Cooking with Chemicals

Almond and matcha jelly with lychee and mango spheres

The menu for our second Green@Red&White Vegetarian Supper Club event couldn't have been more different from the first.

For our first event we created hearty yet sophisticated comfort food with seasonal Italian goodies but here we were on a Saturday night, stirring chemicals, cutting mango into tiny, perfect, 3 millimetre cubes, and using tweezers to gently place gold leaf on top of spherified lychee caviar.  We're nothing if not versatile!

To celebrate the return of one of our members from a recent trip to Tokyo, we themed our second event Molecular Japanese.  Hence the Japanese part.  And the molecular?  Hubby bought me a molecular gastronomy kit as a gift and it was just sitting in a cupboard gathering dust, taunting me.  I was waiting for just the right occasion to play with it.  I ask you, what could beat a gathering of foodie friends for its début?

We gathered 'round my laptop to learn a few of the basics and after we dined on bean curd and spinach gyoza followed by a porcini and chestnut soup, we dove right in.

Like mad scientists, but in aprons instead of lab coats, we mixed and stirred and played for hours, feeding off of each other's creative energy, poppity pop pop, our ideas zipping back and forth like spark plugs firing.  We were channelling our inner Hestons and Ferrans and when the evening was over, I finally understood the lure of spherification:  instant, intense, pure flavours wherever and however you want it.

I think the gastronomic possibilities are endless and exciting and I'm certain we'll pull out the kit again.

If you'd like to see more photos of our foodie events and keep track of what we're up to in the kitchen, you can go to the Green@Red&White facebook page here. The more the merrier!

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Molecular Japanese
Supper Club Menu

almond and matcha jellies with lychee and mango spheres

mango pudding in coconut sauce with lychee caviar

bean curd and spinach gyoza

porcini and chestnut soup

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Mango pudding in coconut sauce with lychee caviar

Making lychee caviar

Bean curd and spinach gyoza

Prep for the lychee and mango spheres

Straining fresh almond milk through an ultra fine meshed sieve 

Porcini and chestnut soup

Green@Red & White. Monaco's Vegetarian Supper Club

Like Silly Putty, Post-It Notes and the microwave oven, Monaco's only Vegetarian Supper Club was created by accident.  

It all started when one of my BFFs (Best Foodie Friends) Ayako, was telling me about her friend Angie who started Once Upon a Table, a very successful Hong Kong based Supper Club.  During the same conversation we were once again lamenting the lack of decent vegetarian food in Monaco's restaurants. I must admit that it's one of our culinary pet peeves, right up there with indifferent, lazy waiters.

The conversation continued, the two ideas collided, et voila!  Monaco's first and only Vegetarian Supper Club was born.  Together with my other BFF, Mariko, we named it, "Green@Red & White."  Green, in honour of the noble vegetable and red and white being the colours of Monaco's flag.

For our first dinner, the three of us cooked Autumn themed dishes with local French and Italian ingredients.  Eight or nine hours just flew by while we laughed, ate, shared ideas, and pinned down our concept for The Club.

Mariko, Ayako and I are the only three members so far but who knows how many other passionate, skilled vegetarian cooks there are living secretly amongst us in Monaco?

Here's the link to our facebook page if you'd like to follow us.

Maybe through The Club we'll inspire some of Monaco's restaurateurs to be at one with the veg.  At long last!

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Autumn Harvest
Supper Club Menu

focaccia with rosemary, sage and home made, extra virgin olive oil

porcini filled spring rolls
tortellini with porcini and lemon thyme

scrambled eggs with fresh white truffle

salad of mache, Gilbert's freshly cracked walnuts and Bleu le Royal cheese

pumpkin pie

fruit

chocolates by joël durand

fresh mint tea

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Focaccia with rosemary, sage, and our home made olive oil

 

Preparing the porcini for the tortellini

Mise en place for the tortellini

Porcini spring rolls

Fresh white truffle under the cloche.  Porcini watches from the plate

Centrepiece

The fruit course

Chocolates from Joël Durand