Hey I agree...Do not take my word for it go try it !!! You might want to try a peace of their "blanc mange" or the boniato pudding (pan patat)  it goes quite well  with the mojito.

South Beach's Taptap "the" Famous Haitian restaurant.

The best food, the best Authentic deserts out many you might want to sample the pen patat ( a  delight made with the boniato) or the Haitian cake. yes gateau Ayitien.

819 5th street

Miami Beach, Fl. 33139

305-672-2898

 

Nothing for you...Anyway did you know that we sometimes wash our meat with papaya leaves because it tenderizes the meat.

I have had the best stew (legume) in Haiti made with green papaya.

What about Rosemary the fresh herb... rosemary grows wild in Haiti yet  some women in the country side use it to wash their hair.

"I have now decided what I will prepare for my family and friends for Christmas Eve dinner. Of course it's over the top, but that is just me..... be prepared to want to get on a plane and join me, of course you are most welcome...

First Course

A Pan Fried Duck Breast on Juicy Plum and Red Cabbage, served with tender Asparagus Ribbons

You need 2 small red cabbages shredded
about 4 plums cut into wedges
half a cup of pomegranate molasses
1 T olive oil
about 4 duck breasts
200g asparagus, blanched
sea salt and ground pepper

Add the red cabbage and plum wedges to a saucepan set over a medium heat. Drizzle over the pomegranate molasses and cook until tender but crunchy. Place a large nonstick pan over a high heat. heat the olive oil. Use a sharp knife to thinky slice the duck breasts and stir fry in the hot oil for a few minutes till just cooked through, but still pink. Slice ribbons of the blanched asparagus. Serve the duck breast with the warm red cabbage and plum, topped with asparagus ribbons. Season to taste. Pair with a Onyx Shiraz 2006

Second Course will consist of the following

My Special Mom's Roast Turkey stuffed with bacon, pork sausage, walnuts and cranberries. (you will find the turkey recipe under festive food).

Brine the bird for 3 hours

Stuffing -
1 packet of pork sausages cooked and then squeeze them out their skins
1 packet of bacon cut and fried till very crispy
1 handful of crushed walnuts
1 handful of dried cranberries
2 slices of brown bread soaked in milk
sage, parsley, mint - all chopped up
2 t crushed garlic and ginger
cinnamon, and any other spices you fancy...
salt, pepper

Combine all the ingredients and use your hands to mix very well.. Stuff the bird, using 2 whole jars of miracle whip, smear the bird, wrap in tinfoil and bake on 180C for about 3 hours...

Glazed Gammon - this I order from our German Butcher Siemaans - nothing beats it..

Perfectly Roasted Potatoes, Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Fritters with a caramel sauce, Rice, slow cooked beans with parma ham and garlic butter

Always have a good gravy on the table and this wonderful condiment:

Grape and Wine Jelly

Take 2 cups white wine
half a cup fresh lemon juice
800g white sugar
2T water
1T gelatine
1 cup seedless red grapes halved

Using a large saucepan, combine the wine, lemon juice and sugar. Bring to the boil then turn down the heat and gently simmer for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and skim off any foam. Place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle over the gelatine. leave to stand for about 5 minutes. Gently melt the gelatine mixture over warm water, util smooth and liquid, then whisk into the wine mixture. Add the grape halves then pour into hot sterilised jars, leaving some space at the top. Tighten the lids and place in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes, then leave to cool.

Baked Spiced Custard Dusted with Coconut

This is a fantastic way to finish off a long dinner... especially that it is absolutely gorgeously festive... the coconut surrounds the baked custard like a snowy heaven...

1 free range egg and beat it up
a cup of cream
2 T white sugar
half a teaspoon ground nutmeg
desiccated coconut for dusting.

Preheat the oven to 180C
In a mixing bowl whisk the beaten egg, cream, sugar and nutmeg. Pour the mixture into suitable moulds and place in a baking dish, half filled with water. Bake for about 35 to 45 minutes or till set. Leave to cool then remove from the moulds. Dust with desiccated coconut ...

