Michael Cimarusti brings warm lobster rolls to The Dish

Michael Cimarusti's love of cooking and commitment to sustainable fish has earned him the title "Seafood King of Los Angeles," but he actually got his culinary sea legs on the East Coast.

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, he stuck to his East Coast roots and worked in New York, including a three-year stint at Le Cirque. He eventually moved his sustainable seafood out west and is currently the owner and chef of Providence restaurant in LA, which will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in June.

Cimarusti has just received his fourth nomination for the James Beard Award in the Best Chef: West category.

Here's how to cook a few of his signature recipes, including: warm lobster roll, Manhattan clam chowder, smoked bluefish or Spanish mackerel dip, Josephine's clam fritters, stuffies, whoopie pies and a Born in East L.A. cocktail to drink.

Warm lobster roll

Yields 4 rolls

Ingredients:

4ea. 1.25 lb. Lobsters, steamed, de-shelled, and cut

Into 1" chunks

1 lb. Melted salted butter

4ea. Traditional split-top hot dog buns

2oz. Clarified butter

1oz. Chopped chives

Sea salt

Cayenne pepper

Procedure:

Brush the buns on both sides with the clarified but ter. Toast the buns in a dry non-stick pan on both sides until golden brown and warmed through. Hold the buns in a warm place until the lobster is ready. Melt the salted butter over medium heat in a double

Boiler. Put the lobster into the butter and allow it to warm through for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the lobster from the butter, save the butter*. Season the lobster with a pinch of sea salt and a little cayenne. Divide the lobster among the 4 rolls and garnish with the chopped chives. Serve with fries and a pickle. *the butter can be saved and used when making other shellfish or fish dishes. The butter quickly becomes infused with the flavor of the lobster. If you like you can blend the butter with an immersion blender while it is still hot, freeze it in ice cube trays and then store it in plastic bags to be used when needed. Recommended uses include: it can be used to finish a pasta sauce it can be emulsified into lobster bisque as a thickener for a sauce for fish or shellfish.

Manhattan clam chowder

Ingredients:

2oz. Olive oil

4oz. Salt pork

4oz. Pancetta

10oz. Medium yellow onion

8oz. Carrots, peeled and diced

6oz. Celery, diced

1pinch chili flake

1ea. Anaheim or jalapeno peppers, diced

1ea. Bouquet garni (thyme and bay leaf)

2cloves chopped garlic

375ml. Btl. White wine

1 32oz. Can san marzano tomatoes

40oz. Clam juice

40oz. ½" dice peeled, russian banana fingerling potatoes

40oz. Chopped cherrystone clams

Sea salt to taste

Extra virgin olive oil and celery leaves, to garnish

Procedure:

Dice the salt pork and then run it under a cold tap for 1/2 hour to remove most of the salt. Place a large soup pot over a medium flame and add the olive oil. Add the pancetta and salt pork. Moderate the heat so that the pancetta and salt pork render without coloring. After the meats have rendered for several minutes, add the onions, carrots, celery, chili flake, and anaheim pepper. Sweat until onions are translucent and vegetables are soft, about five minutes.

Add bouquet garni and chopped garlic. Cook until garlic becomes aromatic. Add the white wine and cook out alcohol for a few minutes. Add the san marzano tomatoes, clam juice, and the potatoes; turn up the heat so that the broth comes to a simmer. Cook the chowder until the potatoes are cooked through. Remove the chowder from the fire and chill it as quickly as possible. Refrigerate the chowder over-night.

When you are ready to serve the chowder place it back on the fire and bring it to a simmer, hold the soup at that temperature for 5 minutes, before adding the chopped clams. Allow the clams to cook for 3 minutes before serving. Before serving taste the soup for seasoning. Usually there is enough salt in the clam broth and the clams themselves.

Serve the chowder piping hot with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and the soft leaves from the celery as a garnish, if you like.

Smoked Bluefish or Spanish mackerel Dip

Ingredients:

2# Smoked Bluefish or Spanish mackerel

9oz. Crème Fraiche

1jigger Tabasco

2jiggers Worcestershire

1oz. Finely chopped chives

1pinch Sea Salt

1lemon Zest of

½ red onion Finely sliced and quickly pickled with red wine vinegar and salt.

To prepare the fish for smoking:

Go out and catch a 10to12# Wild Bluefish off the coast of New York or New Jersey. Filet the fish and grill one filet the day you catch the fish, reserve the other fillet for this recipe. Begin with at least 3.5# Bluefish or Spanish mackerel filet. The fish will loose water weight as it cooks and you will be removing, bones, skin and the bloodline after cooking.

Before smoking the fish you will need to brine the fish. Prepare a liquid brine that is 8% salinity. Place the fish in the brine and then place it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. After 2 hours remove the fish from the brine and rinse the fish briefly under a cold tap to remove excess salt. Place the fish, skin-side down on a towel lined cookie sheet, cover the fish with cheese cloth and place it back in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours before smoking. If you are using a temperature controlled smoker you'll want to set the smoker to a relatively low temperature so as not too dry out the fish. I prefer to smoke the fish with apple or alder at 155 degrees for 2 hours.

Allow the fish to cool after it has been smoked. Once the fish is cool, remove the skin, all bones and the bloodline. Flake the fish with your hands. Try to keep the fish in large pieces as much as possible; it will break down a bit further when you add the rest of the ingredients.

