The end of Christmas and the beginning of a New Year, bittersweet and very promising.  This blog is in two-part.  I will attempt and will succeed in making puff pastry from scratch, hence the additional week to perfection.  I will be making Pate, it is a traditional appetizer that is always found at any Haitian festivities.  It is very time consuming and so worth the effort.  It is usually filled with spicy chicken, ground beef, and mouri ( or salt fish).  I will be making the chicken version.  I will create a vegetarian pate for the non-meat clients.

The authentic version is made with lard.  I love it freshly made, I don't like leftover pate made with lard.  If and when I make it, I will specify that it's made with lard and include the details of it.  I know most non-Caribbeans are not used to eating lard, so really perfecting the puff pastry with butter is crucial.  Here are some pictures of what Haitian pate looks like:

Not to be confused with Jamaican Beef Patties below:

It's all in the crust as you can see.  So this is my challenge for the next week, I hope it doesn't  turn into a three-parter. Wish me luck!!!!!

S&S

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!!!! How about you? Nothing says Christmas like soft white snow falling and you are in a nice toasty house eating sweet delectable desserts.  Ok! Maybe not every ones memories, but I've been blessed because it's mine.  This post is dedicated to my daughter, Jaime, she loves white chocolate. So, as an ode to her, I will be making my favorite dessert with white chocolate.  Yes, turtles, also white hot chocolate, and white chocolate chip cookies.

The texture of white chocolate is richer, smoother, and tastes very gourmetish.  I found that the homemade hot white chocolate was extremely tasty.  I'm sold no more regular hot chocolate, I will be having the white.  Here are some of the process, I added some caramel glaze on top.  It's the holidays, why not?.  It's time consuming but so worth it:

YUMMY!!!!! 

Now for the white turtle.  Same process as the original except for the white chocolate.  Here are some of the process:

Yes, I loved it.  Worth the try.

Finally the white chocolate chip

I made them extra large and such a treat.

Finally the packaging, that will be for Christmas with the family

I believe this will be my last Christmas dessert for this year.  Many calories later and some wonderful sweets.  

Until next week

S&S

There is nothing better for a chef or a baker to find a new recipe for Christmas cookie cutter done in a totally different way.  While looking through one of my favorite cooking magazine, I came across this awesome creative recipe.  It's wonton wrappers cut out with Christmas cookie cutter, brush with pesto sauce and baked.  Wow! I took it a step further, of course.  Since the title of my blog is Spicy and Sweet, I brushed mine with ground fresh chili paste for the mittens and ground hot jalapeño peppers for the trees and the sweet, a paste made with Equal sweetener and water (my mom is diabetic). Here's the process:

Hot Christmas trees and red hot mittens

Sweet snow angels and white light bulbs

Can we say Spicy and Sweet!!! 

Until next week S&S

CHRISTMAS is here!!! Yes, it's my all time favorite time of the year. The lights, the decorations and of course the baking.  I haven't started baking yet, but last year I did.  One was a Oreo Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Unfortunately, you can't see the inside last year I wasn't as tech savvy as I am now (lol).  The best part was that there was an actual Oreo cookie  at the bottom.

One day I was watching The Chew, love that show, I need to follow Karla on Twitter.  Clint did this amazing craft idea that I fell in love with.  My daughter and I did this.  We lined green and red starlight candies on parchment paper and melted them in the oven and used christmas cookie cutouts and these are the results.

Sorry, didn't take a picture of the green ones.

Lastly, I saw this on Pinterest and I had to do this

Beautiful.

This is just the beginning of my Christmas selections.

Until next week

S&S

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

This blog is devoted to a "future" Thanksgiving Lunch that will be offered in November 2014. It is a jerk fried turkey wing, with homemade cranberry relish with your choice of mashed Patate served with a spicy jerk gravyor sliced Patate. Patate is a naturally sweet white potato.  It is my all time favorite root vegetable.

This was my early thanksgiving dinner

This was my husband 's

It was everything I thought it would be and more.

Until next week

S&S

The Three Stages of Plantain (Banann)

Last week I did Griot ( it was goooood). In Haiti you can't have Griot without fried Banann.  It's like apple pie and ice cream. There are three fried Banann you can make.  At most events, it's usually the green Banann.  Personally, I prefer the last two stages, a lot softer and sweeter. Here are the three stages of Banann:

I've talked to a lot of people and all they know about Plantain is the fried version.  Guess what the first two stages are great boiled?  They are eaten with any meat, of course I like the second stage, yup it's sweeter, the third stage is NEVER to be boiled, yuck, mushy, only fried please.

I will show you the three fried stages of Banaan, but I've created a version that 

will be offered during my free tasting event.  It is thinly sliced stage two Banaan

 sprinkled with my special secret recipe of habanero peppers and other spices.

