The Pewter Chef - Resurrection

I cannot even remember how long it has been since I undertook a Pewter Chef Challenge. I don't think I've done one since we started traveling in earnest in 2014. So maybe close to a decade? But, we were looking for something to do with our new friends, R and K. 

As a review, R is a classmate of Wife from her high school days. They barely knew each other at the time. But decades later, when Wife got on Facebook, she reconnected with him. And she discovered someone who shared a passion for travel as we did, and who was traveling the world even more than we were. 

They kept track of each other, seeing that one or the other had been or were going to be in a place where the other had visited. Then, suddenly, they were going to be in Albuquerque! And we were going to be home too. She arranged a lunch. Who knew if we would hit it off? That lunch turned into 6 hours of conversation covering a wide swath of topics related to past, present, travels, backgrounds, etc. We wanted to get together again. As we had treated to lunch, R & K wanted to return the kindness. But Wife and I find restaurants not the most relaxing places to have genuine conversation. So I threw out the idea of a Pewter Chef meal. They would buy the food and I would whip up something.

I told them this idea was based on the old Iron Chef TV show from Japan. R in his professional days spent a lot of time in Japan. He'd never heard of the show, but evidently went online and checked out old episodes. Yesterday, Saturday, they arrived at 4pm with bags of food. There were:

• Bell Peppers
• Serrano Chiles
• Salmon
• Cod
• Sweet Potatoes
• Blackberries
• Raspberries
  
• Green Onions
• Romaine Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Portobello Mushrooms
• Chives
• Tomatillos

 One of the things I've learned in doing these Pewter Chef meals (even if the knowledge was rusty to say the least) is the importance of developing a game plan from the beginning. In this case, the two things that dominated my thinking was how to use the two fish in different preparations, and how to optimize the use of the vegetables in an efficient (meaning using them together) fashion. 

I started by char-roasting Mexican style, the tomatoes, peppers and chiles, along with onions and garlic I had on hand. This gave me base ingredients to work with. Then I prepped the tomatillos with a quick boiling. 

With as much food as I had, I wanted to spread the eating over a long period of time. That meant getting a first dish on the table quickly. With my veggies char-roasted, I could make a quick Mexican style salsa with the tomatoes, chiles, garlic, and onions. Then I did a quick pan fry of the salmon (it was really high quality salmon!). Salmon, salsa on top, with some chives for a green counterpoint to all the red colors.

Voila! First Course

 

 While this was going on, I was struggling with what to do with the tomatillos, not to mention the sweet potato. Then I came up with an idea. Tomatillo are very sour. Why not use them as a vinegar replacement in a vinaigrette? I went down the salad path. I could use the roasted peppers. And what if I created little batons of sweet potato and roasted them so they became crisp? Add a sweet component. Berries for color. And a nice shaving of Parmigiano Reggiano?

Tomatillo Vinaigrette

 Saucing the peppers

Plated Salad

 

 Final Presentation with Wife's Fresh Made Rolls from This Morning and a Nice Rose

 I had decided before they had arrived that I wanted to make some homemade pasta. It is such a crowd pleaser, is such a great palate for so many ingredients, and is really nowhere as difficult as it looks. It was an inspired choice for the finale making use of the cod. 

I made a quick pasta sauce sauteing some of the roasted onion, tomatoes, garlic, and the portobello mushrooms. Then I added some lobster stock base and milk. I cooked the cod in the pasta sauce. Fresh pasta cooks in just minutes. So into the sauce. Cook the pasta in the sauce for a minute so it absorbs the flavor. Add a big ass quantity of Pecarino Romano cheese which melts nicely into the sauce to give it a creamy thickness. Garnish with fresh basil from the garden.

 Our wonderful guests R and K (sorry that is not a good picture of you K! ☹️)

 

 It was a lot of food. It was about 5 hours from when they arrived until they left. The conversation never faltered the whole time. We're not sure when fate and travels will allow us to reconnect. I hope it is not too long. 

If you'd like to see all that R and K have done in their travels, go to R's website here.