How Legendary Chef Jean-Georges Makes Fried Fish Milanese — Plateworthy with Nyesha Arrington

Hey guys, what's up? I'm Naisha Arrington. I'm here at John George Restaurant. Chef JG himself has invited me here to cook a new dish, a villain sword

fish

with his executive

chef

Noah, uh, come on, welcome to our kitchen, happy to be here. Chef Jeff Noah is our

chef

in full swing at Pier 17. Okay, wow, how is it a new project, no big deal, there's a lot of

fish

, that's why we're here, so today we'd like to introduce you to someone else, a beautiful 250 300 pound sport fish. Actually never buy a whole swordfish because it's very difficult to handle, you need a lot of space to store it, so essentially this is just one side of the fish, right, yes you have two sides, so this is like a quarter, but probably go up.

So far, yes, so you know what fish is. If you cook it too much, there is a tendency to dry out. I'm sure you know that. It's like overcooking a piece of pork but no I'll find a technique but I'll treat it like beef mayonnaise but swordfish mayonnaise wow so we cut them now tell me if I'm cutting it too big or too small because It's your little thinner, thinner, thinner chef, hello, okay, so why do we cut it? At this size, I mean, it's going to be breaded. We, that'll add another layer, I think yours is probably better than mine, although yeah, it's definitely good, thanks chef, you're hired.

Yeah, come on chefs, this is a lot of fun, so here we have all-purpose flour, some eggs and panko, I think you grind it. the panko is a little fine or not, we cook it in a food processor, not very fine, if it goes too long it will basically turn into flour, so I still want some texture, but the panko you take out of the bag is a bit. too thick, I mean, the meat is very similar to hot tuna, totally yes, fatty fish, I mean, I really like it compared to a pork loin, yes, no, it looks like pork, pork or beef, let's call it the beef of the Ocean, oh, nothing we need. so they try me to do this I'll make the flour okay you make the eggs no you make the panko panko sounds like a plan ready a little fun I want a tree come on I mean this definitely

makes

the job go a lot faster as far as Fisher is concerned.

We try to work only with small boats. Well, this one is between trips between Virginia and Montauk. It's a kind of line code. It sure was hard to catch those fish. Yes, it will take a team of three to catch 300 pounds. fishing, I know, I know, we try to work with um just a small boat, they go out in the morning at five or six, they fish all day, they come back at six, two, three in the afternoon, versus big boats that They leave on Monday. they come back on friday four days five days the chimney hits the market it's a week old so we're trying to really work with small jars so here's our beautiful and cool Milanese I might have been fooled it sure looks like a pork loin so we're making a chili fermented with jalapenos, orange and salt is very simple, but it is a staple, a base for many of our condiments.

Of course, he taught me everything I know, but why do you choose jalapenos? We choose jalapenos because we can control the spiciness. a little more than many other peppers it is not very spicy but it offers a good amount of heat good amount of seasoning we blend it with orange peel orange zest we remove all the pith so that all the white comes out so for this chili, fruit, mint , why do you choose to use a kind of peel or the outside instead of the pulp or a little juice? I learned that dish, I mean, I learned that taste in Japan, you know, you'll be too runny. looking for something uh just the orange is just for the flavor yes in Japan they use chilies only in the yuzu zest yes in the fermented one which is my favorite conical is one of my favorites also is the best I used to make one in my restaurant also with tangerines, yeah, the chili ferments not necessarily the traditional way in uh, in millionaires, more just brown butter capers, sure, we add this just because we like a little spice, we want the first bite to be as exciting as the last, so not too much. too pureed I still want a little bit of pulp when it gets uh you know, the cold comes back it smells smell you can smell that is very wow, very aromatic, very spicy, of course, yes, but in 24 hours that flavor is completely stretched and It tames a bit, right? so this is just mixed together, fermented for 24 hours without straining yet and then fully strained very strong afterwards and once you mix it with a little bit of butter in the white it's almost elegant yeah excellent so here for the spring we are using it as a side dish of asparagus watching the noise of the chef using a pumpkin in the winter there are many different ideas of this dish grilled roman asparagus pumpkin with walnuts and honey very very good short season yes spring is all about kind of fresh, simple, acidic green, yeah, so with all kinds of ideas on swordfish Milanese, do you have a favorite?

