Quay Po Cooks: potato appetizer

Showing posts with label potato appetizer. Show all posts

Thursday, November 22, 2012

US Potatoes Dinner

Since my Quay Lo and I came together, potatoes are available in our home at all times. There are many dishes I have made with potatoes as an ingredient. As you might expect, these have been either an appetizer or more commonly as a side dish to the main course. So when I received an invitation to attend a private dinner at the Le Meridian hosted by the United States Potato Board (USPB) last Friday, I accepted, wondering how would it be possible to make an event out of this standard workhorse of carbohydrates that, along with bread, mark a distinction between our household's two food cultures. Little did I imagine that I was setting off to rediscover an ingredient of seemingly boundless variability and culinary application.

The meal was prepared Le Meridian’s Executive Chef Antoine Rodriguez.

When the guests arrived at the dinner, we were greeted with a room decorated with a large variety of potatoes on display and, though I understood that this root vegetable came in multiple variations, it was still very impressive to see them all together. Based on that alone, I sensed that my regard for the lowly potato had been raised a notch or two. To a cook, whose culinary background had little to do with potatoes, except for an occasional treat of french fries, just walking into the room was an eye opener.

I would never have thought of using potatos as the center piece of a table setting. "What a great idea" I thought, and "isn't this fun, I am seeing something new to me"!

Before the presentation and cooking demostration started, we were served with potato canapés.

Vichyssoises, best described as a cold potato soup, and
featuring 3 varieties of U.S. potatos

U.S. Blue Purple potato dumpling filled with spicy
coconut and prawns

US Round Red Potato case with chicken
rendang in this delightful fusion of East & West

US Potato Chawanmushi

Mr. Chris Rittgers the US Agricultural Trade Attaché gave a welcome speech..

followed by a presentation by Mr. Eddie, a local representative for the sponsor, about the different varieties of U.S. potatos, the history and growing characteristics, the nutritional values, and how the potato became a mainstay crop in the U.S.

This was an informative part of the evening. I was surprised. I mean, after all, if someone suggested that you spend your Friday evening learning about U.S. potatos, would you even consider it? I was glad I had done so. Mr. Eddy had lots of observations to share. For example, we learned that 40% of the utilization of U.S. potato production is for frozen potato products.

After the Eddie’s presentation, Miss Carina Lipold, Health and Wellness Expert spoke about the nutritional values of potatoes.

Not surprisingly, the potato is a power pack of admirable nutritional value.

I was surprised, however, that 100 gms of white potato has a lower kcal value as compared to pasta, rice, or banana.

Next was the cooking demo by Chef Antoine Rodrigues which we were all eager for.

Chef showed us how he made these yummilicious appetizers from potatoes.

US Russet potato and US Blue Purple potato cake with Garlic and Chives Cream Sauce

Roasted US fingerling potato, Provencal fresh herbs, garlic, chili flake, olive oil

and

US Yukon Gold potato and cheese croquette with Chili
tomato smoked dip

After the cooking demonstration dinner was served:

Chunky long white US potato & clam chowder served with sweet corn, grated cheddar cheese and ciabatta bread crouton

Seared sea scallop, truffle mashed US Round Red potato with parmesan wafer

US Red potato cheese cake and US Blue purple potato chips with compressed turkey terrine served with cranberry jelly, “jus tranche”

US Russet potato chocolate cake

If you are interested to find out more about U.S. potatoes you might want to visit the United States Potato Board website.

I would like to thank my friend Shannon of Just as Delish for passing my contact to Jay Mee of EverQuest Sdn. Bhd. so they could send me the invitation. A big Thank You to USPB and Jay Mee for having me and giving me an opportunity to learn so much more about potatoes. Now, I feel I could come up with lots of new delicious and healthy dishes with all kinds of potatoes as an ingredient.

I will share with you all the recipes of the above dishes in my next post. Stay tuned!

A LITTLE ABOUT THIS QUAY PO

Before I was married to my "Quay Lo" (Guaylo) husband, I did not know how to bake or cook. Subsequently I learned some baking and cooking Western cuisine from him, and providing his food for him launched an interest in cooking in general. Many of my Chinese friends and family told me that "Quay" is the wrong spelling for devil in Cantonese. The right spelling should be "Kwai" or "Guay". Well, somehow I like the spelling "Quay" better although I have to agree that it does not sound very Cantonese. Try asking a Westerner to pronounce "Kwai" and you will probably hear "Quay" haha. Whether is "Quay" or "Kwai" or "Guay, just know the devil woman is me when you see Quay Po Cooks. My hubby said if people pronounce "Quay" as "Key" is even better because I am the key to his heart. LOL!

Only now, have I started to learn the traditional Cantonese cuisine of my Mum. She cooks fabulously and all her specialties are divine. These two interests, my husband's Western food, and my mother's traditional food, prompted me to document them so they will not be lost.

Here, I wish to share my cooking and baking experience with my readers. I also hope to inspire those who do not know how to cook or bake to do so because, trust me, if I can, you can too.

Something I'd like to mention is that I find that many people are rather unwilling to share their recipes. However, for me, I think differently. I think good recipes should be shared thus allowing as many people to enjoy it as possible. Unless those recipes are for doing business, I don't see why we want to keep them all to ourselves. So if you are generous in sharing your recipes, you are welcome to share on my blog. Send the recipes to me and better still with pictures of the final products and I will be very happy to post them them with credits to you of course.

Our cuisine is a deeply embedded part of our culture. When two cultures come together under the same roof the results in the kitchen can sometimes be comedic, sometimes confrontational, but more often it is a journey full of surprises and discovery. There is joy in our food. If we think upon this, it is intuitively obvious. This blog is a journey of joy and sharing, reflecting what the French like to call "joie de vivre" (joy of living). No one could be more different from one another then my husband and my mother. Yet one thing they share in common is knowing intuitively that food, cooking, and sharing can be avenues of joy in life itself. So herein, help yourself, to a little joy and , if you like it, share it with your own family and friends. Joy is something that should be shared.