MarketBasket
Winery Chef
Peter Pahk

In The Market Basket

Pork Porterhouse Chop
2 Red Snapper Filets
3 Medium Shrimp
2 Thick-cut pieces smoked bacon
Bunch fresh baby spinach
Bunch scallions (green onions)
Bunch chives
Bunch dill
Small head of cabbage
2 Japanese eggplants
1 Ear of corn
Red pepper
Yellow pepper
Red onion
Small (3 inch) Jalapeno pepper
Package vermicelli
Pint heavy cream
Unsalted butter
Light soy sauce
Pint Glace de Viande (optional)
Fresh pepper
Salt

Though Executive Chef Peter Pahk has been firmly ensconced at the Silverado Resort in the Napa Valley for five years, his career prior to 1997 reads like a travelogue. A native of Hawaii and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, he has worked at restaurants in Hawaii, including the famous Ritz Carlton Mauna Lani, and at other Ritz Carlton properties in Atlanta and Marina Del Rey as well. His resume also includes an early stint at the River Café in Brooklyn, and time as executive chef at restaurants in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. In 1994, he was selected to cook the New Year’s Eve Dinner for members of the James Beard Foundation, a singular honor.

At Silverado, the personable and enthusiastic Pahk supervises 42 chefs and cooks, three restaurants and the comprehensive banquet facilities. He has also taken great care to cultivate suppliers of fresh regional products, much of it from the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Drawing on the bounty of his home state, fresh fish is delivered to the kitchens daily from the waters of Hawaii, to join a pantry full of fresh-picked strawberries, heirloom tomatoes and other local produce.

Not surprisingly, Pahk’s culinary interests are wide-ranging. French classics share space on the menu with Italian, Asian, Southern Regional and California specialties; macrobiotic and vegetarian dishes are given the same care and thought as the rest of the extensive menu.

Peter Pahk brought this enthusiasm and skill to this issue’s Market Basket. As with every chef to take up this challenge, he had no idea what would be in the Destination basket of ingredients. He had about an hour, could use no fancy professional equipment, had no assistants and had access only to the ingredients most home cooks would have in their own kitchen, such as salt and pepper and olive oil. Here is what he came up with for us.

Sautéed Red Snapper with Fresh Spinach, Butter

Poached Shrimp with Jalapeño & Chives

4 oz. Red Snapper Filets (1 per person)
1 bunch Fresh Baby Spinach
8 oz. Whole Unsalted Butter
3 oz. Rice Vermicelli Noodles
3 Peeled & Deveined 25 -30 count Shrimp (keep tail on)
1 oz. Light Soy Sauce
1 tsp. Chopped Chives
1/2 tsp. Finely-julienned Jalapeno Pepper (no seeds)

Season and sauté snapper in 2 oz. whole butter on high heat for 30 seconds on a side. Keep warm. Sauté spinach in butter until wilted.
Season and keep warm. Sweat julienne jalapeno in 2 oz. whole butter until fragrant. Add shrimp and chives and cook for 30 seconds, turning rapidly. Keep warm. Cook rice noodles in boiling salted water for 30 seconds. Drain, then season with soy sauce.

To Plate:

Place spinach in center of plate and arrange rice noodles on top of spinach. Place snapper on top of spinach. Spoon shrimp around and drizzle Jalapeno-Chive Butter jus around the plate.

 

Pan Seared & Roasted Pork Porterhouse Chop

Ingredients:
1 each Pork Porterhouse Chop
2 strips Smoked Bacon, blanched & diced
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
_ cup Freshly Shucked Corn Kernels
1 oz Diced Red Pepper
1 oz. Diced Cabbage
1 oz Diced Yellow Pepper
1 oz. Diced Red Onion
1 oz. Glace de Viande (optional-can be found at gourmet food stores)
2 Japanese Eggplant cut in half lengthwise

For Garnish:
A Chiffonade of Scallion, Chives & Dill Sprig

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degree (F). Season both sides of pork chops with salt and freshly ground pepper and sear in sauté pan 'til golden brown on both sides. Put in 350 degree oven and roast for 10-12 minutes or until 140 degrees internal is reached. Reserve in warm place (save pan juice as well).

Sauté bacon until crispy. Remove bacon - reserve. Keep bacon fat to sauté rest of ingredients. Add rest of ingredients to pan and cook for 1 minute. Add cream and Glace de Viande. Reduce to sauce consistency. Keep warm.

Sauté eggplant in oil until golden brown and then deep fly for 1 minute in peanut oil. Drain, pat dry and season with salt and pepper. Reserve.

To Assemble:
Spoon Succotash in center of plate; crisscross eggplant on top of succotash, Remove meat from bone of chop. Place bone on eggplant slice and arrange around bone. Garnish (the ‘chiffonade’) with scallions, chives and dill sprig.