Cheese and Wine Course

Strawberry Cheesecake with Cranberry

use about 5 strawberries, halve them and you need extra whole for serving...
little knob butter, sprinkle of brown sugar
1 ripe camembert or Brie cheese, halve it to form two rounds - remember to use a hot knife for easy cutting
2 T cranberry jam or jelly
1 packet of home made or bought oat snap biscuits

In a small pan, place strawberry halves and saute for a couple seconds, add the jam or jelly to the pan with a little sugar till sticky. Place the strawberry halves between the two rounds of cheese, top with a biscuit and tie with a ribbon. Serve with the remaining biscuits and strawberries... drizzle with the remaining syrup in the pan... Serve with a strawberry bubbly wine sprizer

1 Punnet of Woolies Duetto Dolce which is a decadent mascarpone cheese interlayered with fig and pecan nuts... it's simple to make your own one of these. Take mascarpone cheese, in a square tin, line with wax paper, layer the ingredients together, close with wax paper, put into the fridge for a few hours to set, remove from the tin and place on a platter, scatter with fresh figs, nuts and biscuits. Serve with Alto Rouge."

 

 

You Go Girl

Chef Jean A. L. Chery

Turkey Purse Stuffed with Basil and Tomato Compote

30ml vegetable oil
5 chopped garlic cloves
1 tin Cut Chilli Tomatoes
115g tin tomato paste
10g fresh basil, sliced
salt and pepper
15ml sugar
4 medium turkey breasts
100ml peri peri sauce
8 slices Parma or Black Forest Ham

Preheat oven to 180C
Heat the oil in a saucepan
Add the garlic and saute for 2 minutes
Add Fresh Cut Chilli Tomatoes and Tomato Paste and stir well
Bring up to a simmer and cook for 7-8 minutes till reduced
Add the basil and season well with salt and pepper and sugar
Remove from the heat and cool slightly
Make a lengthways slice into the turkey breasts to form a pocket (do not cut all the way)
Brush the inside of the pocket with peri peri sauce, then stuff the pocket with tomato mixture. Season the breast and then wrap it in parma ham.
Bake at 180C for 20 minutes or till cooked through but still juicy.
Serve with gnocchi or mashed potatoes and some fresh greens

Sweet Glazed Line Fish with Festive Sauce Vierge

800g line fish
50ml Sweet Chilli Sauce
50ml Super Fine Apricot Jam

Sauce Vierge:
6 Spring Onions sliced
half tin Italian Tomatoes
10 rosa tomatoes halved
30ml fresh basil, sliced
1 lemon juice and zest
1 crushed garlic clove
100ml olive oil
salt and pepper

Fresh Asparagus Spears
4 jam toatoes
15ml olive oil

Cut the fish into 200g portions
mix the sweet chilli sauce and jam together and place the fish into the mixture
Mix all the sauce vierge ingredients together and set aside
10 minutes before serving, heat a pan or an oven grill
Grill or fry the fish for 6-8 minutes until just cooked through
Blanche the asparagus until tneder
halve the jam tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil then roast
Serve the fish dressed with the sauce vierge on a bed of asparagus and roasted tomatoes

Barbequed Fillet Steak Medallions Drizzled with Mustard Sauce

4 x 180g portions fillet steak
100ml BBQ Sauce
100ml Tomato Sauce
30ml vegetable oil
1 head broccoli broken into florets
3 chopped garlic cloves
Salt and pepper to taste

Mustard Sauce
250ml cream
100ml organic wholegrain mustard
1 t sugar
1 T good brandy
4 potatoes and oil for frying

Place the steak into a casserole dish
Mix the BBQ Sauce, Tomato Sauce together and brush the steak generaously witht he mixture. Set aside
Heat a grill pan and add the broccoli (gives a smoky flavour), 2 minutes before the end and add the garlic and seasoning
Grill the meat with a flame - on a braai or on your gas stove, cook medium or the way you like basting continuously

Mustard Sauce
Combine all the ingredients together, simmer for about 5 minutes till it thickens slightly.

Serve with the broccoli and baked potatoes or potato wedges... and Mustard Sauce

Strawberry Jam Tarts

You can use bought puff pastry if you wish..

125g cake flour
pinch salt
45g castor sugar
90g butter at room temperature
1 egg small
5ml vanilla extract
180ml chocolate and hazelnut spread
180ml good home made or bought strawberry jam

Sift the flour, salt and sugar together
rub the butter into the flour until it resembles crumbs
add egg and vailla extract and incorporate into the mixture until it just comes together - don't over work.
Rest the dough for a few minutes then roll out to 2mm thick.
Use a pastry cutter to cut rings from the dough. Line either a muffin pan or small tart tin with the pastry. Fill the pastries half way with the chocolate and hazelnut spread and top with strawberry jam to cover. Bake at 180C until the pastry is crisp and golden.

