Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Menu for Saturday, November 29



Menu for November 29 Saturday, BCP 9:00 to 1:00
Our menu is abbreviated this week due to our own Thanksgiving feast. We hope you and yours have much to be thankful for this season.

USA
(Or Ireland, if you prefer.) Our new batch of corned beef will be ready to cook Friday and we are offering a traditional boiled corned beef dinner. Potatoes, cabbage, carrots and onions are all simmered to perfection and topped with a generous helping of our house corned brisket. (Will not freeze well.) $10

Singapore
Lionhead meatballs are a lively spiced gingery and peppery dish that's much like you'd imagine Chinese comfort food would be.  A mélange of subtle spices provide the backnotes for a silky sauce. Served with wide rice noodles (You will have to dunk these in boiling water before serving.) $9

Alsace Lorraine
Delicate flavors combine in Crepes Mornay with chunks of chicken breast, fresh asparagus, button and porcini mushrooms, herbs wrapped in house made crepes under a smooth and subtle sauce with several white cheeses and cream. This is a wonderful Sunday brunch dish and freezes well. $10

Soup
Chiriqui chicken chowder is back with fresh vegetables, corn and potatoes plus tender bows of pasta for an anytime meal. $8 (24 ounces)
All of these are packaged for two servings.
Meals MUST be pre-ordered by Friday at 9 a.m. They will be available for pick up at the BCP Saturday market fresh and chilled--ready to heat and eat or freeze (depending on the dish) 

Pre-order from tuesdayschildgourmet@gmail.com by nine on Friday morning. 


The Saturday Market

Beer-B-Q! While you're at the market don't forget to pick up one of our Beer-B-Q sandwiches ($4.00). Pork, slowly cooked in Panama cerveza and spiced with our own special order sauce from Alabama. Always a sell out. You can buy a large portion for $8 (16 oz.) or small for $4 (8 oz).  (Best to order bulk in advance—$18 for 24 oz.) We'll top it off with the world's finest slaw, too.

Artisan corned beef! This is fully cooked, thin sliced and vacuum packed in two sizes: $4 (4 oz.) and $8 (8 oz.)

We can also sell you a traditional corned beef brisket, ends trimmed and ready to boil for a festive Irish dinner. This requires two weeks' notice. Market Price

Corned beef hash is back. Two frozen patties of our own corned beef mixed with onions and potatoes. Simply start the patties in a cold pan and cook them low and slow to develop the characteristic crust. Top with a poached egg for a genuine diner experience. $4.

Smoked Mountain Trout. This is delicately smoked rainbow trout that is sealed for freshness in vacuum packs. We provide you with the perfect accompaniment of horseradish cream. This fish is very rich and a side of fish makes an impressive appetizer. Top a salad with pieces of fish for something really unique and tasty. $8 for a single side, $15 for a whole butterflied fish.

See you at the Saturday market from nine until one. Pre-order from tuesdayschildgourmet@gmail.com by nine on Friday morning. 
Thank you for reading. http://tuesdayschildgourmet.blogspot.com/ has archived menus and other food related musings.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Menu for November 22



 Saturday, BCP 9:00 to 1:00
Sczechwan Chinese
Kung Pao Chicken is a classic preparation that includes marinated chicken, fresh vegetables peanuts and Szechwan peppers. This dish is spicy hot with sweet and tangy notes from citrus, ginger and honey. Served with sticky short grain rice. $10

Thailand
Larb is a warm (or room temperature) salad of Thai chili spiced beef, marinated red onions, and ground slow roasted rice. It is served with fresh green leaves and eaten much like you would a lettuce wrap. This unusual salad is hearty and healthy. $9 *

India
Pork Vindaloo is an iconic Goan curry. Cubes of lean local pork are infused with a masala of spices and a tangy splash of vinegar. We've added an accent of local pumpkin because we can. Served with fluffy basmati rice, a loaf of Naan and a side of fresh pineapple raita  $10 *

Lebanon
Shish Taouk is found on almost all street corners in the Middle East. This version is courtesy of a former neighbor from Lebanon. The grilled chicken kabab is served with a pita loaf, classic Lebanese garlic sauce (like an Aioli), and a side of tabbouleh salad. $10 *

Hungary
Beef Paprikash is shredded slow cooked beef filet with peppers, onions and a red yogurt sauce mildly but richly spiced with Hungarian paprika and other spices. Served with homemade old school dumplings to soak up the sauce. $9

U.S.A.
We have New England style clam chowder this week in limited quantities. Imported cold water Atlantic clams, potatoes, fresh herbs and lots of cream. $10 (24 ounces)

All of these are packaged for two servings.

Meals MUST be pre-ordered by Friday at 9 a.m. They will be available for pick up at the BCP Saturday market fresh and chilled--ready to heat and eat or freeze. 
*the greens in the Thai larb, the pineapple raita and the tabbouleh can't be frozen.

