Atlantean dinner, an extravaganza culinary experience

Tonight, you’re going to eat an Atlantean dinner.

Well, that’s not really the kind of things you expect to hear when you get up in the morning. However, it did happen. A friend of us invited us to come enjoy an Atlantean dinner cooked by a friend of him, Montino Bourbon, who lives in Santa Barbara and was in Paris for a week.
Before going straight into the first forkful, an Atlantean dinner requires a bit of explanation if you are, just like me, still wondering what it could be.

It starts with flower boat cuisine which is a specific type of food preparation and presentation that belongs to the flower boat style of Atlantean cooking. Flower boats were usually moored in a harbor, a river, or a lake, and were places where one could eat, socialize, and entertain and be entertained.

Flower Boat cuisine was typified by a three-part preparation for the main course, consisting of:
– The vehicle: usually a starch such as rice, noodles, any type of bread, or even such things as lettuce leaves and other vegetable holders for…
– …the message, or meaning; conveyed on or with the vehicle, this was a preparation of meat, vegetables or protein of any kind that was carried by the vehicle.
– And finally the sauce, which was the accent that was put on top of the message to season it.

Diners would take some vehicle, such as a tortilla or some rice, put a preparation of some kind of protein such as meat, fish, or one of the many vegetarian proteins on top of that, and top it with the sauce. Remind you of something? This particular way of eating was actually the beginning of Tapas in Spain, Sushi in Japan, Dim sum in China, and small-food and hand-food traditions in various other countries. Here we come!

The “sauce” itself was actually seven sauces, divided in seven specific flavors: sweet, salty, caprotic or musky, sour, bland or creamy, herby such as with mint or cilantro, spicy or hot, and all of these were ruled by the most formal sauce, ketchup, which absolutely no banquet could be without. The first step to umami…

The meal always started with the welcome drink served by the chef. He would come out of the kitchen to meet the diners to understand the current mood, which dictated the makeup of this drink and the meal.

I can’t remember the name of the welcome drink served that evening but I still have in mind the different dishes cooked by our most obedient chef:

– Braised Chinese cabbage with ginger
– Stirfry peppers and onions
– Roasted chicken
– Beets with onions
– Tapenade, baba ganoush, olives, sausage, dried tomatoes
– Spicy fennel sauce
– Sweet ginger and basil sauce
– Pita bread as the vehicle.

Only the floating boat was missing that night but even in our Parisian flat, we could feel a strange atmosphere in the air, as if we were taking part of a unique experience. After all, even many years later, food is still the best way to socialize, entertain and be entertained.

Sweet ginger and basil sauce
1 thumb of ginger
the jus of one lemon
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of honey
1 handful of basil
A pinch of salt
(Proportion can be changed according to taste)

Chop the ginger, the garlic very finely and roughly chop the basil.
Mixed with lemon, honey and just enough salt to flavour it but not enough to make it salty.
Add the basil Mix everything together as add a bit of water if it is too thick.

Veal Paupiettes

Today is all about a recipe. A recipe for a nice meal, a recipe to surprise your guests or just for the pleasure of food.

Bon appetit !

Veal Paupiette – Serves 6
6 veal filets
2 onions
1 cube of chicken stock
20 cl of white wine
2 branches of thyme
10 bay leaves
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper

For the stuffing
200g of bacon
200g of mushrooms
2 garlic cloves
1 handful of parsley

For the mushroom sauce
300 g of mixed wild mushrooms
1 finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 crushed garlic cloves

Preparation
The stuffing
In a food processor, chop 200g of mushrooms, the bacon, the garlic, the parsley and season with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Fry the mixture in a non-adhesive frying pan at high heat for five minutes. Set aside.

The paupiettes
Finely chop the onions and set aside.
Flatten the veal filets with a rolling pin.
Place a tablespoon of minced meat in the centre of the filets.
Roll filets and tie them to create rolls with the minced meat at the centre to create ‘paupiettes’.
Dilute a chicken stock cube in 25 cl. of boiling water.
In a frying pan, cook the paupiettes with a drop of olive oil and the onions until browned.
Add the white wine and bouillon to the paupiettes and onions.
Add the thyme and bay leaves, season and leave to simmer for 30 minutes.
Remove the paupiettes from the fire and filter the cooking juice.

The mushroom sauce
Chop the mushrooms
Put a pan on a high heat until warm and a drop of olive oil.
Add the mushrooms with the crushed garlic and cook over a gentle heat for 7 – 10 minutes
Pour in the white wine and chicken stock
Bring the sauce to a boil once again and cook for 5 minutes or until the mushrooms have softened.
Add the mushrooms to the paupiette cooking juice.

Serve with rice and the sauce on top.

Summer

A long chair.
A garden.
A book.
A pair of sunglasses.
The smell of suncream.
Time has stopped.  It’s summer.

A bird is singing.
The sun is shining.
In the backyard, children are playing.
The cat is stretching and only the bees seem to be able to disturb him from his long nap.
The smell coming from the kitchen slowly returns you from your reveries

Summer is back!
…and what better meal than Mango chicken to enjoy it?

Mango Chutney Chicken – 4 persons
4 chicken breasts
2 tablespoons of mango chutney
1 onion, chopped
1/2 fresh mango, chopped
10 cl of chicken stock
Salt and pepper

Put the chicken breasts into a pan and close the lid and cook over medium heat.
They will first give off their juice and then start becoming drier.
Once all the juices are gone, add the chopped onion and stir for 5 minutes.
Add the mango chutney, stir for a couple of minutes and pour the chicken stock.
Let it boil for 5 minutes and add the chopped fresh mango.
Serve with rice (or any vegetables you want) and the other mango half, preferably in mango manhattan style!

Mango Manhattan
Cut a mango lengthwise along both sides of the seed so that you have two exterior parts mango and a center part which is nearly all seed.
Take one of the exterior parts of the mango and slice – without cutting through the skin – several lines into mango flesh, both vertically and horizontally, so that you are creating a checkerboard of mango chunks still attached to the skin.
Press the skin side of the mango part inwards while holding the outer side of the skin so that the chunks of mango appear like lopsided cubes… very much like a mango version of Manhattan island!

Smile

The smile of a child who is surprised by an icecream on a warm afternoon.
The smile of a pregnant woman savouring strawberries in the middle of the night.
The smile of a teenager splitting a pizza with his friends.
The smile of two grandmothers sipping afternoon tea over pictures of their grandchildren.
The smile of a foodie swooning over the latest creation of a chef.

There are moments in anyone’s life, where the binding catalyst of any experience or memory is the food we enjoy it over.

What better way to bring comfort to a friend than offering them their favourite guilty pleasure.
And what better spice than seeing the smile of the person you share it with.

Thai salmon fishcakes with sweet chili and mango dip – 2 persons
For the fishcakes
20g fresh coriander
Zest of 1 lime
4 spring onions
1 teaspoon peeled and finely grated ginger
Large garlic clove, crushed
Large pinch dried crushed chilies
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 x 180g cans of salmon, drained
½ tablespoon fish sauce
1 egg, beaten
Plain flour
Oil
Lettuce leaves

For the dip
3 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 mango very finely chopped

In a food processor, whiz the first seven ingredients until finely chopped.
Transfer to a bowl, add the salmon, fish sauce and beaten egg and mix together gently until well combined.
Shape into 12 fishcakes and refrigerate until ready to cook.
Just before cooking, dust every fishcake in a little flour, shaking off the excess.
Shallow fry for 3-4 mn each side over a medium heat.
Meanwhile, mix together the dip ingredients and set aside.
Serve the hot fishcakes on lettuce leaves with the dipping sauce on the side in a bowl.