Once the fish is prepared place it in a mixing bowl and fold in the remaining ingredients, except for the chives and the red onions. Once you have incorporated everything check the dip for seasoning. It may need a pinch more salt or perhaps a little lemon juice. Once you are happy with the flavor of the dip incorporate half the chives, place the dip in a serving bowl and garnish with the other half of the chives and the pickled red onions. Serve the dip with saltines, or grilled slices of baguette.

Josephine's clam fritters

Ingredients:

4ea. Farm fresh eggs

28 oz. Chopped razor clams

5oz. Clam juice

.5oz. Tabasco

4tsp. Baking powder

7oz. Milk

15oz. Ap flour

2tsp. Sea salt

Procedure:

Sift together all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl beat the eggs. Add the razor clams and the clam juice to the eggs. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg and clam mixture, being careful not to over-mix. Add the milk to the batter once the rest of the ingredients have been well combined. The batter should be thick. Allow the batter to stand for several hours before using. The batter should be scooped into 300 degree canola oil using a medium sized ice cream scoop. The fritters need to fry for 8 minutes, stir the oil occasionally during the cooking process to ensure even color. Once the clam cakes are cooked, remove them from the oil and drain them well. Roll them around on absorbent towels and season with maldon salt before serving. Serve

The fritters immediately.

Stuffies

Yields 24 stuffies

Ingredients:

2.5oz. Extra virgin olive oil + more to finish

8oz. Small diced linguiça

4oz. Small diced onion

4oz. Small diced red bell pepper

1/2oz. Chopped garlic

6oz. Fresh bread crumbs + more to finish

12ea. Large cherrystone clams, shucked, shells reserved and rinsed

1 pinch sea salt

1 small lemon, (zest of)

1oz. Fresh chopped italian parsley

2 jiggers tabasco

1 jigger worcestershire

Procedure:

Rinse the clams well and place them in the freezer for an hour, meanwhile prepare the vegetables and the sausage. Remove the clams from the freezer and shuck them, being sure to save their shells. Chop the clam meat and hold it in the refrigerator while you prepare the recipe. Warm a large non-reactive saucepan over a medium-high flame. Add the olive oil. When the olive oil begins to shimmer in the pan, add the sausage and begin to render it out. Once the sausage has given up most of its fat add the onion and the bell pepper, cook this mixture for several minutes while stirring until the onions are translucent and the peppers are soft. Add the garlic, stir it into the mixture and cook it until it becomes aromatic. Just before removing the mixture from the fire add the clams, the lemon zest, the chopped parsley the tabasco and the worcestershire. Transfer this mixture to a bowl that is resting in a larger bowl filled with ice water. It is imperative to cool this mixture as quickly as possible. Mix the breadcrumbs into the stuffies and season to taste with the sea salt. To finish, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking tray with ½" layer of salt to keep the stuffies from tipping over. Divide the stuffies mixture among the 24 clamshells and lace them on the baking tray. Sprinkle the extra breadcrumbs over the stuffies. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the stuffies to moisten the breadcrumbs. Bake the stuffies at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until they are warmed through and golden brown. Serve immediately.

Whoopie pies

Cake:

2 eggs

14 oz. Sugar

1 tbs vanilla extract

8 oz. Vegetable oil

25 oz. Buttermilk

1 tsp. Salt

15 oz. Ap flour

8.25 oz. Cocoa powder

1 tbs. Baking soda

1 tsp. Baking powder

Filling:

3 oz. Pasteurized egg whites

20 oz. 10x confectioner's sugar

27 oz. Butter

1 scraped vanilla bean

Procedure for the cake:

Sift together the dry ingredients; place them in a large mixing bowl. Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl, in a third mixing bowl, combine the buttermilk, vanilla extract and the vegetable oil and then combine these ingredients with the eggs. Fold the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until a smooth batter is achieved, do not over-mix. Allow the batter to stand for at least an hour before moving on to the next step. Pre-heat an oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Place the batter into a piping bag and pipe the batter out onto parchment lined sheet pans. Deposit the batter into an area that is roughly 2" in diameter. Allow lenty of space between the whoopie pies, as they will spread out when baked. Bake for 8 minutes, turn the sheet pans at the 4 minute mark to ensure even baking. Allow the pies to completely cool before filling them. Procedure for the filling: place the butter in a mixer with the scraped vanilla bean and cream the butter on high speed with the paddle attachment. Sift the sugar and add it to the creamed butter along with the egg whites. Continue processing until the mixture is light and fluffy. Place the filling in a piping bag with a startip.

Assembly:

Pair the cakes up according to size. Pipe a generous amount of filling onto one side of the cake and place a second cake on top. The whoopie pies can be eaten immediately or stored for up to 2 days under refrigeration. Be sure to warm the whoopie pies back up to room temperature before serving. The filling will hold for up to one week in the refrigerator, but it should be re-whipped with a mixer before using.

Born in East L.A.

Yields 1 cocktail

Ingredients:

2 oz reposado tequila

1 oz tamarind puree

.75 oz lime

.75 oz simple syrup

4 drops Xocolatl mole bitters

4 drops Hellfire habanero shrub

Rim glass with a mix of:

Kosher salt

Sugar

Arbol chili powder

Atomic chili powder method:

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker and serve over ice.