Part of Nolia's spring menu came to chef Jeffery Harris in a dream
When it came to his spring menu, chef Jeffery Harris, the James Beard-nominated owner of Nolia Kitchen, said his goal was clear: “I just wanted to have fun.”
That sense of fun comes through in Harris’ playful (and vegan) take on jambalaya, which is made with "forbidden rice," a creamy black rice once forbidden to all but the emperors of China. While the rice was delivered to Harris' restaurant by mistake, he decided to put it to good use, mixing it with fresh peas, sweet tomatoes and crunchy, pungent radish. While the result tastes nothing like the jambalayas you're used to, I think it's good enough to merit a new subcategory of the Cajun/Creole dish.
Other menu items include Harris' take on pork al pastor made with Iberico Secreto (essentially the pork version of flank steak) that Harris described as “the most beautiful pork I have ever seen or eaten my entire life." He's also proud of his scallops served with house-made blue potato chips, yuzu and pigs lips, a recipe Harris said came to him in a dream.
I haven't tried those last two items yet. But based on what I have tried, I beg of you to pay Nolia a visit for the squash tempura. Here, acorn squash is served in a delicate tempura batter of rice flour, carbonated water and baking soda. It arrives at your table like a moody painting stolen from the Cincinnati Art Museum, the golden brown slices of fried squash resembling a torn-up donut, topped with edible flowers that will remind you of something beautiful from your past, and crunchy cocoa nibs, all of it drizzled with cayenne honey and a light dusting of powdered sugar.
I know. It sounds like a dessert, right? But the sweetness of the honey and sugar is balanced by the bitterness of the cocoa, the heat of cayenne and, more than anything, the nuttiness of the farmers market-fresh squash. Since Harris fries that squash raw, it retains a perfect amount of bite with no greasiness whatsoever.
Harris told me he created the squash tempura as a play on several different cuisines, the hot honey a salute to his native South, the tempura batter a bow to Japan and the cocoa nibs a nod to the French. "I tied the whole thing into one dish," he said. And like most everything on Nolia's spring menu, it shows that, sometimes, chefs just want to have fun.
Highly Recommended is a weekly spotlight on some of food writer Keith Pandolfi's favorite finds as he eats his way across Greater Cincinnati. Find more of his recent food writing here.
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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Part of Nolia Kitchen's menu came to chef Jeffery Harris in a dream