Rio Mar, for me, represents my life and experiences on a plate. Every dish on the menu has a connection to a past experience in my life. Be it the Panamanian Style Ceviche I grew up eating or the baked oysters RioMar which I draw from early family dinners at the legendary Mosca’s: eating baked oysters Mosca’s style and then injecting the cultural contributions of my dual cultures.”

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Louisiana Seafood Update

Louisiana Black Drum & Blue Crab

Black Drum with Blue Crab Relish, Louisiana Jasmine Rice,

Crispy Pork Belly, Brown Butter and Pecans

Yield 8 Servings

For the Pork Belly:

.5 lb Pork Belly (preferably small square block, equal parts meat & fat)

2 T Kosher Salt

1 T Sugar

1 t Black Pepper

1 t Garlic (rasped or minced)

pinch Clove (ground)

Combine all ingredients except the pork into a curing salt. Rub pork liberally with the curing salt. Place it in a ziploc bag and let cure in refrigerator overnight. Rinse well before using. If planning a day ahead is not an option, substitute thickly sliced bacon.

For the Jasmine Rice:

3 C Louisiana Jasmine/Red Rice Blend

4.5 C Water

.5 lb Pork Belly (cured overnight – see above)

1 ea Med. Red Onion (minced)

3 T Garlic (thinly sliced)

1 ea Red & Green Bell Pepper (small dice)

3 T Parsley (chopped)

2T White Wine

1.5 C Farmer’s Market fresh Beans or Peas (omit if not available)

Pinch Crushed Chili Flake

Pinch Fennel seed (ground)

Salt & Pepper

Slice Pork Belly into 1/4″x1/4″x1″ pieces. Render pork belly in 1 gal. pot, draining fat occasionally. Add vegetables, spices, & beans or peas. Saute in small amount of rendered fat. Add wine & reduce. Add water & bring to a boil. Add rice & parsley. Simmer 25 minutes. Let stand, covered for 10 minutes. Season to taste. Rendered Pork should account for most of the salinity

For the Crab Relish:

1 lb Louisiana Jumbo Lump Crab

1.5 C Lousiana Pecans (chopped & toasted)

2 Pears (sliced into thin slivers)

1 Fennel Bulb (shaved)

2 T Shallots (minced)

2 T Fresh Basil & Parsley

2 Oranges (zest from)

1 pinch Coriander (ground)

1T Steen’s Cane Vinegar

2 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Mix all ingredients. Season to taste.

For the Black Drum:

4 lb Black Drum filets (skinned, cleaned of bloodline, and portioned to 8 seven oz. pieces)

Salt & Pepper

6 T Peanut Oil

Using a large saute pan, cook the fillets 2-3 at a time. Season them on both sides with salt and a small amount of pepper. Wait until the pan is very hot. Add the oil and lay the fillets side by side, presentation side down first. Allow the fillets to sear at high heat without moving them until the edges are noticeably browned. At this point, flip them over and reduce heat by half to allow the fillets to cook through. Depending upon the thickness of the fillet, this could take 3 to 6 minutes.

For the Brown Butter Sauce:

2 Oranges (juiced)

1 Lemon (juiced)

1 lb Smith Creamery Butter

1 T Garlic (thinly sliced)

1 T Shallot (minced)

1 C Arugula (tightly packed)

2 T Pine Nuts (toasted)

2T Fresh Basil (chiffonade)

Pinch Nutmeg (ground)

Salt & Pepper

Brown butter in saute pan over 3/4 heat, gently swirling to help the milk solids in the butter brown evenly. Combine all other ingredients in a blender. Slowly add browned butter into the blender, allowing it to emulsify. Remember that the hot butter will sizzle when it encounters the citrus juice, so keep a safe distance when you drizzle in the browned butter. Season to taste.

Method:

Cure pork belly the day ahead.  Follow steps for Jasmine rice. While it is cooking, line up the rest of ingredients & equipment for cooking the Black Drum and for preparing the sauce.  Cook the fish and finish making the sauce immediately once the fish is done.

For Plating:

Start by placing a scoop of the rice and pork belly mix in the center of a dinner plate. If you’ve found a nice vegetable accompaniment, my personal favorite is Brussels Sprouts, place it alongside the rice. Rest the fillet of Drum on top. Drizzle the Brown Butter Sauce around and over the fillet. Top with a heaping spoonful of the Crab Relish. Voila!

Miles Prescott has worked with some of the country’s top chefs and gained attention for his efforts. Working with Chef Adolfo Garcia at RioMar, he continues to build upon his deep interest in Spanish influenced cuisine with local ingredients and flavorful results.

RioMar is the place for seafood from a different perspective. Chef Adolfo Garcia draws upon cooking experiences in Spain and his Latin American heritage to showcase the bounty of the Gulf, and a few points beyond…simply and traditionally at RioMar. The restaurant is open Mon-Fri for Tapas lunch, and Mon-Sat for Dinner.

credit: Times-Picayune
By Brett Anderson, The Times-Picayune
February 18, 2010, 10:15AM

Semi-finalists for this year’s James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards were released this morning. At least 20 semi-finalists are named in 19 categories, and as usual, there are plenty of New Orleans names among them.

The strongest representation is in the category Best Chef: South, where six local chefs from five restaurants are semi-finalists. They are Scott Boswell of Stella! and Stanley; Aaron Burgau of Patois; Adolfo Garcia of RioMar, La Boca and A Mano, a new Italian restaurant that made the list in two national categories as well; David and Torre Solazzo of Ristorante Del Porto in Covington; and Lilette’s John Harris, who was one of the final five nominees in the category last year.

