- Hey guys, what's up? I'm Nyesha Arrington.
I'm here at Jean-Georges Restaurant.
Chef JG himself has invited me here
to cook through a brand new dish,
a swordfish Milanese with his executive chef, Noah.
Let's go.
- Welcome to our kitchen.
- Happy to be here, chef.
- Chef Noah is our chef at The Fulton down at the Pier 17.
- Okay, wow.
- The Howard Hughes project.
- No big deal or anything.
(All laughing)
- A lot of fish. That's why we're here.
- So today we like to introduce somebody else: swordfish.
- Beautiful.
- 250, 300 pounds. Never buy a whole swordfish, really,
'cause it's it's a lot to handle.
You need a lot of room to store it.
- So essentially this is just one side of the fish,
correct? - [Noah] Yeah.
- You have two sides, so this is like a quarter,
but it probably goes up to here.
So you know, with Swordfish, if you cook it too much
it has a tendency of getting dry.
- [Nyesha] Sure.
- You know? - [Nyesha] Absolutely.
- Like overcooking a piece of veal or pork.
But Noah find a technique of treating like
a veal Milanese but it's a swordfish Milanese.
- [Nyesha] Wow.
- So we cut them.
Now tell me if I am cutting it too big or too small.
Cause it's yours.
- [Noah] Little thinner
- [JG] Little thinner.
- [Noah] Touch thinner.
- [JG] ] Oui, chef.
- All right, there we go. So why do we cut it this size?
- [JG] I mean, it's gonna be breaded
so we, that's gonna add another layer.
I think yours is probably better than mine, no?
- Yeah, definitely.
(Nyesha laughs)
Nyesha wins. You're hired.
- [Nyesha] Yes! It's on, chefs. This is so fun.
- So here we have flour, all purpose,
some eggs and some panko.
I think you grind the panko a little finer, no?
- We do buzz this up in a food processor. Not too fine.
If you go too long it'll turn basically into the flour.
So, we still want some texture to it.
But panko that you get out of the bag
is a little too coarse.
- I mean the meat is very similar to, I would say tuna.
- [Nyesha] Totally.
- It's a fatty fish.
I mean really like when compared to a pork loin.
- Yeah. Oh, it looks like a pork.
- Pork veal from the- let's call it the veal of the ocean.
And I think we need to be three to do this.
I do the flour. - Okay.
- You do the eggs. Noah, you do the...
- [Noah] Panko? - [JG] Panko.
- Sounds like a plan.
- [JG] Ready? - [Nyesha] Lets have some fun.
- One, two, three.
- [Nyesha] Let's go.
I mean, this definitely makes the job go a lot quicker.
- Swordfish, we try to work only with small boats.
- Okay.
- This one is between,
travels between Virginia on Montauk.
It's kind of line coats, for sure.
You know, it's difficult to fish those fish.
- [Nyesha] Yes. It's gonna take a team of three
to pull in a 300 pound fish.
- [JG] I know, I know.
And we try to work with only with small boats.
They leave in the morning at five or six, they fish all day,
they come back at six, at two, three in the afternoon.
Versus big boats who are leaving on Monday,
they come back on Friday on four days, five days.
- [Nyesha] Right.
- By the time it hits the market, it's a week old.
so we try to really work with small boats.
So here's our Milanese!
- Beautiful.
Could have fooled me, it looks like a pork loin for sure.
- So we're making chili ferment, jalapenos, orange and salt.
Very simple, but it's a staple item,
a base to a lot of our seasoning.
JG, of course, he taught me everything I know.
- [Nyesha] So why do you choose jalapenos?
- We choose jalapenos because we can
kind of control the heat a little bit,
more than a lot of other peppers.
It's not extremely spicy,
but it offers a good amount of heat,
good amount of seasoning.
We blend it with orange peel, orange zest,
remove all the the pith, so that all the white comes out.
- [JG] Not Milanese.
- So for this chili ferment,
why do you choose to use sort of the peel or the outside
as opposed to the flesh or some of the juice?
- I learned that dish,
I mean, I learned that flavor in Japan.
