Dish: Smothered Green Bean Bisque

For a taste of summer, The Oceanaire Seafood Room takes a cue from Grandma’s kitchen

By Allison Perlik, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 8/15/2004

Executive Chef Kevin Davis describes the Cajun cooking of his childhood with wistful hunger. Smothered green bean soup and tomato sandwiches from his grandmother’s kitchen were “the perfect summer meal. I can still remember those flavors today. It’s one of those great food memories,” says Davis, executive chef and operating partner at Seattle’s The Oceanaire Seafood Room, one of five units of the Minneapolis-based seafood chain.

Oceanaire focuses on fresh seafood and seasonal offerings, a blueprint that gives chefs plenty of room to put personal stamps on menus. With that culinary latitude, the New Orleans-born Davis weaves childhood food memories into one of his summer creations: Smothered Green Bean Bisque with jalapeño-Havarti cheese and rye croutons.

“Nobody ‘smothers’ anything anymore, but my grandmother used to smother everything,” he says. The process refers to covering a protein or vegetable with aromatic vegetables and a small amount of liquid and cooking it over low heat, similar to braising.

Davis’ grandmother cooked green beans flavored with salt pork in a pressure cooker, but Davis takes a different approach, using enriched chicken stock with ham hocks as base for the beans. That, he says, brings depth and smokiness that match the green beans especially well. Davis then sautés garlic, chiles and onions (he prefers sweet varieties when in season) in olive oil, cooking until they are translucent before adding the strained stock and bringing it to a boil.

DISH: Smothered Green Bean Bisque COMPOSITION: Puréed green bean soup topped with “salad” of arugula, rye croutons, cherry tomatoes and shreds of jalapeño-Havarti cheese TIMELINE—R&D THROUGH INTRODUCTION: one day MENU PRICE: $6.95 FOOD COST: 28%

Chiles are optional, he says, but they add a spice dimension—another background element to the flavor profile. While his grandmother relied on jalapeños fresh from her garden, the chef prefers the somewhat sweeter, more pronounced flavor and controllable heat he finds in serrano chiles.

Once the stock is boiling, green beans are added and simmered until they’re quite soft. “You should be able to pick them up and squeeze through them with your fingers,” Davis says. Finally, he purées the mixture to a bisque-like consistency.

While his grandmother paired the soup with tomato sandwiches—a light, cooling complement—Davis balances his with a topping of arugula, house-made rye croutons, cherry tomatoes and strands of jalapeño-Havarti cheese. The rich, tangy flavor combination of this “salad” stands up well against the bisque’s distinctive taste, which he dubs, appropriately, “the essence of green bean.”