How I went from Jamaica to Mexico, but ended up in LA.

I know, I know, I did Jerk Chicken last week. But It was soooo good, I had to revisit it again, but this time with a twist.

Being born and raised in So Cal, I always took our Mexican Food scene for granted. Growing up, as I did, in the San Gabriel Valley, one could argue, that our food was amongst the best in the LA Basin. It wasn't until I traveled out of state, and even out of the country that I came to realize how amazing our food really is. Now, I've had delicious street tacos in Tijuana, amazing lobster in Puerto Nuevo, and Ensenada fish tacos, forget about it. During a recent visit to Valle De Guadalupe, Mexico's wine growing region, I came across some Nuevo Latino Cuisine that was absolutely mind-blowing. But for straight up, consistent, street tacos, there is nothing like So Cal (I would even argue that LA beats San Diego, but that's a story for another time).

My cooking style is heavily influenced by seasonal ingredients, local availability, as well as the myriad of food cultures that I am exposed to living in this great metropolis. I once had a conversation with Doug E. Fresh about the best Jamaican food in Los Angeles after a producer mentioned that I dabbled a bit.

Roy Choi combined Korean food, with Taco Trucks, and created the Kogi empire which helped kick-start, the gourmet food truck scene. Los Angeles, since the early days of Wolfgang Puck, is in my mind the epicenter of fusion cuisine. So I thought it fitting that I combine a couple of my favorite foods for tonights meal.

I started my chicken the same way as the last time, by marinating the chicken in my spice mix, lemon juice, and some Jamaican seasoning salt. Having planned on making this meal last night, I started early evening, yesterday. Upon realizing that I was not going to be able to complete it, I simply cooked the chicken under the broiler, and let it rest in the fridge.

For the beans, I sautéed garlic, green onions, and red and green jalapenos to which I added black beans, salt and pepper and let it simmer.

The cilantro lime rice was equally simple. Lime zest, the juice of two limes, and cilantro, was added to rice, kosher salt, and coconut oil.

The salsa took a little bit of doing, I cut some farmer's market tomatoes (they looked like Early Girls, and were wonderfully plump), onion, cilantro, mango, one habenero chile, and some lime juice. I let that sit for a while, so the flavors could marry, then on to the tacos.

As the meat was already cooked, the tacos were pretty straight forward. Reheating the chopped meat, along with some fresh onion, cilantro, and Boston Bay style Jerk Sauce. Then added the heated mixture to two warmed corn tortillas per taco (store bought, as I didn't have the energy to make them myself), that were standing by.

To finish the meal, and bring it full circle,  I fried  ripe plantains in coconut oil; to both give a break from the spices, and serve as a vitamin rich treat. Everything was laid out on paper plates, well, because they were street tacos.

Jerk Chicken Street Tacos with Mango Habenero Salsa, with Spicy Black Beans, Cilantro Lime Rice, and Fried Plantains. Completed at 3:35 (Got a late start)

the Midnight Chef

Remembering Jamaica

LA played a trick on me this week. I thought Fall Weather was coming, and today, in parts of LA, the temps hit the triple digits (WHAT!). So I thought, as I often do, hot weather, requires spicy food. It is said that the spicy food, has a cooling effect on your body temperature. Perhaps there is something to that, as some of the warmest and most tropical places, have a very spicy culinary tradition. But I digress. When I think tropical, my mind often drifts to the Caribbean. So, as I continue to explore Africa, and the Diaspora, I have to revisit one of my personal favorites, Jerk Chicken.

When I was last in Jamaica, I made a point to try Jerk Chicken from every roadside pop-up I could find, as well as the hotel and "higher end" establishments. But, my favorite by far, was a restaurant suggested by our driver that was called Bourbon Beach.

It was an open-air restaurant, right on the beach, with a wood fire grill cooking up chicken. I watched as a brother with Dread-Locs, went back and forth from the kitchen, to the blender at the bar, to get his jerk sauce just right. It was like he was saying, "nah, that's not hot enough, let me add some more fire to it". When he finally landed on the right combination, and our meals were plated, every one of us were taken out by the sheer heat of the sauce, but none of us could stop eating it, it was just too flavorful. We tried to temper it with the "festival" dumpling, but nothing could abate the torture, and delight we were collectively feeling on our tongues.

Fast forward to the present, and each time I make Jerk Chicken, I try to emulate that sauce. I mix my own spices, and at one point even grew Scotch Bonnet Peppers, all to come close to what I experienced that night in Jamaica.

