“Kiss the Chef” is a new venture that pairs me with local artists and personalities inside their kitchens, finding out the culinary delights that they have in the little recipe books in their brains.
Why me? I’m a foodie with a palate for everything from Tibetan momos and Peruvian chaufa, to Indian kulfi and American Twizzlers. I am also a student at the Frost School of Music and program director for WVUM 90.5 FM, so this combines my culinary savvy with performers and personalities, who make Miami such an artistically forward place to be.
Our first chef is Dino Felipe, a Miami-based pop innovator who started upon a nationwide tour last week and wraps up on Oct. 30 at Siberia in New Orleans, La. Felipe is a rare musician whose sheer output and cut-and-paste aesthetics are hard to pin down. With more than 50 albums to his name and a Pitchfork rating higher than Kanye West, base descriptions of his style can only confuse the situation further. His new album, “Onhcet D,” just dropped on Otto Von Schirach’s Triangle Earth label this week.
He has a plantain tree in his backyard that is ready for harvest at his home in Westchester, and I joined him for a hot soup on a cool day, where he outlined the following recipe:
Plantain Soup
Five plantains
Three medium white onions
Three sweet potatoes
Six cloves of garlic
Four carrots
Eight cups water
Three teaspoons of powered black pepper
Two teaspoons of powered red pepper
Two pinches cumin (Dino likes to do throw in two pinches)
Two pinches curry powder
∞ salt to taste
To make the garnish:
1. Use six to eight leaves of sage.
2. Fry in olive oil for two minutes until crisp.
3. Strain on towel, add salt.
To make the soup:
1. Peel and slice all vegetables in 1/4 inch chunks, and peel and dice garlic.
2. Boil water with one tablespoon olive oil.
3. Add vegetables, boil high for 10 minutes.
4. Stir with wooden spoon, reduce to low-medium heat.
5. Let simmer for 45 minutes, stirring every five minutes to develop thick consistency.
Serve hot in a bowl with garnish of sage
Chef analysis: Consistency is thick and cumin is the overpowering spice. An addition of ginger, nutmeg, or dare-I-say pineapple, would bring out the sweet potatoes a bit more. Adding a grilled and chopped filet of fish or lentils would give a nice, well-balanced protein to the meal.
To check out Dino Filipe, visit dinofelipe.withtank.