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The best thing about food is that there is nothing new under the sun. Truly, by now we have done everything and all nations have taken so much from everyone else that whatever Escoffier wrote about has been done better on another continent. The ingredients on a plate prepared in South America two thousand years ago have been carried across the ocean and incorporated into Chinese cuisine. For better or for worse, imperialist pig dogs have spread the seeds of flavor and now we are going to eat the poo poo out of them. The spice(s) must flow! First: Crocodilia Satay (Australia) Second: Gỏi Cuốn Tôm Thịt (Asia) Third: Ravioli all’Astice (Europe) Fourth: Merguez Tajine (Africa) Fifth: Suspiro de Limeña (South America) Fair warning: this food was prepped and cooked to maximize free time, so the pictures will jump around. At the outset, we’re making sausage for the tajine main course. Merguez. My table mates aren’t fond of lamb, so our merguez will be haraam. I’m sure the prophet will forgive us, PBUH. Pork and fat seasoned with harissa, garlic, salt, paprika, pepper, and ground coriander and fennel seeds. Plus my own homemade chili sauce   Dirty pig flesh seasoned with the dry spices, chilled, then marinated with the wet and frozen to get it stiff for the grinder.  Ground and stuffed into a very halal sheep casing. Sausage making is hand-intensive so unfortunately no photographs were taken of this process. You don't want to see how the sausage gets made anyhow.   Hang to dry.  Merguez is a perfect example of migratory food, created by bedouin nomads in the maghreb and embraced by the French, you can buy it at stands in Paris and Algiers. Harissa is a paste made from spices and red peppers and is an amazing addition to sausage, soups, and anything else. While the merguez dries, we’ll have a glass of rosé and set up our spring rolls. First we go to the garden for mint and basil.  Spring rolls are found in various forms throughout east asia and into Indonesia and the Philippines. Essentially, it’s rice paper wrapped around fresh ingredients. Gỏi Cuốn Tôm Thịt is the Viet version with shrimp as the main ingredient.  The rice noodles are soaked until soft, and there shrimp cleaned and skewered. The vegetables are cleaned and sliced, the leaves in chiffonade. Some recipes soak the rice vermicelli in rice vinegar/seasoning, but we are on a goddamn schedule here people.  I’m only going to fire up the grill once, so courses 1, 2, and 4 will go together on the flame. Here’s the mise for our crocodile satay with mango and sambal oeleck.  An admission—the only locally sourced crocodilians available to me in New Orleans are of the broader-snout variety and unfortunately I don’t have a croc supplier handy. So gator meat it is. The marinade is lime juice, lemon myrtle, lemongrass, lemon zest, sambal oeleck, ginger, and garlic.  While the grill is firing, here is the mise for our tajine.  Tomato, onion, garlic, green olive, dried apricot, lemon, carrot, fennel, chick peas, cilantro, ras el hanout, paprika, pepper, cinnamon, ground coriander, turmeric, cumin. Tajine is a conical ceramic cooking dish used mainly in North Africa to stew all kinds of foods, from lamb to chicken to vegetables. It can be used on an open flame or in an oven. Here we are going to do both—over the fire and then into the oven. Once finished, the tajine will be served with our grilled merguez and couscous. I thought long and hard about making the couscous by hand, but honestly I would rather drink a few more glasses of wine over the course of the day. As-salamu alaikum. On the grill go our proteins: shrimp, sausage, gator.  In the tajine, we are cooking the spices in olive oil and adding the onion and garlic. TIME OUT Here’s what’s currently going on: 1. Grilling alligator skewers 2. Grilling shrimp for spring rolls 3. Grilling merguez for tajine 4. Cooking up aromatics in the tajine Missing a few things…oh, I need to make some pasta. Lobster tail ravioli, handmade pasta in the italian fashion.  Dough rolled using two eggs, one additional yolk, and 1.75 cups of flour. Kneaded until firm but pliable.  Let rest for an hour or so. I need a drink and something to do! Another glass of rosé and…Let’s start dessert! Suspiro de limeña is a Peruvian dessert composed of a dulce de leche type custard with meringue topping. The name means "sigh of a Lima girl." In Peru, the base is known as manjar blanco, which is based on the european blancmange. The dish is very similar to the French dessert of œufs à la neige. Goes around, comes around. Whatever, the spice(s) must flow! Evaporated and condensed milk cooked together, then whisked with three egg yolks (reserve the whites for the meringue topping). Cook for a while until thick and then let cool. This is the manjar blanco.  Meanwhile I’ve gotten everything but the merguez off of the grill, and moved the tajine to the oven.  Time to get the first course on a plate. Luckily my wife is starving and just wants to eat so there is no table set…just food on the plate and we eat! Australia - Crocodilian Satay with Mango, Sambal Oelek and Oyster Sauce relish  The shrimp for the spring rolls are chilling, the ravioli dough is resting, and the suspiro de limeña is cooling, so we can start the ravioli filling. I remove the lobster tails from the shells and roughly chop them, reserving about 1/4. Process some parsley, cooked spinach, and garlic, then add 3/4 of the lobster, followed by the olive oil that has been infused with chopped garlic, then a bit of grated pecorino romano cheese. Chill the stuffing until we are ready to use it.  The merguez is done, so it goes into the tajine.  Another break…refill the wine glass and let’s make the ravioli. Note - these pictures are from a previous lasagne I made, but the process is identical.    Now apply a wash of beaten egg, and spoon the fillings, then fold over the pasta sheets and cut.  Now to finish up the spring rolls. Soak the round rice paper sheets in warm water, then each ingredient goes into the paper, then roll it up like a burrito.  And served - Asia - Gỏi Cuốn Tôm Thịt with peanut butter chili sauce  Ravioli sauce is made with the lobster shells, onion, fennel, and garlic, softened in olive oil before adding some rosé wine, followed a while later by the 1/4 of the lobster meat. Let it bubble, then add a bit of cream. Boil up the ravioli.  Go out to the garden with a glass of rosé and search for inspiration. Be told by very wise wife that stuffing squash blossoms with ricotta and frying them will require one too many burners and is probably biting off too much. Pluck a couple anyway because they look good and gently caress it.  Ravioli all’Astice with Garden Squash Blossoms  The tajine is working. Get some couscous started and now to dessert. Prepare a bit of syrup with sugar, water, and vanilla extract. The point is to get this close to a caramel but not hard.  Whip the whites from the eggs used in the manjar blanco into a meringue.  Slowly add the caramel syrup while beating, then refrigerate everything.  The tajine is ready, but it was always ready, wasn't it?  Africa - Merguez Tajine with chick peas and couscous  And for dessert, South America - Suspiro de Limeña with Cinnamon Dust  This was an amazing project. Lots of fun and the family was very very (tired) happy with my hard work. Across all of the continents, you can easily see the way cuisines overlap, influence, and straight up copy each other. And we see many of the same ingredients—fennel, cinnamon, garlic, crocodilian tail flesh. We are all in this together, and we feel the flavors coursing through us. The spice(s) must flow! Phil Moscowitz fucked around with this message at 06:09 on May 31, 2016 |
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May 31, 2016 06:02
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This is very good and I want to eat it all
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May 31, 2016 06:47
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Super impressive entry! Very impressed by the home made sausages.
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May 31, 2016 11:47
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Goddamn phil
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Jun 2, 2016 23:35
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Goddamn that is a wonderful post.
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Jun 3, 2016 21:03
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