For this particular dish, I used my home made Jerk Spice Blend, a Caribbean Calypso Spice Blend I purchased in Milwaukee from The Spice House, and a Jamaican Seasoning Salt I brought back with me from my last trip to the Island. I put the chicken and the spices in a ziploc bag, and added some lemon juice, and the juice of a sweet lime to create a marinade. I mixed it in the bag, and let that sit in the fridge for about three hours while I was slicing the fruit and vegetables for the slaw.

The slaw took up the most time, and even though I used a food processor for uniform cuts, the amount of veg going into it, definitely made it a dish you would not want to make if you were in a hurry. I used, Green Cabbage, Red Cabbage, Carrots, Jicama, Sweet Onions, and Mangoes for the base, Then made a dressing with more of the Jamaican Seasoning Salt, Grainy Mustard, Sriracha Sauce, Honey, Greek Yogurt, and some Mayo. Tossed the salad with the dressing, and then put that into the fridge for the flavors to marry. Next Up, a Festival Waffle.

I have had my share of Festival, sometimes sweet, but more often savory. I imagined this as a sweeter waffle, thinking along the lines of a dessert to accompany sweet plantains, and a sorbet. As festival is typically a rather thick biscuit like batter, I had to thin the waffle out quite a bit with more than double the usual amount of Almond/Coconut milk. I also added some Cinnamon and significantly more Sugar than normal, in addition to the Nutmeg, as my plan was for a dessert waffle. Once "baked" in the waffle iron, I flash fried the waffle in a hot pan with oil, to give me the fried exterior texture festival is known for. I topped it with Fried Plantains, and a Mango Chile Sorbet, dusted it with Powdered Sugar, and that is how it was presented.

The last portion of the meal, and probably the most important was the Jerk Chicken. I intentionally left it in the fridge for as long as I could so that the spices could have their way with it. But, I could not have done an overnight marinade, as the acid in the lemon and lime juices would have started to cook the chicken, and created off flavors. The chicken was removed from the fridge after about three hours and placed under a low broiler. I live in a loft downtown, and I don't have a balcony connected to my unit. Maybe one day I will move up to the penthouse so I can cook as I please, but until then, I have a broiler, and that is an acceptable substitute. I cooked it under the broiler, turning once, and made a sauce for it from a pre-made Boston Bay style jerk sauce, a roux for thickening, and some chicken broth. Effectively a jerk gravy, but hey, it works. It was all plated in a stacked fashion, as is my tradition, and served as such.

Start to finish, the meal took around five hours to complete. Again, not a quick meal by any stretch. But there is a zen-like quality to slow cooking for me; a catharsis to ease my woes so to speak. I love cooking, and I love having this new forum to share it with everyone as well. So if you keep reading, I'll keep sharing. Meal completed around 3:30 a.m.

the Midnight Chef.

Falling In Love With Fall - Comfort Food Part I

I woke up to the wonderful sounds of rainfall in the city. For anyone that has been following the situation here in California, you know there is an historic drought plaguing the state. Rain is not only needed, but welcome at this point. It is also a pleasant change from the blistering heat we were experiencing just a couple of weeks ago. Autumn has truly come to Los Angeles (at least for today).

One of my favorite things about the changing seasons, is the change in the culinary landscape. Though California is blessed with an extended growing season due to our mild winters and agriculture friendly climate, the coming of cooler weather, allows for more hearty dishes, and foods that would generally be less comfortable to cook and eat during the dog days of summer.

Living in Downtown LA gives me access to some amazing artisan bakeries and specialty shops, but sometimes, its just more fun to exercise your DIY muscle, and on a wonderful rainy weekend, making baguettes just seemed like fun.

I love a freshly baked loaf, and have been devouring about a baguette a week from Clark Street Bread, thanks to my buddies at Vagabond Cheese. Clark Street supplies the bread for some of Los Angeles' most popular restaurants, and though it took a while for me to warm up to it, I am now a fan. But tonight, I wanted to try my hand at a "pre-ferment" technique called "poolish". It is done using minimal amounts of yeast, with equal amounts by weight of water and flour, and allowing the yeast to ferment for 12-14 hours. This increases the flavor complexity of the dough, as well as its extensibility, or ability to to be stretched.

