Chef Jean-Paul Bourgeois brings seafood gumbo to The Dish

Jean-Paul Bourgeois grew up surrounded by the vibrant Southern cuisine of Louisiana. He has studied in France and worked in restaurants in Napa, San Francisco, St. Thomas and New York City. He has been the executive chef of Blue Smoke Enterprises, which includes Blue Smoke, Jazz Standard and Blue Smoke on the Road, since last year.

Here is how to make a few of his favorite Southern-inspired barbecue recipes: Seafood gumbo, spare rib rub, Blue Smoke barbecue sauce, watermelon salad, lime vinaigrette, maple mashed sweet potatoes, collard greens, corn maque choux, beignets and a Bourbon Smash to drink!

Seafood Gumbo

Yield: 5 gal

Ingredients:

• 3 qts Onion, Spanish, small dice
• 1 qt Celery, small dice
• 1 qt Red Bell Pepper, small dice
• 1qt Green Bell Pepper, small dice
• 1 CUP Garlic, minced
• 1 pc Jalapeno with seeds, minced
• ¾ cs Okra, cut in 1" pieces
• 5 gal Seafood Stock for Gumbo (Crab Stock)

• Crab meat
• Oysters
• 61-70 ct shrimp

Procedure:

1. Roast okra until soft and deeply browned, in butter.

2. Remove okra from pan and add onion for about 15 minutes, add garlic.

3. Add the rest of the vegetables and cook until completely soft.

4. Add the okra back into the pan, cook for 10 more minutes.

5. Add crab stock and simmer for 3 hours.

6. Remove Gumbo and prepare to season.

7. Season with Salt and pepper to taste

8. Add 6 bunches worth of thinly sliced green onions to the master batch of gumbo. Season gumbo with original tabasco sauce (approximately half of a 6oz bottle)

9. Adjust acid with champagne vinegar. DO NOT MAKE SOUR

10.When ready to serve, add shrimp (61-70ct) , crab meat and oysters and allow to poach in gumbo for no longer than 6 minutes. Serve immediately with white rice.

Spare Rib Rub

Ingredients: X6

• 6 oz Paprika 36 oz
• 3 ½ oz Salt, kosher 21 oz
• 3 oz Light Brown Sugar 18 oz
• 3 oz Ras el Hanout 18 oz
• 1 ½ oz Granulated Garlic 9 oz
• 1 oz Onion Powder 6 oz
• 1 oz Mustard Powder 6 oz
• 1 oz Marjoram 6 oz
• ½ oz Cayenne 3 oz

Procedure:

1. Mix all ingredients together. Store in container, at dry place.

2. Season ribs liberally with rub making sure that there is a consistent full coverage throughout the surface of the meat

3. Smoke Ribs at 225-250 degrees for approx. 4-6 hours (all depends on the size of the rib). Smoke with Hickory and Oak

4. Ribs can be spritzed with watered down apple cider vinegar 3 hrs into the cooking.

5. Ribs are done when the meat just pulls away from the bone. (not falling off the bone)

6. Apply a layer of sauce on each side and wrap with plastic wrap. Allow to rest for an hour.

Blue Smoke Barbecue Sauce

Yield: ...

Ingredients:

• 2 c Ketchup
• 2 c Cider Vinegar
• 1 c Dark Brown Sugar
• ½ c Molasses
• ¼ c Lemon Juice
• 1 T Worcestershire
• 1 T House Hot Sauce
• 1 T Black Pepper
• 1 T Dark Chili Powder
• 1 T Salt
• 2 t Granulated Garlic Powder
• 1 ½ t Granulated Onion Powder
• 1 ½ t Cayenne

Procedure:

1. Toast all spices in a little canola. Add all liquid (not the ketchup) and dissolve the sugar into the mixture.

2. Add ketchup and bring up to a boil. Turn down to simmer, for about 20 minutes.

Watermelon Salad

Serves: 1 order

Ingredients:

• 11 oz Watermelon, chunks
• 1.5 oz Cabot Clothbound Cheddar Cheese, chunks
• 1 oz Smoked Pecan, mammoth
• .8 oz Lime Vinaigrette
• 1 bunch Upland Cress

Procedure:

1. Marinate the watermelon slices with the lemon-brown sugar vinaigrette in advance (only do this fresh per shift) and wrapped them in plastics.

2. To order, cut the watermelon in bite size.

3. Toss the cheddar cheese chunks and pecans with the watermelon chunks and plate them in the salad bowl.

4. Put 1 bunch of upland cress on one side of the bowl in a bunch.

5. Drizzle more vinaigrette on to the salad and the upland cress before serving.

Lime Vinaigrette

Serves: 16 fl oz

Ingredients:

• 8 fl oz Lime juice, fresh
• 8 fl oz Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 0.1 oz Lime zest
• 1.6 oz Dark Brown Sugar
• 0.1 oz Salt, kosher
• 0.1 oz black pepper, ground

Procedure:

1. Put all the ingredients in a stainless steel bowl, except for the olive oil. Whisk until they are all combined.

2. Drizzle in extra virgin olive oil slowly while whisking it in, creating an emulsion.

3. Season to taste.

Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

1. 3# of Sweet Potatoes (roasted finished flesh)

2. 6 Tablespoons Maple Syrup

3. 12 fluid oz of brown butter

4. 4 fluid oz scalded Cream

5. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6. Juice of half a lemon

7. Salt (about 1 ½ tablespoons) and cracked pepper (about ten big turns from the unicorn pepper mill)

Procedure

Wash whole sweet potatoes of all exterior dirt

Cut Sweet potatoes in half, coat with oil and season with salt.

