Masterchef – the kosher edition fundraiser

HOWARD SACKSTEIN

The creative genius of the Jewish Women’s Benevolent Society was to bring celebrity chef Paulo Santo out of Gimelli’s kitchen and into the kosher environment of the Killarney Country Club.

A packed audience of more than 250 foodies watched maestro chef Santo weave his magical creativity melding together Mediterranean flavours with traditional Jewish cuisine.

In one instance, Santo explained how he had taken his Jewish mother-in-law’s traditional Moroccan chraimeh recipe and combined it with delicious pink Norwegian salmon to create a mouth-watering gastronomic masterpiece.

In another magical moment, Santo took the traditional Judeo-Turkish dish of eggplant flan and combined it with classical elements of Italian melanzane parmigiana to create an exciting culinary dish with an enormous depth of flavour.

His piece de resistance was a home-baked baklava combined with honey syrup, white chocolate cream, honey custard and vanilla poached pears.

Key to Santos’ cooking, is the inclusion of locally grown fresh ingredients and the best quality produce available. All of the audience undertook to cook at least one dish of their new repertoire within the next week.

All money raised from the event went to support the Jewish Women’s Benevolent 55 Club which brings together lonely members of the community twice a week for a meal and entertainment at Sandringham Gardens.

Leigh Brouze, chairman of the JWBS, explained that initially, the event was established to raise money for JWBS 55 to purchase a van to transport people to their events, but a generous supporter saw the advert for the event and single-handedly donated that van to this incredibly worthy cause. 

Paulo Santo’s salmon chraime
Serves 4 

Ingredients
4 x 150g salmon fillets – skin off, pin bones removed

Chraimeh sauce (see below)

Crushed black pepper

1 lemon, zested and juiced

Fresh Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped 

Method
In a medium-sized saucepan (that will fit all the salmon at once), heat the chraimeh sauce over a low heat until simmering. (If too thick adjust with stock/water; it should be the consistency of soup).

Season with black pepper and lemon zest, then add the salmon fillets and shallow poach for 3-4 minutes per side, turning once.

Remove from heat, add fresh parsley and spoon the sauce liberally over the fish to coat. Finish with fresh lemon juice over the fish.

Simply serve with kitke or pita, or even as a sauce for pasta with some Grano Padano parmesan.

Chraime sauce
Ingredients

25ml olive oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 small red chilli, finely chopped

100g Calamata olives, pitted and chopped

½ tsp dried oregano

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp ground cumin

30ml lemon juice

250ml pareve chicken stock

500ml tomato ragu

Fresh basil 

Method

In a large pot, heat olive oil, and sauté garlic, onion, peppers, chilli and olives. Add the oregano, paprika and cumin and cook for a further five minutes.

Add lemon juice and stock to the pan, then allow to boil and reduce by half.

Add tomato ragu, then blitz sauce to a homogenous sauce. Return to the heat and adjust consistency if necessary, with some stock/water. Season with salt and fresh basil to tast