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Fusion Wizard Concocts Cornmeal Masterpiece

by Paul Bass | Jul 27, 2011 11:44 am

(7) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Food, Downtown, Chef Of The Week

He began with butternut squash. He ended with a squirt of sunflower cilantro pesto and a maple balsamic flourish. In between, Pankaj Pradhan built a polenta that can startle even an Italian-American-cuisine hotspot like New Haven.

Pradhan built his butternut squash polenta the other day at the new “vegan-vegetarian” restaurant he opened this month across from the Criterion Cinemas on Temple Street called Red Lentil.

Needless to say, the final product was a vegan’s dream come true—bursting with color and a sensuous balance of textures and flavors. Even the plate was part of his canvas. (Click on the play arrow above to watch Pradhan at work.)

“You eat with your eyes first, then with your mouth,” said Pradhan, a 33-year-old native of India who picked up the secrets of 40 native cuisines while serving as a Carnival Cruise Lines chef before opening the first Red Lentil in Watertown, Mass.

Paul Bass Photo In the kitchen of his new Temple Street outpost, he made the base for his gluten-free, vegan polenta entree by baking a buttnernut squash, mashing it, then mixing it with cornmeal, basil, rosemary, salt and pepper.

He baked a sheet pan of the polenta, then cut three slices. He sprayed them with an olive oil, canola oil, and water mix, then started searing them. “Make sure the grill is nice and hot,” he advised. “you don’t want to grill something for a long time.”

He grabbed five spears of asparagus, coated them with olive oil, threw them on a separate sizzling grill, added pinches of pepper and kosher salt.

While the two grills did their work, Pradhan turned the flame on low to heat up a tomato and oyster mushroom ragout.

As a self-styled “contemporary fusion” chef, he aims to add a modern signature to traditional recipes. You can get eggplant parmesan or chicken paremsan or polenta at any number of fine Italian restaurants, he noted; he’ll make his vegan or dairy-vegetarian, work from scratch with all fresh ingredients, and add an unexpected ingredient or taste, perhaps from another cuisine. He tends to work in threes—creating dishes with proteins, greens and carbohydrates, with several main components that work together.

“Fusion does not mean putting three different things in one plate,” he explained. “You’ve got to blend the tastes. You’ve got to mix the seasonings and the herbs.”

That’s what he did when the polenta slices had just enough brown color on the edges and the asparagus a slightly blackened skin. Pradhan placed the polenta slices on a plate at odd angles, ladled on the ragout, slid the asparagus spears on top. He shook and squirted the sunflower cilantro pesto. Then came the lines of maple balsamic vinegar crisscrossed from one end of the plate, across the piled entree, over to the other end. The scene was a portrait of the artist as a young chef at work.

The final touch: a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. It may have been nice to look at. It was nicer to tear into, however beautiful the untouched art. To paraphrase a popular early ‘80s saying: Forget art; let’s eat.

The eyes ate first. The mouth wasn’t far behind.

Red Lentil Vegetarian & Vegan Restaurant, 25 Temple St., 203-891-7105. Open for lunch and dinner, Monday through Sunday.

Previous installment of “Chef of the Week”:

• Denise Appel/ Zinc

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Comments

posted by: NewHavenFan on July 27, 2011  1:07pm

I tried the sweet potato quesadillas - delicious! And the smoothie I had for dessert was tasty and healthy.  I hope Red Lentil does well - it’s a tough location.

posted by: Bill Saunders on July 27, 2011  5:51pm

Paul

How ‘bout covering some other restaurants as well, rather than just vegetarian ones…...

posted by: SB on July 27, 2011  8:40pm

@ Bill, huh?? how about :

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/erin_go_bar/

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/food_of_the_gods_plans_expansion_into_ice_cream/

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/box_63/

posted by: caring citizen on July 27, 2011  9:39pm

With the rate of obesity in this city we could use more vegetarian restaurants, not another pub serving burgers and fries.
Wishing Red Lentil a prosperous year!

posted by: Steve Ross, Human on July 28, 2011  10:52am

Red Lentil is delicious! Welcome to the Elm, pals!

posted by: Bill Saunders on July 29, 2011  4:47am

SB,

Those links had no reviews of food, just construction and firefighters.
What an amazing microcosm….....

posted by: Dan Kennedy on July 30, 2011  9:53am

Trolling for recipes, eh, Paul? Looks good. Even though we’re not vegetarians, we’ll check out the Red Lentil in Watertown.

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