The Paper Cooking Challenge

At first glance, it seems like this is about the Tomatilla's Paper Chef challenge. There are similarities in some respect, however this article is about the group of unexpected diners who for diet, medical reasons, social and/or religious conscience require a vegan, vegetarian or other meals which are not already on the menu.

The Vegan Challenge deals with meals for people wanting to abstain from animal products, including eggs and milk, and allergen such as gluten. Here, the Paper Cooking challenge deals with the other group of vegan or vegetarians who normally eat meat, eggs and milk, but their conscience places restrictions on type and parts of food, handling, preparation, slaughtering, and combination of foods such as for halal or kosher requirements.

For some, vegan or vegetarian meals are acceptable, but for others, incorrect handling and contact of food with existing cooking utensil, cutlery or crockery are objectional. The approach is to minimise handling of food during preparation, and to use products clearly showing halal or kosher stamps, in conjunction with disposable or new cutlery and cooking utensils (for example new chopsticks). For best practice, cook en papillote using baking paper, where you can practice origami for presenting the food on paper lined or disposble dinnerware. The diner can open the paper parcels themselves to enjoy the aroma. Other means of cooking include grilling on foil lined trays or similarly lined BBQ, use of skewers, steaming and using banana leaves. Microwave cooking may be acceptable.

To illustrate the versatility of paper cooking, the excess ingredients from Paper Chef #8 are used, although it is not wise to include dairy products when catering special needs diners.

The reserved pureed spinach and juice together with the gingered salsa dressing is converted to a soup with yoghurt and toasted tofu croutons for the starter course. The soup is heated in the oven and served in a paper lined soup bowl. For main course, tomato, spinach and olive pizza or lasagna is offered together with the salsa in the Paper Chef #8 challenge and the encore. The meal is cooked in paper trays made by stapling the corners of baking paper. The paper trays are held in a ceramic baking dish. The dessert course is baked banana with yoghurt, sweet preserved olives and a sprinkle of toasted tofu croutons.



For the pizza, layer spinach, olives, tomato and low fat yoghut on lavash bread and sprinkle with some cheese. Cook in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes.



For lasagna, add more layers of lavash bread, top with yoghurt and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes in a moderate oven to heat through.



This Paper Cooking challenge is similar to the Paper Chef challenge in that there are instances where the desperate diner will provide the "secret ingredients" and some very rudimentary cooking utensil, without notice, and with expection of a top class meal cooked on foil or paper-lined pans. So it's best to be prepared, instead of just throwing a quick salad together and expecting the diner to feel like a rabbit while everyone else sits down to a hot cooked dinner.