Matt Basile – Kitchen Revolution Tour: Recipes

By Staff Writer | September 25, 2014 0 Comments

Asian Food Channel’s king of sandwiches and pop-up cooking, Matt ‘Fidel Gastro’ Basile was in town recently to promote his show as well as demonstrate his culinary skills in a live cooking demonstration.

Ex-copywriter turned on-the-go chef Matt Basile recently visited Asia to kick off the premiere of his cooking series ‘Rebel Without a Kitchen – Season 2’ on the Asian Food Channel, StarHub TV 435 on 11 September 2014.

We had the opportunity to watch Matt showcase his unique culinary skills, which draws inspiration from Italian cuisine and the diverse North American street food scene. He was also joined by Matthew Fergusson-Stewart, a veteran of the whiskey industry and the Regional Brand Ambassador for William Grant & Sons, who shared tips with us on how to pair The Balvenie with food.

We got to learn the recipes for three of his scrumptious and unconventional dishes – Peruvian Meatballs, Sweet and Sour Beef Cheese Steak Sandwich and Jar-a-misu:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peruvian Meatballs (Served with Balvenie 21YO)

Ground lamb meatballs served in a cumin and turmeric based tomato chili sauce topped with crumbly cheese and green onions.

(Serves 6 to 10)

Ingredients:

2 sweet yellow peppers

1 red onion

250 mL of olive oil (approx)

6 garlic cloves

1 bunch of cilantro

1 jar (300g) of aji Amarillo yellow Peruvian peppers

1 can (500 mL) of tomato sauce

¼ lb of salted butter

1 lb of fatty ground beef

2 lbs of ground lamb

1 tablespoon of cumin

1 tablespoon of smoked paprika

1 tablespoon of dried chilli flakes

1 tablespoon of ginger powder

1 tablespoon of kosher salt

1 tablespoon of black pepper

½ cup breadcrumbs

4 eggs

1 bunch of green onions, finely chopped

½ cup of queso fresco cheese

Wooden skewers

The Sauce

• Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
• Chop the yellow pepper and red onion into small chunks.
• Toss the yellow pepper and red onion into a bowl with the olive oil.
• Add the garlic, and mix them around to coat.
• Transfer them to a baking pan, and roast for approximately 12 minutes or until nicely charred and soft.
• Take the vegetables out of the oven, and blitz in a food processor until it’s a chunky sauce.
• Cut the cilantro into large pieces, discarding the roots.
• Add the cilantro and the jarred yellow peppers to the food processor, and give it a good blitz.
• Once fully blended, warm a large sauce pan with a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat and stir.
• Add the tomato sauce to the pepper sauce.
• Stir in the butter, reduce heat to low, and let it simmer while you make the meatballs.

The Balls

• Mix the pork and lamb meat in a bowl until fully mixed.
• Add the cumin, paprika, dried chilies, ginger powder, salt and pepper.
• Stir quickly and add the breadcrumbs and eggs and mix.
• Add about 250 mL of water to the bowl, and then mix and form meat into 3-oz meatballs.
• In a pan with some oil over high heat, sear the balls for approximately two minutes or until crusty on the outside.
• Once the meatballs are cooked, add them to the pepper sauce.
• Cook the meat in the sauce for approximately 45 minutes.

Finishing touch

• Skewer the balls, place them on a serving platter, and drizzle a tablespoon of sauce over them.
• Garnish with green onion, crumbled queso fresco cheese.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet and Sour Beef Steak Sandwiches (Served with Balvenie 12YO Doublewood)

Shaved raw beef cooked in a sweet and sour sauce topped with sautéed garlic soy bok chou and a carrot, daikon, jalapeño slaw on a ‘Philly’ style hoagie bun.

(Serves 4 to 6)

Ingredients

1 cluster (300 g) of ginger

1 L of soy sauce, divided

250 mL of ginger beer

Juice from 3 lemons

500 mL of honey

2 lbs of raw beef sirloin, striploin or ribeye, thinly sliced (Note: keep meat cold)

4 large carrots

1 large Daikon radish

3 jalapeno peppers

Kosher salt, to taste

2 L of rice wine vinegar (approx)

3 L of water (approx), divided

1 package (500 g) of bok choy

1 bunch of cilantro (approx)

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

¼ cup of olive oil

5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

250 mL of ketchup

6 to 8 hoagie style buns

Marinating The Meat

• Peel the ginger, cut it into chunks, and place into a blender or processor.
• Blend the ginger chunks until it becomes almost a purée but still having some small chunks in it.
• Transfer blended ginger into a large bowl, and add 500 mL of soy sauce and all of the ginger beer.
• Add the lemon juice and honey into the bowl, and lightly whisk the contents to prevent the honey from clumping.
• Pull the cold sliced beef meat apart and place it into the bowl of marinade and ensure all meat slices are coated evenly by the marinade.
• If your marinade requires more liquid, continue to add a little more soy sauce.

The Slaw

• Peel the carrots and the radish, cut the tips and bottoms off and cut the carrots in half and the radish in thirds.
• Using a mandolin, create matchstick pieces from the vegetables.
• If you are using your knife, first cut lengthwise into the carrots and radish so you have flat pieces of veg.
• Then, julienne the vegetables to preferred thickness.
• Slice the jalapeno peppers as thin as possible.
• Only use all of the jalapeno peppers if you want your slaw to have some serious kick or use no jalapeno peppers if you want zero kick.
• Mix all the cut vegetables in a container and lightly salt entire mixture (no more than 2 tablespoons)
• Add enough rice wine vinegar to the container for half the slaw to be covered.
• Add up to 2L of water to the container until the slaw is fully covered.
• Use an 80/20 mixture so the slaw will be ready in approximately 1 hour.
• Don’t discard the pickling liquid but put it into a jar and keep in the fridge for future use.

Making The Sandwich

• Bring the remaining 1L of water to a boil in a medium pot.
• Flash cook the bok choy for 5 minutes or until color of the bok choy has brightened.
• Pick and clean as much cilantro as you desire.
• Take the slaw out of the vinegar solution, draining as much of the liquid as possible.
• Place slaw into a clean, dry bowl, and toss with the sesame oil and cilantro. Season to taste with salt if needed.
• Pour some olive oil in a wok or skillet over high heat, and add the finely chopped garlic, marinated meat, and the liquid from the marinade.
• Sear meat for approximately 2 minutes.
• Add the bok choy, ketchup and the remaining soy sauce in all three stages of your meat, and toss to coat all contents.
• Grab a hoagie bun, fill it with the saucy meat/bok choy, and top it off with the slaw. Repeat with remaining buns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jar-a-misu (Served with Balvenie 17YO Peated Cask)

Traditional Italian tiramisu with a chocolate twist! Layers of coffee soaked lady fingers and topped with Nutella Marscapone in a mason jar.

(10 servings)

Ingredients

40 Lady Fingers (4 per jar)

3 cups Drip Coffee or/ Espresso

2 oz of rum extract (if available)

Nutella Marscapone Cream

1 cup heavy cream

2 large egg yolk

¼ cup sugar

1 jar of Nuttella (leave out for room temperature)

1 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese, softened

10 (250ml) Mason Jars

• Over a double broiler on medium heat, whisk in egg yolks and sugar until thick.
• Empty the pan and let sit in the fridge for an hour.
• In a separate bowl, mix marscapone, nutella and cream and then stir in egg yolk mixture.
• In mason jar, lay lady fingers down flat at the bottom of the jar.
• Pour coffee and rum mixture over lady fingers to coat evenly.
• Spread marscapone mixture over lady finger layer.
• Repeat this process once more for 2 layer tiramisu.

 

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