Red Hot & Blue Vegetarian Boogie

Red Hot & Blue Vegetarian Boogie!

 

 

Red Hot & Blue was the first restaurant as an executive chef that I got to be part of the design team during the inception both in front and back of the house. I created the initial theme menus along with the kitchen design and conception. This flag ship restaurant was a tribute to musicians and their music. The owners with strong roots in the music industry built the restaurant in a Toronto Yonge Street office tower which was home to twenty five hundred workers. The restaurant sat 350 people and had an express pasta and stir fry bar that became a small balcony stage at night. The kitchen also fed all the cafeterias and conference rooms on the different floors as well acquiring all the catering spin offs. The main floor entrance had a small kiosk that fast served fresh crusty Kaiser Buns filled with sliced shaved off the a roast meats. It became very popular quickly.

 

The whole restaurant was show cased with a wide assortment of signed personal musical instruments and garments, concert programs and posters and a large cherry wood liquor shooter bar inlayed with hundreds of back stage passes to first rate musical events from around the globe. The owners were managers to musicians all over the world and on opening night Frank Sinatra, Barry Manilow, Chet Atkins and Bruce Springsteen made an appearance to wish the owners success. I registered the menu with the restaurant association and it took first place in cover design and font captions that year. I was very proud of this menu and it gave me the boost needed to better my career. It was a very busy and demanding job and all the menu items were fresh prepped daily with several cooks to train. Creoles, Gumbos, Ribs, Pig Tails, Beef Brisket and Smoked Meat were precisely prepared and all the condiments and the sides were made in house. I trained a replacement chef and went on to catering some of the companies managed performers. This one vegetable sizzler platter was very popular and was the only menu item that would sell out regularly. It required lots of prep and grill work in its set up. This party of vegetables will get rave reviews when presented at a almost all meat BBQ. I prepare this recipe using a seasonal, good tasting  assortment of vegetables.

There were lots of positive reviews written about  by the Toronto Food Critics.

The vegetarian boogie got it’s name because of the timing and rhythm needed to make this dish sizzle.

You will need for this recipe;

12 cherry tomatoes halved

1 red pepper cut into wide strips

1 yellow pepper cut 1 inch squares

1 green pepper cut into chunks

1 zucchini split in half and sliced 1 inch thick

12 button mushrooms

1 purple onion large dice cut

1 carrot cut thin and wide on the diagonal

1 stalk of celery thick sliced

Juice of ½ lemon

2 garlic cloves grated

1 tsp of dried basil

1 tsp of dried oregano

2 tbs of olive oil

1 cup of crumbled feta cheese

kosher salt and ground pepper to taste

In a large bowl add all the ingredients except the feta cheese and toss and season well.

Spread out on top of a very hot BBQ grill and let sit until charring occurs, about 5 minutes.

Now on a very hot pre heated 450 degree cast iron platter place all of the vegetables as quick as you can and then squeeze the lemon juice over it and serve it sizzling to the table. If you wish you can do this recipe stove top in a thick bottom sauteed pan stir fry the vegetables for 7 minutes and then add the cheese on top and bake in a 400 degree oven for 12 minutes.

Serve from the hot pan.

Shazamm!

Thekitchenman’s B.C.