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Tahini Roasted Cauliflower
Carter Vaughn, executive chef of Saints + Council in Atlanta, says that pan basting, also sometimes called pan roasting, which involves cooking something in a pan while basting it with fat, has an interesting effect on brassicas such as cauliflower, because if you do it right, “its sugars caramelize and it produces the texture of properly cooked chicken or fish.”
For this dish, Vaughn coats cauliflower in potato starch and tahini, pan bastes it in oil and butter and plates it over a smear of mint yogurt. It’s seasoned with cumin and topped with pomegranate seeds, grapes and baby kale and finished with more tahini, the spicy and herbaceous Yemeni-Israeli condiment skhug, and olive oil.
Price: $14
Beef tartare in bone marrow
This dish at Ilili in Washington, D.C., which opened in October, is inspired by kibbeh nayyeh, a Lebanese dish of spiced raw beef, but the flavors are more of a French-Middle Eastern mashup and the presentation is executive chef and owner Philippe Massoud’s own idea to create an eye-catching conversation starter.
Massoud brines beef marrow bones overnight in salt water, and then roasts them with salt and pepper.
Separately, he chops halal beef and seasons it with a vinaigrette of Dijon mustard, sumac, house pickles, salt, parsley and chives.
He scoops the beef over the bone marrow and garnishes it with pomegranate seeds.
Price: $18
Andrés & Cooper
This drink at Pigtail by José Andrés, a cocktail bar underneath the Chicago location of his tapas concept Jaleo, is a collaboration between Andrés himself and Ron Cooper, founder of the mezcal company Del Maguey, although the drink itself was created by Miguel Lancha, who holds the title of “cocktail innovator” at Andrés’ ThinkFoodGroup of restaurants.
It starts with ¾ ounce of Del Maguey Ibérico Mezcal, which is made by hanging a leg of Ibérico ham inside the still during the third distillation of the spirit — that’s a variation of the process for making pechuga mezcal, which involves hanging a raw chicken breast in the still. Lancha said the mezcal was an idea proposed by Andrés when he visited Cooper in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Next comes ¾ ounce of Yzaguirre 1884 Gran Reserva sweet vermouth from Reus in Spain, an area in Catalonia known for its vermouth.
Those are both added to a mixing glass with ice along with ¾ ounce of Hidalgo Napoleón amontillado sherry, ½ ounce of Cynar and a pinch of kosher salt.
That’s stirred together for around 30 spins and then strained into a rocks glass. A 2-by-2-inch ice cube is added, and the drink is garnished with a cocktail pick skewering two Kalamata olives and three slices of Ibérico ham. It’s finished with a squeeze of orange zest.
“It’s a very warm, kind of savory take on a Mezcal Negroni — if you will,” Lancha said.
Price: $35
Smoked Oyster and Clam Etouffée
At Jargon in Asheville, N.C., executive chef Steven Goff cures wahoo belly for two to four hours in a 60-to-40 salt-to-brown sugar blend mixed with coriander, black pepper, mustard seed, garlic and thyme. Then he hangs it for at least 24 hours to dry, and then smokes it for one to two hours at 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
He takes the wahoo bones and smokes them, too, and then cooks them in water and reduces that to a demiglace. He pours that over sautéed Creole “trinity” of onions, bell peppers and celery, adds a sachet of thyme, scallions, parsley and celery leaves, and then deglazes the pan with dry sherry. He then adds butter and cooks clams and oysters in that.
He serves that over freshly milled Tuxpeno grits from Farm and Sparrow in Mars Hill, N.C., and tops it with cubes of the smoked wahoo, pork rinds made from hogs from Colfax Creek Farms in Bostic, N.C., and more scallions, parsley and celery leaves.
Price: $18
Isebi Nigiri
For this dish at Indo in St. Louis, chef-owner Nick Bognar poaches lobster in butter and then coats it in a blend of sugar, mirin and white miso. He places it over sushi rice and briefly torches it to bring out the flavors in the glaze.
Price: $18
