Surf & Turf, Masters Style

Our chefs are faced with the daunting task of creating a Surf and Turf dish with some very exotic proteins. Rick, who won the Quickfire, had the entire table to himself and went with the Monkfish liver and the Black Chicken. This challenge could be seen as playing right in Susur's wheelhouse. The same with Rick and his seafood repertoire, I would think all those surf offerings are things he's worked with before. Turns out that Rick and Susur think alike since they took the exact same proteins. As for the other chefs, it's a crap shoot.

Shopping Fill in the Blank
The Chef went to _______ _______ and had ______minutes and _______dollars to shop. _____ lost his cart while shopping. _______ told a story about eating rooster testicles. ____ claims to be in a fog where the ingredients are not talking. _____ does not have much faith in her dish, explaining her dish would make the cashier puke. ________ got a chair massage while still in ______ ______which seemed to piss _______. A double ________ salute was raised.

Everyone went back to the kitchen in the ________ provided Pimpmobiles.

The End.

Back in the kitchen, the proteins are not getting a whole lot of love.

Wrong show Susan but I like the way you think outside the pot.

The chefs continue to wrestle with their unfamiliar ingredients, trying to decide to the best way to deal with an unexpected texture or flavor. Apparently one thing they don't have to wrestle with are dirty pots and pans.

Background Spotting with Big Shamu

I love looking at all the little details (not involved with product pimpage) in shows like this. Sometimes you see maintenance guys working on a stove while a chef is trying to cook, you might catch someone making a face behind someone else's back, or you might see production PAs washing dishes.

Dishwashers are not what's got me curious. No, it's the rubber glove taped to the one guy's back? What the hell is that about? Maybe I'll text Andy my question on the next Watch What Happens.

Day One cooking is done, onto Day Two. Rick is using chemistry to fix his broken mousse. Tony is feeling a bit cramped from Susur's manic cooking methods. As for Obi Waxman?

He is struggling mightily. It's just not his style of cooking to use exotic products. He's putting stuff on the plate but he's not loving his dish. The Dark Side is definitely creeping over him. No matter, it's time to eat.

Among our diners for tonight's meal are Andrew Zimmern, famous for his TV shows Bizarre Foods and Bizarre World where he eats much more bizarre foods than he will be eating on Top Chef Masters. Don't be fooled by Andrew, he's done his time as a chef and apparently was top notch. He lives food, on the radio, on TV and in print. He knows his stuff.

Rick is up first.

Rick's Poached Black Chicken Mousse & Roulade, Monkfish Liver Torchon with Buttered Leeks. He generally gets good marks but James Oseland thinks he could have done without the leeks.

Tony's Crostino with Calamari in Zimino, and Goat Cheese Ravioli with Braised Goat Sauce. I had to google Zimino to try and get a handle about what we're talking about. Google further confused me. It looks like it refers to an Italian sauce consisting of tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and some sort of greens (chard or spinach) and hot pepper that is used for braising seafood. Looks like that's what he braised the giant squid in. (True Italian cooks, feel free to clear my confusion). The crostino makes everyone happy but the lack of goat on the ravioli is immediately called out.

Susur yanks out the big guns by mixing French and Japanese cuisines with his Poached Monkfish Liver, Black Chicken Velouté and Black Chicken with Monkfish Liver with a Burned Butter Sauce. Right off the bat it's a much more elegant looking dish than some of the dishes Susur's done in the past....once you get past the clawed chicken foot. It seems to be hitting on all cylinders and his monkfish outshines Rick's preparation of the same product.

Jody follows Susur with her Sicilian Spiced Roast Goat, Geoduck & Chickpea Chowder and Homemade Harissa. She immediately gets pinged for the overly rare roast goat but her chowder receives nothing but praise.

Marcus presents his Geoduck and Kangaroo Sausage, Geoduck with Pearled Couscous and a Geoduck and Kangaroo Tartare. It looks like a hot mess. Or should I say Hot Mess Jr.?

Wow. Jonathan's Giant Squid Fritto Misto, Fried Duck Tongue, and Fideo with Duck Tongue.
Honestly? It looks like a big plate of fried road kill. Some of it gets praise but wow.

Last but not least, Susan and her slug. Marinated Sea Cucumber, Fried Sea Cucumber, and Kangaroo with Juniper Sauce. Her plate isn't much better in the plating and appearance department than the last two but her flavors and preparation seems to please the diners.

Back in the Stew Room, no one is looking forward to Judge's Table.

