Add Some Friendly Competition to Your Vacay this Summer with a Cook Off at Aruba Marriott Resort
Calling all master chefs! Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino invites families and/or groups of friends to add a dash of friendly competition to their vacation by putting on their cooking aprons – literally – and work together in teams to create one of the One Happy Island’s most signature dishes, Keshi Yena. The cook off takes place at La Vista, and begins with one of the resort’s head chefs reviewing the traditional Keshi Yena dish, which is made from a Gouda rind and stuffed to the brim with a variety of meats, veggies, spices and sauces. The teams will then work together to create their own signature Keshi Yena dish by mixing and matching the stuffing and sauces. The cook off concludes with the chef tasting each team’s dish and selecting a winner, who in return receives a complimentary breakfast for two. Guests are able to keep their cooking aprons as take-home gifts, along with a recipe card to recreate the island’s famed dish back home. For more information, visit www.arubamarriott.com.
Here is the recipe in case you want to practice at home before the competition or you just want to try this delicious dish at home with friends.
Keshi Yena
Serves 10-12
For the chicken filling, rub with the juice of several limes:
- chicken breast
Season the breasts and thighs with:
- Salt and pepper
- Poultry seasoning
- Shallots
- Garlic
- Minced onion
Let them stand for several hours. Then either arrange the pieces in a shallow baking dish, and after browning the chicken under the broiler, bake it for one hour at 350°, deboning it when cool enough to handle, or choose this more frugal method of preparation.
Brown the chicken in three tablespoons butter, and then place it in a heavy kettle with:
- 4 quarts water
- 2 tsp. salt
- 12 peppercorns
- 1 or 2 onions
- 1 celery stalk with leaves
- bay leaf, bruised
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for twenty minutes, or just until chicken is tender. Strain and reserve the broth, discarding the vegetables Debone the chicken and set aside.
After the chicken has been prepared by one of the above methods, sautéed in two tablespoons butter or olive oil :
- 3 cups Tomatoes diced
- 3 cups Onion diced
- 3 Cups Bell Pepper Diced
- 3oz Chopped Garlic
Add and stir in well:
- 5oz Cocktail Onions
- 5oz Green Olives
- 4oz Raisin
- 3oz Cashew Nut
- 1 Tbs. parsley, minced, or a few drops Tabasco sauce
- 12oz Catchup
- Salt and pepper to taste
Simmer until the tomatoes are reduced, about twenty or thirty minutes. Remove from the fire and permit mixture to cool. If keshi yena is to be baked, preheat oven. Add rest of ingredients, stir well and place in 13 x 9 x 2 baking pan. Top with sliced cheese.
*** 10 oz Dutch Gouda, sliced
Bake covered loosely with tin foil, 350 degrees for about 60 minutes.50°, if it is to be steamed, begin heating water in the bottom of a double boiler.
Bon Provecho!
