Ameri-Lankan Fusion
For those of you who got a sneak peek of the baby shower snacks on my Instagram page Sunday, here are the recipes as promised.
When I first started writing this blog, I thought I would post a lot of recipes, but projects have steered me in other directions.
That changed last week when the folks at my day job decided to throw a baby shower for a couple from Sri Lanka who are expecting their first child.
Since their friends and co-workers are mostly American, and the baby will hold dual citizenship, it seemed appropriate that the baby shower snacks be Ameri-Lankan Fusion – I know, the term “fusion” is probably out of fashion but I had 2 seconds to think of something and get it on the menu sign.
So, my main job was to come up with basic recipes and then shop for ingredients that would nod to both countries.
Then I handed off to BJ, who earned a chef’s certificate while he lived in Beijing a few years ago and added details to my recipes that I would never have thought of, like frying both the potatoes and the fish. I thought that using the potatoes just baked would work, but he felt (correctly) that the potato should be fried both as an “American” touch and to be a firmer base for the sauce and fish. So here are recipes for the two prepared snacks:
Swai Nuggets on a Fried Potato Bed with Tamarind Ketchup
2 pounds Swai fish nuggets; thaw day before if frozen
8-10 large russet baking potatoes
4 cups Coconut Panko crumbs
Red pepper flakes, optional
1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons Tamarind concentrate
1 to 1-1/2 cups Ketchup
Vegetable oil for frying
Parsley for garnish
Batter:
1 cup cornstarch
4 raw egg whites
1-1/2 teaspoons white pepper powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
To make:
Wash and scrub the baking potatoes and prick with a fork in several places so the steam will escape from under the skin and keep potato from getting mushy. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 60 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Remove from oven and let potatoes cool; you can do these the day before and keep in fridge. In fact, you don’t want to fry these while they’re hot. Once cooled, you can remove potato skins, but it’s optional.
Cut each potato into slices about 1/2 inch thick and fry gently in vegetable oil at 375 degrees F until crispy. Set aside to cool.
Combine 1-1/2 tablespoons tamarind concentrate with 1 cup of ketchup. Goal is for sauce to reach its own taste, not that of the tamarind or the ketchup. Optional: add ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes for a Sri Lankan kick.
To prepare the fish, get a large Ziploc (may need to divide into two bags) and drop in the fish and marinade ingredients: 1-1/2 teaspoons white pepper powder, 4 raw egg whites, 2 teaspoons kosher salt, and a cup of cornstarch. Seal the bag and get to shaking and massaging the contents together. Much cleaner than a mixing bowl, right? If needed, add just enough cold water until the batter comes together but is still sticky enough to coat the pieces of fish. Continue working the bag until all the fish is covered. Then toss in the panko crumbs and gently fold together (if you toss in the panko from the beginning, the crumbs could begin turning into fine bread crumbs and you’ll lose the “panko look.” Fry at 375 degrees in about 1-inch of vegetable oil until just golden. Do not allow fish to overcook.
To assemble, lay each potato slice on its side and spread a dab of tamarind ketchup on top. Set piece of fish on top of sauce and put a toothpick through the fish and potato. Sprinkle parsley or cilantro on top for garnish.
Serve immediately. These can be served room temperature but ideally warm for best results.
Note from BJ about Swai:
Swai is a rather homely looking fish found in Vietnam that tends to get a lot of bad press due to the fact that it is not only farm-raised (fairly safe) but also is raised in open river cages (questionable), which is why it’s important that you buy it from a reputable distributor. It’s often called a Vietnamese Catfish or Iridescent Shark, though it is neither a catfish nor a shark, and it’s high in Omega 3. Like any farm-raised livestock, including those in the U.S., Swai has its supporters and proponents, but regardless, the fatty belly area, where the “nuggets” are cut from, is friggin’ delicious. While I’m not a fan of Swai fillets, the belly area is what makes this known as a fatty fish, and also what allows it to hold up well and stay moist even if slightly overcooked. This makes it a forgiving cut of fish to use if you’re still a novice at the fryer. Give it a try, and marvel at how great these fatty, fried Swai nuggets taste! Then go to the doctor to check your cholesterol, and weep silently in the clinic’s parking lot before you head home. If you’d like to read more about this controversial fish before you try it, there are many articles on the Internet. This is one that we found particularly interesting, as it gives both sides of the story. It was written on July 31, 2017: https://www.greenandgrowing.org/swai-fish-health-information/
Curried Chicken in a Bacon Blanket
12 leg-thigh chicken quarters, skin on and bone in
Two 1-pound packages of sliced bacon
1-1/2 cups of curry sauce, either homemade or bottled
To make:
Put chicken, with skin on and bone in, on a baking sheet and coat each piece with a little vegetable oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-50 minutes or until thermometer placed in fleshy spot registers 160 degrees F.
Remove from oven and immediately remove skin so chicken will cool. Once you know you won’t burn your fingers, pull chicken from bone into bite-size pieces, making sure no gristle or bones are included with meat.
Mix chicken with curry sauce (we used bottled to save time) and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
Open bacon packages and use kitchen shears or sharp knife to cut across all the strips crosswise to create two halves in each package. [In our case, there were 12 strips of bacon in a package; once we cut through the strips, we had 24 pieces. You could cut bacon into thirds and reduce the amount of chicken filling if you want to stretch the recipe.]
Put a generous teaspoon of curried chicken at one end of a bacon strip and roll up, tucking any runaway bits back into bacon roll. Place rolls seam side down on baking sheet. Continue until all bacon is filled and rolled.
Put baking sheet into oven at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or until bacon is cooked. Be careful not to overcook; bacon should be just cooked through or slightly crispy.
Pull from oven and transfer rolls to a serving platter.
Insert toothpicks in each roll and only serve as many as you think will be consumed in about 10 minutes as they are best served warm; keep rest of rolls warm in oven and refill serving platter as needed. If you want to jazz these up, sprinkle some black sesame seeds on top.
This recipe can be made the day before. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate. It also reheats well.
Makes about 48 rolls depending on how many strips of bacon in each package.
Along with the two snacks above, we also did vegetable sticks in a cucumber-yogurt dip and furnished ginger-lemon tea and a “baby boy” punch with 70% blue Hawaiian punch, 20% Sprite, and 10% apple juice. Earlier, we had frozen about 12 of those multi-colored popsicles in plastic tubes, broke them up into chunks and plopped them into the punch. Big hit!
But hey, you might be thinking – what about dessert?
We always go straight to Scones & Doilies for our desserts, as Natasha Vasili makes the best scones, cakes and cupcakes in the world, and her decorating skills are incredible.
So, she brought lemon-blueberry cupcakes with blue booties iced on top, as well as a cake decorated with a baby carriage. The cupcakes were inhaled, and much of the cake. We sent the rest of the cake home with the parents-to-be to enjoy in the calm of their home.
Although I can’t share Natasha’s recipes (because I don’t know them), I will sneak you some tips she’s given me:
First, when she uses fruit in a recipe, it’s fresh, quality fruit – usually blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc., or a good dried fruit like cranberries.
Second, don’t overwork your scone dough.
And … drum roll …. she uses real butter in her icing, not shortening. It’s amazing how good her icing is.
So that’s it! It was a co-ed party with all ages, so the only game was bingo and every prize won was passed along to the expectant parents.
At the end of the day, my poor feet were killin’ me! Ahh well, the price of friendship…