’re making without overwhelming it with too much spice, but this one just might need the spice to work out.

The other thing I noticed was that you definitely have to watch the oil temp and the thickness of the fritters or they won’t cook through.

Even if we tinker with this recipe enough to where we like it at home, I’m not sure it will land in SaxyK’s. I don’t think it would work well as a catering recipe since it’s definitely a serve hot recipe, but it might work in the restaurant.

Or the Chef may just want to stick with Mozzarella Sticks.

ETA: So we tried adding the peppers (1 each poblano and cubano), and the things fell apart in the oil. don’t know if we’ll be trying again. We’ll see.

One of the things we’re already working on for the new restaurant is soups. We know we’re going to use a Minestrone we only minutely modified (and I’ll be happy to share at some point), and I’m working on a chowder. But one soup we’ve put together, and are still tinkering with a bit, is a loaded potato soup that started off as a meld of two other potato soups. Here’s the original recipe that I came up with by combining two other soups and needing to use a fennel bulb:

Chunky Potato, Ham, & Fennel Soup
3 med. potatoes, peeled, cut into small cubes, & cooked
2-3 TBL olive oil
3/4 c. red onion, finely chopped
1/2 lg fennel bulb, finely chopped
3 TBL all-purpose flour
salt and pepper to taste
3 c. chicken stock
1 c. milk
2 c. chopped/cubed ham
1 c. shredded kolby-jack cheese (or cheese of choice)

While potatoes drain, heat olive oil in large soup pot; add onion and fennel. Saute until soft. Add flour and stir until smooth; add pepper and stir for about 1 minute. Add potatoes, stock, and milk; stir well. Bring to boil and add ham. Simmer over low heat, stirring frequently, about 20 minutes. Pour into bowls and top with cheese.

Since this first incarnation, we’ve doubled the ingredients (just because that’s what we needed to do to cover our family); added sour cream, bacon, parsley, and scallions; changed the cheese to sharp cheddar; and changed the name (because this is planned as a SaxyK’s offering, no specific amounts are being listed).

Today, we’re trying the recipe in a crock pot and without the fennel. We have yet to have this soup the same way twice: first we had it like the above, then we had it with the changes just noted plus I had to play around with the milk/stock ratios and use water for some of the liquid because we didn’t have enough stock, today it’s going into the crock pot, and the Chef would like to try it with broccoli at some point. One of these days we’ll settle on the final recipe, although it’s likely to be a little different at the restaurant even then since my Chef is like most chefs and doesn’t measure much of anything.

As for the soup, which is now being called Loaded Potato and Ham Soup with Fennel, it’s a really nice, hardy soup. Perfect for cold winter days, low pantries (if you minus the fennel, though that’s not expensive at all if you go to a farmer’s market like we do, most everything is a staple for most families), and leftover holiday ham. And with the potatoes, ham, and veggies, it’s also pretty much a complete meal.

This was my first time playing with soup, and everyone loved it (especially the second version). Considering how I’m not really a natural like my Chef, I’m pretty pleased it came out so good.