The Dinner - Day Fifty Three

about two weeks ago, just after we finished shooting, i was enjoying a lovely breakfast with my parents. they suddenly started to argue about a dinner my mother wanted to have. it went something like "i want to have my girlfriends from school over saturday, janauary 23rd! why do you have to be like that?" my father grumbled to himself and spat something like “you’re always stressed out and you never enjoy yourself!” my mother retorts “that’s not true! i always have fun.” for some reason, the conversation went into my father joking "okay, well then the week after that i'm going to have the HUASOS over for dinner..." my mom didn't find that very funny. my mother has a very particular reservation about the HUASOS but mostly she can't stand how much they drink and rowdy they get. she would die if she had to be around this for a whole evening, especially in her own home. my father knows this well and it is why, at this point, he had a huge smile on his face. as my mother fumed from my father’s delight. “CUCHI! (that’s what she calls him) i’m going to hit you!”
my father continued to laugh.
as off topic as i am getting now, this is how ridiculous their argument was. i finally interjected saying "how about this mom... you invite all your girlfriends with their husbands and TIO JAVIER (my father's only friend - who is also my mother's brother) and i will cook the entire dinner. you won't have to do anything but just sit, eat and enjoy your time with your old schoolmates!"
everyone went silent.
then after a few moments my mother finally spoke up "okay. yeah, thank you carlo. that sounds like a good idea." my dad liked it too. so in my head, based on the limited but VERY fresh ingredients CHILE has to offer, i put together a five course menu that reflected our families CHILEAN/ITALIAN background.

THE PREPARATION

because most italian cooking is all preparation and time with few but necessarily fresh ingredients, i knew that cooking 2/3 of the food the day before was essential.
yesterday morning my mother, father and i went to my dad's old neighborhood where there's a really beautiful market. as we shopped for all the ingredients, my father had the idea of buying some lemons and getting a variety of fresh sea food to slurp on the spot. it was one of the best gastronomical moments i've ever had with my father. he came back with some raw CLAMS, SCALPS and SEA URCHINS... we got to work... once our bellies were fully loaded with love from the ocean, we continued zig-zagging throughout the busy market to get the essentials.

sidebar: i can't tell you how fresh the basil is here in CHILE. the bushels are bursting with flower buds. the most overwhelmingly fragrant basil plant i have ever cooked with. i start to get faint with excitement just thinking about it.

once we finally got all of the ingredients in the kitchen, it was 4pm.
i started cooking.
it was at this time which most parts of the dishes were either cooked and/or assembled. i went hard for almost eight hours straight with stopping, ending at 11:30pm to get some sleep. the next day i woke up at 9:00am and continued cooking till 2:30pm when the 12 guests arrived. once the last couple arrived, i started pumping out the dishes out, getting everything out on time. it was so great to get in the grind again. i miss cooking for large groups and most often then not, it makes me feel human again. there's a certain level of intensity and concentration that you have to practice when you're serving a five course meal to 12 people alone... but all the food came out warm, tasty and well presented.

i was very happy with the results.

1st ENTREE - STRAWBERRY VINAIGRETTE
w/ SPANISH BLUE CHEESE & ROASTED WALNUTS

with this dish i wanted to use CHRIMOYAS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherimoya) instead of strawberries but they weren't in season. this a very particular fruit to the region and when it's in season people go absolutely mental. if a mango and delicious ripe juice-dripping pear had a baby, you would have the CHERIMOYA. instead i went with classic CHILEAN strawberries, which seem to always be in season here. it was my goal to introduce ingredients that these people have have either never tried before or regularly wouldn't use in these dishes, but that are also local to the region. blue cheese is something that isn't of the region and not very easy to find. when you do, its often expensive or bad quality. i had to go to the supermarket. one of the questions that the guests kept asking was how i made the strawberry vinaigrette - "i cooked the strawberries slowly for two hours in AGAVE NECTER and LEMON. i then cooled and put them the in fridge over night. by the next day a beautiful sweet but tart syrup formed. with that strawberry syrup as a base, i added grape seed oil, apple vinegar and salt."

2nd ENTREE - EGGPLANT PARMESAN

for the past eight years (the last time i made this dish) my mother has ranted and raved to people about my EGGPLANT PARMASEAN. i like it but i think she likes it more. it was at VIA OLIVETTO (where i learned how to cook) that i got the recipe for this dish. today was possibly the four or fifth time that i cooked the dish outside of a restaurant because it is so labor intensive. i will not make this dish unless every single ingredient is of absolute quality. after a few hours of searching in the market, we finally found a parmesan that i was happy with.

3nd ENTREE - OSOBUCO BUTTON MUSHROOM RISOTTO
w/ ROSMARY WHITE WINE SPINACH

this was my favourite dish of the day. at the market i found these wonderful OSOBUCO bones and slowly cooked them in wild onions and coriander steams for almost six hours. it was hands down the best beef stalk that i have ever made. my mouth starts to water just thinking of that wonderfully pungent beef flavor. when the risotto melts in your mouth from the cream, butter and fresh parmesan the rice felt like it had a god-like aura of beef marrow goodness around it. i garnished it with a spinach cooked in garlic, white wine, rosemary and butter.

MAIN COURSE - WILD CHILEAN SEA BASS
w/ MARBLE BUTTERNUT SQUASH & POTATOES MASH

this is probably the first time that i've had the chance to cook with real CHILEAN sea bass. the fish was poached in garlic, grape seed mayonnaise, lime, sea salt and fresh coriander. two mashes were made separately (squash and potato) and then folded to make a marble.
the guests went nuts over this one.

DESSERT - AVOCADO COCONUT AGAVE NECTAR
CHOCOLATE MOOSE w/ STEAMED STRAWBERRIES

green gold!
what makes this one special is that we are in the land of the PALTA (avocado). the ones that i used for this particular dish were hand picked from my grandmother's backyard two weeks ago. all i can say is, like the INDIAN MANGO or IRANIAN FIG, these avocados don't compare to anything that exists in NORTH AMERICA.
with this dish i have to give a !BIG-UPS! to my sugar-less-dessert-home-girl JESSE THE YOGA INSTRUCTOR. i heard about this dish from the love of my life when she had it at JESSIE's house one night. the idea sounded amazing and i tried to make, it with success. this was the second time i attempted the dish and the ladies lost their shit.

THE MEN

i love cooking for men. they just eat. almost no conversation.
all focus.
all the time.

after everything was accounted for and i finished the kitchen, i came out to answer all the questions that were flying through the door while i served the five courses. my parent's were so proud of me. i think that my father, which he rarely does, congratulated me and said he was proud of me about four different times throughout the day. he loves my mother so much and must have been so happy that i could do something like this for her.

THE EXPLANATION


MY VERY HAPPY AND BEAUTIFUL MUM

and here she is... the lady of the hour.
during the two days that i cooked, she would come into the kitchen in a high pitch voice “how is my little chef!” i loved it every time she did it. i should go to church with them tomorrow and win "son of the year".