I have spent the past couple of days cooking with Viet Pham in the kitchen of The American Restaurant in Kansas City, MO. We both arrived a day early in order to get our dishes together. I am thankful for the time because it allowed me to observe some of his brilliant techniques and to pepper him with questions. One component of his dish is wakame seaweed cooked in ghee. He toasted the seaweed in the clarified brown butter. The seaweed concentrates in flavor, picking up a nutty buttery overtone. These crunchy cracklings have inspired an avalanche of ideas: from seasoning popcorn, to cracker jacks, to adding to a baked potato, to topping poached fish (in the style of Viet’s upcoming dish).
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