For the love of cooking

As you know by now after reading some of my gastric-obessesed travel blog postings, I am a huge foodie. And so, as is the case with lovers of fine cuisine, I taught myself to cook. But while my friend Tiffany is a Food Network junkie, I just find watching others mix marinades and bake muffins makes me hungry enough to get off the couch and get the oven going. I tend to throw things in the air a lot and see where they land when I make dinner. Mostly, my dear Alan will eat anything. Sometimes it will become a firm favourite (like last week’s leek, bacon, mushroom…?  dish) and then it my job to spend eternity trying to recall what exactly went into it.

So it would make sense that in this year’s Martha Stewart Everyday Food Magazine gift subscription I enclosed a note inviting Tiffany to join me on  a challenge of the tastebuds. The idea was to take turns hosting a monthly dinner party for friends in our homes, where each  guest brought two things with them: A dish and a bottle of wine. Both were to adhere to a strict set of rules set by the host. Food theme ideas for dinners included those along the idea of a country or region, temperature, ingredient, season or holiday, and color. The wine could be challenged on price, vintage, region, or varietal.

So it was that I kicked off the club last month with Carribean Night.

It’s true when they say that local Carribean cuisine smacks of a spice you just can’t quite put your finger on. This is often attributed to the creativity of chefs of the islands who use traditional ingredients in untraditional ways. Nutmeg, for example, is the accompaniment to allspice (also known as “jamaica berry”) in the wonderfully, tangy jerk chicken. Scotch bonnet peppers, the small, orange, wrinkly and extremely hot chillies are the hallmark of Caribbean cuisine but can go in little else. Food is drizzled in coconut, sprinkled with limes, tossed in beans.

The ladies were set the task and it was agreed the feast would comprise pineapple salsa, plantains, and shrimp sauteed in coconut, followed by bean salad, jerk chicken with mango salsa, lime and cilantro rice, and ended nicely with bananas flambed in rum, almonds and toasted coconut. To my surprise the men rose to the challenge of the kitchen, with my Alan jerking chicken outside to an applewood chip beat, and Chris (of guest couple number 1) nearly burning down my kitchen while lighting the rummed bananas. Alan posted photos of the islands onto our flatscreen and we bopped to some hipswaying beats while Tiff tossed her bean salad.

Tyler Florence’s Jerk Chicken

Jerk Marinade

Directions

Begin by making the jerk marinade. Combine all the marinade ingredients in a blender and process until you have a smooth puree.

Add chicken pieces into a large resealable plastic bag and pour in the marinade. Put the bag into a baking dish and let marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

Preheat grill to high.

Prepare the grill, line it with foil and add some soaked wood chips to the bottom. Place a wire rack over the top, upside down, and lay chicken pieces over the chips on the rack. Cover with foil and grill over high heat. Smoke for 10 minutes and cook until firm.

Martha Stewart’s Cilantro Lime Rice

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• Coarse salt
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• Optional: coconut milk

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. (I cooked my rice in coconut milk).  Add rice and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cover, and reduce to a simmer. Cook until water/milk is absorbed and rice is just tender, 16 to 18 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a blender, combine cilantro, lime juice, oil, garlic, and 2 tablespoons water; blend until smooth. Stir into cooked rice, and fluff with a fork.

The wine challenge was rieslings, he perfect pairing for spicy food, tand we partook in one from each country. This seemed apt, as (is so often the case these days) the party represented the US, Australia and South Africa. Rieslings are seeing a revival, much like roses did in recent years, with two winning New York’s most coveted wine awards this week. A $14 semi-dry Riesling from Anthony Road Wine Co. was voted best wine, and Sheldrake Point Vineyard took the winery of the year title.  The two-day contest was judged by 24 experts, half from New York, six from California and six from other states. To steal a quote, Jancis Robinson ends her chapter on rieslings with a summary that’s all-too-true: “Unbeatable quality; indisputably aristocratic. Ludicrously unfashionable.”  Recognized by many prominent wine writers, experts and critics as the world’s greatest white wine, Riesling is surprisingly difficult to sell commercially. Despite it’s status as one of the most versatile food matches around, it’s an endangered species on restaurant wine lists. This is most likely owed to the riesling still lugging around baggage from the bad old days when those cheap, thin, sugar-water wines  hit the U.S. market by the tankerful.

All in all, a huge success. Bon Appetit!

Chris with his (now famous) flaming bananas