Florida/Caribbean

I was a little out of my comfort zone with this cusine. Luckily for me I have two very good, hispanic chefs in my group (Al and Maria). Our menu was very tropical, and sounded delicious. Conch soup, hearts of palm salad, coconut fried grouper, pork tenderloin with a mango mojo, spicy orange glazed carrots, cuban steak with black beans and rice, white bean salad on a bed of field greens, corn custard, keylime pie, tostones and golden gazpacho.
To have a quick look at my class and what we were making check out this little video that our chef put together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzH_kM1GOKg. Thanks Chef Bill!

The conch chowder was great! It had an awesome flavor with a nice kick. Potato's could have been cooked a little longer but other than that the soup was good.

The golden gazpacho was amazing. Nothing short. I'm not a big fan of cold soups, but this one may change my mind. It had an awesome roasted yellow pepper flavor. Maria spiced it up a little by mincing some jalepenos into the soup. It was amazing. We also made some puff pastry straws to go along with it. They were seasoned with some slat, pepper, cayenne, and paprika.

The hearts of palms salad was...different. It definately has its own unique flavor. Anyone who has never had it, it is worth a taste. It was good, had a nice vinegarette on it. Simple but delicious.

The grouper we had was a little thin, so instead of searing it, I decided to make a nice coconut breading. Easy to make just panko breadcrumbs, shredded coconut, salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar. I then pan fried it to a nice golden brown. It came out great. We shredded some pineapple and placed it on top of the grouper. We served it with a nice mango chutney. A lot of flavors that mixed perfectly.

Al took care of the pork. He made a nice jerk rub (his secret that I will not disclose without his permission, to check his work out or ask him about it, head to http://www.bigalcreative.blogspot.com) and cooked the tenderloin in that. When it was done, he sliced it, and added a very nice mango mojo to the top of it. He made the mojo by cooking and then pureeing jalepeno, cilantro, mango, and white wine. It was delicious. We seved it with the mango chutney aswell, and with black beans and rice.

The keylime pie had good flavor. It did not cool long enough and was not set. It was more of like a keylime custard. Good flavor but was the only downside of our night.

Al and Maria stole the show with their tostone's. Al made two types of tostone's. He made traditional one's that were served with a ketchup, mayo and lime dipping sauce (his puerto rican coctail). Haha. The second kind he made he poured a garlic mojo over the top of them. Both delicious. Maria made spiders out of her plantains. MMM they were very good! To see how the tostone's were made check out the video above.

Overall Florida cusine was excellent. A lot of tropical and fruity flavors. Great Week!