Craze-y Street Food
Growing up in a family of West London criminals, Aaron Craze is not your typical chef who grew up dreaming of becoming one. Without a professional training in culinary arts, he worked as a carpet fitter and found his way into the world of food by joining Jamie Oliver's TV competition, Jamie's Chef, in 2007. With Aaron conquering and winning in the competition, he proved that passion and dedication are as much important as knowledge and skills. Now a celebrity chef, he has his own shows, Rude Boy Food, where he explores street food and replicates them with a twist of his own creativity, and Taste Off, where he goes around the globe tasting and discovering food unique to every continent and challenges the chefs with a taste off. He also released a book last 2008 entitled Aaron Cooks Italian.
Touring the continent of Asia, the Philippines was one of his lucky destinations. I got to be a witness of his live cooking last Sunday, June 9, at the Greenbelt Park 3. The show was opened by Sabrina Artadi, who has her own locally-produced TV show, Sabrina's Kitchen. Not a chef, but a die-hard foodie, she whips up her own recipes based on existing ones and convert them to affordable easy-to-prepare food.
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| The tickets |
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| Host: Drew Arellano, a local celebrity |
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| Drew went around tasting food in nearby food stalls (sponsors) |
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| Drew welcomes Sabrina on stage |
Her first dish was Rosemary, Thyme and Oregano Portobello Mushroom in Salsa Verde Sauce. The dish was very juicy and tender. For mushroom lovers out there, this dish is a good and healthy snack, but you have the option to prepare a larger number of servings if you plan to include it in your main course.
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| Right: Portobello mushroom; Left (top to bottom): Moroccan eggs with bread, cheese, basil, olives |
1 pack medium sized portobello mushroom
1/2 cup virgin olive oil (or adjust as needed)
1 1/2 cup chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp dried oregano
Dash of thyme
Dash of rosemary
1/4 cup calamansi/calamondin
Salt and black pepper to taste
Procedure:
1. Pat dry portobellos and lay out upside down on oven tray (oven toaster will do).
2. In blender, place olive oil dried oregano, thyme, rosemary, garlic, chopped parsley and calamansi; salt to taste. Blend all ingredients, adding olive oil if needed to get sauce consistency.
3. Pour sauce over each portobello. Don't over-sauce. Just pour enough to fill the pocket. Portobellos should be firm and mushy. Bake for 14 minutes.
This dish is best served with white wine.
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| Moroccan eggs: Bread topped with egg yolk, olive and fresh basil |
Ingredients:
6 medium-sized eggs
2 large white onions, chopped finely
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (just add if you prefer more heat)
1/2 tsp Spanish paprika
1/2 cup diced chorizo bilbao
1/2 cup virgin olive oil
Fresh basil to garnish
Procedure:
1. In an non-stick pan, place olive oil. Sautee diced onions. Add chorizo, cayenne pepper and Spanish paprika.
2. Add red wine and ketchup and spices.
3. Break open eggs over entire pan, covering onions and chorizo. Add a teaspoon or two of leftover red wine and ketchup, add a dash of salt. Cover for about 7 to 8 minutes. Avoid stirring as we would like the egg yolks to remain while. Don't worry as onions will keep eggs from overcooking, but keep in medium heat.
4. Pour into large dish and surround egg with toasted bread. Serve with a siding of olives, honey and halumi cheese. Alternatively, you can use quesong puti (white cheese) diced and soaked in virgin olive oil and calamansi/calamondin.
The dish is best served with champagne. Dipping the bread in the sauce and popping an olive with cheese brings all the flavors of Moorish Spain to life.
Right after her demonstration, culinary arts students went around distributing us samples of the food. Both dishes were very sumptuous. It gave a different experience to the taste buds.
You can check out more about Sabrina and her show, Sabrina's Kitchen, on her facebook page here.
