SHOM Online Cooking Class - Meet the chef - Fifita Bichili

ABOUT THIS DISH

With the use of plantain banana and coconut fish, Chef Fifita will give us a brief introduction to Caribbean cuisine.

‘Plantain banana has its origin in South Asia, being known in the Mediterranean since 650 AD. The species arrived in the Canary Islands in the 15th century and from there it was brought to America in 1516.

The banana is typical of Southwest Asia, its cultivation has spread to many regions of Central and South America, as well as subtropical Africa, constituting the base of the diet of many tropical regions. Plantain banana is the fourth most important fruit crop in the world. Latin American and Caribbean countries produce the bulk of the plantain bananas that enter international trade, about 10 million tons, out of the worlds total of 12 million tons.

Northern consumers appreciate it only as a dessert, but it constitutes an essential part of the daily diet for the inhabitants of more than one hundred tropical and subtropical countries’. - Taken from Guía práctica de frutas -

INGREDIENTS

For plantain banana baskets

• 1 green banana
• 150 grams of flank steak 
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 30 grams of chopped onion
• 1 branch of coriander 
• 100 gr of tomato sauce 
• salt and pepper to taste 
• 30 grams of olive oil Vegetable oil

For the steamed fish

• 1 white fish fillet
• 1 can of coconut milk 
• 1 tsp. chilli sauce
• 1 medium potato
• 1/4 pound of pumpkin or yucca or otoe
• salt and pepper to taste

ESSENTIALS TOOLS

Stir frying pan, knives, cutting board,papel towel, spoons, mortar and pestle, steamer, pot

With a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and a thesis in Hotel Human Resource Management, Chef Fifita Bichili has received multiple certifications in the gastronomic field.

She is currently the director of the School of Gastronomy Innovation at the Santa María la Anti- gua University in Panama, in which she also works as a teacher in various subjects related to gas- tronomy. She was awarded the Touche de Blanche award at Xantar 2018, in Ourence, Spain, and is Ambassador of the Cook and Chef Institute for Panama. She has been a speaker at vast culinary seminars, inside and outside of Panama.

Fitita also owns the Restaurante y Parrillada Playa Punta Chame, in Panama, as well as the radio program ‘Tu cocina exitosa’.

Fifita on Instagram: fifitabichili