Here we go!!!!!!

Unfortunately you can't tell or see the difference.  It's in the taste.  The green plantain is hard and crunchy and salty. The other two are sweet and sweeter.  It's all in your taste buds.

And here's my creation!!!! Haven't found a name as of yet, but it's and ode to Spicy&Sweet.

Because of Thanksgiving, I will not post a blog on Friday, but I will post one on Wednesday.  I will feature a Thanksgiving special that I will offer next year for lunch.  It's a Jerk Fried Turkey Wing with Cranberry Relish and mashed Patate.  I can taste it now!!!!!!

Later S&S..........

Popular Appetizer In Haiti

Griox, or Griot (spicy pork stew meat) is a well-known and favorite appetizer at every major event in Haiti.  I have perfected this authentic dish with my mix of blended spices and herbs, (in the near future it will be on major super market shelves). The pork stew meat are only sold at ethnic grocery stores.  Below is a before picture of the pork stew meat:

Doesn't look very appetizing!!! You just wait.  After some careful cleaning and seasoning one whole habanero pepper was added.  Here's a picture of a bunch of habanero peppers.  Imagine what that would do to your food!!!!

This is a good time for a little history on the Foods of the Haitians

Haitian food is often lumped together with other Caribbean islands as "Caribbean cuisine." However, Haiti maintains an independently unique flavor.  Unlike its Spanish-influenced counterpart, the Dominican Replubic, Haitian 


cuisine is based on Creole and French cooking styles.  Strong pepper flavoring in many dishes also sets Haitian food apart from the other islands.






(www.foodbycountry.com) 
Now what we have been waiting for, after many hours of cooking the pork stew meat,(takes about 3 hours to tender, juicy spicy deliciousness). This is what we have, with some slice white onions and more habanero peppers, this appetizer can be a meal by itself.  But, you would want to share, don't you?

Until next week where I will feature what goes great with Griot, Plantain not the usual ones you normally see, but three variety.

S&S 

How about some SWEET?

Recently I was talking to my mom and out of the blue she told me that her dad was a baker.  He was an entrepreneur and he had an oven and he rented to other bakers in Haiti of all places.  How come I didn't know that before? 

"I like to cook, but I love to bake" that's what I tell people. Now I realized why I love to bake.  It's in the genes.   I remembered when I was 14, I baked my first cake.  It was a German chocolate cake, and instantly I fell in love with baking. Yeah, I learned how to cook the authentic Haitian dishes, but baking is an art.  Everything has to be almost perfect to achieve the right texture and of course taste.  All bakers can agree with me on that.  I had perfected many, many baked creations and this is one of my favorites. Some have called them Turtles, or Pixies, but I will call them Heavenly Turxies, lol.

It's everything I love in SWEET.  Milk chocolate, sorry dark chocolate lovers I tried, real caramel, and pecans. So simple and so satisfying. Ok, I hear you saying that's not a Haitian SWEET, no it's not.  Believe it or not the only Haitian SWEET I like is the cake.  There are only two SWEETS from Haiti that I've recently made.  One is called Pain Maiz(Corn Bread) and the other is Pain Patate(White Sweet Potato Bread).  Both are super SWEET and I only eat it when it's fresh out of the oven.   So, most if not all of my SWEETS have been my assimilation of the American culture.  You have, of course, cakes and so many variations.  Cheesecakes, cookies, candy, oh my!!!!

Just so you know I love to bake. After a hard two-days of being a substitute 
teacher, first graders and fifth graders, I came home today to bake my Heavenly Turxies just so I can post them for my new found followers.  Enjoy it tastes better than it look..........

Introduction to Spicy&Sweet

M Catering LLC will officially open January 2014.  It has been over 25 years in the making, but I never gave up.  I knew that my entrepreneur spirit would not let me.  Each week I will submit photos/videos of some of Chef Mitzi's creative dishes along with a narrative.

For some who do not know my history, I was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and moved to Chicago when I was nine.  I can still visualize the savory taste of the wonderful dishes that I will be creating for you.

A preview----------How about a bow of hot steamy beef stew........There's a twist instead of the regular white potatoes, I've used one of my favorite root vegetable from Haiti, MALANGA.  I know, you probably never heard of it.  It is meatier than regular white potatoes and does not easily fall apart.  I use it a lot in my soup dishes, so I will give you more information later.

Why Spicy&Sweet?  Simple, my taste buds loves spicy and sweet.  All of our main dishes uses Habanero peppers.  The degree of hotness is personal, so when I cater your events, I will take that into consideration.  Who doesn't love a little sweet in their lives especially after a spicy dish.  It is the perfect union.

Until next week.......

S&S