Do you like spring or winter? I go with whatever jg likes. Okay, chef. I like green things. Yeah, you know, spring summer, for sure. I remember when I arrived in New York. in 86, it was mainly vegetables coming from California or flights from Europe, yes, 1886, where you go to Union Square, it was apple potatoes, that's all. I remember the farmer came to us with a catalog of seeds, why do you want us to grow crops, I said. the complete catalog we want everything on the date now we have to go to the market you have five colored beads, okay, we are ready for the kitchen, okay, so we start with the reduced white wine, right, yes, have a glass, half cup, perfect, perfect, you have. to save some to drink and then we're going to make a brown butter, you can put one of the cubes in, okay, so we'll cook it until it tastes dangerous, okay, kind of nutty, exactly you.

I always want to take it a little further than you think, it should also look like black coffee. We have some time, so rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, parsley, aren't we going to season it? Do you want to make sure there are milk solids in it? butter you're mixing so it doesn't stick to the bottom and burn you want to make sure you get those alphas in there the milk solids are what kind of flavors and they give you that brown nutty flavor yeah after they become more or less caramelize and impart that flavor I'm going to put the herbs in, be careful it will spread a little thank you so flavor the butter I love that smell now the roma is amazing let it sit chili ferment that It is your sauce as long as you have a little chopped parsley. the ending in some campers beautiful oh my god it's mixed in french yeah that's jj's thing so what are we doing next?

We are cooking the swordfish. Yeah, we're basically going to fry it in a pan. We are using grape seed oil. you want to bring the oil to a smoking point before pouring it in. Why grapeseed oil uses neutral oil with a very high smoke point, so it won't give too much flavor to the fish and allows us to get a nice color on the fish, cook it quite hard without burning, it

makes

sense, you conceptualize this dish, everything we do would work, work as a team, never, ever, actually, it's one person, you know, we had beef, pork, fish, etc., vegetables, and I know we go to a fish restaurant , I'm trying to think conceptually, you know what could translate from a meat dish to a fish dish, and this is something that I really like, so we got our swordfish for someone that we trust a lot and that we use. in Fulton Blue Ribbon is the amazing company Warren is my favorite place, shout out to Warren, yes shout out to Warren, he gave us a great swordfish today, nice golden color, you don't want to overcook it or overcook it at all that's right like uh that's yourself yeah because you're going to be ready moisten yourself with some olive oil okay juicy asparagus when I feel like this is a little bit like meat now you gotta rest a little bit you know the juices are probably redistributed. a minute and a half on each side I mean another the jumbo you leave it a little longer put it in uh baste it just be careful yes beautiful beautiful wow it's better than me excellent I love this how does it feel to take care of a Food Hole of 55,000 square feet, what a project so excited to see it, chef, I'll come to work any time, I love it, I feel much more comfortable on this side, you're kidding, we need you in the spring, okay? could be used as a Milanese technique with other fish like monkfish, yes definitely, that would be delicious, and as soon as it comes out of the pan you should season with salt while the oil is hot so that the fish absorbs it and you can also eat a medium half cooked if you like amazing, that's how my dad likes it.

I wish I could give it to my dad there. My dad's well-made guy. totally playing time. I'll play one, you play one. Sounds like a chef's plan, yeah we're going for about eight ounces total, the size of the swordfish loin changes a lot, you know, sometimes we get bigger fish, sure it's a little smaller or yeah, the

milanese

in actually translates in Italian as elephant ear so when you have a big one piece it looks like an elephant here it looks like an elephant yeah so now two elephant ears and then we make the sauce again like a good good amount of sauce chef , don't be shy, no shyness, oh, it's delicious, yes. the sauce makes the dish, so you don't want it to be too dry or anything, but then we finish it with more parsley, a lot of parsley, a little bit of lemon, lemon, voilá, voilá, bad parsley, okay, beautiful, okay , great, she wins, I'm trying to learn that she can work on the phone wow, it's so juicy wow, this is amazing, it's so juicy, so tasty, oh my god, this is delicious, it's amazing how it holds the juice, how it You bring back the flavor and it's beautiful, it's actually a fish, right?

You don't have to like being forced to make pork and you can think outside the box and be almost progressive with ideas in the kitchen. It's amazing, yeah, we're not trying to reinvent the wheel, we want to cook food, that's good. We want cooked food that is amazingly tasty. I hope to see this on the menu and come visit you there. Well, thank you merci merci thank you, thank you for the visit, of course, it is a pleasure, a pleasure, my Valentine's Day, we are together on Valentine's Day, incredible.