Pre-order from tuesdayschildgourmet@gmail.com by nine on Friday morning. 


The Saturday Market

Fresh Fish! This week, our skipper, Captain Daniel will be joining us at the market on Saturday. The captain will bring fish and seafood that couldn't get any fresher. Captain Daniel runs all the boats and does an excellent job finding hot spots. He's also got a passion for hot spots in food. Daniel is an Indian food freak. He collects curries like other people buy souvenir shot glasses.

Beer-B-Q! While you're at the market don't forget to pick up one of our Beer-B-Q sandwiches ($4.00). Pork, slowly cooked in Panama cerveza and spiced with our own special order sauce from Alabama. Always a sell out. You can buy a large portion for $8 (16 oz.) or small for $4 (8 oz).  (Best to order bulk in advance—$18 for 24 oz.) We'll top it off with the world's finest slaw, too. Take away slaw is $2.00 small $4.00 large.

Vegetarian Chili Our own housemade blend of ancho, chipotle, cayenne and guajillo plus two nameless but potent Panama garden peppers provide an excellent element of heat while deeply carmelized onions, sweet organic bell pepper bring the mellow to our slow-cooked pink chili beans. $2 (8 oz.) $4.00 (16 oz.). $9 (24 oz.)

Artisan corned beef! This is fully cooked, thin sliced and vacuum packed in two sizes: $4 (4 oz.) and $8 (8 oz.)

We can also sell you a traditional corned beef brisket, ends trimmed and ready to boil for a festive Irish dinner. This requires two weeks' notice. Market Price

Corned beef hash. Two frozen patties of our own corned beef mixed with onions and potatoes. Simply start the patties in a cold pan and cook them low and slow to develop the characteristic crust. Top with a poached egg for a genuine 'diner' experience at home. $4.00.  Our next run of hash is going to be on November 29. None available this week, sorry.

Smoked Mountain Trout. This is delicately smoked rainbow trout that is sealed for freshness in vacuum packs. We provide you with the perfect accompaniment of horseradish cream. This fish is very rich and a side of fish makes an impressive appetizer. Top a salad with pieces of fish for something really unique and tasty. $8 for a single side, $15 for a whole butterflied fish.

See you at the Saturday market from nine until one. Pre-order from tuesdayschildgourmet@gmail.com by nine on Friday morning. 

Whenever possible, we use our artisanal ingredients from our fellow foodies. This menu features Piero's yogurt in three dishes as well as greens and vegetables from Green Hope and Palmira Produce. Local pumpkin found a home in the Vindaloo and the honey used to sweeten the Szechuan Chinese dish is the precious contribution of Boquete Bees. We had no idea honey could be so special. We use this liquid gold as often as we can.

Many of our specialty spices or items like cold water clams, are sourced abroad.

Thank you for reading. http://tuesdayschildgourmet.blogspot.com/ has archived menus and other food related musings.



Tuesday, November 18, 2014

The Thai Lady Next Door



 In the late nineties, my son befriended a Thai kid who lived in our compound in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. His mother and German stepfather lived next door. I spent many nights in the kitchen of my Thai friend who was one not-to-be-messed-with woman. She was fierce. She was also the source of all the contraband bacon in town. So, a very good person to know in the land that pork forgot.

The gatherings tended to self-segregate into women cooking in the kitchen and men drinking in the living room. Most of the men were German, all of the women except me were Thai. But the Thai women shared English with their German husbands and me so I could understand at least some of what was going on. It is ten times easier to learn English than Thai!

The women made up this special 'only for the kitchen' platter that included some chicken and pork (sorta Thai pulled meats), cabbage and lettuce leaves, peanuts, chopped killer chilis, itty-bitty pieces of lime (eaten with the peel!) and dried shrimp. The smell of those shrimp stays on your fingers for days.  The Thai larb on this week's menu is one of those dishes I love to order out when I see it on a menu as it reminds me very much of the flavors of the 'ladies' kitchen'.

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I have gotten two votes for searing, Ethiopian food. A couple more and I will consider the gauntlet thrown. This is not something for everybody. But I am keeping a list as we would love to make some. I'm still ambivalent about the injera. Even the Ethiopians I knew bought theirs from some expert. So it just might have to be plain old pita bread.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Menu for November 15

We've traveled around the world tasting and learning to make all sorts of international dishes. Now, we'd like to get a feeling for the kind of foods the community is craving and share the culinary adventure. We will be reaching out with various menus over the next few weeks to gauge what niches you all would like to see filled.

The five dinners below MUST be pre-ordered by Friday at 9 a.m. They will be available for pick up at the BCP Saturday market fresh and chilled--ready to heat and eat or freeze.

While you're at the market don't forget to pick up one of our Beer-B-Q sandwiches ($4.00). Pork, slowly cooked in Panama cerveza and spiced with our own special order sauce from Alabama. Always a sell out.

