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Miso ginger salad
For this salad at Sado, a sushi-focused restaurant that chef Nick Bognar opened in the St. Louis neighborhood called The Hill in late March, the chef starts this salad with Japanese oshinko-style quick-pickled cucumbers. He also slowly cooks baby carrots in mirin to make them soft and sweet. He blanches snap peas and coats them with sugar. He also adds steamed, shelled edamame. He places all of those vegetables over a purée of edamame and jalapeño peppers and sprinkles them with a house-made furikake blend of seaweed, roasted pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds. It’s topped with fried lotus root chips and a classic miso-ginger dressing.
“It’s a cornucopia of flavors and textures,” Bognar said. “It’s the perfect vehicle to highlight the best of our seasonal vegetables.”
Price: $12
Lobster carbonara
At Stiltsville Fish Bar in Miami, executive chefs Jeff McInnis and Janine Booth cook a 2-pound lobster in a court-bouillon for around seven minutes. Then they cut it in half and soak it in an herb butter containing lemon zest, garlic, parsley, chives, marjoram, black pepper, and toasted fennel seed and then finish cooking it by roasting it in the oven.
They blanch fresh pasta and toss it in a pan with crispy pancetta, baby heirloom tomatoes, spring peas, “a ton of Parmesan” cheese, the herb butter, and some lobster meat. Then they add egg yolks and a little pasta water and quickly mix it all together in the pan to create a creamy sauce.
To serve it they put the roasted lobster in a bowl and top it with the pasta, crunchy Parmesan bread crumbs, and basil.
Price: $97
Amalthea’s Last Regret
Bijan Ghiai, beverage manager of Urban Hill in Salt Lake City, said this drink reminds him of his mother’s Persian home cooking.
It’s made by combining ¾ ounce of Monopalowa vodka from Austria with ½ ounce of strained lemon juice, ¼ ounce each of St.-Germain elderflower liqueur and a blackberry-chamomile shrub, and two dashes of Scrappy’s black lemon bitters. That’s all poured into a Champagne flute. Then crushed ice is added followed by Adami Bosco di Gica Prosecco. It’s garnished with local thyme and edible dianthus flowers.
Price: $17
At Osteria Lupo, which the team behind Costera restaurant opened in New Orleans earlier this month, chef and owner Brian Burns sears porcini, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms in a pan with garlic, shallots, thyme, oregano, chile flakes and some brandy. Once the shallots start to soften he adds white wine and reduces it until its nearly dry. Then he adds chicken stock, reduces it by half and finishes it with some cream.
He boils campanelle, a bell-shaped pasta with fluted edges well suited to holding chunky sauces, until it’s slightly more firm than al dente, and then adds it to the pan with the mushroom ragù, cooking it over very low heat for just a couple of minutes. Then he squeezes half a lemon onto it, tops it with Parmesan cheese, and serves it.
Price: $21
Mushroom ceviche
At Ocean Social by Tristen Epps, a restaurant at the Eden Roc Miami Beach Hotel, where Epps is executive chef, Epps uses local king trumpet mushrooms from Marvelous Mushroom. He said he chose the king trumpets for their texture and ability to take on flavor.
He grills the mushrooms over an open flame so they take on some smoky flavor. Then he cools them and cooks them in sous vide with a mixture of tamari and roasted garlic oil for around an hour. “This is the beauty of these mushrooms,” he said. “They still keep the texture and become savory and tender with an umami jolt.”
He slices them and plates them with celery, chile, onion, and cilantro.
He makes a leche de tigre, or ceviche sauce, by blending almonds with mineral water, garlic, salt, extra virgin olive oil, and vinegar. He adds that to the other items and serves it.
Epps said he didn’t intend to make the dish completely meat and dairy free; it just worked out that way based on using the best ingredients.
Price: $20
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