Beth Biundo of Lilette is among the 20 semi-finalist for Oustanding Pastry Chef. Joshua Smith, chef de cuisine of A Mano, joins Gautreau’s Sue Zemanick as a potential Rising Star Chef of the Year, which honors chefs under 30. Zemanick was a Rising Star nominee last year. A Mano was also among the Best New Restaurant semi-finalists.

Two New Orleans restaurants got the nod in Outstanding Service: Upperline and Emeril’s, which was also a nominee last year. Emeril’s is a semi-finalist in Outstanding Wine Service as well.

Chefs with local connections now working in other markets are also recognized. David Kinch, chef-owner of the visionary restaurant Manresa in Los Gatos, California, cut his teeth as a teenager working under Paul Prudhomme at Commander’s Palace. Kevin Davis of the Steelhead Diner in Seattle (on the menu: chicken-andouille gumbo and fried oysters po-boys) worked at Arnaud’s and the Sazerac Restaurant in the 1990s.

Two chefs who used to work under John Besh, Lee Richardson of Ashley’s at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock and Kelly English of Restaurant Iris in Memphis, are semi-finalists in Best Chef: South and Best Chef: Southeast, respectively. Bryan Caswell of Reef in Houston, a semi-finalist in Best Chef: Southwest, was born in Lafayette.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other semi-finalists with local connections. Please point out any I may have missed.

The James Beard Foundation Awards are generally considered the highest honor available to culinary professionals in the United States. (Full disclosure: I chair the committee that oversees the Restaurant and Chef Awards.) A pool of over 400 judges, which includes past award winners, vote on the semi-finalists. The final nominees will be announced on March 22 at the Palace Café here in New Orleans. Winners are announced May 3 at the James Beard Foundation Awards Ceremony and Gala Reception in New York City, which is often referred to as the food world’s answer to the Oscars.

Ingredients – (Serves 4)

1 pound freshest available Louisiana fish filet
1 large red onion
2 ea. Habanero peppers
1 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
Salt to taste
12 ea. salt crackers

Dice fish into quarter by quarter inches. Place into a glass or stainless steel bowl. Small dice the onions, squeeze limes and fine dice the habeneros. Add all the ingredients together and season to taste with salt. Chill for 3-4 hours, taste again for salt and serve with crackers.

24 shucked oysters
2 cups cooked spinach
4 links ground Spanish chorizo
3 T chopped garlic
½ med chopped onion
½ c bread crumbs
½ c grated Manchego Cheese
salt and pepper
butter

Brown chorizo with onions and garlic in a little olive oil. Cool mixture. Chop cooked spinach and add most of the cheese and breadcrumbs. (Save a little to top off before baking) add cooled chorizo mix and season to taste with salt and pepper.

In individual ramekins or a baking pan half fill with mix and put oysters on top. Cover with remaining mix and sprinkle with rest of breadcrumbs and bake in 400 degree oven till brown.
Serves 6

4 T Spanish paprika
6 T chopped garlic
¼ c olive oil
6 cups water
6 oz shredded Manchego cheese
4 pieces stale bread
4 eggs
chopped flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper

Sweat garlic in oil till slightly toasted.
Add paprika and stir.
Add water and simmer 20 mins. When ready to serve, crack eggs carefully into simmering soup and cook till soft set. Check seasoning and pour into bowls with cheese and bread. Garnish with parsley.

Serves 4

In 2000, when logic would have called for his restaurant near the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to specialize in jambalaya, chef Adolfo Garcia opened RioMar, where a platter of cold seafood contains not oysters but four varieties of ceviche. His interests are the cooking of Spain — the lunchtime tapas menu offers the city’s best example of authentic Spanish cooking — and Latin America. Over the years, the food has become ever more seasonally focused, but the kitchen’s obsession remains seafood: cod fritters that amount to great savory beignets, pan-roasted black drum with farmers market vegetables and honey-cumin vinaigrette, the always fabulous Gulf fish escabeche. Together with partner Nick Bazan, Garcia has created one of the best seafood restaurants in a city where chefs have been perfecting indigenous seafood recipes for centuries. Don’t miss the tres leches cake — or, if your appetite is drawn to it, the Latin-style pork.

Source: http://www.nola.com/dining-guide/index.ssf/2009/10/riomar_1.html

RioMar (800 S. Peters St.) will be partying Basque style on Thursday, September 17, with a whole barrel of txakoli wine and bottles of sagardo, a dry alcoholic cider.

The txakoli is an acidic, lightly sparkling wine from Spain’s northern Basque region. It’s become a popular accompaniment to the ceviches at RioMar. For the party, the restaurant will be opening and finishing a full barrel shipped directly from the Basque town of Getaria.

“My waiters love it,” said RioMar’s chef and owner Adolfo Garcia, “and waiters sell what they like.”

The sagardo, a staple of Basque bars but rare in the United States, might find fewer fans. The Spanish apple cider tastes nothing like the sweeter varieties produced here and in England.

“The cider is an acquired taste,” he said. “It almost has a barnyard smell to it which is different from most ciders.”

The Basques are also said to be the best cooks in Spain. At the party, Garcia will serve pintxos, or Basque-style tapas, that he tasted on a recent trip to the region.

The drinking begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $40. Call 504.525.3474 for reservations.

Have you tasted txakoli or sagardo?

Source: http://www.nola.com/drink/index.ssf/2009/08/riomar_throws_a_basquestyle_ke.html