By Yewande Komolafe, The New York Times
When Barbadian chef Paul Carmichael was reluctant to share a recipe with me, I could relate. I’m also hesitant to share ideas, to brag about my own food, to have to explain what makes my cooking unique.
But I also like to nerd out with other cooks. I love nothing more than getting to the bottom of what makes a dish work.
It was late last summer when Emily Weinstein, my friend and the editor-in-chief of New York Times Cooking and Food, and I went to Carmichael’s Kabawa, in the East Village. We’d been whisked by a host to its cozy dining room and seated by the entrance, in front of a large window. (I’d made a note in the reservation announcing my food allergies, and that I was in a wheelchair, and they were accommodating.)
I took in the beautiful space, the carefully placed Tiffany-style lamps, the (wedged or sliced) fruit garnishing the drinks.
As the playlist blared loudly — thrilling! — I glanced through the menu. Pepper shrimp, hibiscus, cassava, coconut, goat meat, plentiful dips in patterned condiment vessels. There was sourness from tamarind pods, sweetness from dark sorghum or molasses, and heat from Scotch bonnets or jalapeños, who cares? I took every nibble as an invitation to play and engage with the meal.
I felt I was home — if my home were a Caribbean Frank Lloyd Wright.
Carmichael would at times come to our table. It was the first time he and I were meeting in person — I’d been following his work for years — and our conversation flowed easily. Occasionally, while eating the braised goat, I would shake my head, stare wide-eyed with suspicion and surprise, or smile, taking in the intensity and tangibility of the sensations.
He walked next door to his sister restaurant, Bar Kabawa, to get us beef patties, still piping hot, delicate with a buttery crust that shattered with each bite. When cut, they unveiled an abundant meat or vegetable filling, a mix of earthy cumin-coated minced goat or creamy fried chunks of eggplant. I first nibbled, then bit into the patty with reckless abandon as the crumbs scattered across my chin to my scarf and napkin.
“Do you use puff pastry?” I asked him.
“No,” he said. “Who’s got time for that?” We both laughed.
Over eight months, I spoke reverently about those beef patties to my husband. When I returned to Kabawa in January with him for a late-night meal of braised goat meat and cocktails, I could finally share the cooking I had been raving about. Again, Carmichael would return to our table.
When our server presented us with a shallow bowl of cassava dumplings over a Creole sauce, I giggled quietly, recognizing the starchy rootap soft, supple and chewy nature. Here, my friend, cassava’s starch had been pulled and stretched — as when making mochi — making it the ideal vehicle to the savory tomato-pepper sauce spread on the plate. I pressed Carmichael, gently, about the dumplings. Or so I thought: I actually blurted out different ways to ask the same question. And then I asked him what I’d really been wanting to know.
“What is in the beef patty dough? Break it down, to ingredient level? To the elements?”
He smiled and said, simply: Flour, water, salt.
My mind was blown. You mean no yeast? No leavener?
Finally, I asked, “Is there any butter?” “Yes,” he admitted, “there is butter.”
Weeks later, I called Carmichael early on a weekday. Prep had begun for the next day’s service, and his team was starting to roll out the beef patty dough. He explained that he uses an in-house ground goat (a mix of meat, tendon and fat from leg and shoulder) for the filling. The dough uses a well-honed technique. He turned on video calling and held up the phone to show me the cooks’ work station and their process. Yan Torres, the junior sous-chef of pastry, expertly pulled two different doughs into shape.
Readers, please believe me when I say his process is brilliant, innovative, clever! And it works so well. I never could have guessed such a process could be applied to a four-ingredient dough.
But I cannot share every step. What I can share is my version of his recipe.
I liken it to love. I have love in my life that I can’t always readily share widely. It is mine, and I think thatap what makes it so special. It can be guarded and protected, personal or let loose. We are all selective about how much to open the door of our hearts to others.
As Carmichael put it, when talking about layering spices in the patty’s filling: “I know when something is right, and it makes sense to me. The way my palate works, I just love balance.”
