CookingDiva

Looking for an enjoyable event for your employees or clients? Chef Melissa De Leon, Chef Julio Pascoe & The Tour de Chefs will customize a hands-on Culinary Team Building event to meet your specific needs!

We specialize in creating dynamic learning enviroments that inspire teams to improve communication and problem solving skills. Wether it’s our innovative cooking programs, team learning events, or our more traditional and ethnic cooking classes courses, all the programs use the experiential process to engage participants, enhace learning, and strengthen working relationships.

With the assitance of our professional chefs, team members work together to prepare a gourmet meal in a comfortable culinary setting, and then “break bread” while enjoying their meal together. Prior culinary experience not required! Programs available in English and Spanish.

To request a quotation please e-mail (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)!

We hope to see you here in Panama soon!

This is an unusual combination of sweet flavors with spicy, hot sensations. Traditionally, cuisines from temperate regions of the world, as such as Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Mediterranean have  always  combined these ingredients. This time we are celebrating this widely known aprhodisiac in the form of a truffle. Enjoy!

Yield 50 truffles

Ingredients:

For the Spicy Semi-Solid  Ganache:

• 1 lb(16 oz) Semi sweet chocolate, chopped

 

• 1 teaspoon “Thai Curry Paste for desserts” or to taste, recipe follows.

• 1-1/2 cups heavy
  cream

Preparation

1. Place chopped chocolate in food processor and pulse until pea size. Bring heavy cream to boiling point and mix in the curry paste for desserts. Stir to combine. Remove from heat, cover and infuse no more than 3 hours. Strain through a very fine sieve and re-heat to a boiling point.
2. Pour the chocolate mix into the tube of a running food processor. Process until mixture becomes smooth. Transfer into a clean bowl and let set overnight, covered, in the refrigerator.
3. Pipe onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and freeze overnight.
4. Pre-coat truffles with thin layer of tempered chocolate and dust with cocoa powder, OR toss in toasted coconut flakes.

Important Note:

chocolate is tempered when its temperature is between 84° and 88° F (29° and 31° C). One of the easiest ways to achieve this point is to place the chocolate  in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until the chocolate is melted, be specially careful not to over do it. You may see lumps, but they will be dissolved with the residual heat of the chocolate.
To speed this process up, you can use an immersion blender or a whisk. When the chocolate begins to set, scrape the sides of the bowl and mix in. It is very
important to have your food thermometer on hand to verify when the mixture reaches ideal temperature.

 For the Thai Curry Paste for Desserts:

• 1 stalk lemon grass, finely sliced. Use only the bottom 6”of the stalk.
• 1 teaspoon lime zest, preferably kaffir lime, but any lime will do!
• 1-2 dried Thai bird chilies, seeds removed.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cardamon pods, husked
• 1- 1/4 teaspoons turmeric
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1-1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon fresh galangal or ginger root, minced (see Chef’s note)
• 1 tablespoon coconut milk (optional)

Preparation

1. Dry toast cumin, coriander, cardamom and cinnamon in a skillet under medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Do not leave unattended, and shake the pan often to prevent burning. Remove from heat, cool.
2. If making in a mortar and pestle, pound all the ingredients into a smooth paste. If making in a blender or food processor, blend everything into a smooth paste. Transfer to a small container and keep refrigerated or frozen. Read Chef’s note.

[Chef’s Note: this paste will keep for up to two weeks refrigerated and can be frozen in one-teaspoon quantities in n ice cube tray. To grind the ingredients use either a mortar and pestle, a blender, coffee grinder or spice mill. Remember that the number of chiles is up to you. If you find a paste too hot, simply reduce the number of chiles used. Galanga, sometimes called “galangal”, is known as “kah” in Thailand and is used even more widely than fresh ginger. Use whole pieces of dried galangal and reconstitute them by soaking them in water. Powdered “kah” has very little flavor. Fresh ginger can be used as a substitute for kah.]

Yield ½ cup

Enjoy,

Chef Melissa

There is an almost romantic relationship between a cook and the food markets. It is an idyllic, prolific desire to find the veggies, fish, seafood, meats and other ingredients in their most natural environment. We want to talk to them.

Since having a vegetable garden, or raising a few cows in our backyard is not always a choice, we chose to visit the farmers markets, dairy farms so we can have the freshest produce, milk and meats from animals which have been grass feed and raised humanely.

Farmers markets are a traditional method used by farmers worldwide to sell their produce directly to consumers. By avoiding the increasingly industrialized food production, and the broker fees involved in the process of selling those products in supermarkets, the consumer gets the freshest ingredients at excellent prices.

This time we are sharing some photos we took a few weeks ago, while taking a group of visitors in a tour of Panama City’s markets. We had so much fun!

From San Felipe Neri Public Market in Panama City, Panama:

From The Fish Market (Mercado del Marisco) in Panama City, built by the Japanese Government: