Mosh for breakfast

No, it’s not the mosh pits found at concerts. Mosh in Guatemala is for breakfast and is made of oatmeal. You may be thinking “oatmeal, I know all about oatmeal”, but not the way it is made in Guatemala. Mosh is a slow cooked oatmeal dish that when done resembles a beverage more than a warm cereal. Since it is slow cooked for more than an hour most of the oatmeal breaks down and becomes a thick liquid that is sometimes easier to drink than eat with a spoon.

I can only think of one time I have had mosh in Guatemala, but that one time made quite the impression on me as I have never forgotten it. One of our favorite places to eat breakfast in Guatemala is at a restaurant by the name of Nais. It is at Nais that I had my first encounter with mosh and have wanted to learn how to make it ever since, not realizing how easy it is to make. I just remember this cup of a thick rich “beverage” being set down in front of us before breakfast and just relishing it as I felt it nourish my body for the busy day ahead. Of course when I asked what it was I was just told “mosh” and then the conversation moved on. Not until a few weeks ago did I learn what it really was and now has become a regular lineup on my breakfast menu.

In Guatemala it is often served as a treat for breakfast or served as a nutritious snack at school or in my case the perfect start to a cold day. If you like it a little thinner like I do, just add more milk at the end.

Provecho

Recipe: Mosh

In Guatemala, Christmas Eve (Noche Buena) is the big celebration and Carlos and I spend it with his family. Early in the evening I received a text message from Carlos who was in the next room to “come here and try this”. He and his sister Monica were sitting there eating Pico de Gallo (roughly translated means roosters beak) that Mama Neca (their grandmother) had made, but it wasn’t the Mexican version I was used to……her version was made with ground beef. I wasn’t to sure about it at first, but once I gave up my preconceived idea that Pico de Gallo was a type of salsa I quite enjoyed it. Apparently this ground beef version is popular in the Alta Verapaz department of Guatemala where Carlos has lots of family, mostly in Coban and the Zacapa area where his grandmother grew up.

Everyone is familiar with the Mexican version of Pico de Gallo which is basically tomatoes, onions, cilantro, jalapeno and lime juice, but why is it made with ground beef in the Alta Verapaz area of Guatemala? No one seems to know, it just is, accept it. Maybe at one point in time tomatoes were hard to come by and some resourceful woman decided to try and subsitute beef, which there is plenty of in this area. All I know is that it is an easy and delicious snack. The ground beef is not cooked in the traditional sense over heat, it is “cooked” like ceviche with lime juice. This may be due to the fact that many houses in the Guatemalan countryside do ot have stoves or anything like one. Thus they needed to cook the ground beef somehow. I know some of you are skeptical about eating ground beef that hasn’t been cooked with heat, but fear not, I have this version of Pico de Gallo several times and have never had a problem.

Once again I find another recipe in guatemala that has the same name as a Mexican one but is completely different.Like the Mexican version, Pico de Gallo is served as an appetizer with chips or tortillas along with some beer. Some have been known to add some chiles to the Pico de Gallo to spice it up and to go better with Guatemalan rum or even their much-loved American whiskey, so feel free to spice it up and let me know how it comes out.

Melty Cheese/Queso Fundido

A few weeks ago Carlos and I went to Temezcal in the Seaport District for drinks and appetizers where we had Queso Fundido. A big bowl of cheesy chorizo goodness. This was a dish we always enjoy eating out but I had never made at home. Why didn’t I make it at home? All it was melted cheese, right? Wrong. Well right and wrong. Queso fundido was a lot more than that. Well it could be as simple as melted cheese or as complex as the one at Temezcal.

So away I went to the kitchen to recreate the Temezcal queso fundido. I scoured the web for queso fundido recipes and then decided to create my own using all the tips I had read. Carlos suggested what cheeses to use-of course oaxaca (a string cheese popular in Mexico), a bit of mozzarella (why I don’t know) and a touch of queso seco (like parmesan) to give it a slight edge. Like Temezcal I decided to add chorizo to my queso fundido as well as some jalapeno. How much more Mexican can you get? A heart healthy snack this wasn’t! But its worth the cholesterol and fat. So as we sat there wi,th a big cast iron skillet of melted cheese it wasn’t as thin as the one at Temezcal which was fairly easy to scoop up with the tortilla. The one I made was more like melty warm cheese you almost had to cut apart as you pulled a big chunk out of the pan and dozens of strings of cheese fought to keep the cheese together and out of your mouth. As a few of these strings of cheese slapped me up side the head, it dawned on Carlos and I that this was more like the melty cheese we get at a Mexican restaurant in Guatemala City.

Aaaah all that cheesy stringy goodness!

Like little kids there is at least one evening where the question is asked “what are we doing for dinner?” and our answer will be “Taco Contento!”. Even before our plane leaves the airport in Boston we are planning our visit to Taco Contento. One of the favorites of everyone is this melted string cheese that we all fight over and pull apart slapping each other accidentally with the cheese as it releases its grip on the bowl. We don’t know what it’s called nor do we care, we call it the “melty cheese”. My version brought Carlos and I right back to Taco Contento and our struggle with the melty cheese there. It’s funny how that can happen. Although the one in Guatemala is only melted cheese without anything else added to it. I will make sure to give it a closer inspection the next time we are there. If I remember correctly it is served sort of as a condiment like salsa for tacos or something like that. You are supposed to pull off a piece and stuff it a tortilla with meat etc. Yes I need to play closer attention when we are there in February. Usually its towards the end of our trip, we are tired, singing and drinking cervezas that the food is so good we just devour it!

So although technically this is not a Guatemalan recipe it is something we enjoy eating in Guatemala and really look forward to it. Enjoy!

My home-grown Chiltepine (Guatemalan very hot peppers)

Recipe: Melty Cheese/Queso Fundido

Summary: This is a great dish as a snack or even a meal, but is often served with tacos etc in Mexico as a condiment much like salsa and guacamole.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

Cooking time: 15 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 2

My rating 5 stars:  ★★★★★ 1 review(s)

Yes I know cheesecake is not a traditional Guatemalan
dessert, but it is found there in some of the more upscale bakeries.
Traditional is using mango which is a huge part of the Guatemalan culture. Not
only does Guatemala export a lot of mangoes, they also eat even more. Pick them
off a tree, bite the top and squeeze the meat out the top. Messy and delicious
all at once.

I cannot take credit for developing this recipe; I actually
borrowed it from an Indian restaurant in Austin, Texas.  Seven or eight years ago I had the pleasure
of spending a month in Austin for work. I stumbled upon Clay Pit, literally. I
was walking around Austin and actually tripped over their front steps because I
was too busy looking around.

Later that day realizing I was tired of BBQ (yes it can
happen) I decided to walk down to Clay Pit and have a drink and an appetizer at
the bar. To me Indian food is either really good or really bad, with nothing in
between, so by having an appetizer at the bar I could make my judgment about
whether to have dinner there or not.

I don’t remember what I ate that night, but I do know I went
back four or five more times over the next two weeks and even introduced Carlos
to Indian food there. I am pretty sure I must have eaten the mango cheesecake
on my first visit because I remember telling Carlos how good it was and we had
to have it when he came to visit.

I became obsessed with mango cheesecake after that and was
shocked to find the recipe on the Clay Pit website when I got back to Boston
and I was going through withdrawals. So I would make it once in a while for a
special occasion, until one day I made for Carlos’ family one night.

Ever since that fateful night, it is what Carlos’ sister ask
me to make. Birthdays-mango cheesecake, Christmas-mango cheesecake, Sunday
night with the whole family-mango cheesecake, if the family is getting together
there is a mango cheesecake request. Even recently when she was near to giving
birth to her second daughter she guilted me into making one for her. Well she
had the baby a little early so I ended up bringing the cheesecake to the
hospital. Let’s just say, don’t slam your brakes on when you have a cheesecake
sitting on the front seat. Supposedly it still tasted really good, not very
pretty but it still tasted good.

Come to find out I wasn’t the only fan of Clay Pit’s mango
cheesecake since it was featured in Bon Appetit back in September 2001.
Although the recipe was from Clay Pit, over the years I have adapted it and in
my eyes perfected it. Making it easier to achieve the same great flavor a
pastry chef gets in a small Indian restaurant in Austin, Texas.

I recently had an article published in Edible Boston magazine. Although not about Guatemalan food, it is about a subject important to me….local food, well actually local mead. It’s about my friend Ian Bennet the maker of Isaaks of Salem honey wine. Check it out and then buy some of his great mead.
http://www.ediblecommunities.com/boston/fall-2011/plan-bee.htm

Guatemalan inspired lamb tacos with mango salsa and queso fresco

“Guatemalans don’t eat lamb” was my initial reaction when I
first read the invitation to participate in the first American Lamb Pro-Am,
being put on by BostonChefs.com and the American Lamb Board. This challenge
pitted around 10 Boston area food bloggers against each other to come up with a
lamb recipe using American raised lamb. All the posts would then be put up for
voting having the four most popular move on to the next round where at a full
blown event those for lucky bloggers would cook their dish with a prominent
Boston chef to be voted on yet again. I thought about this whole process for a
bit, and decided to do it! This could be fun. It is true that lamb is not a
popular meat in Guatemala, but I could do a “Guatemalan style” dish. This would
be a great challenge for me to see what I have learned over the past few years
about the Guatemalan cuisine, to learn about lamb which I never cook with and
to test my culinary creativity.

After emailing my acceptance my mind immediately began to
whirl out of control with ideas for my dish. Obviously I needed to keep it
simple since I only had a few days from when we were given our leg of lamb
(boneless, thank goodness) to when we had to have our recipes posted. Tacos! I
could marinate the lamb carne asada style, grill it and top it
with……hmmmmm……what could I top it with? This is where the dish started to to
get complex with ideas on how to wow and shock people. I have curtido blanco (a popular topping for pupusas) in
the refrigerator which would be a nice contrast between the soft juicy lamb and
the crunch of the pickled cabbage mixture. So I had lamb and curtido. Now I
needed some creaminess. Crema was the answer! But I couldn’t use plain crema. I
needed to, as Emeril Lagasse says “kick it up a notch!” So I decided to make a
guajillo chile and lime crema-some spicy creaminess. How about some chopped
radish for some contrasting color, crunch and a bite of spice? Sounded pretty
good.  Off to the kitchen I went to make
this hopefully winning dish.

American lamb marinating in lime juice, oil, adobo, mint and guajillo chiles.

Well, it didn’t knock my socks off. All the components were
good on their own, but together they just didn’t work. The lamb got lost and
the lamb was supposed to be the star. On its own the lamb was amazingly
delicious considering it was my first attempt at marinating and cooking it. But
this was a cooking challenge and having met my fellow contestants when I picked
up the lamb, I knew this dish was not a winner. I was up against some pretty
heavy hitters in the Boston cooking/food writing scene.

So since Version A did not work I needed a Version B real
quick. There was no time to waste. My recipe needs to be posted by 5pm Friday
and today was Wednesday. Obviously the lamb needs to be the star, but how to
create a delicious taco that let the lamb do this without being outshone by its
supporting cast members? Thinking back to a roasted pork taco that I am still
dreaming about that Carlos and I had eaten at An Urban Grape pop up dinner, I
decide to take inspiration from it and go with a mango salsa. The sweetness of
the mangos will enhance the roasted lamb the sweetness of the American lamb. So
a mango salsa with radishes, fresh mint (is mint a lamb cliché?) and lime juice
was placed on top of the thinly sliced pieces of marinated and grilled lamb.
The taco looked visually amazing and good enough to eat, but was missing that
final finishing touch. How about some white to make all the other colors pop. Having
some queso fresco in the refrigerator I decided to crumble some on top. The
white cheese looked great against the orange of the mango, plus the haphazard
shapes of the crumbled cheese played well against the uniform cubes of mango.
Eureka! I had my dish!

Mango salsa accompanied by queso fresco and shredded cabbage

The weather the past couple of days has not been conducive
to grilling outdoors. The first time I attempted this recipe I had to grill
indoors, although good, does not have the same flavor as grilling on a real
grill outdoors. This morning, wanting to try the final dish one last time with
the lamb grilled outdoors to get the great flavor and some “action” photos, I
proceeded to fire up the grill and get my lamb ready. As soon as I stepped out
the door to throw the lamb on the grill, it started to rain lightly. But I didn’t
let it deter me. The lamb was grilling nicely, even in the rain. When it was time
to check the temperature of the lamb, of course was the time when the clouds
decided to unleash buckets of rain. At this point there was no turning back, so
out to the grill I went with a thermometer and thongs in one hand and an
umbrella in the other. Nestling the umbrella in my armpit I successfully
checked the lamb’s temperature. Luckily it was done and I could retreat back
inside to let the lamb rest before slicing it for its close-up. This dish does
have Guatemala written all over it. The lamb on the outdoor grill has charred
bits of fat and meat which tastes so great and resembles carne asada, but is
still rare to medium rare on the inside like lamb should be. The mango salsa is
made up of ingredients that are wildly popular in Guatemala, and of course the
queso fresco is practically a food group in Guatemalan cuisine. Dish B was a
success meeting all my requirements!

Perfectly cooked grilled lamb! So proud of myself.

Until this challenge dropped in my lap I was intimidated by
the thought of cooking lamb, like many people it seems. That is one of the
reasons I went the lamb taco route. It brings lamb down to what is basically a
street food. You can marinate the lamb overnight, make the salsa the day
before, and then all you have to do is throw the lamb on the grill about 30
minutes before you want to eat. No stuffy rack of lamb. No bone in lamb chops
to fight with. This is lamb you eat with your hands! This is lamb by the
people, for the people and the people should be eating American lamb! It is
fresher, the flavor is amazing and you’re supporting our economy.

Needless to say after braving the weather of the past few
days and my great dish I deserve to win one of the coveted four spots at the
actual American Lamb Pro-Am event being held in a few weeks. You can vote for this dish by visiting American Lamb Pro-Am
so that I can cook my dish side by side with a Boston area chef
and show people what Guatemalan food or inspired food is all about. Voting closes at 5pm on Friday October 21.

Buen Provecho

When people think of food and Guatemala they probably think of tamales, but in actuality they should be thinking carne asada. Yes tamales are popular in Guatemala, but due to their labor intensive preparation, we eat more carne asada than anything else both in Guatemala and here in the US.

When in Guatemala and we go to someones house for lunch or dinner the odds are pretty good that we are going to be served carne asada. Considering that a good majority of the population doesn’t have an indoor kitchen like we are used to in the US, most of the cooking is done over a grill outside. By the end of our stay in Guatemala we have probably eaten enough carne asada to equal a whole cow and when we get home we do not eat beef for a few weeks.

Dita manning the parilla while Mama Neca supervises.

I have so many great memories of eating carne asada in Guatemala that it is hard to choose which one to tell.  My first time eating carne asada in Guatemala was more a memory of eating the chiltepe sauce that was served with it. All my carne asada memories involve visiting family way out in the country and sitting around a hot parilla of some sort eating carne asada with our dirty hands. My favorite memory is when we were visiting family or maybe they are close friends outside of Zacapa. It was one of the hottest days I remember experiencing in Guatemala. As we sat outside in the shade thankfully with the parilla blazing away only a few feet from us we all began to melt. You have to realize that we travel in a large pack of 12-15 people, so when we visit someone for lunch or dinner, the hosts pull out all the stops. On this day there were a couple of hens already on the parilla, a big pot of beans to be joined shortly by some carne asada. On this trip we were joined by Carlos’ grandmother who was great at explaining everything to me. You have to realize that this is a society where the women take care of the men, cooking and cleaning, no feminists allowed here. So around the parilla was the matriarch of the family we were visiting, Carlos’ abuelita and assorted other woman. Carlos’ abuelita knows what I do and took me under her wing this afternoon and explained everything to me. She explained how the hens we were about to eat were running around the yard this morning (I think the hens that were running around our feet knew we were about to eat their friends), and that the cow was a communal cow and had been slaughtered earlier in the week and shared amongst friends and family in the area. After a lot sweating and inhaling of smoke we all sat down to eat. There is one thing you need to get used to when eating with the locals in Guatemala and that is eating with your bare unwashed hands and luckily (knock on wood) I have never gotten sick. Your hands and the tortillas are your utensils. At first this used to freak me out and now I don’t think twice about it. The carne asada we were eating was some of the best I had ever had, but the hen was probably THE worst thing I have ever eaten. A hen is an old chicken and boy was this hen old and tough! I could not eat it and tried to hide it under my used napkins so as not to offend the hosts.

Closer to home, Carlos’ family serves carne asada on any occasion when the entire family gets together, especially birthdays. When this happens, there is about 30 pounds of sirloin steak purchased and marinated, a gallon of chirmol made, and dozens of green onions grilled. We (they) will be doing this on Sunday for my godsons birthday. My mouth is watering already!

After many years (literally) of trying to reproduce the carne asada we eat in both countries, I think I finally have it! Of course no one is about to give me the complete recipe, I am just given a list of ingredients that may be in the marinade and of course no quantities. So after many many pounds of different cuts of beef, ingredients, quantities and marinate times, I have a very close to the original carne asada recipe that is popular in our family.

The marinating carne asada.

No matter where you go in Guatemala, carne asada is served well done, no choices.  If you like your steak any other way, you are out of luck. If you are making this at home, feel free to cook it a little less although since this sirloin steak is so thin, it will cook very fast. To me, the best part is the charred bits of fat and meat anyways and I am a medium rare guy when it comes to other steaks. So after a lot of marinating and a lot of grilling the highly anticipated Carne Asada recipe is here. Like I have said before, this is the way our family makes carne asada, I am sure there are as many ways to make it as there are stars. In fact I know one other way that we had in Guatemala and loved. Let me work on that one next.  Remember for best flavor and tenderness marinate this overnight, so plan ahead. Provecho.

As I have written before, plantains are a staple in Guatemala, eaten three meals a day, four if you count dessert! In our house they are practically a food group themselves. Most often plantains are used when ripe (almost black)  and this is when they are at their sweetest. The most popular way to eat plantains in Guatemala is sliced and fried (platanos fritos). Platanos fritos are eaten as a side dish with breakfast, lunch and dinner. In our house we sometimes eat them as dessert drizzled with a bit of crema.

Plantains caramelizing in the pan.

The second most popular way to eat plantains is to slice and simmer them in water with some sugar and a cinnamon stick (platanos maduros). In Guatemala, they are eaten this way only for breakfast with some crema drizzled on top. Again we like to eat them as dessert since they almost taste like apple crisp.

Platanos Maduros

A true plantain dessert in Guatemala is rellenitos de platanos which are mashed plantains stuffed with sweetened refried black beans and cinnamon.

Recipe: Platanos Fritos

Summary: These plantain slices are lightly fried until beginning to caramelize and then eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner

Preparation time: 5 minute(s)

Cooking time: 6 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 4

My rating 5 stars:  ★★★★★ 1 review(s)

Recipe: Platanos Maduros

Summary: These boiled and sweetened plantains are a great way to start the day.

Preparation time: 5 minute(s)

Cooking time: 10 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 4

My rating 5 stars:  ★★★★★ 1 review(s)

So you’re driving through Salem, Ma and you suddenly become
hungry and craving some Mexican food, where do you go? Comida Mexican Taqueria.
Located near the Peabody Essex Museum, owner Renny Waldron lets his love of
authentic Mexican food made with local ingredients (as much as feasibly
possible) shine through. Made fresh from scratch daily you can feel the love in
the homemade salsas, mole poblano sauce and the slow cooked meats like adobo
marinated beef and chicken.

Comida officially open on September 30, 2010, but was not an
overnight success. Renny worked on the plan for a few years, spending a large
amount of time looking for the perfect site. One of the reasons Renny decided
to open Comida in Salem, Ma was because there was nothing like it around and there
still isn’t. There are a couple of burrito joints and Mexican type places, but
Comida is a cut above the rest. Comida prides itself on making everything fresh
daily and from local and seasonal products as much as is feasibly possible.

For Renny it would have been so much easier to open Comida
in Cambridge where he lives, but does Cambridge really need another taqueria? During
the planning stages Renny was working at Ole Mexican Grill in Cambridge where
his love for Mexican food became almost an obsession. Ole’s longtime executive
chef Erwin Ramos mentored Renny over the years in the finer points of Mexican
food and running a kitchen. Chef Erwin taught Renny that food and cooking
should be looked at as an adventure, a journey whisking you off to a time and
place.

Renny like Chef Erwin like to change people’s perceptions
about Mexican food. The menu at Comida Mexican Taqueria is predominantly
traditional Mexican, with some burritos, burrito bowls and quesadillas thrown
in for those not sure about eating real Mexican food. The real adventure begins
when people throw caution to the wind and order up traditional dishes like the
tacos and the tortas. Most of the items come with the choice of a main
filling-vegetable, pork carnitas, carne asada, or chicken. The most popular
item on the menu is the chipotle chicken burrito, but Renny is set on expanding
people’s food choices one person at a time and having them try something new.

Rennys personal favorite on the menu is the mole poblano
torta with sautéed onions and peppers, pepper jack cheese and creamy black bean
spread. Tortas are a traditional Mexican sandwich pressed like a panini but made
on a bolillo, which is the Mexican version of French bread, crunchy on the
outside and soft and chewy on the inside. Out of all the ingredients on the
menu, the mole poblano takes the most love and time, but is worth it once you take
that first bite. A hint of spice from the poblano peppers and ends with some
sweetness from the Taza chocolate, made locally in Somerville, Ma. Finding a
bakery to make the bolillo for him was the hard part. Authentic bolillo bread
was crucial to everything Comida stands for and Renny visited over 30 bakeries
but ended up buying from a surprising source. It wasn’t from a traditional
artisanal bakery or a Latino panaderia, but from a big box supermarket that
makes them especially for Comida every day.

The tacos at Comida are so authentic you feel like you are
sitting in a small plaza in Mexico. Two tacos can make a meal for most people
and one of the most popular are the Taco de Pollo which come topped with the
most amazing sweet corn mango salsa that cuts through the spicy pepper jack
cheese. Soon that corn mango salsa will be made with corn that was grown in New
Durham, NH right in Comidas own garden.

Yes you read correctly, Comida has their own garden at the
home of Rennys parents, Gary Waldron and Laura Perkins, who are also the
gardens caretakers. Towards the end of summer Comida will only be using tomatoes
grown in the Comida garden, while they last of course. That means all the
salsas made fresh daily will have tomatoes locally grown for them and by them. That
in itself is impressive. Most restaurants at the most will have an herb garden,
but for Comida to have a vegetable garden for their use, is amazing, even if it
is only for a few months a year. Growing along with the corn and tomatoes to be
used by Comida are several varieties of peppers, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers,
epazote (a traditional Mexican herb similar to oregano), mint, and thyme. Earlier
in the growing season they were harvesting cilantro (lots of it!!!) and rhubarb
which Renny made into salsa, not traditional Mexican, but sounds tangy and
delicious all the same. What Renny cannot grow himself he will try and source
locally from local farms especially Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton, Ma. Of
course Thursdays in late spring through early fall you will find Renny
wandering the Salem Farmers Market looking for inspiration.

It is easy to see why Comida Mexican Taqueria is one of the
hottest places to eat in Salem and on the cutting edge of technology. Between
produce grown in the family garden and everything made from scratch daily, you
can definitely see and taste the difference. Throw in the daily specials, the
tweets, Facebook postings and the Iphone app and you have the epitome of the
modern day fresh and local dining destination. The Comida app is a convenient
way to place an order so that it’s ready when you get there, no waiting for
your food. The app has been a huge success and is free to download. Not only
does it provide convenience, but it also has a customer rewards program-a free
burrito after your tenth app order! How great is that?

To keep up to date on everything going on at Comida Mexican
Taqueria, including the Comida garden produce they are using, follow Comida on
Twitter and Facebook so you don’t miss one day of their specials. You wouldn’t
want to miss what color shirt to wear on Wildcard Wednesdays so that you can
save 10% on your order.

Comida Mexican
Taqueria 131 Essex St Salem, Ma (978)594-8220 www.comidasalem.com

Monday-Thursday
11:30am to 9pm Friday and Saturday 11:30am to 10pm Sundays 11:30am to 8pm

Once in a while I get to escape out of the kitchen and do
something fun and exciting because of all the time I spend in the kitchen. I
recently was asked to be a judge for the Cadillac Culinary Challenge at its
local stop in Dedham at Legacy Place.

Chef Jason Santos

Cadillac Culinary Challenge is an event that pits a local
culinary star against a world renowned chef. In the case of the Legacy Place
challenge, Jason Santos went up against Jonathan Waxman. Most Bostonians
remember Chef Santos as a former contestant on Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen
show where he was often referred to as a smurf due to his hair being dyed an
electric blue, which it still is. Jason was the chef at Gargoyles on the Square
in Somerville for quite some time and just recently opened his own restaurant,
blue inc. located on the Rose Kennedy Greenway on Broad St.

Chef Jonathan Waxman

Chef Waxman sharpened his knives at the illustrious Chez
Panisse in Berkeley, Ca. before moving to the East Coast to embark on his own
culinary empire. Chef Waxman owns the prestigious Barbuto in the West Village
of NYC and was recently on Top Chef Masters on the Bravo channel on TV where he
almost made it to the finale. Chef Waxman’s Barbuto represents Italian cuisine
being made with the best in seasonal and local ingredients.

So under a tent with big fans trying to blow the hot air,
not only from the chefs but also because it was one of the hottest days of
summer so far, fans of the human kind gathered to watch Chef Waxman take on
hometown favorite Chef Santos. This challenger was kind of a Bobby Flay type
Throwdown married to Iron Chefs secret ingredient. The secret ingredient of the
day was something taking over quite a few Massachusetts gardens…..summer
squash!

Having arrived fairly early I was able to watch Chef Santos’
team get a head start on their rivals. The Santos team was well into getting
prepped for the challenge when Chef Waxman’s team leisurely strolled in one at
a time until just minutes before the challenge was to start Chef Waxman himself
joined them. It was even more surprising when Chef Waxman was up first to serve
his food to my fellow esteemed judges, Hilary Davis of the Marche Dimanche
website and Kristen Llobrera of the food blog Pixelated Crumb. Chef Waxman
served us and the rest of the audience a Squash Ragout with Spicy Merguez and
Pesto. Being a huge fan of sausage of any type from anywhere in the world I was
instantly enraptured with his dish when he was telling us about merguez, which
I had seen many times on TV but had never had the chance to try myself.

Chef Waxmans Squash Ragout with Spicy Merguez

The merguez, which is a heavily spiced sausage with it roots in North African cuisine,  brought a touch of the exotic to the Squash
Ragout which was full of flavor on so many levels. Along with the spicy
merguez, there was the sweet summer squash, the zesty pesto, and the creamy
gruyere. Although Chef Waxmans was a great dish, it was a bit heavy on this
very hot day. On a cooler day I will be making this for sure!

Chef Santos Greek Salad with Grilled Lamb

Chef Santos was up next and he was serving a Greek Style
Salad with Grilled Lamb. This salad had all the usual trappings of a greek
salad but with a couple of twists and turns. Along with the tomatoes, cucumber,
pepperoncini, red onion and feta cheese was the secret ingredient of summer squash,
grilled lamb and the scene stealer……Black Olive Yogurt! When Chef Santos first
uttered the phrase black olive yogurt every person in the audience ooohed and
aaahed! I could not wait to dig in to this salad as we had smelled the lamb
grilling for some time now and was making everyone very hungry as its aromas
permeated the tent and beyond. The flavors in this salad were complex and
fought to dominate. The succulent and juicy grilled lamb that was so delicate it
would have won over many non-lamb lovers, the briny creamy feta and crisp but
tender vegetables all topped with this luscious creamy, salty, tart black olive
yogurt that took this dish to new heights. I went home and made this dish the
next day! The perfect summer meal.

Then came the voting, but not before a gift certificate was
given out to one lucky winner. Everyone there, judges included had their name
entered into this giveaway. The prize? A gift certificate to Jason Santos new
restaurant blue, inc. The winner? None other than myself! Awkward moment? Yes!
A judge won the prize. Was my vote bought? We were about to find out.

The judges voted unanimously for Chef Santos but in a turn
of events the audience voted for Chef Waxman’s dish. And no I did not vote for
Chef Santos because I won the gift certificate to his restaurant. His dish was
the perfect one for that day. If it had been a chilly rainy summer day, Chef
Waxman probably would have won my vote.

All in all it was a fun way to pass the afternoon and if the
tour comes to your neck of the woods, make sure to check it out. Not only do
you get to see some well-known chefs but you will also get the chance to look
and possibly drive some of the latest Cadillac models. Even me, who is not that
into cars was star struck by the Cadillac that resembled the Batmobile. Cars
and food, how much better can it get?

To keep in the know with the Cadillac Culinary Challenge make sure to “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.