Top Chef S4E7: dessert and improvisation

Dessert:  you’d think that every contestant would know that dessert is the nemesis of most that have preceeded them and would memorise a recipe or two in anticipation of having to bang out a dessert.

Improvisation:  one thing I am trying to achieve by “Cooking Colicchio” is to be able to improv – to buy what looks great at the farmers market and turn it in to dinner.  To take the random things that accumulate in the cupboard and make a meal.  Do you remember the game show “Ready Set Cook”?  Someone would have $15 or $50 to shop – always ending up with a crazy ensemble of ingredients – and the cooks would compete (with the help of an incredibly well-stocked pantry) to create a multi-course meal.

In some sense, every Top Chef challenge involves an element of improvisation – there’s a time limit, ingredient limit, a twist, a catch.  In lieu of the TC drinking game, we debate our approaches to the challenges.  It’s harder than it look   That said —

Why didn’t the sober, barely purple, not-sausage creators go home?  I’d make a choucroute of sorts – sausage, braised in beer, purple cabbage……

Green and Perplexed:  my first thought was curry.  Marinating tofu in beef fat would never occur to me – that was absolutely brilliant.

Hospitality:  WTF were those ladies thinking, doing shots in front of their guests and not including the guests in the toast?!!

 

Top Chef S4E6: beer & tailgating

Beer pairings:

We host an annual “anti-Maine Brewers Festival” dinner where we cook with beer and/or pair food with beer – it’s lots of fun to work out the combinations.  One quick and easy dish is mussels steamed in beer – this works well with wit beers, and you of course can drink the same beer with the dish.  My other favourite pairings are cheese (young gouda with a Belgian tripel!) and fried salty stuff – Jen’s fritters looked amazing.

  

 

Tailgating:

Know your audience.

Know your event.

I want something hot (it’s cold out).  I want something hearty (so i don’t have to buy crap food inside the stadium or leave my seat during the game) and flavourful.  I want something i can eat one-handed (because i probably have a beverage in the other).  Now – if you are competing on Top Chef – please give me something different!!

Top Chef S4E5

I loved this quickfire challenge – a great test of fundamentals – and tough.  We do occasional blind taste tests for sport (cabin fever, it’s a looong winter here) and i find i use my eyes to “taste” more than i would have thought.

The elimination challenge was a fun opportunity to show off your chops.  What’s with people not seasoning their food?   My thoughts on the elements:

Earth:  sauteed mushrooms, roasted root veggies, truffles – for an earthy salad – and i think a side of the suggested butternut squash soup would be ace – a soup and salad starter.

Air:  mousse – foam – whipped cream? a souffle! 

Water:  how about poached fish for better flavour, rather than yet more sous vide cooking?  Sushi – using seafood and seaweed.  You could sculp a seascape – a seaweed salad, a clam shell holding a seafood morsel, couscous “sand”…..

Fire:  something grilled; something spicy; something devilish – i thought these cheftestants nailed it, and i think they ended up with a better dish after arguing the details.

What would you cook?

Mmmm, candy…….freak.

I haven’t been ‘cooking colicchio’ lately due to a lack of cash and a lack of seasonality of ingredients…but i expect to be braising pork belly within the week.  Meanwhile i created an edible book for the library’s contest; my choice was Candy Freak.  Not a winner but good fun.  “Hello Peep.  Hello Eyeball.” 

           

 

Top Chef S4E4

My takeaway lesson from the Quickfire is — spend 5 minutes planning what you are going to do rather than just having at it haphazardly.

For the elimination – i was impressed that Spike and Manuel didn’t throw each other under the bus.  At the same time – a chef is a leader – and i didn’t see Manuel bringing much to the table tonight.  Have a plan, have the guts to make it good, execute.  Ok?

Mostly Maine dinner and TC “fundamental” dish”: souflé

We are committed to eating locally and seasonally to the extent our budget allows. It’s simple in summer and a challenge in winter, although the winter market (coordinated by Thirty Acre Farm and Freedom Farm) have made it much easier. When i read about the Belfast Co-ops “eat local challenge” for March, i decided to make an “all Maine” meal; when i scored Sumner Farm eggs at the Portland farmer’s market on Wednesday, i decided to make a souflé (another one of the TC challenge dishes).

An impulse trip to Harbor Fish turned dinner from an all-Maine souflé to a Mostly Maine March Feast. Here we go!

Taste: Damariscotta River Oysters with Allagash Belgian-style Stout. Just fresh, ungarnished oysters served with a glass of stout. We don’t know any beers made with all-Maine ingredients, so decided to serve beer brewed locally.