So I brought out my stand mixer, with the dough hooks (I never get to use the dough hooks) and thus began my quest to make artisanal quality bread at home. Not having very exciting flour, nor very fancy yeast was not going to be a deterrent, as I like using what I have on hand at any given time to make meals. And, after having let my poolish ferment for 14 hours, I started my dough. The recipe was pretty straight forward, flour, water, yeast, and salt, but I was using yeast that I was unsure about, so I wanted to give it a little boost. I did so by adding about a half tablespoon of honey to the mixer with my poolish and water. It was kneaded, then left to proof for about 2 hours. Then punched, formed, and left to rise for one final hour as I was trying to give the yeast every opportunity I could to influence the flavor of the finished bread. During the last hour, I preheated the oven to 450 F, moved my bread stone to the center rack, then put a cast iron pan on the lower rack with water in it, to create steam. After an hour had passed, I transferred the bread from its perch atop the parchment on my counter top, to the oven, admittedly with some difficulty, hence the unique shape of the final loaves (all I'm going to say is paper+hot oven=fire).

To accompany my bread, I fired up the cast iron dutch oven, sautéed some carrots, leeks, and garlic, with a mix of fresh and dried herbs and spices to create the base for my soup. To that, I added some chicken breast pieces, rice, "better than bullion" chicken stock, and water. For additional color I added some turmeric, and brought everything to a boil.

I've got to say, for my first time trying a pre-fermentation technique using a poolish, I am extremely impressed. Though Bread Lounge, and Clark Street won't be losing any sleep over my bread creations stealing their shine, I have proven, at least to myself, that with a little time, information, and creativity, the home chef can achieve artisanal flavor with readily accessible ingredients.

Chicken and Rice Soup with Vegetables and Poolish Baguettes finshed just before midnight.

the Midnight Chef

Inaugural Post - African Fusion

Potato Wrapped Tilapia and Blistered Okra.

When I was younger, the nicest restaurant in my hometown was connected to the Industry Hills Sheraton Hotel. The restaurant was dark and moody, and the wait staff wore top coats and tails. When I was so inclined, I would take young ladies there, in an attempt to woo them. My favorite dish there, by far, was the Potato Wrapped Cod. It was so simple and decadent, I was spellbound. But, when the restaurant changed direction for a more modern, fusion cuisine, it was removed from the menu, and I hadn't found its equal sense.

This week, I have been inspired by the food of Africa; the flavors, the preparations, and the spices have fueled my creativity for the past couple of weeks. But, in thinking about a new dish, I remembered how much I used to love the Potato-Wrapped Cod from the Sheraton, and wanted to try and bring back some of that magic. So what I came up with was a fusion of sorts. Think African spices, meet old world technique, meet new world ingredients.

I chose Tilapia for this recipe because of its relatively mild flavor, and ability to work well under the heavy starch and spice load. The potatoes were cut on a mandoline, and flavored with an infused garlic/chili oil brushed on all sides to prevent browning. The potatoes were laid out in an overlapping fashion akin to fish scales, and the fish lightly seasoned and sealed within. The entire package was then allowed to rest for about an hour to assure the pocket would not unravel during cooking.

I've often said one of my favorite things about living in Los Angeles, is the sheer amount of food and ingredients accessible on any given day, and at my farmers market this week were fresh heirloom tomatoes, and okra. So while the fish was resting in the fridge, I blanched and peeled tomatoes for a tomato paste that would form the base of the braising liquid for the okra. Once combined the okra was placed into the waiting oven, and it was time to cook the fish.

The fish was placed into a non-stick pan, drizzled with some of the reserved infused oil, and browned on both sides. Since the chosen fish was a thin tilapia filet, it cooked quickly along with the potatoes.

Not being content to leave well enough alone, I remembered I had also purchased some passion fruit from the farmers market this week, and decided to make a sweet reduction to complement the spicy edge of the fish. Passion fruit, sugar, and a little chili infused vodka were simmered and poured over the top of the bias cut, potato wrapped fish, just prior to presentation.

All told, a fun trip down memory lane, and a lovely weeknight meal, finished around 2:15 am, from the midnight chef.

Welcome

After much prodding and encouragement, I have finally given in to posting a food blog. I am hoping it will be a source of inspiration, and humor for all who choose to read it. 

Since most of the recipes are created on the fly, I tend not to have exact measurements for ingredients, but as I base my cooking on taste and feel, its always changing. I will always try to give as much detail as I can without boring those not interested in recreating the dishes, as well as featuring some of my sources of inspiration.

So come along for the ride, it should be fun. I hope this can be dynamic, and interactive for all of us. I welcome your comments, and look forward to hearing from you soon.

The Midnight Chef