By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley
We’ve had a long, hot summer that’s made cooking and even eating seem like a chore. But you can perk up heat-weary appetites with the help of three local chefs
whose Caribbean and Asian cuisines are perfect for steamy weather.
We talked to Beverly Jacobs, chef/owner of Bamboo Fire Café, and Pauline Hutchinson-Smith, who was chef/owner of the recently sold Pauline’s Island Time
Bar & Grill, both in Delray Beach, as well as Toi Duong, chef/owner of La
Tre in Boca Raton.
Their recipes take advantage of chilies not only for their sweat-producing heat (which actually cools the body), but also for their flavor.
You can grow your own chilies in your backyard or in containers on a balcony. Many varieties of peppers do well in our tropical climate. Or, you can purchase chilies in markets and green markets,
making them the perfect seasonal, local addition to summer meals.
Much like South Florida, the climate in Vietnam is tropically hot year round, says Duong of La Tre, who has had his restaurant for more than 20 years. So he
recommends a cooling salad such as the popular Goi-Ga or Chicken Salad With
Grapefruit.
He remembers his mother making this dish when he was growing up in Nha Trang, a beach resort in central Vietnam. Duong says the people of this area of Vietnam
are “spicy experts,” and he’s a fan of the food. “I eat raw chili peppers on
almost anything,” he says.
His mother would serve this chicken salad with beer and sake as an appetizer, but here in South Florida it makes a refreshing meal.
Vietnamese salads are known for their layers of flavor and texture. For this salad, you begin with a base of finely sliced cabbage, carrots and onions that you let
macerate in a mixture of white vinegar, water and sugar. This makes the
vegetables softer and more digestible as well as more flavorful.
Then add even more flavor with a layer of shredded chicken, grapefruit segments and slivered chili peppers. Chopped
cilantro gives a sprightly taste and a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds
provides crunch.
It’s all dressed with a mixture based on nuoc mam, or Vietnamese fish sauce. This dressing is particularly light because it doesn’t contain oil.
Today, Duong grows chili peppers, vegetables and herbs in the garden of his Boynton Beach home. “Chili peppers are part of Vietnamese cuisine. Every house that has
a garden has them to use every day,” he says.
Hutchinson-Smith, who lives in Delray Beach, enjoys preparing the Jamaican dishes she learned to make from her Aunt Carmen while growing up in Montego Bay.
However, she admits she didn’t enjoy her time in the kitchen as a child. “I had to sit at the end of the counter and watch her cook when I wanted to be somewhere
else. I was so resentful,” she says.
Hutchinson-Smith lived in the Caribbean until she was 15 years old, then moved to New York with her family. At 20, she got her own
apartment. It’s then that she started to appreciate her culinary talents as she
entertained friends with seven-course meals and created holiday dinners that
included five meat dishes.
She’s known for making her own hot pepper sauce and jerk seasoning. But that doesn’t mean her food is overly hot.
“I like my food well-spiced, not spicy,” she says. That’s why she particularly likes Scotch bonnet peppers. “They
can give you heat if you ask for it, but they don’t have to.” For less spice,
you merely remove the seeds before using them or use the peppers whole and
remove them from the dish before serving. That way they provide their fruity
flavor, not heat.
To show off her favorite chilies, Hutchinson-Smith created two recipes for us. The Spicy Ginger Pepper Sauce is a simplified version of her jerk sauce that has 22
ingredients. This recipe has less than half that many, but gives good island
flavor using those Jamaican favorites ginger root, Scotch bonnet peppers,
scallions, garlic and fresh thyme leaves.
Her Hot Pepper Chicken With Tomatoes is quick to prepare when you don’t feel like cooking. The colorful grape tomatoes tempt your eyes even before you take a
bite. And the simple combination of jalapeños and Scotch bonnets will perk up
your appetite.
Elsewhere in Delray Beach, Jacobs of Bamboo Fire Café is a very busy woman. Weekdays she works for Miami-Dade County as a paralegal. But weekends, she’s at her
restaurant. “Cooking there gives me a chance to show my creative side,” she
says.
Here, the island food is lovingly prepared by this woman from Guyana, who learned to eat peppers as a baby and to cook from her mother. The idea for her restaurant
started when friends asked her to cater parties from her Loxahatchee home.
After catering for a while, she opened a small takeout spot but decided she didn’t want her food served from a steam table. So in 2008, she and her husband,
Donald, opened their restaurant with her mother helping do the prep work. She calls her cooking “Caribbean,” but
it is partly based on the food of her homeland.
She hails from a country that, according to her, is 60 percent Eastern Indian with blacks, Chinese, Native Indians and Portuguese rounding out the population. All
these cultures influence the national cuisine.
Thus she flavors her curries with garam masala and Madras curry powder. And she puts ginger root and star anise in her oxtail stew. Each week she makes a batch of her own rum Scotch bonnet
hot sauce in which she uses celery and onion to cool down its taste.
“My cooking can be as spicy as you like,” she says. But as she’s gotten older, she eats less spicy food. “There’s a balance I try to strike.” But she adds that
sometimes “when I’m in the mood, I crave something so hot it makes my nose
run.”
You’ll find a nice balance in her recipe for Spicy But Mellow Coconut Chicken. This is a braised dish that is best made with bone-in chicken pieces so the meat
doesn’t dry out. The chicken is simmered with coconut milk that mellows the
peppers.
The addition of stock to the braising liquid keeps the dish from being too heavy. “I add my own twist to make things lighter,” she says.
IF YOU GO
Bamboo Fire Café
149 NE Fourth Ave.
Delray Beach
561-749-0973 or 954-907-4174
La Tre
249 E. Palmetto Park Road
Boca Raton
561-392-4568
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