Good morning. Here's 6:30 AM... right when the birds are making some crazy, exotic soundsthat I have never heard before.
On the contrary here is a little after sunset.
Prior to dinner service. Ambience.
The guitarista is doing his thang... calypso from the soul.
Terminator cutting 20 lbs. of Ahi Tuna that I get shipped in from the Pacific.
A few posts back I mentioned that I had marshmellows and was wanting to do something with them... I couldn't find any Rice Crispies in town, so I bought the local and generic Marshemellow and Stars cereal and made a crispy treat with them. I think it's safe to say that you will only find these here...
I had leftover bread dough after making four loaves of white bread.. with the remaining dough I add a bit more butter and sugar, rolled it out into a rectangle.. brushed it with butter.. topped it with canela, sugar, raisins and cashews.. rolled it up, brushed it, sealed it, baked it and am eating a piece right now.
To maximize my inventory I use leftover dinner proteins with some kind of combination of local starches, like plaintain or yucca, and local produce to create a Carribean themed dish that is healthy and a tasty. When I am running breakfast, lunch and dinner I manage inventory with a 3-day cycle that keeps everything fresh and no waste. Don't be afraid to make a lobster, prawn, chorizo and brie cheese omlet for the morning. Here are some prawn and chorizo kebabrs with patacones stuffed with salsa fresca.
Refried bean and cheese burritos, with patacones and sour cream.
Vegetable pizza... olives, peppers, onions, etc. Manchego cheese stuffed crust. Homemade crust... homemade sauce...
Around noon locals come with bags of giant lobster or buckets of snapper.
So I clean, cut and make ceviche.
Fried Calamari and Garlic Aioli.
Greek Salad with Caesar Dressing and Bleu Cheese.
King Prawn Salad.
Spicy black bean soup with patacones.
My plat principal mise en place.
Roasted lobster, candied orange, gallo pinto, corn and quinoa.
Filet mignon.
Pork loin stuffed with apple and wrapped in bacon.
Coconut crusted baked red snapper ontop a lentil and rice cake, with roasted fennel, zucchini and pineapple-cilantro sauce.
I had a bunch of leftover pizza ingredients... so I created this Mediterrarean Lobster Roulade with Manchego Cheese and Artichoke Hearts.
It was served ontop quinoa, below roasted tomato and caramelized onions, and in between a smooth spinach sauce.
Garlic seared red snapper ontop a black bean and coconut rice patty, surrounded by pineapple pico de gallo and passion fruit sauce.
The super Ahi steak ontop rice and a bunch of veggies slowly reduced with rum and natural juices.
Bacon wrapped lobster tail ontop a bed of quinoa and surrounded by roasted veggies. As you can see... I am working with the same ingredients and am just putting them together differently.
All of this ^ in the last three days. Time to go work on baklava. Each weekend for the next three weeks will be like this last weekend... super busy, but come late March it quiets down and especially in April I will get out more and show you more of the island life. I still gotta go snorkeling.