He cracked the door to his passion, ever so slightly, and I have flung my recipe’s door wide open.
It is easy for any level of cook, and almost as good as his. It can be made with store-bought frozen or homemade puff pastry and ground lamb or beef. The potatoes, which are absent from Bar Kabawa’s patties, are crushed with the reserved cooking liquid, which helps maintain the fillings’ supple sauciness.
To form the patties, scatter a handful of flour across a work surface. Gently unravel the sheet with conviction, and it will glide while maintaining its composure. Stretch the dough into a rectangle. If it begins to tear, you’ve gone too far. (Don’t worry. Itap endlessly fixable: Trim the edge to press the scraps into any tears.) Brush the sheet lightly with a prepared egg wash, roll it into a spiral and cut it into smaller pieces as you would a slice-and-bake cookie. Roll each round a into circle, then fill, seal and repeat.
The process is technical but simple. You do have to go back and forth between the work surface and your refrigerator to keep the disks cool. But when done, you can breathe a sigh of relief and give yourself a pat on the back. Enjoy the patties hot or warm, alongside pepper sauce, pikliz and cilantro-mint chutney, as a snack anytime of day or a bite to whet your palate before a larger meal. You can even freeze them for a few months, reheating them whenever you need to feel like sharing a moment with a loved one.
But if this all piques your curiosity, too, and if you’re left wondering how good these patties and Carmichael’s cooking can truly be, you may just want to go to his restaurants to find out.
Recipe: Beef Patties
This is an adaptation of a dish served at Bar Kabawa by chef Paul Carmichael in Manhattan’s East Village, where the vibe is casual and the food delicious. These patties are delicate, with a buttery crust that shatters upon bite to reveal an abundant meat or vegetable stuffing. Carmichael, who is from Barbados, uses in-house ground goat meat for his geera goat patties and makes the dough from scratch with a honed technique. This recipe calls for puff pastry sheets and ground lamb or beef. The potato, absent from Bar Kabawa’s version, is crushed, and the cooking liquid saved and incorporated to maintain the filling’s supple sauciness. Enjoy hot or warm, alongside pepper sauce, pikliz and cilantro-mint chutney, as a snack anytime of the day or as a bite to whet your palate before a larger meal.
By Yewande Komolafe
Yield: 10 to 12 servings
Total time: 2 1/2 hours
Ingredients
For the filling:
- 1 small (5-ounce) russet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
- Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 scallions, chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 Scotch bonnet chile, seeds in or out
- 1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, scrubbed and chopped
- 1/2 pound ground lamb or beef
- Black pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/4 bunch fresh thyme (8 to 10 sprigs)
- Peel of 1 small navel orange (save the flesh for another use)
- 1 teaspoon roasted ground geera (also known as roasted ground cumin, see Tips)
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon curry powder, preferably Caribbean-style (see Tips)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/2 cup beef, chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 lime, zest and juice separated
For the pastry:
- All-purpose flour, for work surface
- 2 (14-ounce) boxes puff pastry sheets, defrosted in the refrigerator
- 1 egg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
Preparation
1. Prepare the filling: Add potato to a small pot and cover with 4 cups water. Season generously with salt and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until a knife can fully pierce the pieces without resistance, about 25 minutes. Set aside and let potato cool in the cooking liquid.
2. While the potato cooks, add garlic, scallions, onion, Scotch bonnet and ginger to the bowl of a food processor, and pulse (about 8 times) until the vegetables are evenly chopped and resemble confetti. Set aside.
