See below for recipe
Colocasia Rose Delicacy by EVI CHIOTI
Executive Chef Evi Chioti is an active member of the Cyprus Chefs Association and an accomplished advocate for sustainable gastronomy. From her early days in a family of hospitality professionals to becoming the first woman awarded the Ambassadors of Taste for the Global Gastronomy® Gold Medal, Evi has built a remarkable career as a chef and educator. Today, she is co-owner of the restaurant La Maison Fleurie in Cyprus, a Jury Member with the International Taste Institute, and a member of the Academie Culinaire de France. Her leadership has helped develop innovative educational programs for chefs, secure government support for culinary training, and promote sustainable food practices.
In 2024, Evi earned 2nd place with her recipe Colocasia Rose Delicacy at the LIFE Climate Smart Chefs Awards in the category of “Best Sustainable Recipe.”
“I prepared a plate that was a very low carbon recipe and also nice tasting, nice presentation…
I used a vegetable that we have in Cyprus, it’s a simple vegetable, not expensive and very nutritional. It was cooked a bit diff than the traditional way, presented different, I used the juices I used for cooking for the sauces. I used cherries and other ingredients that were seasonal at the time to create the sauce, decorations for the plate.”– Evi Chioti
To hear more from Evi, tune in to episode 129 of Worldchefs podcast, World on a Plate.
Discover Evi’s sustainable recipe below!
Colocasia – Sustainable Recipe
BY EVI CHIOTI
Ingredients
- 847155 – Taro, raw.. – GB23, 500g
- Celery, raw.. – GB23, 120g 2 x full length stick
- Onions, raw.. – GB23, 150g 1 x medium
- Tomato puree.. – GB23, 17g 1 x tablespoon
- Oil, olive.. – GB23, 4.2g 1 x teaspoon
- Water, tap, drinking.. – N, 200g 1 x Average glass
- Coriander seeds.. – GB23, 2g 1 x teaspoon
- Sea Salt.. – N, 5g 1 x level teaspoon
- Pepper, black.. – GB23, 0.1g 1 x average sprinkle
- Wine, red.. – GB23, 125g 1 x small bottle/glass
- Onions, red, raw.. – N, 118g 1 x small onion
- Water, tap, drinking.. – N, 100g ½ x Average glass
- Wine vinegar.. – N, 200g 17 ½ x tablespoon
- Sugar, Demerara.. – GB23, 5g 1 x teaspoon
- Sea Salt.. – N, 2g 2 x 1g
- Pepper, black.. – GB23, 1g 1 x 1g
- Cloves, dried.. – N, 2g 0.01 x 1 cup
- Oil, vegetable, average.. – GB23, 12.6g 1 x tablespoon
- Seaweed, agar, dried.. 10g
- Cherries, flesh and skin, raw, weighed with stones.. – GB23, 200g 2 ⅔ x Average Portion
- Wine vinegar.. – N, 30g 6 x Average Portion
- Onions, red, raw.. – N, 118g 1 x small onion
- Sea Salt.. – N, 2g 2 x 1g
- Sugar, Demerara.. – GB23, 5g 1 x teaspoon
- Seaweed, agar, dried.. 10g
Percentages: Taros (30.4%), Water (18.3%), Red Onions (14.4%), Wine Vinegar (14%) (Sulphites), Cherries, Flesh And Skin, Raw, Weighed With Stones (12.2%), Onions (9.1%), Red Wine (7.6%)
Instructions
- Remove the skin from the taro (Colocasia), and cut lengthwise in slices (1 cm thick).
- Cook in a casserole with olive oil on high heat, add salt, pepper, and coriander. Remove when they get a golden color.
- Add in the casserole celery and onion, cook them for five minutes, and add the taro slices on top.
- Mix the tomato puree with red wine, water, and seasonings, and add to the casserole.
- Low the heat, cover, and cook for about one hour.
- When the taro is cooked, form the slices one above the other into a terrine mold and leave to cool overnight in the fridge. Use casserole juices as a liquid cooking for other dishes.
making the rose pearls
- To make the rose pearls you must use the juice of pickled onions.
- Slice red onion and put in a jar.
- Boil water, vinegar, salt, sugar, cloves and pepper.
- When boiled for 5 min add to the jar with onions and leave for a night. This is a preparation that needs to be done the day before.
- In another small jar freeze the vegetable oil.
- Next day boil 100 ml of pickled onion juice with 10 gr, agar-agar powder. Boil for two min and remove from heat.
- Leave it to cool for five min.
- Transfer the liquid into a squeeze bottle and drizzle it slowly into the chilled oil.
- Strain and rinse the spheres in cold water. Spheres can be preserved in pickled onion juice for a long time to use for different preparations.
Cherry and red onions chutney
- For the cherry and red onions chutney, simmer cherries, onions, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and geranium leaves (for rose aroma).
- Use the chutney to accompany the taro terrine and prepare some cherry spheres and deco transparent film , according to the technique explained above for the rose pearls.
Notes concerning ingredient reuse and recipe sustainability:
Taro is cooked with vegetable juices in a covered cooking pot, a slow cooking method. This allows the vegetables to become tender and delicious, mixing flavors together and using a minimum of water. Cooking juices can be used as a cooking liquid for other preparations and in this case, I used this liquid to cook vegetable stuffing for my another dish. Techniques used for pickled onions and cherry chutney that are used in the recipe are energy-saving preservation methods, as they can preserve content out of the fridge. In addition, decorations and pearls are made of the juices of onions and cherries. All ingredients are available fresh in small local markets from individual producers.
For more recipes, visit www.worldchefs.org/news.