With the audience's anticipation piquing, Aaron Craze gave no further delay. When he set foot on stage, the audience got craze-y, as if the food samples given to us were enough to give us a full batch of energy to last the entire night. With three street food dishes to prepare, he immediately dove in. Asking for a volunteer (most likely a pretty fan), he asked them to help him in the dish preparation, this meant that he called on three lady volunteers. I would've wanted so badly to be on stage with him and get to do some live action (ooops that sounds nasty haha), alas, I was seated at the back and much as I raise my hand and shout out "pick me, pick me", I was too far for them to hear and see.
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| Drew Arellano welcomes Aaron on stage |
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| "Thrillah in Manila" |
His first dish was Mexican Beef Torilla with Tomato Salsa and Sour Cream. This is a great snack food, when you're just chilling out with your friends or an appetizer when you wanted to have some small get-together with colleagues or family.
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| Aaron minces the beef and salsa |
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| Finishes the dish with a topping of coriander |
Ingredients (6 servings):
For Beef Tortilla:
600g beef skirt
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1/2 white onion, roughly chopped
2 red tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch coriander, finely chopped
6 tortilla wraps
1 lemon
For Salsa:
1 x 400 tin of tomatoes
1 bunch of coriander stalks, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 chilli
Sour Cream
Method (Salsa):
1. Sweat off the onion, garlic, chilli and coriander stalks then add tinned tomatoes and cook for 20 minutes.
2. Leave to cool.
Method:
1. Bash out the beef skirt as thin as possible. Drizzle on some olive oil and season.
2. Put the seasoned beef skirt onto a hot griddle or pan to sear.
3. Once cooked, remove from the heat and chop the beef skirt up on a board to create a mince.
4. Mix the mince together with the white onion, red tomatoes, salsa and coriander. Squeeze lemon into
the mixture and serve topped with coriander, wrapped in a tortilla.
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| Aaron takes a huge bite off of his creation |
With this dish, I learned a term in cooking. Though not an avid fan of cooking myself, it still is a good thing to discover something new. I learned that the difference between sweating and frying is that when you fry, it requires heat that would "burn up" the ingredients, while, sweating is introducing just enough heat that would squeeze out the juices from the ingredients. Just compare it to you being on earth under the heat of the sun as sweating, while when you go to space and get near the sun (which is impossible) is frying.
His next dish was Ravioli of Sunshine with Thai Asparagus (filled with Spinach, Ricotta and Egg Yolk). An Italian dish with a dash of street food, Aaron gave a different take on this classic food.
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| Ravioli food sample |
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| Rolled pasta thru a pasta machine |
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| Placing the ricotta mixture in the middle of the pasta dough |
Ingredients (6 servings):
100g paste flour
1 egg, whole
Spanish of olive oil
500g spinach
25g ricotta cheese
Pinch nutmeg
Salt and pepper
1 egg yolk
20 stalks asparagus
Method:
1. Mix the flour together with one egg and a drizzle of olive oil until you get a smooth dough consistency. The mixture should not stick to your hands. If it does, add more flour.
2. Knead the dough for aminute and then wrap in a cling film and set aside while you make the filling.
3. Blanch the spinach in boiling salted water, then refresh in cold water. Drain and transfer to a food processor and roughly blend.
4. Scrape the spinach puree into a bowl and fold in the ricotta cheese and the basil.
5. Season to taste with salt and pepper and add a splash of olive oil. Add a squeeze of lemon juice.
6. Roll the pasta dough through a pasta machine (or rolling pin) until it is a square 3mm think. Spoon a
heap of ricotta mix onto the one hald of the square, making sure that you leave an edge of at least
2cm on every side.
7. Separate the egg yolk from the egg white.
8. Make a little well in the ricotta mixture and place the egg yolk in the well. Fold over the other half of
the dough and seal the edges tightly.
9. Cut aroung the stuffed part of the pasta with a cookie cutter making sure you leave an edge of about
2cm. Make sure that the edges are well sealed after you have cut the
shape.
