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"Ripe To Tell">
Wanna See My Beans Tonight?
October 26, 2007
Its rainy, its cold, its miserable…winter is making a comeback. Get over it, summer is gone and the “Big Chill” is here to stay with us for a while. So why not let Ripe help “ease” you into the frost without surrendering to the winter blues, by dining on some of our “Stick To The Ribs” type food that just conjures up images of a warm fireplace snuggled up close to the spouse, or dog, or blanket, or something you love. Our specials are hot tonight! Start with our appetizer of 24 hour marinated, Slow Roasted Jerk Pork Belly in a Scotch Bonnet-Balsamic reduction, with Sea Beans and Lie Miu greens. What the hell are Sea Beans you ask? Well, I found myself wandering in and out of restaurants in NYC as I usually do on the only day I have to myself--Monday (the restaurant is closed on Mondays, remember?), and stumbled upon these very interesting “so-called” beans on a plate cooked for me at a friends spot. They looked quite interesting, and got the side of me fired up that is always on the lookout for new and exciting ingredients to use at the restaurant. The interesting thing about them was that they weren’t particularly tasty on their own, but it was how it was used in the dish that it was prepared with, that made them quite impressive. The salty brininess of the beans was the perfect compliment to the highly seasoned Oyster Risotto that it was combined with. It was a real treat. A new flavor dimension for my bored to death palate! I barged into the kitchen (I earned my stripes, I’m allowed) and “bribed” the Chef to give me some of the spoils to try in my own kitchen. I may steal the Oyster Risotto recipe one day and “Caribbify” it a bit for the Menu at Ripe. . The Sea beans are also known as glasswort. Eaten raw or cooked, its flavor tastes very much like the saltiness of the ocean, with a sort of grassy, vegetal aftertaste. They are crunchy like snap peas, and grow on beaches and in marshes. After a bit of experimenting, I decided to incorporate the Sea beans into a dish I felt it worked well with. I just add a quick sautéed stalk or two along with Chinese greens to create a contrast to the tangy sweetness of the sauce reduction that comes with the Pork Belly. Let the “belly” settle in yours, and listen to the rain on the zinc roof,(c’mon, use ur imagination, now!) while I prepare a loving plate of USDA Choice Beef Short Ribs in our rich Red Wine Brown Sauce for your main meal. I marry it with garlic mashed potatoes “chok” full of all the goodies like mama used to put-Cream and Butter---made from scratch of course, with “REAL” Idahoan potatoes, not that commercial spud maker gook you get in Mr. Greasyspoon’s Diner. So let’s have a rainy, intimate dinner in the dining room tonight. If di food no warm yu up, den drink a rum! Wray and Nephew is my poison, so buy me one when you reach tonite! As my granddad always said, “If you caant buy a likka, den yu lik a buyer!” Mi Deyah A Wait Pon Yu!
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