South American Supper: A Private Dinner at Red Stick Spice Co.

by Sophie Spring, intern

Gov't Tacos Chef Aimee Tortorich, Jay Ducote and their culinary team were able to take a break from slinging tacos and focus on the latest Red Stick Spice Company private dinner, South American Supper for 24 lucky guests. The four course meal featured traditional South American foods, with a Bite and Booze twist.

The guests starting arriving around 7, with the tantalizing scent of roasted potatoes filling up the store.

Our first passed course was red snapper ceviche with a crispy fried plantain chip and glasses of bubbly Prosecco. The guests enjoyed this course while perusing the store, allowing them to see all of the delicious oils, vinegars, and spice mixtures Red Stick Spice Co. has to offer.

Photo by: Jordan Hefler Photography

Once the guests were seated it was time for the second course, a seafood paella. Our paella was traditional, using Supreme Rice with saffron, mussels, shrimp, and green peas. The dish was complimented nicely by Jay D’s Blanc du Bois. An added bonus for the guests were the extra prepared mussels that were served family style to each table.

Chef Aimee Tortorich plating the paella. Photo by: Jordan Hefler Photography 

The third course was a real show stopper: Cafeciteaux coffee rubbed tri-tip served over fresh green cilantro chimichurri with a side of creamy paprika roasted potatoes a la plancha. This course was probably the biggest hit of the night. Every plate brought back to the kitchen was licked clean. Our guests enjoyed this course with a glass of robust Malbec.

Photo by: Jordan Hefler Photography

For the dessert course, the culinary team put a spin on traditional tamales, making a dulce de leche tamale served with homemade bananas foster ice cream. The tamales had a subtle sweetness and the bananas foster ice cream melted beautifully over the warm masa. The guests loved this unexpected dessert. Served alongside the tamale was Jay D’s Single Origin Coffee, with a splash of Frangelico hazelnut liqueur and cinnamon whipped cream.

Photo by: Jordan Hefler Photography

The dinner went off seamlessly, thanks to help from Anne and the Red Stick Spice staff there to help us out. After the dinner was over, the team received such great feedback that we were inspired to plan another SOLD OUT Red Stick Dinner, North African Appetite on August 16!

Andrew Zimmern Visits Baton Rouge and the Food Trucks Go Crazy!

Jay Ducote and Andrew Zimmern in Baton Rouge

Andrew Zimmern, probably best known for hosting Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, stopped by Baton Rouge on Wednesday to film an episode of his popular MSN web series "Appetite for Life."  In case you are unaware, next week a new episode of Bizarre Foods America will air on the Travel Channel that features Louisiana and our unique cuisine.  This time though, Andrew was hosting a jambalaya cook-off, and to make things more interesting the weekly Wednesday Food Truck Wroundup was held at lunch in conjunction with the filming.  I actually had the extreme pleasure of being one of the judges for the food truck event that featured each truck's best Cajun inspired dish.  Along side me in the judging booth were Rachael Upton from 225 Dine, Lauren Westbrook from WAFB, Beth Colvin from The Advocate, and Brian Haldane from Talk 107.3 FM.  

Judging Panel for the Appetite for Life Food Truck Wroundup

Every truck there did an exceptional job with the challenge.  The dishes blew me away with their creativity and flavor.  This seriously might have been one of the most difficult food challenges that I've ever had to judge.  It is a tough job, but somebody has to do it... or so they tell me (as I'm doing it!).  Here were the entries and results.  Start drooling now.

Taco de Paco's "Cajunator": Seafood gumbo taco with seared andouille, crawfish tails, rice, gumbo sauce, and fried okra!  This won the "Laissez Les Bon Food Trucks Rouler" award for best use of traditional Louisiana/Cajun foods in the entry.

The Cajunator from Taco de Paco

A Coffee Truck returned with their King Cake Latte that took the non-traditional prize in last year's King Cake Contest with Visit Baton Rouge.  While it didn't win any awards this year, it still impressed all the judges and was a great sweet treat along side all the savory dishes.

a coffee truck's King Cake Latte

The Cuban Connection's entry featured a blackened catfish filet over a bed of Louisiana seafood paella.  I loved the seasoning on the catfish as it burst with spices that were home to both the Cajuns and the Cubans.  Unfortunately this plate didn't win either, but the Cuban truck should still keep their chin up!

Seafood Paella with Blackened Catfish from Cuban Connection

 Curbside hit a homerun with a debut offering and sneak peak at their upcoming links truck.  The "Porkducken" featured truck-made local pork, chicken, and wild duck sausage basted in duck fat, thyme, and roasted garlic then finished with lemon zest.  Nick and crew topped the sausage with a cream cheese foam, Hungarian smoked paprika and fresh chives which all sat atop some house-made creole potato chips and fresh French bread.  Curbside ended up taking home the "Way more creative than this name" award for most creative dish.  Well deserved!  It freaking rocked, and I can't wait for that new truck!

