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 “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.

 

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.

cheeeeese sauce

Apologies dear reader, I have been neglectful of my kitchen, my plan, and my blog. From the few meals i’ve prepared lately, i have one triumph to report:  cheese sauce.  One of my goals is to be able to cook the things i crave from restaurants, and good cheese sauce on pasta is one. 

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup cream
1 cup Gorgonzola, crumbled 
walnuts, ground (1/2 – 3/4 cup)
salt
pepper

Make a blonde roux; whisk in wine and reduce by half. Whisk in stock and when it begins to reduce, add cream.  Simmer to thicken – just a couple minutes. Stir in cheese and walnuts. Season to taste.  Excellent over mushroom ravioli or tortellini – add a chiffonade of basil or slivers of sundried tomato or roasted red pepper for colour…….

 Terra Cotta Pasta Company (several locations, including South Portland ME) makes a delicious wild mushroom and shallot ravioli that was perfect with this sauce.

steak

I’ve cooked more meat in the past month than in the past year and things are starting to come together.  Heat oil in pan, add meat (in this case a steak), brown each side, add butter and herbs, baste with butter and pan juices while cooking a few more minutes on each side.  G taught me to make a fist and poke the flesh between thumb and forefinger for a “doneness guide” – looser fist for rarer meat, tight for well done.  It works and once again, the meal is delicious – G thinks the butter helps disperse the herb flavour through the meat. 

 Huh – good quality meat, cooked properly, tastes good.  Who woulda thought?!

Roasted Fish

I love fish, but for some reason, i never cook it.  Shrimps, scallops, mussels, clams, and oysters are all frequent visitors to my pans, but plain old fish, never.  I think i’ve been afraid to cook it.  After this week, my confidence is marginally boosted…..

Roasted Fish, Take One:  Saturday morning, with all intentions of heading to the local fish market, i run out of time and find myself at the megamart.  The recipe calls for striped bass or a litany of firm-bodied alternatives, only one of which is available, and that one i would not feed my cat.  I settle on haddock – it looks fresh, smells perfect, and even though i don’t like haddock, i’m excited to cook it.  Except – it has no skin, and this recipe is all about crisping the skin.   I gingerly attempt to follow the roasting instructions, but ultimately the result is perfectly-cooked not-roasted fish — not fried, not browned, not anything but flaky, moist, delicious, and utterly unphotogenic.  Dinner company loved it; i prefered the stunning oven-roasted kale (topped with gruyere) that i served on the side.

Roasted Fish, Take Two:  Harbor Fish is my favourite fish shop.  Quality fish for reasonable prices.  They even have my striped bass – but i’d have to buy the whole fish, and it’s too big for tonight and i don’t want leftovers.  Sea bass it is – smaller, thinner, but perfect.  I hope.

While reheating the leftover kale, i study the recipe.  I think this fish will be cooked in a fraction of the time and i’m worried it won’t have time to brown.  Into the hot pan…it sizzles, doesn’t splatter…in two minutes the filet looks ready to turn…i think.  How do you tell?  I guess you cook a lot of fish and study it!  Some of the skin sticks when i turn the filet the first time.

Ultimately, the fish was perfectly cooked – flaky and moist, with crispy skin – but i feel like i’m missing something so will try this recipe again.

Roasted Chicken

I’ve lived 40 years without roasting a chicken; better late than never i reckon. Read the recipe, make a shopping list, and off we go to the shop…..the recipe calls for a three pound chicken; the smallest the butcher has is six pounds. The recipe also calls for fresh herbs to tuck inside; not an herb to be found at the local shop but the garlic and lemons look nice. Surely this will work?

Tom doesn’t tell me much about trimming the chicken or how to adjust the cooking time for the larger bird – i consulted the Joy of Cooking on these points. Apparently my butchering skills can use work – i apologised to the poor bird for mangling its neck. Quartered the lemon, peeled some garlic, and stuffed the (clean, dry) cavity.

Tom’s trussing instructions are helpful and i practiced a few times, tying and untying the twine. It held nicely as i plopped the bird on its side in a hot cast iron pan with a thin coat of oil. After about six minutes, the sound changed – almost quiet compared to the initial sizzling – and the side was nicely brown. Managed to flip the bird and repeated the browning process; set the chicken breast-side up and put the pan (with chicken, of course) into the oven.

After 30 minutes, i added some butter to the pan and began basting the chicken about every fifteen minutes (the directions say to “baste occasionally”). I also tossed some potatoes in the oven (lovely little ones from the winter farmer market, quartered and tossed with olive oil and herbs). After 90 minutes, the bird was cooked – the thermometer in the thigh read 170F. I let the chicken rest while i pan-roasted brussel sprouts, then plated the meal. The chicken was perfectly cooked with a faint lemon taste. I was surprised how tasty it was.  Recipe One:  Success.