Variations on a theme of potatoes

For most Chinese families here, potatoes are usually used in three main fashions only: in chicken curry, ABC soup and that most comforting of comfort dishes, the bak steak. And even then, the chunky potatoes are never featured as the main dish. Like, for example today, my wife decided to cook her chicken curry and I've been spending the best of a half hour in peeling and cutting up the potatoes from the larder. 

But recently, we attended a US Potato cooking demonstration in Penang and found that this ordinary russet tuber could be used in myriads of ways by different cultures. Two chefs were leading the different sessions in the cooking demonstration. 

First off the block was Federico Michieletto, an Italian who is currently the Executive Chef at Equatorial Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. A graduate from the Italian Culinary of Art Institute of Castel Franco Veneto, Italy, he also holds an MBA from Anglia University London. He is a world chef international certified judge, the president of Bocuse D’or Malaysia and an Honorary Advisor of Berjaya University College. He has made Malaysia his home for the past 15 years.

For the demonstration, Chef Federico started off by creating a US lattice-cut chocolate mouse dessert which was a chocolate sponge cake topped with a layer of chocolate mousse and a drizzle of raspberry coulis and finally covered by deep-fried US lattice-cut potatoes. Next was the classic panzerotti baresi with a dough mixture made with flour and mashed potatoes from dehydrated potato granules. The filling was a sauté of tomato paste, mozarella and parmesan cheese among other ingredients. And finally, he paired off US Hashbrowns with a meat bolognese ragout. 

The other chef at this food demonstration was Chef Cẩm Thiên Long ("but call me Steven Long," he says) who hails from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. He has decades of culinary experience, having worked in some of Vietnam's most prestigious restaurants and hotels. He appears regularly on various popular cooking programmes. He is the Chef Brand Ambassador at MM Mega Market Việt Nam, the vice-president at Hội Đầu Bếp Chuyên Nghiệp Sài Gòn and the Vietnam Ambassador at World Chefs Without Borders.

When we first arrived at the food demonstration, we noticed that his rainbow spring rolls were already on display on the table. But actually, he was only whetting our curiosity because he then went on to demonstrate how easy it was to make them. For this, the russet potatoes were cut into sticks as a stuffing for his spring rolls. Other items that went into it included avocado, glass noodles, julienned carrots, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, kiwifruit and not forgetting mixed Vietnamese herbs. The accompanying peanut butter dip was nice.

Chef Steven then proceeded to show us how to make his version of wantons, the wrap or skin which I found to be wonderfully delightful. He recommended that the russet potatoes be steamed and mashed. The other ingredients that went into the wanton filling included prawns, scallops, straw mushrooms and spring onions. 

Then it was the turn of his final creation, a presentation he termed as Vietnamese fish curry with crispy US Potato wedges. I expected something similar to a traditional South-east Asian fish curry dish but I was mistaken. His was a Westernised interpretation and only a small amount of curry powder was used amidst other widely varied ingredients like fish sauce, lime juice, galanggal, lemongrass, palm sugar, etc, And the only liquid was half a cup of almond milk; no water at all. What is curry when you cannot drench your rice with it, I wonder? Personally, I have mixed feelings about this dish and I can't say that a typical Penangite can get terribly excited with it. But then, we Penangites have always been spoilt for choice when it comes to good food. And also, I believe this dish was originally conceived with the Westerner's or non-Malaysian's palate in mind. So pardon me if our perceptions about curry dishes are worlds apart. Nevertheless on a whole, it was a fascinating afternoon well spent at this US Potato cooking demonstration.