CHEF: BEN POLLINGER
RESTAURANT: THE HILL
LOCATION: CLOSTER
As executive chef at Oceana, New York City’s fabled seafood restaurant, Ben Pollinger was handed a creative challenge—design an impromptu tasting menu for a party of two that didn’t include dishes from the regular menu. Working with ingredients he had on-hand, Pollinger, now chef-owner of The Hill in Closter, crafted a dish that drew its inspiration from the calçotada, a traditional Catalan festival centered on the grilling of spring onions. The resulting dish, Grilled Octopus and Chorizo with Crushed Potatoes, Grilled Scallions and Romesco Sauce, was an instant hit.
A Michelin-starred chef and leading authority on seafood, Pollinger has had a lifelong fascination with Iberian cuisine that began with childhood family dinners in the Portuguese restaurants of Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood. He first learned of the calçotada when, as a young chef, he took a whirlwind 22-bodegas-in-10-days wine tour of Spain. “Through my travels, I came to learn about this festival they have as winter is ending and spring is beginning,” Pollinger says. “A calçotada is a festival of the calçot, a type of spring onion that gets overwintered. They heap soil around it as it grows, so it develops a long neck, which is white because it is blanched from the sun.
“This festival,” he continues, “also coincides with the cleaning and pruning of the vineyards. They take all of the clippings and burn them in a fire. They take a big grate and grill the calçots directly over the fire so the calçots get charred. You peel that first blackened layer off and discard it. You dredge the calçot through Romesco sauce and then eat it with your hands.”
In place of calçots, Pollinger uses scallions, which he grills until slightly charred and tender. If you don’t have a grill or a grill pan, Pollinger says that broiling the scallions gives a reasonable approximation of grilling. The charred scallions are laid over a bed of potatoes crushed in chicken stock and finished with parsley, a simple preparation he learned while serving a year-long apprenticeship at Alain Ducasse’s Le Louis XV in Monaco.
For the grilled chorizo, another featured dish at a calçotada, Pollinger begins with Spanish-style chorizo from long-time Ironbound proprietor Lopes Sausage Company—Newark’s go-to sausage maker. “He makes a great Spanish-style chorizo sausage,” Pollinger says. “It’s got a fair amount of paprika. It’s a coarse-ground, chunky kind of sausage.” Each 4-inch link is sliced in half lengthwise, grilled and then sliced in half on a bias. Pollinger removes the casing before grilling, but says this isn’t necessary for home preparation.
The centerpiece of the dish is octopus. The octopus must be cooked until tender, which can be done on the stove top, in the oven, or in a slow cooker. To keep the meat moist, Pollinger says it is essential to let the octopus cool completely in the braising liquid—preferably overnight. (Pre-cooked octopus is available in some Japanese and Korean markets.) The braised octopus is cut into individual pieces and grilled until heated through.
The dish is finished with a spoonful of Romesco sauce. Romesco, a classic Catalan accompaniment, has been a staple in Pollinger’s kitchen since Oceana, and he recommends serving it with full-flavored, fatty, meaty fish, as well as octopus and shellfish. Piquant and smoky, Romesco sauce mirrors and complements other flavors and textures in this dish. “The way I make it is coarse,” Pollinger says. “The whole dish is very rustic and country-like.”
Ironically, Pollinger’s first calçotada wasn’t in Spain. It was a stateside reenactment in New York City hosted by Peter Hoffman, then chef-owner of Savoy, and Colman Andrews, author of Catalan Cuisine: Europe’s Last Great Culinary Secret. The grilling brings all of the components of Pollinger’s recipe together into a harmonious, deeply flavorful dish. “You’ve got different things going on here, where you’ve got a good tooth-feel and bite with the sausage. If you cook the octopus correctly, you’ve got this nice, tender octopus, but it is a very full, meaty flavor. And then, bringing it all together, is the commonality of everything being charred—the tomatoes being charred, the peppers being charred, and the grilling of the scallions, the octopus and the sausage.”
Here’s the recipe for Grilled Octopus and Chorizo with Crushed Potatoes, Grilled Scallions and Romesco Sauce.
THE HILL
252 Schraalenburgh Rd., Closter
201.899.4700
thehillcloster.com
