Four Seasons Bangkok WGF10: Paola Carosella

Paola Carosella giving a cooking demonstration at the Four Seasons Bangkok's World Gourmet Festival Yesterday, Argentinean chef Paola Carosella, of São Paulo's Arturito, held a cooking demonstration as part of the Four Seasons Bangkok's World Gourmet Festival.

Carosella's love for the food of her native South America is palpable, and she showed us how to make three dishes, all based around relatively common ingredients and representative of South American flavours, including a very Argentinean roast beef with chimichurri, an orange-scented dulche de leche flan, and a deliciously tart Peruvian ceviche:

Paola Carosella's ceviche, Four Seasons Bangkok's World Gourmet Festival Paola Carosella's ceviche

Carosella spent a year traveling and eating in Peru, and explained that her ceviche recipe is the result of this experience and is a classic version of the dish. She explained that ceviche can be made with whatever seafood is available, shrimp, octopus or even sea urchin, with the caveat being that it must be very fresh. She combines her ceviche with a small amount of leche de tigre, literally "tiger's milk," a blended ceviche that, in Peru, is typically served in shot glasses, sometimes supplemented with pisco, a type of local grappa. Carosella added that in Peru, ceviche is also often served with some sort of crispy side dish, in this case, sweet potatoes fried until golden.

Paola Carosella's Ceviche

For the avocado cream: 2 fresh avocados 1 lime sea salt

For the sweet potatoes: 1 kg sweet potatoes vegetable oil

For the leche de tigre: 100g white fish 200ml water sea salt 15 g fresh chilies 50 g white onion 2 garlic cloves lime juice

For the ceviche: 1 kg extremely fresh white fish 1 kg limes 1 kg red onions 100 g sea salt 200 g fresh chilies 200 g fresh cilantro/coriander 100 g garlic

For the avocado cream Put the avocados in a blender along with juice of one lime and a pinch of salt. Puree and keep refrigerated.

For the sweet potatoes Boil the sweet potatoes skin-on in salted water until tender. Allow to cool, cut into slices and fry until golden and crispy. Keep warm.

For the leche de tigre Combine all ingredients in a blender for a few minutes. Strain and keep refrigerated.

For the ceviche Peel and cut onions into very thin slices. Clean and separate cilantro/coriander leaves and chop. Cut fish into thin slices or cubes. In a glass bowl, season fish with sea salt and the juice of the limes, add the leche de tigre, chilies, onion and cilantro/coriander. Mix well and keep refrigerated until serving.

To serve, spoon a little of the avocado cream in each plate. Put a slice of sweet potato on the side and add ceviche and juices. Serve immediately.

Paola will be hosting dinner at the Four Seasons Bangkok tonight and tomorrow, October 7 & 8. Many of the events are already sold out, so if you’re in Bangkok and interested, act fast. Call the Four Seasons at +66 (0) 2 126 8866, or email the hotel at wgf.bangkok@fourseasons.com.