Ok… I have thought about this post all day. Carlos and I cooked (OK - so mostly I washed the dishes) for 2 hours or more (with breaks of course), and made an incredible meal. One that I would not post on this website had I only read about it, because the ingredients and techniques are above and beyond what this blog is about…

But it happened in my kitchen so please… Read, enjoy, and take out of it what you will.

I will not be too specific on the measurements, as not one measuring device was taken from a cupboard or drawer… and quite frankly, with the company, the late hour (we started at about 8:30) and, um… the wine, it was all I could do to get the ingredients right!

I have to put this in here. Carlos didn’t tell us what he was going to make, because, while he had an idea… he was definitely bound on improvising with what he brought over, and whatever ingredients I had on hand.

So he brought Shrimp, Chicken, Chilean Sea Bass, Ginger Root, Pine Nuts, Furikake Seasoning, Fresh Eel Slices, Flying Fish Eggs, Potato Gnocchi, Pine Nuts, Beer, and Apple Sauce.

He incorporated the following ingredients from my kitchen:

Coconut Milk, Fresh Basil, Garlic, Jalepenos, a Hard Boiled Egg, Fresh Thyme, Fresh Rosemary, Bacon, Peanut Butter, Dijon Mustard, Chicken Stock Paste, Olive Oil, Sriraccha Sauce, Corn Starch and Heavy Cream.

This is what we (he) did with it.

He started with the shrimp, peeled, deveined, and roughly chopped. He threw that into a food processor with coconut milk (maybe 1/4 cup) to emulsify or help it all stick together. He added cilantro, garlic, basil, pan fried jalepenos and ginger (to bring out more flavor), and salt and pepper. All of that would be to your own taste.

Then we moved onto a couple of chicken breasts which he chopped the crap out of… I mean just whacked it all up in about 2 minutes by taking my cleaver and thoroughly beating it into tiny pieces. He threw that into the food processor (which I had just washed), with coconut milk, thyme, cooked bacon, pan fried ginger slices, basil, and salt and pepper.

He started on a ‘green sauce’ as he called it. He put about 2 cups water into a small pot, brought it to a boil. Then he took one whole large bunch of cilantro, held it by the stems, and simply wilted it into the water for about 45 seconds. Instantly green. He let that simmer for quite some time as we moved on to other items. Later he took the wilted cilantro and squeezed the remaining juice through a seive, added garlic, salt, pepper, ginger, and blended it hot (be careful) in a blender. Back into the pot and then he thickened it with corn starch.

With the other two chicken breasts he fileted them as if he were making a pocket, but he cut very deep, so the two halves barely hung together, and layed them out flat on the chopping block. With a meat mallet (he used the pointy side - really breaking down the chicken) he pounded until the breasts were about 1/8″ thick. The thinnest I had ever seen chicken pounded!

He took the remaining cilantro from above (blanched and mashed) and layered that, then some of the chicken blend, the shrimp blend and thinly sliced tomatoes onto each of the two pounded chicken breasts.

He carefully rolled them up from side to side, so the hinge that he had not cut through that kept the breasts together, ran lengthwise…

Then (and this I thought was really cool!) he placed each roll onto a sheet of cling wrap and rolled them up tight. He then held the ends of the cling wrap and spun, and tightened, and spun and tightened, until they were really tightly held in a roll.
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Then he (again) tightly wrappped them in foil and plunked them into a pot of simmering water to cook for about 20-25 minutes. How cool is that?

With the remaining chicken mixture, he made Quenelles. Definition from RecipeZar.com: A light, delicate dumpling made of seasoned, minced/ground fish, meat, poultry or vegetables mixed with eggs or panada. This mixture is formed into small ovals and gently poached in stock. Quenelles are usually served with a rich sauce and can be used as a first course, main course or garnish.

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On to another sauce - Carlos is all about the sauce!

This one was Roasted Pine Nuts, a tablespoon or two of peanut butter, a tablespoon of dijon mustard, fresh ginger, coconut milk - again maybe 1/4 - 1/3 cup, and a tablespoon of chicken bullion paste all blended together in the blender, and then simmered on the stove with and a slug of his dark beer. The beer made it really light and frothy.

On to the Chilean Sea Bass:

He took the fresh side of bass, took out the bones, and filleted it into four equal squares. He then cut a whole in the center of each one with kitchen scissors (he asked for an apple corer - but I don’t have one).

He took one of the Quenelles and stuffed it into each of the four holes.

Then he layered the fresh eel on the bass. He seasoned this with Furikake (a ready-to-use table condiment usually made from tan and black sesame seeds, green nori flakes and dried pickled red shiso leaves)…

set it into a saute pan with olive oil and sauteed for about 5 minutes. He then topped that with the flying fish eggs, and a slice of hard boiled egg.

With the gnocchi, he boiled for about 3 minutes, then sauteed it in olive oil, threw in some fresh basil, a few tablespoons of apple sauce with cinnamon, and some heavy cream. Notice my attention wavering at this point… the whole of the ingredients on this sauce are a little fuzzy, as the red wine was really starting to kick in… Sorry. I can tell you it was yummy, and maybe he will get online and fix this for me.

In the end he plated up four servings, slicing the chicken rolls into 1/2 inch spirals. He had the Gnocchi in the middle of the plate, the chicken slices layered on eachother, the sea bass on the other side, with a swirl of each of the green (cilantro) sauce, and the pinenut sauce around the outside of that.

All the photos in the world won’t help you understand how frikken’ good this plate was. The depth of the flavor in each bite, and how the complexity of the sauces complimented eachother sooo well… I am glad that I got the photos in because they add to the story… and yes, there were left overs that I can’t wait to have!

I am also glad that I got the photos in because, what’s this? Yes, Carlos does wash!!!

I am going to bed to bring lunch tomorrow that much quicker.

Carlos also likes his food.

Our food, dammit!