You know, it'll be too liquid.
We're looking for something,
just the orange is just for the flavor.
- Yes.
- In Japan they use chilies on yuzu, zest only.
- Yes.
- And they ferment it. It's one of my favorite condiments.
- Its one of my favorites also.
It's the best.
I used to make one at my restaurant also with tangerines.
- Yeah. The chili ferment's not necessarily traditional
in a Milanese. It's more just brown butter capers.
- Sure.
- We added this just 'cause we like a little bit of heat.
- We want the first bite to be as exciting as the last bite.
- [Noah] So not too, not too pureed, right,
still want a little, little bit of pulp.
- When it gets, you know, the color comes back
- Smell, smell. You can smell. That's very-
- Wow.
- Very aromatic. Very spicy. - Beautiful texture, yes.
- But in 24 hours that flavor is changed completely.
It turns up a little bit.
- [Nyesha] Right. - [JG] Voila.
- So this is just blended.
This is fermented for 24 hours, not strained yet.
And then this is strained.
- Before, very sharp.
After.
And once you mix it with a little butter or white wine.
- It's almost elegant, yeah.
- It's very nice. - Excellent.
- So here for the spring,
we're using as a garnish asparagus.
I think Chef Noah is using squash in the winter.
- Use a lot of different ideations of this dish.
So asparagus, grilled romaine, honey nut squash,
very, very good. Short season.
Yeah, Spring is all about kind of fresh, simple, acid-
- Green.
- Yeah.
- So with all the sort of ideations
in the swordfish Milanese, do you have a favorite?
Are you like a spring guy or a winter guy?
- I go with whatever JG likes most.
- Okay. Fair enough Chef.
- [JG] I like the green stuff.
- [Nyesha] Yes.
- For, you know, spring summer
- For sure.
- I remember when I arrived in New York in '86
it was most of vegetables coming from California
or from flying in from Europe.
- Is that right?
- Yes! In '86 you go to Union Square, it was apple potato.
That's it.
I remember the farmer came to us with a seed catalog.
What do you want us to grow? I said the entire catalog.
We want everything.
Now you go to the market, you have five color beets.
- All right.
- Are we ready?
- Allez cuisine!
Okay, so we start with the reduced white wine, correct?
- Yep.
- Have a glass, have a cup.
- Perfect.
- You have to save some for drinking, so.
- And then we gonna do a brown butter.
We can put one, one of the cubes.
- Okay.
- So we are gonna cook it brown
until it has a hazelnut flavor.
- [Nyesha] Okay. Sort of a nutty
- Nutty, exactly.
- You always want take it a little bit further
than you think also, it should look like black coffee.
- We have some thyme.
So rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, parsley.
And we can season our...
- You wanna make sure those milk solids
in the butter that you're mixing it
so it doesn't catch on the bottom and burn.
You wanna make sure you're just getting those off of there.
The milk solids is what kind of flavors
and gives you that like brown nuttiness.
- Yeah. After they sort of caramelize and impart that flavor
- I am gonna put the herbs.
Be careful, it's gonna splatter a little bit.
(Noah claps)
Thank you.
So we're really flavoring the bottom.
- I love that smell.
The aroma is amazing.
- Then that's it. Mademoiselle, chili ferment.
That's the sauce. Then you can add some chopped parsley,
onion, and some capers.
- Beautiful.
- Oh, mixez-vous.
- It's mix in French.
- Yeah.
That's a JG saying.
- So what are we doing next?
- We are cooking the swordfish.
- Yes.
- We're gonna basically shallow fry it in a pan.
We are using a grape seed oil.
You wanna kind of bring the oil up to a smoke point
before you drop it in.
- Why grape seed oil?
- Grape seed oil is a neutral oil
with a very high smoke point.
So it's not gonna really flavor of the fish too much.
- [Nyesha] Sure.
- And it allows us to get a nice color on the fish,
cook it pretty hard without burning.
- [Nyesha] Makes sense. You've conceptualized this dish?
- Everything we do we work on it with the team.
It's never really one person.