You know, at this point of the competition, the chefs seem to be going one of two ways when it comes to dealing with the judges, strongly defending almost to the point of telling the judges they are wrong or kinda sitting back and chanting the age old Top Chef mantra, It is what it is.

So the top four are Susur, Rick, Susan and Tony. As they pointed out in Judge's Table, Rick, Susur and Tony were the first three chefs to choose their proteins but Susan, by going last, got whatever was left and still ended up with the winners. The big winner?

Susur with another amazing score of 19 stars.

As for who is going home?

I know who I would have picked. It certainly wasn't who was sent home.

Yes, half of my Girl Power Team is sent packing which makes me sad. Jody has a sly wit and never say die attitude I very much enjoyed.

So tell me, do you think they sent the right chef home?

Suppertime

I was looking for some simple dinner ideas, something quick but still with a lot of flavor. Saw some beautiful red kale at the store and decided I wanted to my hand at greens, eggs and ham.

This is a really simple dish. If you've got a wok, this is a great way to use it, if not use a large saute pan with a tight fitting lid. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat. Once it's hot, add the thinly sliced slivers of one clove of garlic. Cook about 30 seconds but don't let the garlic brown. Add the de-stemmed leaves of what ever green you have on hand, here I used red kale and dandelion greens. Stir fry the greens quickly for about a minute. Add 1/2 cup of water and let the greens cook a bit in the water until tender. Once they have cooked down, make a well in the greens and carefully break an egg into the well. Season both greens and egg with salt and pepper and place the lid on so that the egg will steam in the greens. Let the egg steam for about 3 minutes. Once the egg has steamed to your preferred state of hardness, carefully ladle the greens and egg to a bowl. Sprinkle with you favorite pork product. Here I've used some crisped up pancetta but you can use bacon or ham. Serve while hot or while reading Dr. Suess's Green Eggs and Ham. Enjoy.

Susan and Mary Sue give you the Best Fish Taco

Bravo, in it's quest for world domination, puts out a lot of stuff. A LOT. However because I can't get enough of Susan Feniger, I'm sharing this first of a series of Car Pimpage Adventures as Susan and Top Chef Season Two's Betty Fraser talking about the Best Fish Taco.

Note to Susan, do NOT ever doubt the size of Betty's mouth.

D'oh!

Normally on a Thursday evening I gather all my pictures and thoughts to review the first half of latest episode of TC Masters. I rather enjoy the Quickfires. They force chefs to be quick and creative on the fly. That is if they have the right inspiration. Sometimes Quickfires go bad. It could be an annoying product pimpage (Bombay Sapphire) or it may not be as well thought out as it could be (ice cream mix ins). Or it's just plain stupid.


This was just plain stupid. Make a dish you think your knife draw Simpson character would enjoy eating. The Simpson characters being cartoons. Maybe I'm alone in the belief that this was a stupid challenge. To me it's like Dan Quayle wondering what sort of baby gift to get Murphy Brown's baby.


This is Susur's entry. Susur is apparently under the impression that Marge would like to eat a Dali version of herself.

Susur did not win. Rick did. Any more commentary than that is just piling stupid on top of stupid. Onto the Elimination Round.

They brought back a great challenge from Season Three of Top Chef, the Exotic Surf and Turf. Before I dig into that part of the episode, I want to hear from you. Which of the following have you eaten out in a restaurant and which ingredients, if any, have you cooked with?

Bonus Points if any one can tell me how many shots this little guy found himself in?

Wedding Wars

It must be tough finding challenges for Top Chef Masters. A challenge that works well on Top Chef doesn't always cross over successfully to Masters. Restaurant Wars is not really a big deal to chefs who have opened and closed more restaurants than your normal 8th place Top Chef finisher. However one challenge that appears to strike fear into the hearts of chefs everywhere is Wedding Wars. The most fearsome aspect of Wedding Wars? Working on teams? Nope. Long hours? Nah. The Bridezilla? Just send in Obi Waxman to calm her. No, what they really fear is...

...The Cake!

Carrying over their teams from the Quickfire, the chefs have 12 hours over two days to make the Bride's food and cake and the Groom's food and cake for 150 guests. Let's meet the happy couple.

The Blue Team, having won the Quickfire, get to choose whose food they want to cook. They choose the more adventurous food of the Bride. The Teams now get 45 minutes to find out what foods their customer likes and despises. Right off the bat, the Red Team realizes that the Groom is Jewish so the Pork Dish repertoire is tossed out of the kitchen. Carmen is suddenly at a disadvantage. Over on the Bride's side a whole ocean of shellfish sleep safer in their shells as the Bride pronounces them persona non grata despite Rick's best efforts to have them make an appearance. Not only does she shoot down the shellfish, she also takes the lamb off the table but I don't think that suggestion sunk deep enough for one chef.