10. Place the ravioli in boiling water and cook for 1-2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set
aside.
11. Blanch the asparagus for 1-2 minutes in boiling salted water, then grill on a griddle pan so that they
colour on each side. Once coloured, remove and drizzle over a little olive
oil, then season with salt and pepper, and drizzle over a little lemon juice.
12. In a frying pan melt a know of butter and add the asparagus. Carefully add the ravioli to the pan and
coat with butter. Grate a little parmesan over the ravioli.
13. Transfer the asparagus to a serving plate and place the ravioli on top. Spoon melted butter over and
drizzle with olive oil.
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| Aaron takes a break, and sings and dances to the beat of Bob Marley |
His third dish was Unbaked Lemongrass Cheesecake with Amoretti Biscuit Base. As a dessert lover myself, I am extremely excited to try out this dish as this would mean an easier way to prepare the dish without the need for an oven. It's a good dish to prepare for the family for late night home meals, or to serve in an event which you have limited time to prepare.
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| Biscuit base |
1 vanilla pod
2 heads of lemongrass
2 tsp icing sugar
1 lime
100mL water
200g Amoretti biscuits
100g digestives (or shortbread)
200g unsalted butter
100g strawberries
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| Aaron adds some finishing touches (sprinkle on powedered chocolate) |
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| Voila! |
1. Roughly crush up the biscuits and place in a food processor. Process into fine crumbs and transfer to
a mixing bowl.
2. Melt a large knob of butter and add a little at a time to the crumbs, mixing untiil the crumbs stick
together easily.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the three cheeses with lemon juice.
4. Split the vanilla pod and add the seeds into the mix.
5. Sift the icing sugar into the bowl and beat the mixture until smooth.
6. Place 2 round moulds on a plate and press most of the crumb mixture into the bottom to form a base.
Reserve a little of the crumb mixture for sprinkling.
7. Using a spoon and palette knife, fill the rest of the mould up with the cheese mix and smooth over
the top. (The cheesecakes can be chilled at this point for a firmer dessert)
8. To serve, sprinkle the top of each cheesecake with the reserved biscuit crumbs and lemon zest.
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| And he's done! |
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| Aaron wipes some sweat off that handsome face of his haha |
After every demonstration, food samples were served. After the show, our stomachs were full and satisfied. All throughout the show, Bob Marley songs were played from time to time as Aaron is a die-hard fan. In the middle of the show, local food was served for him to try out. Fish and Squid balls, Crab rolls, dumplings and calamari were served; however, it would have been more interesting if local unusual street food were served, such as balot (days-old duck egg), adidas (barbecued chicken feet), isaw (barbecued chicken intestines), and barbecued coagulated blood (chicken or pig).
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| Aaron Craze tries some street food |
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| Naughty Aaron Craze... Dat Ass... haha |
After serving the final food sample, Aaron took pictures with the audience and even signed autographs. Guess it was okay not to be on stage with him after all since we all got the chance to talk to him and take some pictures, a sure documentation of one memorable moment that would give me days worth of hangover and daydreaming. ^.^ After the autograph-signing and picture-taking, a local band, Sandwich, played and Aaron played along. I didn't get to see this part, though. Right after the photoshoot, we left since it was about to rain, and rain hard it did. I sure am glad I took the effort to claim the tickets and go to the event cuz I definitely wouldn't miss it for the world. It truly was a dream come true because even if I just started watching his show last March and really wished he'd come over to the country and get to see him, the wish did materialize in just 3 months time. And if he does come back (which he told us that he definitely would), I'll be waiting. ;-)
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| A hug and... |
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| A kiss. <3 |
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| Big love to you too, Aaron. XD |
For Rude Boy Foodschedule, you can catch it on the Asian Food Channel every Thursday night at 11:00pm-12:00am, and replays on Fridays at 10:00-11:00am and 5:30-6:00pm. For additional info/details, check the website here.
For Taste Off schedule, visit the TLC TV schedule guide here.
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