Bake sweet potatoes at 400 degrees for approximately 40 minutes or until completely soft.

In two separate rondeaus, heat cream in one and heat butter in the other.

Once cream comes to a boil. Pull aside and keep hot

Heat butter on medium high heat to slowly brown the butter until it is dark brown in color. When desired color is reached, pull off of heat and add lemon juice of half lemon to stop the cooking. The butter will aggressively foam so be careful!

Scoop warm, softened flesh into a bowl. Add appropriate measures of ingredients (listed above) to the sweet potatoes and whisk until all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.

For the pick up

Keep sweet potatoes warm on the steam table.

If sweet potatoes break and fat begins to separate; add a small amount of hot water to the mixture and whisk in a separate sauce pot

Plate sweet potatoes in side oval

Finish sweet potatoes with a 1oz drizzle of maple syrup and a pinch of broken sweet tea pecans.

Collard Greens

Yield: approx. 16 qts

Ingredients:

2 cs collard greens, cleaned and cut into strips 1 ½ in wide

8 lbs salt pork

170 g bacon fat

1.3 K Spanish onion lg dice

100 g garlic, minced

1275 g red wine vinegar

3 gallons pork stock

3 gallons water

150 g sugar

Pinch of Kosher Salt

Procedure:

1. Render salt pork with bacon fat, scraping and sweating fond until pork is crispy, 15-20 minutes

2. Add onions and sweat till golden brown and sweet, 5 min.

3. Add garlic, sweat 1 minute

4. Add collard greens and mix, rubbing the fond off the bottom. Allow greens to sweat and purge until wilted about ¾ of the way.

5. When all the liquid is gone and more fond has developed add vinegar and rinse and repeat, purging till all liquid is gone.

6. Then rinse again with pork/water mixture.

7. Add sugar and salt. Lower to a simmer and cover for 20 -30 minutes.

Corn Maque Choux

Yield: 1 portion (left) - 16 lbs (right)

Ingredients:

1 portion x 32

• 5 oz Corn, Kernels 10 lbs
• ½ oz Red Bell Peppers, dice small 1 lb
• ½ oz Green Bell Peppers, dice small 1 lb
• ½ oz Red Onions, dice small 1 lb
• ¼ oz Jalapeno Peppers, dice small 8 oz
• ½ oz Butter, Grand Reserve 1 lb
• 2 fl oz Chicken Stock 8 cups = 64 fl oz
• 1 oz Tasso Ham, smoked, dice small 2 lb

Procedure:

1. In a large rondeaux or tilt skillet, heat up a little bit of butter just enough to sauté the tasso ham.

2. Render and brown the tasso ham. Add onions and garlic, sweat until translucent and picking up the brown color from the ham.

3. Add peppers and jalapeno, cook until soft.

4. Add corn and sauté for 5 to 10 minutes

5. Add chicken stock and mount it with the rest of the butter. Cook on high and allow maque choux to "smother".

6. Season with salt and pepper, cool and store.

Beignets

(Yields:24 orders)

Ingredients:

• 4 Tablespoons Yeast
• 10 oz. Warm Water
• Bread Flour

• 6 lb. Bread Flour
• 3 oz. Salt
• 3 oz. Sugar
• 12 oz. Butter - room temperature
• 6 Eggs
• 7 c. Milk

Powdered sugar

Procedure:

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yeast, bread flour and warm water. Set aside for 20 minutes to develop the sponge.
2. In the meantime, place the remaining ingredients into the bowl of the Hobart mixer fitted with the dough hook.
3. Once the yeast is active, add to the Hobart bowl and mix on speed 1 until incorporated.
4. Increase the speed to number 2 and knead until bread comes away from the sides of the bowl and is elastic and smooth. Remove from the mixer and place dough into a floured container. Lightly spray the top of the dough with Pam and wrap with plastic wrap.
5. Let dough proof at room temperature until doubled in size (about 2 hours).
6. Once dough is proofed, punch down to stop the proofing process and put into the walk in.
7. Roll the dough with a rolling pin to 1/2" thickness. Using a pizza roller, cut dough into strips about 3" high. Cut each strip into trapezoids that are approximately 3" wide.
8. Place pieces onto a half sheet tray that is lined with parchment and generously floured. Each tray should have 12 pieces (3 orders).
9. Warp the trays, label and place into service lowboy.
10. For service, proof fry bread trays for about 30 minutes (depending on the heat of the kitchen).
11. Fry 4 pieces per order at 375° degrees for about 3 minutes per side.
12. Drain the fry bread in the fryer basket then place onto a parchment lined wire basket for service. Cover liberally with powdered sugar

Bourbon Smash

4-5 Mint Leaves

Strawberries & Blackberries

.75oz Simple Syrup

2oz Good Bourbon (we use Medley Bros.)

.75oz Lemon Juice

Directions: Add mint leaves, fruit and simple syrup to mixing tin, muddle. Add all other ingredients and shake. Pour dirty into a Mason jar. Garnish with a mint sprig.