New Orleans Kitchen Notebook
An in-depth look at some of our favorite dishes, cocktails, and coffee from our time on the ground in New Orleans.
Hot Dog Roti
Turkey and the Wolf Chefs Nathan Barfield and Phil Cenac claim that Fripper’s Meats + Goods makes “legitimately the best hot dog.” So when the Atlanta-based company sent the chefs a sample case of their all-beef dogs, they held onto the product until inspiration struck. Having previously served fried pot pies made with roti paratha dough, the chefs envisioned a new dish: a deep fried, roti-wrapped pig-in-a-blanket (full recipe here). They landed on swiping a mix of yellow mustard and sambal on a disc of roti dough and wrapping it around the hot dog. It’s fried until the roti is golden and puffy, and the dog is crispy, snappy, and supremely juicy on the inside. It’s treated with a healthy squiggle of chicken bouillon-infused mayo and a flurry of toasted sesame, house-made furikake, cilantro, and white onion. “I think it’s nostalgic, eating a pig-in-a-blanket,” Cenac says. “Serving it with different flavors that you wouldn’t normally see a hot dog with, I think it makes it craveable.”
A Briny Brew
There are flavors of dirty martinis and Campari behind the bar at Congregation Coffee, though there aren’t any spirits in sight. Roaster Zoe Underhill features a coffee from Felipe Arcila out of Quindio, Colombia that undergoes 200 hours of fermentation, creating a super complex and funky brew. While most coffees see 12 to 48 hours of fermentation, the Felipe Arcila leans on a natural process and anaerobic fermentation, with the cherries left seed-in and all oxygen removed to maximize the length of time the fruit can age. Underhill finds careful balance with a darker roast to bring out body and approachable, dark chocolate notes, while maintaining its unique, bitter orange flavor and briny aroma. Sourcing experimental, single origin coffees and shining light on their process allows Congregation to prioritize equity in the coffee industry. “So much of what we do is reliant on the growers doing an excellent job as well,” says Congregation Owner Eliot Guthrie. “This is a fun opportunity to remind us of that.”
My Ride’s Here
On many a back bar, there’s that one spirit that gets overlooked, collecting dust until a curious patron is feeling particularly adventurous. Bartender Colin Bugbee, formerly of Cure, uses the My Ride’s Here cocktail as an opportunity to bring that forgotten bottle to the forefront. The drink features slivovitz, a Serbian blue plum brandy that is “notoriously difficult to work with.” The spirit is complex, with notes of almond, bracing astringency, and a funky floral aroma, so Bugbee matches it with equally strong players. First, he combines crème de cacao with a hit of salt and citric acid to achieve bittersweet, salted chocolate vibes. “[The salt and citric acid] work with each other to brighten up the acidity and give it savory depth on the other side,” he explains. Next, he adds Oloroso sherry to enhance nuttiness and salinity while doubling down on the “dessert-esque” palate. The Negroni-style build finds harmony between three spirits in (almost) equal parts, tied together with a salted maraschino cherry garnish.
The Cane & Table Flan
Raised in a Cuban-American household, Chef Alfredo Nogueira has a mother who is notorious for her sweet tooth. “My mom has to have dessert at every meal,” he says. “Whether it’s composed like bread pudding, or some days even just Jell-O, there has to be something sweet.” But her famous flan, which she served at nearly every family function, is what Nogueira remembers most fondly. So when developing the menu for the Cuban-inflected restaurant, Cane & Table, he knew his mother’s flan could anchor the dessert section (full recipe here). Her recipe was a bit too sweet for Nogueira, so he balances the condensed milk with equal parts evaporated milk and house-made crema. The custard gets poured over a base of a sticky, just-nearly-burnt caramel. He lets the flan bake in a water bath until well set, then allows it to cool overnight. Sliced and covered with more caramel, the flan is firm enough to keep its shape, holding a lush, creamy mouthfeel with just a touch of tang, reminiscent of cheesecake.
Second Line
Bartender Shannon Brandon’s love of New Orleans happened at first sight. “I was immediately excited by the city and the vibrancy,” says Brandon. Now as the assistant bar manager of Jewel of the South, she channels that energy into the Second Line cocktail, named after the celebratory parades that often run through the city streets (full recipe here). “People are happiest in second lines.” To capture the colorful nature of New Orleans, Brandon decided to riff on the red-hued modern classic: the Naked and Famous. She incorporates peppers into the mezcal, Yellow Chartreuse, Aperol, and lime mixture as a nod to Creole cooking’s holy trinity. She uses peppers two ways, infusing the Aperol with jalapeño and tossing a bit of diced red bell pepper into the shaker. “Having the sort of savory-but-vegetal flavor works really well,” says Brandon. She puts one final spin on the drink by adding a touch of Bigallet Thym Liqueur, which complements the peppers and calls back to core flavors of southern cooking.
Miss River BBQ Shrimp
Before Kelley Schmidt was hired as the chef at Miss River, he met with Rising Stars alum Alon Shaya for a weekend-long food tour of some of New Orleans’ most iconic restaurants. They ate at all the classics—Bevi’s Seafood Co. for crawfish and po’ boys, Willie Mae’s Scotch House for fried chicken, and Pascal’s Manale, where they ate Louisiana BBQ shrimp straight from the source. The shrimp smothered in a rich, Worcestershire-based emulsion has been an iconic New Orleans dish since its inception. When he was designing a version for the Miss River menu, Schmidt focused on emphasizing the seafood flavor of the dish without straying too far from the original (full recipe here). By roasting shrimp shells and emulsifying oyster liquor into the traditional combination of Worcestershire, butter, heavy cream, lemon juice, and heaps of black pepper, Schmidt’s sauce base becomes warm, bold, and addictive. He poaches head-on, local shrimp in the BBQ sauce, then reduces the sauce, and serves it all with a sesame-crusted, persillade-smeared sourdough toast—a green and garlicky vehicle for mopping up the plate.
