The latest season of Bravo's hit cooking competition Top Chef features a Lexington connection. Paula Endara is the executive chef at Granddam and Lost Palm at The Manchester Hotel in Lexington's Distillery District. The native of Ecuador puts her culinary skills to the test and competes for the $250,000 grand prize in season 22 of the hit show. Top Chef airs Thursday nights on Bravo.
Paula joins Jennifer Palumbo to share her story and show you how to make two of her favorite dishes, Jamaican patties and tomato carpaccio.
Tomato Carpaccio
Ingredients:
6 u heirloom tomatoes
1 cup roasted corn
½ cup Kenny’s cheese crumble
4 ounces cherry tomatoes
4 tbsp croutons
4 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp pickled shallots
This is a very refreshing and easy dish. Start slicing your heirloom tomatoes in thin slices, we want to save the tops and bottoms from our tomatoes. Take those tops and bottoms and blend them until smooth. On a china cup,add cheese cloth and pour our tomato mix. Let it sit overnight to strain. We will acquire our tomato water which will be our vinaigrette for our carpaccio. Once we have all of our ingredients chopped and ready (mise en place).
Let's start plating ! On a 9-inch plate, add salt pepper and oil. Put our tomato slices one by one on a circle, fanning them. Let’s drizzle more olive oil and tomato water, and season again with salt and pepper. In a small bowl let's season our tomato cherries, with oil, salt and pepper. Add them to our carpaccio and top the tomatoes with your favorite croutons, pickled shallots, blue cheese crumbles and roasted corn. Finish with a little more drizzle of tomato water and olive oil.
Jamaican Patties
Jamaican Patty Dough
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup butter shredded
250 ml water
8 gr kosher salt
2 tbsp Jamaican curry
1 tbsp turmeric
Preheat the oven at 375 F. In a bowl mix flour, salt, Jamaican curry, turmeric and half of the butter. Mix with your hand until it acquires a sand consistency. Add water and work dough until all water is incorporated. Let it rest for 20 minutes inside a freezer. Stretch dough and add the rest of the butter and fold it together as if it was puff pastry. Laminated doubt 6 timer. Let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes because stretching it thin and cutting round pieces with a mold. FIll them up with 1 ounce of filling, brush them with egg wash and bake them for 15 minutes at 375F.
Shrimp Encocado filling recipe
Ingredients:
500 gr shrimp small cubes
¼ cup red bell pepper brunoise
¼ cup red onion brunoise
1 u fresno pepper thinly sliced
2 tbsp garlic finely minced
1 cup coconut milk
¼ cup cilantro finely minced
To taste salt
To taste black pepper
1 tbsp of achiote paste
4 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin powder
Season shrimps with oil, salt and pepper. In a hot pan add oil, achiote paste and garlic. Cook until translucent, add red onion and bell pepper, cook in medium heat for 5 minutes, season with cumin, salt and pepper. Deglaze with coconut milk. Add cilantro and shrimp. Poach them on the sauce for 5 minutes. Let them cool down and reserve to dill the Jamaican patties.
Granddam and Lost Palm at The Manchester
Address: 941 Manchester Street, Lexington's Distillery District
Phone: (859) 785-3900
Website: The Manchester - A Luxury Hotel in Lexington, KY Historic Distillery District
