The great American barbecue
MILLIE: Every year the US Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service promotes the sale of US agricultural products in the Philippines. This year marks the third time The Plaza was tasked to cater their promotional event, dubbed “The Great American Barbecue.”
Held at the residence of US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg, the smell and smoke coming from six barbecue stations filled the air, whetting guests’ appetites as they walked in wearing cowboy hats and kerchiefs.
KARLA: This year was more of a challenge as compared to the last Great American Barbecue. I had to work with eight food suppliers and six beverage suppliers. I was sent over food items and I had to include all of them on the menu. Dane International, importer of US dried fruits and nuts, as well as dehydrated US potatoes, sent over walnuts and almonds. Since Global Beer Exchange was sponsoring US craft beers, I decided to make beer nuts. We served sweet and spicy almonds and Cajun-spiced walnuts, which went well with the beers.
Since ESV International sent over tortillas, aside from using the tortillas for the fajita station, I cut them into pieces and deep-fried them to make tortilla chips. For the dip, I used the Easycook yellow split peas from Ideal Macaroni and Spaghetti Factory and added it into a cream cheese and basil spread. If you shop at the grocery, I’m sure you’re familiar with canned items from Ram Food Products. They sent me canned beans and garbanzos, which immediately gave me the idea to make hummus for an appetizer and use the canned beans as a side dish for the barbecue.
We set up six grill stations for the event. The first one was a make-your-own Cajun chicken fajita station using the tortillas from ESV International, sautéed red and green bell pepper, caramelized onions, sour cream, guacamole, cheese and coleslaw.
The next grill station was the mini cream cheese-burger station. We used a slab of chuck eye roll from ESV International, ground it and stuffed it with cream cheese and grilled it on-site. At the same station, we also served Johnsonville sausages from ESV cooked in a beer bath with butter, red and green bell peppers and onions. It could also be a topping for mash-tinis, which is basically mashed potatoes scooped into a martini glass with condiments you can add on top like bacon bits, chives, sour cream and cheese. The potatoes we used were US dehydrated potatoes from Dane International. They were really easy to use because all you needed to do was add hot water, salt and pepper and you were done.
The third grill station was for seafood kebab, fish, shrimp and squid with onions, red and green bell pepper with lemon butter sauce and grilled corn on the side.
The next two grill stations were for the Cargill Pork Ribs and Beef Rib Eye, both from Alternatives Food Corporation. Chef Pete Geohegan, a chef representative of Cargill, was flown over for the event and cooked the pork ribs and rib eye. He was assisted by our very own grill-master, my uncle, Raymund Reyes. Chef Pete marinated the pork ribs in his special rub, which he agreed to share with our readers, and smoked them for five hours. At the same station were the six kinds of baked beans made of Ram canned beans and added to Easycook black-eye beans, great northern beans, lentils, pinto beans, and red kidney beans. We added more ingredients to level up the flavor, including fresh tomatoes and spices, topping it off with grated cheese and popping it into the oven. The beef rib-eye was marinated overnight with chef Pete’s Steakhouse rub and cooked on the grill.
MILLIE: It is interesting to note that there are over 80 known pure breeds of cattle in the US, and the three primary categories are Bos Taurus Indicus, Bos Taurus Continental and Bos Taurus British, from which the most popular breed is the Angus.
The Spanish introduced cattle production to the US in the 1500s, mainly to Florida, Texas and California. In the 1600s, European settlers brought cattle to the Eastern US areas of New England and Virginia. Cattle production is mainly in Texas, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Wisconsin but occurs in all 50 states.
Cattle are fed computer-controlled, high-quality roughage and feed-grains like corn, milo and soybean for about 100 to 120 days until they reach the desired weight of 500 kilos.
US pork is also a best buy as it undergoes stringent quality-control measures and they have one of the world’s most efficient systems for production, processing and distribution. As users we can rely on consistently high standards and unique taste, tenderness and high nutritional value as the hogs are grain-fed.
The primary production states of US pork are Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and North Carolina. There are predominantly eight breeds, namely Hampshire, Duroc, Berkshire, Yorkshire, Landrace, Poland China, Spotted and Chester White and crossbreeds have become increasingly popular.
KARLA: For dessert, I had to work with Haribo gummy bears and gummy colas and Ghirardelli white chocolate chips from the Composite Enterprise Group. I decided to add the white chocolate chips to our cheesecake, topped off with instant chocolate mousse from Mix Plant, Inc. and gummy bears.
For the next dessert, Mix Plant sent over a chocolate cake mix. I added crushed almonds from Dane International, topped with chocolate mousse and candied almonds and walnuts.
We also served fruit kebabs with chocolate ganache and set up a S’mores station using the Haribo gummies and Ghirardelli white chocolate chips.
MILLIE: I noticed Ambassador Goldberg mingling with the guests while enjoying US craft beers supplied by Global Beer Exchange. We also served Beringer wines from Kathy Santos of Happy Living. My own beverage find for the evening was Ocean Spray cranberry juice from Patrick Tong of Link Import Export, which was served chilled and was so refreshing.
We were lucky there was no heavy downpour that evening, but were prepared as tents were set up with two huge industrial fans to cool the venue.
Chef Pete Geohegan, chef representative from Cargill, grilled the pork ribs and beef rib eye assisted by Raymund Reyes, CFO of The Plaza Inc and grill master.* * *
Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com and karla@swizzlemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook: Food for Thought by Millie & Karla Reyes.