You know, we had beef, pork, fish, et cetera, vegetables,
and then I'm going to a fish restaurant,
I'm trying to think of kind of conceptually, you know,
what could translate from a meat dish to a fish dish?
And this is kind of something that I really, really like.
So we get our swordfish from somebody we trust a lot
that we use at The Fulton. Blue Ribbon is the company.
- [Nyesha] Awesome.
- [Noah] Warren is kind of my go-to there.
- [Nyesha] Shout out to Warren.
- Yeah. Shout out to Warren.
He gave us some great swordfish today.
Nice golden brown, you don't wanna overcook it too much
or overcook it at all.
- I'll just tell you the asparagus done.
Cause you're gonna be ready before moi.
So a little olive oil. - [Nyesha] Okay.
- Just the asparagus and I think the small fish
is like meat a little bit, no?
You have to rest it a little bit, you know?
- [Nyesha] Totally.
- The juices thing. - [Nyesha] Redistribute.
- Probably a minute and a half on each side.
I mean I know the jumbo, you leave it in longer.
- You gotta flip it and baste it. Just be careful, yeah.
Beautiful.
- [Chef JG] Beautiful. Wow.
- [Noah] It's better than me.
- [Nyesha] Excellent. I love this.
- How are you feeling
about taking care of a 55,000 square foot food hall?
- Geez. What a project. So excited to see it.
Chef I'll come work for you anytime.
I love this. I'm way more comfortable on this side.
You kidding me?
- We need you in the spring.
- Okay.
- You can use this Milanese technique with other fish
like Monk fish.
- [Noah] Yeah, definitely.
- [Nyesha] Hmm. That'd be lovely.
- And as soon as it comes out of the pan,
you wanna season it with salt while the oil is hot,
so it kind of absorbs into the fish
and you can also eat it medium, medium rare if you like.
- Amazing.
- That's how my dad likes it.
- [Nyesha] I wish I could get my dad there.
My dad's a well done guy.
- Maybe in time? C'est bon.
- [Nyesha] Tutto bene.
(laughing)
- [Noah] I'll plate one, you'll plate one?
- [Nyesha] Sounds like a plan chef.
- [Noah] Yeah. We go for about eight ounces total.
The size of the swordfish loin changes a lot.
You know, sometimes we get in bigger fish.
- Sure. Towards the tail it's smaller or-
- Yeah. Milanese is actually,
kind of translates in Italian to elephant ear.
So when you have a one big piece
that kind of looks like a elephant ear.
- [Chef JG] It looks like an elephant ear.
- Totally does.
- Yeah. So now two elephant ears.
Then we do the sauce.
Again like a good, good amount of sauce, chef.
Don't be, don't be shy.
- [JG] No shy, no shyness.
- [Nyesha] That looks delicious.
- [Noah] Yeah. Sauce makes the dish.
So you don't wanna have it too dry or anything.
And then we finish with more parsley. A lot of parsley.
- [JG] Some lemon. - [Noah] Lemon
- [JG] Voila. - [Noah] Voila.
- [Nyesha] Voila. C'est bon.
- Parsley bae.
(laughing)
- [Nyesha] It's okay? - [Noah] Beautiful.
- [Nyesha] Okay. Cool.
- She wins, I don't anyways.
Trying to learn, she can work down the Fulton.
- She wins at the beginning with her cuts.
- [Noah] Butter her up you know? Wow.
- It's so juicy.
- Wow.
This is, it's so juicy.
- It's good right?
- Very flavorful. Oh my gosh.
This is lovely.
- It's amazing how it returns the juice,
how it returns the flavor.
- And it's beautiful that it's a fish actually, right?
And you don't have to like be forced to do the pork
and you can think outside of the box
and be almost progressive with the ideas and cooking.
It's amazing.
- Yeah. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel, all right.
We wanna cook food that's good.
We wanna cook food that's tasty.
- Amazing. I look forward to seeing this on the menu
and come visiting you guys there.
Well, thank you. Merci, merci.
- Thank you for the visit and thank you for training.
- Of course, my pleasure. My pleasure.
- Val, my Val, my Valentine. We're Valentine's together.
- Awesome.