Bambara's new chef joined us with one of the menu items at the downtown restaurant: Pappardelle Pasta, which is local elk Bolognese, cured egg yok, Rockhill cheese and herbs.
Chef JV Hernandez has 15 years of culinary experience and also brings personal touches to his menu items inspired by his childhood with a fine dining twist.
He's originally from Puerto Rico, and many of his family members were chefs.
At Bambara, he looks forward to creating seasonal menus with local ingredients from local farms.
His new menu, which just launched on November 4, 2024, includes:
- Intermountain Mushrooms Tartine with crème fraiche, pickled mustard seeds, pickled mushrooms, seasoned crispy bits and petite greens
- Shrimp al Ajillo with shrimp butter, pepper crunch, seasoned crispy bits, lemon and grilled bread
- Tuna Crudo with cold smoked tuna, kumquats, marcona, chili citrus and citrus supremes
- Gnocchi with black garlic cream, guanciale, mushrooms and crispy garlic
- Duck with coriander dust, duck foie jus, burnt honey, figs and rutabaga puree
Pasta Recipe
Ingredients
1 cups Semolina
1 cup "00" flour
2 eggs
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
20 Pounds Elk
2 Quarts Yellow Onion
1 Quart Celery
4 egg yolks
1# salt
1# sugar
Instructions:
1. Make the homemade pasta using the recipe below. Dry, freeze, refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Make the cured egg yolks using the recipe below.
3. In a Rondeau pot, cook the elk in a single layer until crispy and fond is being built. As you're cooking the elk, season with salt and pepper.
4. Remove the meat from the pot when the meat is browned and done (keep the fat in the pot).
5. Once all the meat is removed from the pot, cook the mirepoix until translucent and golden but not burnt.
6. Add the tomato paste and slowly cook for about 5 minutes.
7. Deglaze with red wine and reduce until almost dry.
8. Once the wine reduces, add the plum tomatoes, thyme and cook slowly for about 2 hours. You want to leave it to cook as long as possible for the tomatoes to break down and for the flavor to intensify.
9. Once closer to being done, slowly stir the extra virgin olive oil, and taste for salt.
10. In a medium pot, add water and (salty as the sea) and bring to a boil. Cook pasta for about 5 minutes.
11. Mix pasta with Bolognese in a pan, add a bit of lemon juice, butter and finish cooking in low heat until the butter slowly melts. (make sure the flame is not too hot or it'll be oily)
12. Season to taste. Plate and finish the dish with grated parmesan cheese, grated cured egg yolk, and chives
*How to make Cured Egg Yolk:
1. Mix salt and sugar together.
2. Make a bed of the mix for the yolk to sit and gently cover with remaining salt.
3. Refrigerate for a week.
4. Pull from the salt mixture and grate on top of pasta
*How to Make Pasta By Hand
Start by making a mound of the flour directly on the countertop. Make a deep crater in the top and add the eggs, olive oil, and salt. Use a fork to break up the eggs without breaking through the walls of your mound. You want to try to keep the eggs contained, but don't worry if they break through - use a spatula or bench scraper to scoop them back in. Work more and more flour into the eggs a bit at a time. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of cold water across the mixture and keep mixing until you've got a dough coming together. I've found that a spray bottle is my favorite way to add water to pasta dough without adding too much. Use your hands to bring the dough together into a ball and knead for 7-10 minutes, until the dough is silky smooth and elastic.
Form the dough into a ball and place in a plastic bag, alternately, wrap in plastic wrap. Allow to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. Use Immediately, or refrigerate for up to a day. You might be able to get away with two days, but the dough will start to discolor.
At this point either roll the pasta out thinly with a rolling pin or use a pasta maker. If your dough was refrigerated, bring it to room temperature before rolling out. After cutting the pasta into your desired shape you can cook the pasta immediately, dry it, refrigerate it, or freeze it at this point.
When you're ready to cook the pasta do it in a large pot of well-salted water. Depending on the thickness and shape of your pasta, this might just take a minute or so. Reserve a cup or two of the pasta water (in case you want to use it for a sauce), drain the pasta, and use immediately.
You can make a dinner reservation at: https://bambara-slc.com/
