Barton Seaver
Café Saint Ex and Bar Pilar |
Washington DC
Barton Seaver’s childhood home family dinner was an
involved process seven nights a week. Mac and Cheese was never out
of the box, but prepared with a homemade béchamel and pasta
made from scratch. Summers spent at a family friends’ hog
farm on the Chesapeake Bay, crabbing and going with his father to
buy seafood from local fisherman, meant seasonality and locality
made sense to Seaver early on. The simple, market driven food of
Seaver’s childhood home and his later travels through Africa
and the Iberian Peninsula have translated to a strong commitment
to the idea of a chef’s responsibility for sharing gastronomic
tradition, culture and information. This is carried on in his two
DC restaurants, Café Saint Ex and Bar Pilar
where Seaver’s belief in the minimal manipulation of high
quality, responsibly-sourced ingredients shines through in dishes
like an understated and lightly garnished Walu with Sweet Potato
Puree and Orange Parsley Salad. Beginning with sustainable Walu
(or white tuna), and using no more than lemon, chili and parsley
to highlight the fish’s inherent flavor, Seaver carefully
builds a simple and delicious dish using smoke-infused water rather
than a traditional heavy stock or butter.
Jalapeno-Crusted Walu with
Sweet Potato Purée and Orange Parsley Salad
Chef Barton Seaver of Café St Ex and Bar Pilar–
Washington, D.C.
Adapted by StarChefs.com
Yield: 4 Servings
Ingredients:
Smoke-Infused Water:
- 1 sheet pan fruit wood shavings, smoldering
- 1 tray ice
Sweet Potato Purée:
- 2 large organic sweet potatoes, roughly chopped
- Salt, to taste
- 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 cup Smoke-Infused Water
Walu:
- 4 5-ounce Walu filets
- Salt, to taste
- 1 cup panko
- 1 Tablespoon jalapeno puree
- 2 Tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
Orange Parsley Salad:
- 1 bunch flat leaf parsley, leaves only
- 1 Tablespoon tarragon leaves
- 1 large shallot, thinly sliced, soaked in vinegar
- 2 oranges, peeled and segmented
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- Salt, to taste
Method:
For the Smoke-Infused Water:
Place the fruit wood on the bottom rack of a cold oven with the
ice directly above it. Allow the ice to absorb smoke for 7 minutes.
For the Sweet Potato Purée:
Preheat oven to 325ºF. Place sweet potatoes in a small baking
dish and season generously with salt. Add the maple syrup and Smoke-Infused
Water and mix well. Cover the potatoes with foil and bake for 1
hour and 20 minutes. Purée the contents in a food processor
and pass through a fine mesh sieve. Reserve warm.
For the Walu:
Season the Walu generously with salt one hour before cooking. Combine
the panko, jalapeno purée, parsley and olive oil and mix
well. Gently pack the mixture onto one side of the walu, making
sure it is well-covered. Use extra olive oil if needed to ensure
a thick crust.
To Assemble:
Place one large spoon of sweet potato purée on each plate.
Place the Walu on one side of the sweet potato mound and top with
the orange parsley salad. Drizzle the remaining salad juices around
the perimeter of the plate.
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