East meets West at Indigo Café in Cable Beach, Bahamas
Recipes from this popular Nassau restaurant, which serves sushi, seafood and meat dishes
DINING & ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE – NASSAU, CABLE BEACH, PARADISE ISLAND - JAN 2006 EDITION
At Cable Beach’s Indigo, East meets West in a fabulous fusion that has made the menu one of the most popular in Nassau. Sushi fans and meat lovers alike savour the fresh seafood and highest quality steak, duck, lamb and venison. Both are known to rave about Indigo’s Asian influences, seasonal selections and sensual decor.
Chef Jeffrey Pineda prepares all the sushi dishes and with co-chef Heinz Hille, creates conceptual international dishes, all beautifully presented with a custom Indigo flourish. Pineda’s sushi selections are culinary works of art, skillfully prepared. Says Pineda, “When the crowd’s in and the ticket’s in, that’s it. You have to do it on the spot. At Indigo, it’s all about the freshness, all about the colour, all about the show.”
Two years training
The 28-year-old sushi master honed his craft under a Japanese sensei, enduring a “torturous” two-year training with discipline including such arduous tasks as de-veining entire buckets of shrimp and repeated rotations of rice prep. From his native Philippines to a kitchen in The Bahamas, Pineda’s career took several twists and turns. He completed an applied arts teaching certificate; after his training, he ran a modern art gallery. As is often the case in the restaurant world, a friend working in Nassau prompted Pineda to make the move, landing him first at Ichiban – a sushi and sashimi restaurant now closed – before becoming a star performer at Indigo.
That eclectic background brings both rigour and passion to his work. When he speaks about sushi with such intricate knowledge, you know you’re in the presence of a master. When he names ingredients – ama ebi (sweet shrimp), tamago yaki (egg omelet), tobiko (flying fish roe), masago (capelin roe), daikon (white radish), hamachi (yellowtail tuna) or toro (bluefin tuna), his voice becomes melodic.
Clearly, with Pineda, sushi is an involved as well as an evolved art. It dates back to the seventh century when Southeast Asians invented pickling techniques to help them preserve food. The Japanese created the Nare-Sushi and Nama-Nare schools, and further variations, such as the sushi stall in the 1820s. These evolved over the years until the 21st century sushi bar was perfected.
An international dish
Today, sushi is so internationally popular that Itamae-San (master chefs) are hired with less than the usual ten years experience, and are celebrated for intriguing innovations.
“That’s the best thing about sushi, playing with the textures, adding elements, using garnishes,” says Pineda. Today’s experts continue to interpret the cuisine, as Pineda does on both the sushi and the main Indigo menus. Some of his playful additions include the use of goat cheese, hummus and phyllo pastry, and the introduction of new dishes such as marinated jellyfish salad, tuna tartar, and the Bahamian dream roll.
For those who’d like to try Pineda’s sushi magic at home, follow his recipes for sumeshi rice, the rainbow roll and Asian noodles.
Sumeshi – Vinegared rice
(serves four)
2 cups short grain rice
2 inch dried konbu (kelp), cleaned
5 tbsp rice wine vinegar (yonezu)
2 tsp salt
3⁄4 cup sugar
2-1⁄4 cups water
Wash the rice thoroughly in cold water, changing the water several times until it runs clear. Drain.
Put the rice in a deep saucepan and add the 2-1⁄4 cups of water with the konbu on top.
Cover and bring to a boil for one min over high heat. Remove konbu. Reduce the heat to lowest setting and simmer covered for 13-15 mins.
Remove from heat and leave covered for five mins. Transfer the cooked rice to a wet, wooden sushi tub or large mixing bowl.
Using a wooden spatula, turn the rice over to separate the grains. Cover with a clean towel. Set aside for 15 mins.
Mix the yonezu, sugar and salt. Sprinkle over rice while folding with a wooden spatula. Do not mash the rice. Let cool to room temperature.
Tazuna sushi – Rainbow roll sushi
(serves two)
1 cup sumeshi (vinegared rice)
1⁄2 sheet of nori
1 tsp wasabi paste or powder madeto package instructions
1⁄4 avocado, sliced thin
2 seafood sticks (crabstick)
1 cucumber, sliced lengthways
3 inch x 1 inch fresh tuna pieces, sliced 1⁄4-inch thick against the grain
3 inch x 1 inch fresh salmon pieces, sliced 1⁄4-inch thick, against the grain
3 inch x 1 inch fresh wahoo pieces, sliced 1⁄4-inch thick against the grain
1 tbsp pickled ginger (gari)
1 makisu (bamboo mat covered with cling film)
Soy sauce to serve
Make a uramaki (reverse roll): Place nori on a dry cutting board and spread sumeshi over the seaweed evenly. Turn over so the rice side is down on the mat.
Paste a little wasabi in a line across the centre. Place two pieces of avocado, the crabstick and the cucumber horizontally in the centre.
Roll away from you keeping the ingredients inside with your fingers. You will have a small roll with rice on the outside at this point.
Now place the three types of thinly sliced fish and thin avocado slices over the roll, alternating for a rainbow effect.
Use your bamboo mat to firmly press the roll to secure. Cut into eight even pieces and remove the cling film.
Arrange artistically on a plate with wasabi and gari to garnish. Serve with soy sauce.
For a variation, use two tbsp mayonnaise mixed with one tbsp kimchee base to make a spicy sauce placed inside the roll.
Asian egg noodles
(serves two)
1⁄2 lb Asian egg noodles (lo mein noodles)
9 shrimp, peeled and de-veined
3 cups sliced vegetables – carrots, red onion, cabbage, celery, zucchini, red and yellow bell peppers
1⁄2 tsp chopped garlic
1⁄2 tsp roasted sesame seeds
1⁄4 tsp red curry paste
pinch salt
3 tbsp sesame oil
1⁄4 cup kecap manis (a sweet soy saucefound in Asian specialty stores)
1 egg
Chopped scallion, for garnish
Cook the egg noodles to al dente. Set aside.
Heat a wok and add sesame oil, then onions, carrots, celery and bell peppers. Soften vegetables a little and then add the zucchini and all other ingredients except the shrimp, noodles and egg. Cook one min, then add the shrimp. Cook to opaque. Add egg; scramble, scraping the sides. Toss in noodles, garnish with scallions and serve.
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