Curbside's Porkducken

Sadly I got so carried away with everything that I forgot to snap a picture of FRESH's shrimp salad.  It also had blue cheese and candied pecans.  It was definitely my kind of salad!  They didn't win any awards for it, but I'd gladly eat it again!

Ignatius Reilly's took home the top prize with their Warm Savory Couche-Couche, with Smoked Trotter & Switches Gravy and a Fried Softshell Crawfish.  The gravy was loaded with slow cooked pig tail and crawfish tails.  The dish had an amazing balance with sweetness from the cous cous cake, spiciness from the gravy, and savoriness from, well, everything.  And then to top it off with deep fried soft shell CRAWFISH?!  Wow.  For the win.  The "Show Dat" award for overall best tasting - best in show.  Congrats!

Ignatius Reilly's winning dish

The event as a whole helped raise over $2,000 for the Capital Area United Way.  Big thanks and congrats to everyone involved, and I'll definitely be posting the link to the Appetite for Life episode when it comes out!!  Oh, and there is also this clip about the whole event from WAFB.  Watch closely... you'll see me taking a huge bite at some point!

Spain - The 2010 FIFA World Cup Bites and Boozes

Spain

Spain faces The Netherlands today in the World Cup final, so it is today that we'll look at some Bites and Boozes from España. A fitting finale to the world tour, Spanish cuisine is an honest and non-pretentious cuisine that is loyal to its regions with their specialties and has remained rather uninfluenced by its culinary neighbors. It is not known for its elegance nor for fine cheeses or baked goods, but rather for its rustic approach to the Spanish passion of food. The national dish - the cocido - and well known favorites such as Iberian ham, paella, and tapas are mostly where the Spanish cuisine excels.  Of course, you can always make sure to drink plenty of sherry and sangria and then worry about food after your siesta!

Spanish stews or cocidos, as they are called in Spanish, are typical main dishes in Spain, particularly in the central and northern regions of Spain, typically consisting of meats, sausages, vegetables and garbanzo beans or chickpeas. The most famous is the Cocido Madrileño or Madrid Stew. In this version beef, ham, salt pork, chorizo, morcilla, a stewing chicken, garbanzos, potatoes, cabbage and carrots are the ingredients besides onion and garlic. Often a pig's trotter and a marrow bone and variations of other seasonal vegetables are included. One variation involves the broth of the cocido served as soup before, often with Spanish pasta in it.

Paella is a Spanish dish from the region of Valencia.  The rice dish that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near lake Albufera, a lagoon in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain. Many non-Spaniards view paella as Spain's national dish, but most Spaniards consider it to be a regional Valencian dish. Valencians, in turn, regard paella as one of their identifying symbols. There are three widely known types of paella: Valencian paella (Spanish: paella valenciana), seafood paella (Spanish: paella de marisco) and mixed paella (Spanish: paella mixta), but there are many others as well. Valencian paella consists of white rice, green vegetables, meat (rabbit, chicken, duck), land snails, beans and seasoning. Seafood paella replaces meat and snails with seafood and omits beans and green vegetables. Mixed paella is a free-style combination of meat, seafood, vegetables and sometimes beans. Most paella chefs use calasparra or bomba rices for this dish. Other key ingredients include saffron and olive oil.

Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez, Spain. In Spanish, it is called vino de Jerez. After fermentation is complete, sherry is fortified with brandy. Because the fortification takes place after fermentation, most sherries are initially dry, with any sweetness being added later. In contrast,port wine (for example) is fortified halfway through its fermentation, which stops the process so that not all of the sugar is turned into alcohol. Sherry is produced in a variety of styles, ranging from dry, light versions such as finos to darker and heavier versions known as olorosos, all made from the Palomino grape. Sweet dessert wines are also made, from Pedro Ximenez or Moscatel grapes. Sherry is regarded by many wine writers as "under-appreciated" and a "neglected wine treasure".

Sangria (Spanish: sangría; meaning "bloodletting") is a wine punch typical of Spain. It normally consists of
a light, dry, young, acidic, unoaked, fruit forward red wine, usually from the province of Rioja in Spain and of the Tempranillo or Grenache varieties; other reds that work well include French wines such as Gamay or Beaujolais, and Italian wines such as Grignolino, Bardolino, Dolcetto, Freisa, or Lambrusco.  Added to teh wine is chopped or sliced fruit (often orange, lemon, apple, peach, berries, pineapple; occasionally melon, grape, or mango), a sweetener such as honey, sugar, simple syrup, orange juice, and/or fruit nectar, a small amount of added brandy, triple sec, or other spirits, and ice.  Some recipes call for carbonated soda to be added to the punch as well.

