Chef Patricia Yeo [Photo credit: Felix Cutillo | Make Up: Nadia Spada]
Tapenade from mushroom stems; “fairy dust” from citrus peels; crushed crackers in meatballs. Chef Yao’s sophistication brings the excitement of world cuisine into everyday dishes. Let’s listen in as Nancy Gershman speaks with this restauranteur and Top Chef Master who admits she’s a lover of Asian street food and all things pasta.
Patricia Yeo: ‘I love the way Expendable Edibles uses every little bit of food. We’re pretty careful about waste and always try to be really creative ways about using these elements. I think working with expendable edibles is very much a sign of real cooking. Think about the Slow Food Movement. It’s going back to basics. Or during the Second World War, for instance. Families never threw anything away because food was so limited. It was considered a waste to throw something away.”
Tomato “fairy dust” from tomato peels
“Something we did at the restaurant was make dried tomato peels into “fairy dust.” We peel the tomatoes while preparing food. We put the tomato peel on top of our ovens, and depending on how hot our oven is at the time – it could be sitting there for 14 hours straight. Making tomato dust takes about a day. Once the peels are nice and dry, we put them in a food processor or mill and then mix the dust with salt and pepper. It’s fantastic dusted over fish before it’s sautéed – it makes a great tomato-based crust. We also put tomato dust into pasta dough; about a ½ cup of dust per 4 cups flour. I’m pretty sure you can dry anything, dehydrate it, pulverize it and make into fairy dust!”
Citrus “sugar dust” from oranges, lemons and grapefruit “To make this wonderful sugar that goes on top of a cocktail, you remove the peels from an orange, lemon or grapefruit. Boil the peel for 10-15 minutes in simple syrup. Place the citrus peel in or on top of a hot oven until it completely dries out. Then run the dry peel through a food processor or mill. We love citrus sugars sprinkled on top of cupcakes, or to finish off a dessert. You’d be surprised how super intense the flavor of grapefruit sugar is; you get this lovely sweet flavor and a slightly bitter finish.”
Stock from pea shells and corncobs “Most people know that you can make soup stock earthier with mushroom stems. But when we use only the corn kernels and leave the cob, we like to throw the cob into a stock. You can really taste the difference when you use corn stock in a corn chowder. The same can be said about pea shells. There is a lot of flavor still in a discarded pea shell. I infuse pea shells into the stock for pea risotto.”
Tapenade from mushroom stems “You wash mushroom stems well, chop them up, cook them down so they are really, really dry, and then you can make a tapenade out of it. I usually add a little garlic, thyme and a little bit of chili, whatever your favorite is, whatever you have lying around. A chili is a chili is a chili.”
Crushed crackers for making meatballs “Instead of buying matzoh meal or panko for breadcrumbs, I like using crushed crackers. Moisten them and they’re fantastic for making meatballs.
Stale bread for seasonal “Bread Salad” “To make an Italian or Middle Eastern bread salad, take any seasonal vegetables you have – zucchinis, tomatoes – chop them up, macerate them with a little salt, and throw them in to some leaves of lettuce with your favorite spices and seasonings to taste. I like serving my bread salads with a side dish of chicken.”
ITALIAN-style panzanella is made of stale bread (soaked in water and squeezed dry), tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Onions and basil are often added. Other ingredients could include olives, mozzarella, white wine, capers, anchovies, celery, carrots, red wine, red onion, cucumber, tuna, parsley, boiled eggs, mint, bell peppers, lemon juice, and garlic.
MEDITERRANEAN-style fattoush begins with pita bread gone stale, which is then toasted or fried and cut into bite-size pieces. Seasonal produce – such as feta cheese, parsley, carrots, red and green peppers, red cabbage, black olives, garlic and pomegranates – is chopped up and the spice sumac is added to give fattoush its characteristically sour taste.
“Old bread is also great for adding to sauces and thickeners. Soak in old bread if you have a tomato soup and you want to give it more body and structure.”
Family meals at the restaurant “Leftovers are a key part of family meals at the restaurant. The cook who is assigned to serving lunch or dinner that day must set up his station and be done by 4pm. So because of the tight schedule, a cook will use pasta in a pasta salad, rice in fried rice. There’s really no time to play with a lot of ingredients; you go with the tried and true and nothing too extravagant.
Pickled watermelon rind in salads “I grew up in a family where nothing gets thrown out. Today it becomes a challenge to use as much of everything as you can, rather than chuck it out. At the restaurant, we go as far as pickling the rinds of watermelon– an old Southern tradition. We serve pickled watermelon rind with steamed pork in our Pork Belly and Watermelon salad. It’s fun!”
Crackling from chicken skin “At the restaurant we get our chickens whole, and there’s not a single part we don’t use. Skin makes a delicious crackling to finish off a dish. We also sometimes thread really crispy grilled skin onto a skewer.“
