Divya Gugnani: Hi! I’m Divya Gugnani and we’re here at Centro Vinoteca, where small plates are about really big flavors. Here, our top chef contestant takes Italian culinary traditions and gives them a modern twist. So let’s go Behind the Burner and meet the chef.
I’m here with the Executive Chef Leah Cohen. Leah what are you making for us?
Leah Cohen: Today, I’ll be making a Pan-Seared Trout with some market vegetables. So, the market vegetables that we have our patty pans, a little baby carrots with different colors and fingerling potatoes.
Divya Gugnani: So a patty pan for someone who doesn’t know what it is.
Leah Cohen: There are like little baby squashes and they should be about like three to four inches around and if they’re any bigger, they’re going to be like too fibrous and they’re going to like to loose the flavor
Divya Gugnani: And they’ll be too greenie?
Leah Cohen: Yes, and they have two different colors we have the green and then we have the yellow as well.
The trout is a really nice fish, it’s a really delicate fish like you really just want to focus on the flavor of the trout and it’s a great fish because you actually don’t have to scale it, so there’s less work. We’re using shallots—
Divya Gugnani: So it’s great for home.
Leah Cohen: So you want to start with a really, really hot pan and you want the oil to be smoking like it is now and then you’re going to cook it only on one side. You want the skin to get really crispy and they turn the heat down. So at the same time you want to start cooking your veg, a little olive oil on the pan and then these are scapes and they taste like garlic, and then you have the shallots, add a little salt and then you add the patty pans, the carrots and the fingerling potatoes.
I think everyone likes really, really simple food and these are just like—it’s cream summary. So a little chicken sauce as well and let’s give it a like a little bit of a sauce and then I would just take it off the heat at this point and we have a little flat top where it’s like a low slow heat and then add a little bit of butter.
Divya Gugnani: That’s a great side, you could use for many other dish also.
Leah Cohen: Yeah! I mean you can use that with anything like with grilled meats, with thin meats and anything fish, cork anything it doesn’t matter. Any fish that you keep the skin on you want to see and get really, really crispy.
It will probably take about four to five minutes and the reason why we also want a smoking hot pan is with the skin, if it’s not smoking hot, it will stick. So there’s nothing worse than having this skin sticks to the pan.
Divya Gugnani: So how do you pick your trout? What do you look for?
Leah Cohen: With any fish you want to check the eyes and check the gills. If the eyes are cloudy, you don’t want to use it and if the gills are like a nice straight red then that means it’s fresh and also you can testify touching the flesh of the skin. If it like leaves like a little indentation mark then it’s old and the meat was kind of like breaking down.
And patty pans are really great too because they have like—they are really good source of Vitamin A and C and folic acids. So, it’s always good to get your vitamins going.
Divya Gugnani: So along with the butter, I’m getting my health vitamin fixed.
Leah Cohen: Exactly.
All the white around the edge means that’s cooking, even if you have no experience cooking fish, it s probably one of the easiest to cook. This is some tarragon and mint and you always want to add herbs at the very last second, just to keep its freshness and to make sure that its going to be a nice and vibrant green. A little bit of the lemon vinaigrette that I roasted the vegetables.
Divya Gugnani: So what’s in the lemon vinaigrette?
Leah Cohen: Tarragon, thyme and olive oil and salt. At the end like, I always add a little bit of butter, some thyme and garlic and that’s just helps infuse some more flavor into the dish and then you just want a basil a little bit just to give it a little bit more of flavor.
I’m just going to flip over the fish and it’s ready to go. If you want to use like acidity because it really helps bring out like the flavor and it really just goes well and pairs well with fish.
Drain it on a towel and get rid of all the excess fat and put this on the bottom and spread it out all over the plate but you can use any vegetable that is seasoned and like you can find at the market, just put the fish on top and then with a little finishing olive oil that we use, just drizzle it all around.
And here it is, this is the Pan-Seared Trout with roasted market vegetables and the skin is really nice and crispy.
Divya Gugnani: It looks it, let’s go find out, okay let’s try it.
Leah Cohen: Trout is something that you want to like pair with light vegetable with light flavors. And with wine, I think it will go very, very well at it.
Divya Gugnani: And it’s a Kerner 2007, right?
Leah Cohen: Yes.
Divya Gugnani: It has a lot of flavor and I think it has also has to do with the fact that you marinated the vegetables?
Leah Cohen: I just tossed them in the vinaigrette and then roast them. It probably takes about 30 minutes to cook, it’s really about simplicity and using the ingredients that are in season.
Divya Gugnani: Well, cheers thank you so much for having us.
Leah Cohen: Thanks for coming.
Divya Gugnani: Stay tuned to Behind the Burner where we give you the tips, tricks and techniques that are lighting the culinary world on fire.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services