Garnish with a dusting of icing sugar, a couple cherries and fresh mint

Please go to 101cookbooks.com and follow the method of preparation! Great great story as well.

 

2 cups sweet, crisp red apples, cut into 1/4 cubes (peel on)
2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup dark Muscavado sugar (or other fine-grain natural cane or brown sugar), sifted
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled a bit
3 tablespoons large grain sugar

 

 

Chef

Please go to 101 cookbook and follow the method of preparation! wonderful story as well

 

2 cups sweet, crisp red apples, cut into 1/4 cubes (peel on)
2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup dark Muscavado sugar (or other fine-grain natural cane or brown sugar), sifted
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled a bit
3 tablespoons large grain sugar

Common Interest - Religion & Spirituality

Description:

Règle n° 1 : Le Chef a raison. Règle n° 2 : Le Chef a toujours raison. Règle n° 3 : Même si un subalterne a raison, les deux premières règles s'appliquent. Règle n° 4 : Le Chef ne dort pas, il se repose. Règle n° 5 : Le Chef ne mange pas, il se nourrit. Règle n° 6 : Le Chef ne boit pas, il déguste. Règle n° 7 : Le Chef n'est jamais en retard, il a été retenu ailleurs. Règle n°8 : Le Chef n’est jamais lent à faire quelque chose, il est méticuleux. Règle n° 9 : Le Chef ne quitte jamais son service, il a une réunion à l'extérieur. Règle n° 10 : Le Chef ne lit jamais son journal pendant le service, il s'informe pour protéger l'entreprise et donc les emplois de tous. Règle n° 11 : Le Chef fait énormément de sacrifices pour ses subalternes ; ils peuvent donc bien en faire un ou deux pour le Chef en retour. Règle n° 12 : Le Chef a le droit d'être toujours de mauvaise humeur et d'insulter les subalternes : c'est dû à son stress de Chef. Règle n° 13 : On entre dans le bureau du Chef avec ses idées personnelles, on en ressort avec les idées du Chef. Règle n° 14 : Le Chef est toujours le chef, même en slip de bain. Règle n° 15 : Plus on critique le Chef, moins on a de primes. Règle n° 16 : Ne jamais oublier que le Chef est obligé de penser pour tout le monde. Règle n° 17 : Seul le Chef a une vision globale de l'entreprise. Règle n°18 : Nos erreurs sont stupides, mais les erreurs du chef sont humaines. Règle n°19 : Faire quelque chose qui ne nous est pas demandé, c’est outrepasser sa mission, mais quand le Chef le fait, il fait preuve d’initiative. Règle n°20 : Le Chef n’est jamais entêté, il est ferme. Règle n°21 : Quand le Chef ne respecte pas le protocole, il n’est pas grossier, il est original. Règle n° 22 : Si vous avez un doute, conformez-vous à la règle n° 1 !

Well I have had the best Mayi ak Fey in NewYork.

Today I have decided to make a "Mayi ak Fey" dish. In the future   corn  will be a lot less affordable, I am taking the opportunity to enjoy corn in every way possible.

I am sorry people  "Mayi ak fey" is cormeal or polenta cooked in vegetable stock and loaded with onions, watercress, spinach, scallions, with a  mix of bell peppers and fresh herbs.

OOPS...a very special friend has requested baked mayi ak fey topped with cheese. Hey peeps I have to run back to the kitchen. Hey she wants baked Mayi ak Fey; baked Mayi ak Fey she gets.

I am having fun Ciao.

 

 

SoBe's Tap Tap remains an oasis of originality

Kendall Hamersly
Miami Herald
Published: Monday, December 21, 1998

A lot of grumbling is going on these days in South Beach about how the charm and uniqueness of the place is being cast aside in favor of Gaps and Pottery Barns and Foot Lockers. It is true that portions of the Beach are beginning to resemble Kansas City, if you overlook the palm trees, crystal-blue skies and pierced eyelids. But a few oases of originality stand proud and tall.

One such gem is Tap Tap, the Haitian restaurant/gallery on Fifth Street. Opened about five years ago, it's a festival of color inside. Walls are painted in various bright and breezy shades and then adorned with beautiful paintings. The place is a maze of rooms, some filled with many tables and some privatized to include only one. A bar defines the front foyer, where much frivolity occurs on weekend nights as various Haitian rum drinks are passed freely and musicians perform.

Yet Tap Tap is changing along with the Beach. It's a change for the better. The kitchen previously suffered from languid pacing and uneven cooking; now, with the maturation of chef Jean L. Chery from Johnson & Wales student to master cook, it really clicks. The menu has been shortened and simplified yet remains full of fascinating things, well executed.