Starter: Maine crab cakes with red pepper and almond coulis and mixed greens, served with Allagash Triple. The crab cakes were Maine crab, and the (attempted) mayo was made with a Sumner Farm egg, but the only other Maine element in the dish was the cheese on the salad (Ballstown 1791 from Townhouse Farm).  The mayo wasn’t great and the crab cakes sort of disintegrated (but still tasted good).  Will be trying those again.

Main Course: Cheese souflé: Kate’s Homemade Butter; grated Ballstown 1791 to coat the pan; Sumner Farm eggs; local milk; Katahdin Cheddar; a tablespoon or so of flour for thickening; 1/2 t each of salt and mustard powder for flavour…unknown provence Served with the Allagash Grand Cru but actually paired better with the Triple.

Dessert: apple crisp (probably nothing but the butter was from Maine) paired with the Winterport Winery Flying Dutchman (fortified blackberry wine). We ate during the “earth hour” voluntary blackout, a little romance at the table!

Top Chef S4E3

What differentiates fine dining from street food?  Elegant presentation?  Lush ingredients?

My taco plate:  three mini tacos – a bite or two each.  Hand made corn tortilla, grilled to give it some crispiness.  Cuban-marinated pork (garlic and sour orange), grilled and sliced.  A bit of jicama slaw.  One taco topped with cotija cheese and a chipotle sauce, one with fresh guacamole, and one with a spicy, chili-laden salsa fresca.  Lime garnish.  Rectangular plate, slightly overlapping tacos………..i guess that isn’t too “fine” but sounds tasty to me!

Lessons?  Listen to instructions (if the challenge is to make something for fine dining, don’t make street food).  Don’t play down to your audience (some of the people at the block party looked mighty disappointed).

Top Chef “fundamental dishes”: chicken piccata

During the judging of the TC challenge that inspired this madness, Chef Tom said that chicken piccata was cutlets dredged in flour, then washed in egg.  I’ve looked at dozens of recipes for chicken piccata and see no mention of an egg wash.  Chicken piccata is one of my favourite foods – and this is my favourite recipe.  No egg!

Serves two.

1 half chicken breast, butterflied and pounded thin (or make “medalions”)

salt

pepper

3 T flour, seasoned

1 T + 1 T butter, separated

1 T olive oil

3 cloves garlic, smashed

1-2 T minced shallots

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup chicken stock

2 T capers

juice of 1/2 lemon

parsley (optional), chopped

Season chicken.  Dredge in seasoned flour.

Melt 1T butter over medium heat, until it begins to brown.  Add olive oil.  When hot, add garlic to pan and cook until it begins to brown.  Remove garlic.  Add chicken to pan.  Cook 2-3 minutes on each side, depending on thickness, until browned and chicken is cooked through.  Remove from pan (can keep warm in oven - i usually let it rest on the counter).

Add shallots to pan and cook until soft.  Deglaze pan with white wine.  Add chicken stock and bring to a gentle boil.  Reduce liquid by about half.

Reduce heat; stir in capers and lemon juice.  Add chicken juices to pan, if any.   Whisk in remaining 1T butter. 

Plate chicken and serve with sauce over chicken.  Garnish with chopped parsley, if desired.

I like to serve this with a rice pilaf to soak up the extra juice and with sauteed greens or steamed broccoli.

 

Top Chef “fundamental dishes”: scampi

The challenge is on!  Because this also happened to be the current test recipe i needed to prepare for Cook’s Illustrated home-testing series, i decided to tackle the scampi first.  The technique involved flavouring the oil first, quickly cooking the shrimp, then building the sauce before combining the pasta, sauce and shrimp.  The recipe (which i can’t reprint here) called for rigatoni, but it would also be great on linguini (i’m addicted to spinach linguini and love it with garlicky sauces).

 Yes – those are Maine shrimp – taking every advantage to eat them before their season ends! 

Salt-roasted Salmon

Salt-roasting was a new technique to me – i’ve seen it on tv but not in a restaurant or tried it at home before.  This was very easy and delicious – cook salmon skin side down in a hot pan (w/oil) until the skin is crispy, mound in salt, and pop in the oven for six minutes.  The fish was cooked medium-rare and had the texture of raw fish with a cooked taste.   The challange to me was removing enough salt – i don’t have a brush, so scraped it gently with a butter knife.  The remaining salt formed a tasty crust. 

Served with broccolini and couscous – quick, easy, healthy, delicious.