3. Set a large (10- to 12-inch) skillet over high heat. Add ground meat and season generously with salt and black pepper. Pat down into a single layer and cook, undisturbed, until the meat is light brown on the underside, about 3 minutes. Add bay leaf, thyme and orange peel. Stir into meat, continuing to cook until no part of the meat is pink, 1-2 minutes.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add the geera, smoked paprika, turmeric, curry, allspice, cinnamon and cloves. Stir to combine and toast until fragrant and slightly deeper in color, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
5. Increase heat to medium, add the onion-scallion mix so it coats the meat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the scallion mix softens and begins to brown, 5-6 minutes. Add soy sauce and cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce reduces and the mixture begins to stick to the pan, 2 minutes. Add stock, and simmer until any liquid reduces and mixture releases along the edges and bottom of the pan, 1-2 minutes. The meat should be tender, and if you drag a spatula through the mixture, the path formed by the spatula shouldn’t “fill in.” Remove the bay leaf, thyme sprigs and orange peel. Taste and add salt if necessary.
6. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add potatoes to the skillet, along with 1 cup potato cooking liquid. Crush potatoes with a fork while mixing with meat and aromatics. Cook, adding more liquid 1 tablespoon at a time if needed to prevent stuck bits or scorching, until liquid reduces, and the meat is tender and coated with sauce, 10 to 13 minutes. When the filling is done, a spatula dragged through the sauce should keep it in place. Stir in the lime zest and add lime juice, 1 teaspoon at a time, to adjust acidity. The filling can be cooled, transferred to a sealed container and stored refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator if frozen before use.
7. Prepare the patties: Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly sprinkle a baking sheet with flour and line another baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
8. Prepare an egg wash: In a small bowl, whisk the egg with 1/4 teaspoon turmeric and 1 tablespoon water.
9. Sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface. Remove a puff pastry sheet from its box and gently unfold on the work surface. Brush lightly with prepared egg wash.
10. Starting from one long end, roll the dough up into a log and place seam side down. Slice the dough crosswise into 10 to 12 (3/4- to 1-inch thick) pieces (the number will depend on how wide your pastry sheets are). Move the slices to the lightly floured baking sheet and refrigerate. Repeat for the remaining pastry and add to the floured baking sheet, then return it to the refrigerator.
11. Sprinkle some flour on the work surface again. Take 2 pastry slices out of the fridge at a time, lightly flour them and roll each into a 4-inch round. Brush the surface of one round with the egg wash and place 1/4 cup (58 to 60 grams) in the center. Place the second round over the filling and press along the edge with your thumb. Crimp the edge with a fork to completely seal. Return the unbaked patty to the refrigerator while you work through the remaining dough and filling. You should have 10 or 12 patties. Keep refrigerated or freeze (see Tips), until ready to bake.
12. Move the patties to the parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the tops with egg wash and bake until the pastry is puffed and light brown, about 30 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet and continue to bake until the pastry is golden brown around the edges and tops are shiny, 5 minutes more.
13. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool enough to eat. Serve immediately with pepper sauce, pikliz and cilantro-mint chutney.
Tips
Once the patties have been sealed, you can sprinkle them with flour and move without stacking to a sealed, airtight container. Freeze until ready to bake.
To bake from frozen, heat the oven to 375 degrees. Move the patties to a parchment-lined baking sheet and to the oven. Bake patties until the pastry is puffed, pale and light brown, about 30 minutes. Reduce the oven to 350 degrees. Rotate the baking sheet and continue to bake until pastry is puffed, golden brown at the edges and tops are shiny, 20 minutes more.
Geera (sometimes spelled “jeera”), also known as cumin, is often sold in its roasted, ground form at Indian, Caribbean and some international grocery stores. To make a similar version, you can toast cumin seeds in a skillet over low heat, stirring frequently, until they pop and turn dark brown. Cool completely, then mill the cumin seeds in a spice grinder until they resemble dust. Transfer to an airtight container and store covered at room temperature.
Caribbean-style curry powder is available under several brand names at Caribbean and some international grocery stores. A blend of many spices (coriander, turmeric, black pepper, fenugreek, chiles, fennel, allspice and black cumin, to name a few), with or without salt, it is often sold as “duck and goat curry powder” or “meat seasoning.”
This article originally appeared in .