Rolls, soup are good start

You will start with hot rolls. To go with these, order a bowl of pumpkin soup ($4), not a puree but a kind of vegetable chowder, with chunks of calabaza, chayote and yam, flavored with garlic, clove, thyme and scotch bonnet pepper.

Another nicety is a salad of avocado, watercress and mango ($6). This has a bracing mix of flavors, with thinly sliced onion throwing sharp bite against the buttery dullness of the avocado and a tart vinaigrette tying all together. Ours had slightly unripe mango, though.

Four other appetizers can be sampled on the Tap Tap Appetizer Sampler Platter ($12). You get a half-dozen conch fritters with watercress sauce; these were a bit like hush puppies in that they didn't feature much conch, but the watercress sauce, a puree of the peppery green with garlic, olive oil, parsley, thyme and a hint of scotch bonnet, is a fantastic dip. (You can access the recipe and many other Tap Tap standbys at www.tap-tap.com) You also get a half-dozen fried malanga, juicy and hot, served with the same sauce. A conch ceviche is a cool treat. And smoked herring, mixed in oil with onion, pepper and avocado, completes the sampler.

That's a lot of food. But move on. The Haitian cuisine is famous for goat; the current menu has it only stewed ($9), in a sauce made with chunks of tomato and the pear-like chayote. This is wonderfully tender goat, and you get a lot of it, flavored with garlic, thyme, clove and scotch bonnet (the Haitian bouquet garni, as it were). Goat for all. And a big bowl of rice flavored with black mushrooms, to boot.

Shrimp are sauteed in a spicy Creole sauce ($15 for at least a dozen large ones). Ours were properly done, served with white rice and red bean sauce, a bean puree that you spoon on top, a hearty and filling mix with the tangy, light shrimp. The beans get a good jolt from the addition of a fiery hot scotch bonnet slaw, on the table like ketchup at Wendy's.

Whole fish is plenty

Fish of the day was parrotfish ($15), fried whole and served with a mango salsa with tomato and onion. The crispy fish overwhelmed the large plate and profferred, for once with a whole fish dish, enough meat for the work. Salsa has a kick but not a real hot one. It's served with Haitian potato salad -- yam, yuca, white potato and spinach, sauteed in olive oil.

Best entree was the simplest, grilled chicken with carrots, cabbage and that nifty watercress sauce ($9). This is a full breast, skin on, about as juicy and flavorful as you could want. The secret is a marinade of sour orange and scotch bonnet, clove, garlic and thyme (of course).

It's overkill to order dessert right now with all the holiday sweets making the rounds, but blanc mange -- coconut cream pudding, with almond and cream ($4.50) -- is interesting, if only for its uncanny resemblance to a block of Ivory soap. Cut into the bar and get rewarded with a soft, sweet, intensely coconutty match for the strong coffee served here.

Kendall Hamersly can be reached by e-mail at khamersly@herald.com

My family and I have become quite addicted to Chef Jean's culinary wonders. At the occasion of the first meal he
 prepared at my home, there was a lot of skepticism coming from the elders, my
 80 year-old mother and 82 yea-old aunt. They were a bit suspicious of this
 young man preparing our Thanksgiving meal. The questions were endless, does he
 cook traditional Haitian cuisine? Will his dishes be an Americanized version of
 a traditional meal? And so on and on…. They even got the young ones worried.  
 But our first Thanksgiving meal
 prepared by Chef Jean turned out to be an extremely memorable event for the
 family. My daughter still talks about
 the juicy turkey, the stuffing and the potato au gratin. My sister’s favorite
 was the traditional rice with a Chef Jean twist ( he won’t reveal his secret
 ingredient), while my son’s main focus was the ham and the sautéed string beans.
 For me it was everything but more particularly the “eggplant tropicale”, a
 delicious eggplant dish, layered over caramelized sweet plantains and sprinkled
 with a yummy cheese mixture. Hard to explain this odd combination, except to
 say that it was DELICIOUS and much appreciated by Grandpa the vegetarian. Dessert was a sinfully delicious coconut flan.
 Chef Jean has set the standard, and his
 dinners have become a family tradition and my home the most coveted dinner.

 

Jacqueline Ann Vaval
 destination. 

Any question?

Flickr Tags: Chefjean,chefchery,leftovers,fun,cooking,kitchen,love,passion,chefs,moms