What’s for dinner? SC chef ambassadors share menu for James Beard House

Pickled shrimp and trout croquettas. Chicken wings stuffed with collards and pimento cheese. Braised Mibek oxtails over Carolina Gold rice middlins. Pecan pie and Battery punch.

These are just a few of the foods being prepared by South Carolina’s four chef ambassadors when they head to New York City to cook at the prestigious James Beard House.

The four – Orchid Paulmeier, Forrest Parker, Ramone Dickerson and Teryi Youngblood – will cook lunch and dinner Tuesday using products grown in South Carolina. There will be around 125 guests for lunch, mostly media, and about 80 at dinner.

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“Hopefully we’re bringing things that folks in New York haven’t seen before,” said Parker, chef and consultant with undiscoveredcharleston.com. “When you talk about cooking as an expression of locale or terroir, you could take the idea of shrimp and grits and make it in New York City, with products sourced from New York City, and it would probably be pretty fantastic. But to get shrimp directly from Tommy Edwards off Shem Creek – it tastes like our waters, it tastes like the intense salinity and the intense minerality that we have in our Lowcountry waters. You put that into a dish ... it is something that you can’t really export.”

Kristian Niemi, chef at Bourbon in Columbia and ambassador of Discover South Carolina’s Satisfy Your Thirst campaign, will be preparing cocktails for lunch and dinner; and Brandon Velie, chef of Juniper in Ridge Spring and a former chef ambassador, will contribute a dessert at lunch.

The dinner cocktails — the Sumter 75 and Carolina Fashioned — are Niemi’s takes on classic cocktails using uniquely South Carolina products.

Parker said “in the Sumter 75 cocktail, we have the Bradford watermelon molasses. The story about the Bradford watermelon is fantastic and then there’s the story about this technique ... in the 19th century, there was this whole process of reducing fruit down into molasses. So this 30-pound Bradford watermelon is essentially juiced and reduced down to molasses and that’s used as a basis for a sauce, or in this case, a cocktail. The story is compelling because it’s not only a product that is specific to the history of South Carolina that we lost with the advent of truck farming in the late 19th century (Bradford watermelons were too fragile to stack very high for transporting), but it’s also about a technique that has been forgotten about and we’re bringing both to New York.”

The Carolina Fashioned, Niemi’s reimagining of an Old Fashioned, will use just-released High Wire rye whiskey from Charleston that has been “washed” with African runner peanuts — a “new” old crop that has been brought back into production by the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation and Clemson Coastal Research & Education Center. Niemi will pulverize the peanuts so that the natural oils can be released and infuse the rye whiskey. The whiskey is then chilled for a while and filtered to remove the peanut solids. The drink will also feature loquat preserves and purple ribbon cane sugar.

Related: Some SC growers reviving crops not seen for generations

The four chefs chose dishes they felt most comfortable preparing, in some cases altering their tried and true recipes to use ingredients sourced specifically from South Carolina.

That’s why you find on the hors d’oeuvres list Jimmy Red corn sopes, a traditionally Latin dish, similar to a thick tortilla with black beans and meat. But in this iteration, Chef Orchid Paulmeir of Hilton Head’s One Hot Mama’s uses a revived variety of red corn that was once popular in the state to make the sope. It also features newly re-introduced Sea Island peas in place of black beans, and draws on Paulmeir’s Filipino background to top the dish with Korean shortrib.

Youngblood’s specialty is fish. So the chef at Greenville’s Passerelle Bistro will be preparing trout for lunch and sheepshead, a fish that is gaining popularity on Southern menus, for dinner.

And, yes, Dickerson will be serving up some stuffed chicken wings. Let’s see if New Yorkers can eat just one.

LUNCH COCKTAILS

Bradford Bramble: Charleston Distilling Barrel Aged Gin, Bradford Watermelon syrup, Jack Rudy Tonic, Pickled Watermelon Rind garnish

Battery Punch: Copper Horse Distilling Bold Rum, Charleston Plantation Earl Grey Tea, SC Peaches, Tippleman’s Burnt Sugar and Muscadine sparkling wine

Prepared by Niemi

LUNCH MENU

Carolina Gold Arancini: Anson Mills Arancini, Ossabaw Pulled Pork, Carolina Gold BBQ

Prepared by Paulmeier

Cowpea Fritter: West African Cowpea Fritter, Palm Oil Vinaigrette

Prepared by Parker

Miso Confetti Corn: Fried green tomato canape, kewpie aioli, confetti corn, cojita cheese.

Prepared by Dickerson

Plantation Rice Salad: Plantation rice with pea salad and okra pickle

Prepared by Youngblood

DESSERT TASTES

SC Peaches & Cream: Titan Farms Peaches with Cornbread Cake, Hickory Hill Farms Buttermilk Whipped Cream, Minted Carolina Moon Moonshine Syrup

Palmetto Pecan Pie: Virgil Kaine Bourbon & Maple Pecan Pie with Nuthouse Pecans

Prepared by Velie

DINNER COCKTAILS

Sumter 75 Cocktail: Bradford Watermelon, High Wire New Southern Revival Brand Bourbon Whiskey (Madeira Finish), Cava, Purple Ribbon Sugarcane

Carolina Fashioned: African Runner Peanut-washed High Wire Distilling Rye Whiskey, Ribbon Cane Syrup, Loquat Preserves, House Bitters, King Cube

Prepared by Niemi

PASSED HORS D’OEUVRES

Jimmy Red Corn Sopes: Sea Island Peas, Korean Shortrib

Prepared by Chef Orchid Paulmeier

Traditional Pickled Shrimp: Roasted Sunchoke Aïoli, Sunflower Pollen

Prepared by Parker

Stuffed Chicken Wing: Pimento Cheese, Landrace Collards, Westbrook Vinegar

Prepared by Dickerson

High Valley Trout Croquettas: SC Trout Roe

Prepared by Youngblood

DINNER

Sheepshead Paillard: Carolina Gold & Okra Limping Susan, Brown Oyster & Benne Stew; paired with Greffiere Macon la Roche Vineuse Chardonnay, Vielles Vignes, Chardonnay 2013

Prepared by Youngblood

Dry Aged Duck Roasted on the Bone: Chinquapin Chestnut Corn Pudding, Palmetto Cabbage, Sercial Madeira Jus Lié; paired with Domaine Collotte Marsannay Rouge “Les Champsalamon”, Burgundy 2012

Prepared by Parker

MiBek Oxtail Desibradas: African Runner Peanut Kare Kare, Grilled Heirloom Okra, Carolina Gold Rice Middlins; paired with Yann Cahve Crozes Hermitage Classique, Northern Rhone 2014

Prepared by Paulmeier

Iron Skillet Lamb Chops: Smoked Maple Bourbon Glaze over toasted Goat Cheese, Sweet Potato Fufu, Imperiled Peas Succotash, Trotter Broth; paired with Chateau des Roques “Hameau des Roques” Vacqueras, Southern Rhone 2013

Prepared by Dickerson

DESSERT TASTES

Popped Sorghum Whisky Caramel & Benne Seed Dacquoise

Prepared by Youngblood

Mama’s Spicy Chocolate Covered Pecans (Take Away)

Prepared by Paulmeier

Preserved Peach and Blackberry Cobbler, Purple Estrella Streusel

Prepared by Dickerson

Buttermilk Sea Island Popcorn Gelato

Prepared by Parker

This story was originally published August 16, 2016 at 4:29 PM.