As promised, here are the recipes from Friday’s Cooking at the Cascade demos.
The first recipe, Southern Fusion Cheese-Stuffed Cheese, inspired by that evening’s film, Fried Green Tomatoes, was the brainchild of Downtown Eatery & Libation’s Chef Taylor Smith (that’s him, above, overseeing Kelly and me as we form melted Parmesan cheese over egg cartons).
The second recipe is an adaptation of Pio Loco’s Chef Jeff Cerasaro’s signature Pio Loco Sangria. I say adaptation because I don’t have it in writing yet, and I’m reciting the recipe from memory from our Friday-night lesson. (I know I’m forgetting something, so any readers who have a different recollection, jump right in here. I think there was mango puree or something like that in it, too.)
It was a great evening that began with Chef Jeff’s Sangria demonstration. (The Cascade crew prepared and sold Chef Jeff’s recipe at the concession stand, which patrons were allowed to bring to their seats, probably because the Cascade knows that it can count on this audience to not spill a drop or a crumb inside the beautiful Cascade Theatre.)
Then came that classic movie, Fried Green Tomatoes. It had been many years since I’d last seen it, and watching it on the Cascade’s screen elevated the film to a whole other level. But the food-related film is just one aspect of these culinary adventures.
During a short intermission, the Cascade folks performed a presto-chango and transformed the theater from a movie theatre to a working kitchen, thanks to Carmona’s Appliance Center’s loan of its functional display kitchen.
Then Kelly and I joined the talented young Chef Taylor on stage, ostensibly to help, but he really didn’t need assistance.
We sure learned a lot, though, that night.
Chef Jeff taught us that brandy does wonders for Sangria, and he showed us how to “cube” lemons and celery, so just a hunk of the ingredient’s essence remained.
And Chef Taylor shared a chef’s trick, that adding “acid” like the rice vinegar to chutney, is a little-known flavor enhancer, and how he prefers using arrowroot as a thickener over cornstarch, for many reasons, starting with we need not use so much, and it thickens at a lower heat.
He also showed us how an upside-down egg carton makes the perfect mold for little Parmesan cheese baskets to hold a goat cheese mixture. Delicious! Did I mention samples? Galore.
Any of you who’ve made hundreds of appetizers for one event can appreciate the amount of work the chefs put into preparing and bringing their samples and cooking supplies and ingredients to the Cascade audiences for this film series. Because we aren’t allowed to feed the public samples made at the Cascade, the samples must be made off-site in a commercial kitchen. Using Chef Taylor as an example, he spent six and a half hours on just the Parmesan crackers.
The sample-making is done on top of the usual restaurant duties.
After the chefs have prepared their samples, they must then schlep the food and all their supplies for the cooking demo to the theater, and then plate the samples backstage during the movie so the most-excellent Cascade ushers can serve them to the audience.
Likewise, Chef Jeff prepared a vat of sangria for Friday’s audience, so the flavors would have a chance to meld.
Three cheers for the participating restaurants, and the sponsors, and the Cascade Theatre for hosting this fun, entertaining and interesting foodie-film series, and to you for attending and making it all worthwhile.
*Surprise: As a reward to those who read this far, we’re giving away six tickets to Cooking at the Cascade’s next show: Like Water For Chocolate, featuring Tapas Downtown’s cooking demo (and samples) and Market St. Steakhouse’s cocktail demonstration.
The first six people who leave a comment below will each win a ticket to the July 17 Cooking at the Cascade event.
Hope to see everyone Friday!
Southern Fusion Cheese-Stuffed Cheese
For Cheese Crackers
½ lb Parmesan cheese, shredded
For Cheese Filling
¼ cup cream or whole milk
4 oz. soft goat cheese (chevre)
4 medium green (or red) tomatoes, diced medium and rinsed of seeds
¼ cup honey
1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water
Equipment:
Baking sheet with parchment, or silicone liner
Tablespoon
Egg carton (optional) to make cheese “crackers”
Preheat oven to 350 degrees for at least 10 minutes. Using a tablespoon to measure, place the Parmesan cheese onto a silicone or paper-lined baking sheet and press lightly with your hand or a non-stick spatula, leaving about 1 inch between each cracker.
Bake on the middle rack for about 10 minutes. The edges of the cracker will be starting to crisp up and will have a more distinct yellow color. The oil content of the cheese and will have an effect on your cook time, so keep close watch. When the crackers come out of the oven they will still be a little soft. They will crisp as they cool.
At this point the cracker is done but before it cools (which is very, very quickly) it can be shaped by pressing it over the upside-down cups of an egg carton. This creates a flower shape and makes a nice nest for the goat cheese and chutney.
For Goat Cheese Mixture
Allow chevre to come to room temperature. Mix in a food processor while adding cream to loosen and smooth out the cheese. You may not need all the cream to do this depending on the cheese you use. Move the mixture immediately into a piping bag or Ziplock bag and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.
For Chutney
Over medium-low heat in a nonstick pan bring diced tomatoes to a low simmer. Add salt, white pepper and seasoned rice vinegar. Simmer for 8-10 minutes until tomato starts to break down. Add honey and onion powder. Mix well and simmer 2 more minutes. Add arrowroot slurry (arrowroot powder thinned with a little water) to thicken.
Assembly
Pipe the goat cheese mixture into center of Parmesan cracker, then spoon chutney over the top.
Chef’s Note- It’s always best to shred the cheese fresh because pre-shredded cheeses tend to be a little too dry. A powdered or grated Parmesan will not work.
Sangria ‘Cheff-Jeff’ Style
6 bottles Cabernet
6 bottles Merlot
1 liter brandy
1 fifth orange liqueur (Patron Citronage works very well)
1 half gallon orange juice
1 46-oz. can pineapple juice
1 quart mango puree
Mix thoroughly. Add six lemons and six limes -first cut peel off to expose lots of flesh – just cut the lemons and limes into square shapes being certain to remove the white skin which is bitter.
Lastly add a couple of stalks of celery to add a bit of anise flavor.
Let come together for 24 hours, if you can, then remove fruit and celery and serve.
