By Stephanie Vi, staff writer
Growing up in an Asian household, food was always around me. My family made all different types of food: Chinese, Japanese, Hungarian, French, Italian, you name it and we would make it. From a young age, my stomach was filled with the different colors of diversity, leading me to learn how to cook all different types of cuisines at the age of 9, but I wanted to take it up a notch. I’m 16, turning 17 on March 10th, and I want to make Gourmet food.
Gourmet means “a connoisseur of good food; a person with a discerning palate” or in more simpler words, a “cultural ideal associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterized by refined, even elaborate preparations and presentations of aesthetically balanced meals of several contrasting, often quite rich courses.” In even more simpler words, expensive and rich food that takes a while to make.
So, the first idea I had in mind was salmon. Now, salmon is one of my favorite proteins, so it’s bound to be my favorite thing to work with. I jotted down my idea and it consisted of a thai fusion dish. I envisioned a salmon in the middle of a plate with a thai panang curry surrounding it; almost like a fish swimming in a pond. It was a great start but what about my vegetables? You can’t have a full meal without having a main carbohydrate. The first thing I thought of was bok choy, yummy. Now that I had my main stuff down, I was wondering how I can make my dish look ‘gourmet’. I thought caviar and gold leaf would do the trick as the caviar’s taste would compliment my salmon. The bright gold leaf would be for show and contrast really nice with my dark pan seared salmon. Because I don’t have much of this stuff in my refrigerator, I went out with my parents to a grocery store and picked up all the ingredients, and once I got home, I started preparing for dinner as soon as possible.
Now that I had all my stuff, I began cooking. I cut my bok choy from the stem separate from the leaves so it looks almost like a rose. I boiled it with a bit of garlic salt and prepared my salmon. The descaling process took about 25 minutes and I patted it down dry to collect any excess moisture from the salmon; this prevents the salmon from sticking to the pan and making it hard to work with. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and lemon. I didn’t season it with other stuff like thyme or rosemary like I usually do since I want all my flavor to be focused on my Thai Panang curry. I cooked all the salmon on medium heat for about 6 minutes on one side, untouched, on the skin side, which gives a very crispy skin and turned the salmon to its side for about 30 seconds each. I don’t want the salmon to be overcooked as most of the heat is already distributed when I cook it on the skin for 6 minutes. Letting that cook, I took my bok choy out of my pot and drained any leftover water. I let it cool as I started working on my Thai Panang curry sauce. I put in some oil then some Panang paste, letting it mix with the oil first. I then put a small amount of coconut milk to let my paste dissolve into the milk. After that’s done, I pour in my whole can of coconut milk. By the time my Panang curry paste is done, I avert my eyes back to the salmon until those are done too.
Now that I have everything I need, I start plating. I put my Bok Choy leaves in the middle of the plate and hide them with my salmon fillet. Right next to my fillet, I put my bok choy stem and cover the whole plate with my Thai Panang curry sauce. To top it off, I put caviar, my gold leaf, and two deep-fried spaghetti strands.
I named my creation, ‘Pond of Bon Vivant’, consisting of a pan-seared salmon and bok choy rose in a Thai Panang curry pond, topped with caviar and gold leaf.
My second creation was breakfast. Now, there’s not really much I can do for breakfast, especially on a budget, so I had to improvise. I had some leftover caviar so I definitely wanted to work with that. Sourdough bread, Yukon Gold Potatoes, and eggs were the other ingredients I love to make breakfast with. I had two ideas so I decided to make two dishes.
I started off with my Yukon Gold Potatoes and cut it into cubes and put them into a boiling pot of water until fork-tender. I toasted my sourdough bread and made some scrambled eggs to put on it. How I made my scrambled eggs was the way I learned from Gordon Ramsey. I scrambled them a bit and continuously cooked them off and on the heat until those eggs became a light and fluffy like texture. I seasoned it with some salt and pepper and topped it off with microgreens of kale and caviar. Going back to the potatoes, I strained any excess water and threw them onto a pan with oil/butter. I left it alone for about three minutes to get the crispy skin I was looking for. Once the crispy skin made its way to the potato, I tossed in some rosemary and butter and started basting the potato, giving it a flavor of rosemary when you bite into it. I decided to make a plum reduction to go along with my dish as well. I took some homemade plum jam from my grandma and put it into a small pot until it looked frothy. I strained any left over plum clumps and created a plum reduction.
Now finally I could plate! I started with my plum reduction using a spoon and swifting it to create a pretty little half circle. On top, I plated my deconstructed potatoes and topped it off with my rosemary I used. On the side I put my sourdough and eggs and I was finally done!
Throughout making the first dish, I was also making my second dish on the side. This dish didn’t look as gourmet as I wanted it to be, but this dish was actually my favorite. I used my leftover potatoes and added seasoning of smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and kosher salt. Finishing it off with some parsley. I then cracked an egg into my pan and let it fry on high heat. Once the bottom of my egg was filled with white, I turned it down to low heat for about three minutes. This allows the egg to be crispy on the bottom but also a very soft and pillow like top. The egg was also runny which is my favorite, I feel like cooked egg yolks take away all the amazing flavor a yolk has to offer as well as it giving a nasty rubber band texture. Anyways, after I finished cooking my egg, I put it onto my toasted sourdough and topped it off with microgreens and spaghetti strands. I also cut some yellow dragonfruit and it went really well with my dish. The colors all complimented each other and this is so far my favorite breakfast I ever made.
I started plating and put my sourdough bread with my egg on to the left and put the leftover Yukon Gold Potatoes on the right. This left enough room for me to put my dragon fruit on the bottom.
Scrambled eggs on Sourdough Bread, topped off with Microgreens and caviar with a side of fluffy deconstructed potatoes with rosemary butter on a plum reduction.
Fried Cage-Free Egg on Sourdough Bread, topped with Microgreens with a side of Gold Yukon Pan-Seared Paprika Potatoes topped with parsley, and a Dragon Fruit.
Overall, the experience of cooking gourmet food was really fun. I enjoyed the process of it and everything from preparing to setting up the table made me really happy. Cooking is my life and anything to do with it makes me giddy. However, it does take a long time to make so I won’t be cooking like this every day, as it’s time-consuming and I’m a full-time student. Though, I would like to cook like this on special occasions, such as my parent’s birthday or holidays!
