How London’s Two-Michelin-Starred Ikoyi Makes Its Signature Plantain Dish

The plantain is exactly 13-and-a-half centimeters every time

At London’s Ikoyi, chef Jeremy Chan uses West African ingredients to make dishes that are wholly his own. “It’s the spice, it’s the heat, it’s the pungency,” says Chan. “We are paying respect to the ingredients.”

That approach has earned Ikoyi a Michelin star, with a menu that includes aged sirloin topped with caviar, moin moin-inspired dumplings, and their signature dish: a perfect 13-and-a-half-centimeter buttermilk plantain.

“What’s neat about this dish is the discipline and technique that’s being applied to this ingredient, almost moreso than any other ingredient in the kitchen,” says Chan. “Because we feel like there’s this absolute idea of what the perfect Ikoyi plantain is.”

Chefs start by cutting the plantain in half the long way, and slicing them further into the 13-and-a-half-centimeter shape. Once they are perfectly shaped, they get marinated and brushed with buttermilk, tossed in plantain flour, and stored until service.

“You’d be surprised that a lot of people do this and actually, it comes up pretty lumpy and clumpy, so the brushing beforehand is really important,” says Chan. “It sounds and looks really simple. But mine are always too clumpy.”

Once it’s time for service, the plantains get fried and receive a dusting of smoked kelp and plated.

“I think that’s why it symbolizes the kitchen because everything is done very deliberately and with a lot of intent,” says Chan.

Watch the full video to see how Chan and the staff at Ikoyi make other dishes on the menu including dishes with aged beef.



from Eater - All https://ift.tt/Cp9Tq0J
via IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You Can Eat Martha Stewart's Baked Goods (Without Baking a Thing)

It’s a new year, which means it’s time for a new project for Martha Stewart, who I can only assume never, ever sleeps (meanwhile I, a 26-year-old, get fussy after anything less than a rock solid eight and a half hours ). This time, it’s not a partnership with Snoop Dogg or a craft store or a CBD-company . Martha Stewart has teamed up with Goldbelly to bring her lifelong favorite baked recipes—everything from flaky, buttery French croissants to luxurious kouign amann to sticky-sweet apricot danishes to her Extraordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies —straight to your home. “I’m thrilled to partner with Goldbelly to bring my favorite baked cookies and pastries to their loyal customers," said Martha Stewart in a statement. "Thoughtfully packaged in my signature Martha blue, these cookies are baked using some of my life-long favorite recipes and they make the perfect gifts for your loved ones or for yourself.” Read More >> from Food52 https://ift.tt/9c4W8MLeB via IFTTT
Read more

29 Great American Diners

Image
Lille Allen/Eater America’s diners account for some of the oldest restaurants in the nation. Here are some of the most iconic. A diner is a mood. It’s the slosh of sharp, black coffee poured from a steel tank behind the counter into a heavy white mug. It’s the miniature packets of butter and strawberry jelly waiting for their foil to be peeled back. It’s the waitstaff who’ve been scribbling orders on blue-striped checks for 40 years and know how to balance eight plates of pancakes on one arm. It’s the assurance that your eggs will always come out just the way you like them — not too runny in the whites, with a soft orange yolk built to drag slices of crisp, buttery, industrial-grade toast through. The promise of feeling like a regular no matter how many times you’ve actually visited. America’s diners account for some of the oldest and most iconic restaurants in the nation. A dying breed by some accounts and a resurgent one by others, they’re shorthand for a vision of the Unite
Read more

Beyond Impossible: The Sanitarium and World War II Past of Meat Substitutes

Image
Photo by Tom Kelley/Getty Images We’ve come a long way from John Harvey Kellogg’s “protose cutlets” It’s no stretch to say that fake meat is having a moment . With the popularity of brands such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat joining fast-food menus and grocery store aisles alike, plant-based meats are no longer seen as a sad option for vegetarians long denied flavor with meat substitutes (though, as we know, plenty of vegetarian food is packed with flavor), but for anyone who enjoys a good burger, fried chicken, or nuggets. But are meat substitutes really the future of eating? Maybe by necessity as food resources run out, but not likely by choice. In fact, despite the big money raked in by Impossible and Beyond over the past few years, industrial meat consumption in America is actually on the rise. This week on Gastropod , Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley see how the not-sausage gets made, with visits to the Impossible Meat lab and Meati , a Colorado-based start-up that’
Read more