Bow ties and Bites: Wet Tee Shirt
For Your Dapper's recent launch party, several of Hawaii's best chefs and mixologist were gracious enough to create appetizers and drinks inspired by our new line of bow ties: Medium Frequency Electron Transmission. Here's the perfect pair to our new bow tie, Wet Tee Shirt, from Jamal Lahiani: a bow tie pasta salad.
Photo by Tracy Chan of Nightfox Photography
Jamal dishing about the creation of this dish:
“Let’s be honest, the wet t shirt bow tie concept came before the food dish that was meant to represent it. Woo hoo! Wet t shirt! I’m all in.
Translucent, opaque, sheer, quivering, creamy, spicy - all these words come to mind when considering wet t shirts.
I’ve never been granted a more appropriate occasion to make bow tie pasta. And as it turns out, poached opah represents those qualities. So does marinated bow tie pasta. The vegetable represent the splashes of color and texture to accessorize a succulent, satiating, and provocative ensemble.”
Ingredients for 50 appetizer size portions
"Pasta Salad" ingredients
20 ribs or 40 oz celery, trimmed and divided
3-5 yellow onions about 30 oz peeled and cut in half through core
1 1/2 cup kosher salt
2••• teaspoon cayenne pepper
40 ounces fresh market string beans cleaned with ends trimmed (or comparable market vegetable)
5 to 6 pounds market fish or opah (cut into 1” x 1” cubes)
40 oz/ 2.5 lbs farfalle (bowtie) pasta
5 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Cooking water ingredients
7 gallons water (for pasta)
5 cloves garlic, peeled
5 Tbs fennel seeds
5 TBS black peppercorns
15 sprigs thyme
15 bay leaves
5 TBS dried tarragon
Lemon spice mayonnaise Ingredients:
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
2••• teaspoon kosher salt
3 to 5 small red onion (15 ounces), peeled, cored, cut into thin slices, rinsed under hot water — then cold — and drained
Kosher salt and ground pepper to taste
11/2 cup chopped green onions
5 teaspoon ground fennel
5 teaspoon hot Hungarian paprika, or Spanish Paprika (Never plain paprika)
10 teaspoons of reserved cooking water (from above)
Zest of 5 lemon
5 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
10 cloves garlic (2••• ounce), peeled, thinly sliced, rinsed in hot water then cold water, drained, and finely chopped
2••• cup prepared mayonnaise
Preparation:
Prepare cooking water by wrapping the garlic, fennel seeds, peppercorns, thyme, bay leaves and tarragon in a piece of cheesecloth. Tie together with butcher string and place in a large pot with 7 gallons water.
Add the 10 halved ribs of celery, the yellow onion, salt and cayenne pepper. Bring to a full simmer and cook, covered, half an hour. Remove onion and celery from water and discard.
To finish: Bring cooking water to a full boil. Add beans and boil 3 minutes or until tender. Remove beans with a skimmer and shock in ice water to stop cooking. Drain and cut into •••-inch pieces on the bias.
Return water to a boil. Add fish and cook 1 to 6 minutes, covered, depending on if cut into cubes or whole (block). Remove fish to a baking dish to cool. Place any accumulated juices back in the water. Let simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Strain water through a fine-mesh strainer and dispose of solids. Return water to pot.
Meanwhile, cut fish into 1-inch pieces if you cooked it whole. Reserve in a bowl, but leave any juice that is remaining in the baking dish as you will be putting the cooked farfalle in the dish to cool with the juices.
Bring the water to a boil once again, add farfalle and cook according to package directions. When fully cooked, remove a few tablespoons of the cooking water and reserve to use when making lemon paprika mayonnaise.
Drain the farfalle, but do not rinse, and place in the baking dish.
Add oil and toss together with the fish juices. Let cool to room temperature.
Lemon spice mayonnaise: Whisk together the fennel, paprika and reserved cooking water in a bowl until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and whisk together. Reserve cold.
When cool, combine in a large bowl the beans, reserved diced celery, onion, and the fish with 1/2 of the total lemon spiced mayonnaise. Then combine lemon spiced mayonnaise with [FIX ME GOD DAMMIT] Fold together gently and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Garnish with chopped green onion.
Put on bow tie and serve.
Photo by Eric Baranda.
See more of Jamal's work on his Instagram @cooktales.