“The dish is supposed to be from Spain,” Benito Vidal said. “But we changed it a little bit.”
The dish: “Camarones y Vieras con Ravioli de Langosta,” aka pan-seared sea scallops and shrimp with lobster ravioli in a chipotle, honey chardonnay sauce.
Vidal was busy cooking up a batch during a recent lunch hour in the kitchen of Pacifico at 200 College St. Pacifico is known for “nuevo-Latin” seafood.
In the case of the Camarones y Vieras, that meant a dish with seemingly “everything” in it, as Vidal put it — from pan-seared scallops and shrimp to vegetables and pasta, with flavors both spicy and sweet.
Click on the play arrow above to watch Vidal at work.
Vidal started out with a prepared potato basket. All the cooked ingredients would ultimately be scooped into the crunchy basket. That may not be authentic, but it makes for “a nice presentation,” Vidal said.
First, the chef needed to sear the scallops in a pan of olive oil. When the scallops turned “a little brown,” after about two minutes, Vidal added the shrimp, followed by fresh corn off the cob, chopped tomatoes and scallions.
As the seafood and vegetables cooked over a high flame, Vidal dropped raviolis into boiling water. The lobster-filled raviolis, which had been prepared earlier in the day, danced in the water for about two minutes.
Vidal then lifted them out of the water and slipped them into the saute pan along with the seafood.
He put three ladles full of sauce into the pan. The sauce reflected the “nuevo” in Pacifico’s cuisine. There was chipotle, to be sure, but combined with chardonnay and honey. The combination of the chipotle’s spice with the honey’s sweet is the dish’s essential taste.
“You start eating, and it’s spice, and then it’s sweet,” Vidal said. “A nice flavor.”
Vidal shook the pan over a lowered flame. The sauce simmered and thickened — but not too much. “You don’t want it to be too strong,” Vidal said.
Laurel Leff Photo
Vidal has worked for the company that owns Pacifico and several other restaurants for 10 years. He started working in the kitchen; he didn’t imagine he’d be a chef. The company groomed him. He worked in the group’s Port Chester restaurant as a chef and then came to New Haven’s Pacifico (there’s another one in Pennsylvania) two and half years ago.
Nuevo-Latino doesn’t include many dishes from Vidal’s home country of Mexico. Pacifico offers guacamole and pico de gallo, mostly because customers expect it. “People, they love the guacamole,” Vidal observed.
When the sauce was thicker, but not too thick, the dish was ready for its final presentation. Vidal arranged first the raviolis, then the scallops, and finally the shrimp angled outward on the waiting potato basket. He poured the sauce over the center.
As Vidal promised, the first few bites were spicy, and the lasting experience sweet.
Previous installments of “Chef of the Week”:
• Franco Gonzalez/ Ay Salsa!
• Pankaj Pradhan/ Red Lentil
• Denise Appel/ Zinc
• Tony Poleshek, Jr. / Orangeside
Did someone run over his implements with a truck? For Pete's sake, get the man some All-Clad...he deserves it.