For info on Spanish beer, visit my partner blog, the BR Beer Scene!

Thanks and Credits:

http://www.epicureantable.com/spanish.htm

http://www.notesfrommadrid.com/2008/04/14/when-and-where-to-eat-cocido-madrileno/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocido

http://inclementtravel.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/travel-in-education/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paella

http://www.answers.com/topic/sherry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry

http://oswaldodiaz.com/tapas/food/?tag=spanish-drink

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangria

Tapas at La Tasca Near DC

During my recent trip to Washington DC I for a work related conference I encouraged some of my colleagues to join me in downtown Rockville, MD for dinner and drinks.  While I actually had intentions of finding a Peruvian restaurant, our dining destination easily revealed itself when we saw a Spanish Tapas joint with outdoor dining called La Tasca.  While La Tasca has multiple locations, they are all in the greater DC/Baltimore area so it at least is a regional chain.


Joined by Nadine, Dan, and Jane, we began with a pitcher of Cava Sangria.  This delicious and sweet beverage contained sparkling wine, triple sec, brandy, grape juice, and blueberries.  The drink didn't fit with my sweet tooth all that well, but I still enjoyed it and ate the booze soaked blueberries afterwards.  We also ordered a pitcher of Sangria Rosada.  This mixed wine concoction had rose vino, grape juice, blueberries, and strawberries.  Not quite as sugary as the first sangria, I enjoyed several glasses of this one while tasting the tapas.

Spanish Tapas at La Tasca Plate Number One

Upon looking at the menu we realized that we'd really like to try everything.  Fortunately for us La Tasca has several tapas tastings for us to order.  Each tapas tasting menu is supposed to be about right for two people, so we ordered both the meat and seafood tastings for the four of us to share.  The thing I love most about eating tapas is that the variety is meant to be shared.  It designed to work like a series of appetizers at typical American restaurants.  Everybody shares a whole bunch of food, and then there is no need for individual entrees!  The meat tasting menu featured Buey al Jerez (grilled flank steak with sherry and mushroom sauce), Pollo al Ajillo (chicken breast cooked in white wine and garlic), Albondigas (meatballs served in a vegetable marinara), Chorizo a la Parilla (grilled spicy Spanish sausage links), Solomillo de Cerdo (grilled pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon), Tortilla Española (traditional Spanish potato and onion omelet), Espinacas Salteadas (sauteed spinach with pine nuts and raisins), and Meloso de Ajo (creamy rice with roasted garlic, nuts, and raisins).  By far my favorite dish out of these was the Buey al Jerez.  The beef had a tremendous flavor and the sherry/mushroom sauce was spot on.  I also like the Espinacas Salteadas for the simplicity of it while still serving as a fantastic vegetable dish.  Some of the other dishes were decent, others quite forgettable.  Let's move on to the seafood tasting.

Spanish Tapas at La Tasca Plate Number Two

The dishes arrived at our table mixed and matches, so the pictures of the plates are not necessarily in any order.  Still, with a keen eye, I bet you can identify most of the cuisines.  The seafood tasting menu had Vieiras Cava (grilled scallops in a creamy champagne sauce), Calamares Andaluza (fried calamari with garlic mayonnaise), Salmon a la Plancha (grilled salmon, spinach and fried mussels), Gambas al Ajillo (shrimp sautéed in olive oil and garlic), Paella Valenciana (chicken and mixed seafood paella), Aritos de la Huerta (fried onion, green and red pepper rings), Setas al Ajillo (mushrooms sautéed in garlic and olive oil), and Ensalada de Espinacas (spinach and Cabrales cheese salad).  While the food tasted alright at the time, thinking back it really had been masked by extreme hunger, sweet sangria, and good conversation.  All of the seafood tasting dishes were quite edible, but by no means were they admirable or outstanding.  I never once recall thinking "DAMN!" or "I need to learn how to make this!"  Even the paella was disappointing, and I had been looking forward to it!  In the end, I enjoyed the atmosphere, I enjoyed the idea of tapas, and I enjoyed the company.  The food ended up being an afterthought, and I'm glad that it was because otherwise I would have been terrible disappointed and upset that I fell victim to a fairly useless restaurant.  Tapas are great, but I'd prefer a little more authenticity.  Next time I'm in DC (or Rockville to be exact), I'll make sure to try something else.

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