We'll top it off with the world's finest slaw, too. You can buy a cup of the Beer-B-Q for $8.00 (two big sandwiches' worth) or  $4.00 for a single.  (Best to order bulk in advance.)Take away slaw is $2.00 a cup $4.00 a pint.

New Item!! Steak and Cheese sandwich ($4.00). Tenderloin, peppers and onions topped with a three cheese wallop of flavor.


Menu for November 15
Indian:
Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken) is a mildly spiced dish rich with yogurt and, of course butter. Served with vegetable biryani spiced Basmati rice, a side of dahl (stewed red lentils) and a loaf of Naan bread for dipping. Suggested serving is with a small cucumber and onion salad dressed simply with S&P and limon juice. Plain yogurt with or without chopped pineapple (raita) is also a classic accompaniment. $10.00 serves two.
Vegetarian option available. $6.00 serves two.

Indonesian:
Satay Ayam (Chicken Satay) is skewers of white meat chicken marinated in sweet and pungent spices and grilled. It is served with peanut sauce and pineapple coconut rice. This is the dish served in so many variations on street corners all over Asia, each place lending its own unique touch to the regional taste. Ours is based on the Balinese style. Please let us know whether you want your peanut sauce mild or spicy. $9.00 serves two.

French:
Cassoulet of local butter beans, sausage, and pork. Tender, slow cooked lean pork is combined with sausage, creamy beans, and our own sun-dried tomatoes then topped with a crunchy crumb, herb and butter topping. This is a dish that is packed with layer upon layer of flavors that develop first separately and then melt together in a rich mellow dish. $9.00 serves two.

American:
Tuna Noodle Casserole. Yep, you heard that right. Only the tuna is fresh from our own Chiriqui Gulf-- delicately poached in a flavorful court boullion and then flaked. The sauce is a rich creamy Béchamel with Italian porcini mushrooms and a splash of Pinot Grigio.  It's topped with a crisp cracker crumb and Parmesan crust. This is Mama's Wednesday night supper with a college education! $9.00
serves two.

Italian:
Thin sliced filet steak flashed in house made demi-glaze (we start with the bones!) and wine infused sauce with plenty of roasted garlic and Tuscan herbs. Separately caramelized onions and peppers are added at the last minute. Served with potatoes that go through two processes to make them crispy on the outside and soft like mashed potatoes inside. We're so fortunate that our herbs are all either grown in our garden or purchased from local organic producers. What a difference freshness makes! $10.00 serves two.

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We also have the following foods for you to enjoy at home:

Order in advance to insure we have it for you on Saturday.

Artisan corned beef. This is fully cooked,thin sliced and vacuum packed in two sizes: 4 ounces for $4.00 and eight ounces for $8.00

We can also sell you a traditional corned beef brisket, ends trimmed and ready to boil for a festive Irish dinner. This requires two weeks' notice. Market Price

Corned beef hash. Two frozen patties of our own corned beef mixed with onions and potatoes. Simply start the patties in a cold pan and cook them low and slow to develop the characteristic crust. Top with a poached egg for a genuine 'diner' experience at home. $4.00.

Smoked Mountain Trout. This is delicately smoked rainbow trout that is sealed for freshness in vacuum packs. We provide you with the perfect accompaniment of horseradish cream. This fish is very rich and a side of fish makes an impressive appetizer. Top a salad with pieces of fish for something really unique and tasty. $8.00 for a single side, $15.00 for a whole butterflied fish.

See you at the Saturday market from nine until one. Pre-order from tuesdayschildgourmet@gmail.com by nine on Friday morning.

This week, we've offered two SouthEast Asian dishes. My background includes several years spent teaching nannies and housekeepers from all over Southeast Asia how to cook good old-fashioned Western cuisine for the expat households who employed them. Along the way, these ladies taught me to navigate the many complex flavors they brought to their tables. Indian, Indonesian, Filipino, Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese are among the cuisines I learned firsthand from native cooks.

Later, I taught bored Western expats in Saudi Arabia how to cook the exotic things I had learned. Lucky me, I also had two opportunities to learn at the feet of a master—Madhur Jaffry. Jaffry is the queen of Indian and vegetarian cuisine. Her workshops were fabulous.

I also catered fancy European style dinners for wealthy Arabs who wanted to show off their extraordinary (and forbidden) fine wine collections. It was the only time in I was able to use truffles and caviar with a carefree hand! During my time in the Middle East, I naturally broadened my palette of cuisines by absorbing what my Lebanese, Persian, Egyptian and others had to offer. I even learned how to cook Ethiopian food. If anyone is interested in food that will set your hair on fire, I have Berbere spice on hand.

We will be actively improving our vegetarian options in the coming weeks. Much Middle and Far Eastern food lends itself to tasty, meatless meals and we're committed to bringing more of them to Boquete.

Thanks for reading!