Palmito with Malagueta Pepper Sauce
Rich Landau opened his first vegetarian restaurant in 1994. He and his wife Kate Jacoby are owners and chefs at Vedge.
Brazilian cuisine is still relatively mysterious in America. Exotic and hard-to-pronounce dishes like feijoada and moqueca may seem unapproachable, or the recipes are laden with hard-to-source ingredients such as palm oil or açaí. But Brazilian food deserves a special place in world cuisine as its uniqueness defies comparison. Our most memorable food moment on a trip to Brazil took place in a jaw-dropping outdoor restaurant space etched into the hillside neighborhood of Santa Teresa in Rio. There, we feasted on giant fresh hearts of palm, fileted tableside and served with a simple herb oil. Underneath a canopy of tangled floral vines that danced their way through ancient treetops, we sipped a local pink wine and dipped toasty cassava rolls in just a bit of malagueta pepper sauce. It was divine. This recipe is a little kick-start to bring home some Brazil.
- Servings 4
Ingredients
- 45 ml (3 tablespoons) sunflower oil
- 15 ml (1 tablespoon) Latin Spice Blend*
- 15 ml (1 tablespoon) malagueta pepper sauce (substitute equal parts Tabasco and sriracha)
- 5 ml (1 teaspoon) minced garlic
- 10 ml (2 teaspoons) dried oregano
- 10 ml (2 teaspoons) Worcestershire sauce
- One 454 grams (16-ounce) can whole hearts of palm (palmito)
* Click for Latin Spice Blend recipe
Preparation
1. If using bamboo skewers (as opposed to metal) soak them in water for at least 30 minutes before grilling.
2. Whisk together the oil, Latin Spice Blend, pepper sauce, garlic, oregano, and Worcestershire sauce in a medium bowl until smooth.
3. Cut each palmito stick into three 4 cm (1 ½ inch) plugs then toss them in the marinade and let them sit for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours.
4. Preheat a chargrill to high or a grill pan over high heat and skewer the plugs of palmito, 3 to 5 per stick.
5. Grill the skewers for 3 minutes or until you achieve nice char marks, flipping and rotating once. Serve immediately or chill until ready to serve.
Rich Landau & Kate Jacoby
Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby are the husband-and-wife chefs and owners of Vedge, a modern vegetable restaurant that opened in 2011 to rave reviews from diners and critics alike and V Street, a global street food bar where the vegetables remain the center of the dish. Landau has been at the forefront of vegetarian dining since 1994, when he opened his first restaurant. In 2009, he served the first-ever vegan dinner at the James Beard House. In 2015, he was listed as a finalist for the James Beard award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. Jacoby is Vedge’s pastry chef and manages its cocktail and wine program. In 2015, she was listed as a semifinalist for the James Beard award for Best Pastry Chef. They live in their native Philadelphia.
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