Chef Gerald Hirigoyen, a native French-Basque, shared his recipe for Black-Eyed Pea Salad with Calamari at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Cooking for Solutions. He was one of three chefs who did cooking demos for an appreciative audience on Saturday, May 22. That same day the public could take advantage of the Sustainable Foods Information Fair with booths on sustainable winemaking, organic agriculture and sustainable seafood.
Chef Gerald Hirigoyen, photo by Linda Mensinga
His restaurants Piperade and Bocadillos are both in San Francisco. The chef calls his food at Piperade “West Coast Basque Cuisine” and the menu reflects the robust flavors and cultural heritage of the region. Items such as Braised veal sweetbreads with Madeira, seafood and shellfish soup “ttoro”, duck confit with braised green lentils are a few of his specialties.
His other restaurant Bocadillos is a tapas bar. Tapas include Spanish tortilla, sautéed Serrano ham and eggs, patatas bravas and prawns, crispy garlic, lemon confit.
Chef Hirigoyen has authored several cookbooks: Bistro, The Basque Kitchen and Pintxos: Small Plates in the Basque Tradition.
Black-Eyed Pea Salad with Calamari
(Serves 4-6)
Black-eyed pea salad with Calamari, photo by Linda Mensinga
This recipe is not only delicious but relatively simple to make. Seafood Watch Monterey Bay Aquarium’s list of seafood species to buy) recommends wild squid from all sources. Cleaned calamari already cut into tubes and tentacles cost just $6.99 at Whole Foods.
1 pound whole calamari, cleaned or 3/4 pound cleaned calamari, tubes cut in 1/2-inch-wide rings and tentacles left whole
2 cups cooked black-eyed peas, room temperature cooked (Chef Hirigoyen suggested soaking the beans overnight before cooking)
1 celery stalk, finely diced
1 ripe tomato, cored, finely diced
3 tablespoons shallot, minced
1/4 cup terragon leaves
1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley leaves
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Black pepper, freshly ground
Place a bowl filled with ice water near stovetop.
Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil over a high heat, drop in calamari and cook or exactly 30 seconds. Quickly drain calamari and plunge into ice water. Drain again.
In a large bowl, combine calamari, black-eyed peas, celery, tomato, shallot, tarragon and parsley. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Pour vinaigrette over calamari and black-eyed pea mixture and toss unitl well combined. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
Before serving, let the salad sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or up to 4 hours to allow flavors to blend.
Chef Gerald Hirigoyen
Piperade
San Francisco
Linda Mensinga was editor of Culinary Trends for 15 years, now a contributing writer. If you have a great restaurant, recipe or food you’d like to share please send an email. You can reach her at mensingabakes@gmail.com or Linda@culinarytrends.net.
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