We've all seen this type of look before. It's a look that says "I can change your mind about lamb". It's a gutsy look. Let's see if she has the chutzpha to back it up. As for the dreaded cake, the Groom goes Carrot and the Bride wants Bananas Foster. Carrot cake is kinda pedestrian but Bananas Foster is an interesting request. A flambé of bananas and rum served over ice cream is not your usual wedding dessert choice. It pretty much guarantees someone gets to run a dessert station for the night, making the dish upon request. Could be disastrous.

Shopping?

Yawn.

Back at the kitchen, the six hours of prep work begins. It's tough, each chef has to prep two courses and think about the cake.

Which Susan does not want to do.




The Blue Team is looking tasty on hors d'oeuvres while the Red Team...

...looks a bit safe. I'm actually kinda stoked to see what sort of hors d'oeuveres these master chefs come up with. The usual offerings we get from the Top Chef contestants run to the sad and doughy side and we hate that. Prep time is also revelation time. We learn that Susur and Jody have never made their respective dessert assignments of carrot cake and bananas foster.

And I have no idea what Marcus is doing to this tenderloin?

Just a side bar here, it cracks me up to no end that Master Chefs use slap choppers. Do you know just how often Bravo uses a chef's knife graphic in it's Top Chef and Top Chef Masters advertising? What next?

This guy as a judge?

So prep is done for the night and the chefs toddle off to what I'm sure are swanky digs to rest up for the next day's activities.

Jonathan and Marcus start things off right by facing off in their own personal Grilling Wars.

I know Obi Waxman likes to listen to the ingredients to guide him onto the path of Culinary Enlightenment....

...but I'm fairly certain this cake is not saying it wants to look like Ass.

(yes, capital A, Ass) But he's not concerned because he has faith in Jody's Banana Foster which is a good thing because Jody is getting a little tense watching Susur and his Land of Many Desserts.

So it's the Blue Team's Ass Cake and Bananas Foster versus the Red Team's Carrot Cake, Croque-em-bouche, an Upside Down Raisin Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce, and a kids dessert with chocolate sauce. Jody has a right to be worried.

Time to start passing the hors d'oeuvres.

Just by sight and description, I'd have to say the Blue Team gets the edge here. I know the Red Team went all seafood but it seems lackluster and messy. I know Jonathan got called out for his offering being bigger than one bite but overall the flavors on both teams get high marks.

Now...there was a lot of food. Each team apparently did a salad and many sides but much of that food was not shown nor reviewed by the critics. So we'll give a fly by to the main dishes and scoot to dessert. The Blue team had Jody's Rack of Lamb with Rosemary, Farro and Autumn Vegetables, Jonathan's Roast Chicken with Tarragon Velouté and Cauliflower Puree, and Rick's Seafood Grill on Sweet and Sour Eggplant. On the Red Team we had Marcus's Roast Beef Tenderloin with Grilled Onion Ragout and Pomegranate Sauce, Tony's Flaming Ouzo Shrimp and his Au Gratin Potatoes. Not shown are Carmen's Grilled Corn Salsa or Tony's Pasta dish. The winners in all this food? Jody's lamb, Jonathan's chicken, and Tony's shrimp and au gratin potatoes.

BEHOLD

The CAKE in all it's Assy Glory. Time to submit this puppy to Cake Wrecks. It didn't help that it was dry. But that's OK because Obi Waxman was right.

Jody's newborn efforts at Bananas Foster blew all of Susur's desserts right off the table. Finally the wedding event is over.

The Blue Girls are just a bit giddy to be done.

I have to say that this was some of the best food for a Wedding Wars challenge I've ever seen. The Bride and Groom should be very happy to have had such wonderful food. Still someone has to go home. The critics overall seem happy but point out the obvious cake disaster. Yet despite that, Susur's dessert heavy contributions and Carmen's lone Corn Salsa dish make the Groom's food seem uneven. Did Jody risk too much by giving the Bride something she didn't want?

NO! The Blue Team survives and moves on to the next Challenge. The winner overall?

That's right, Big Risk, Big Rewards Jody Adams. It's an amazing contrast between the two teams because the Groom's team gave him exactly what he wanted just not in the most exciting or the more finely executed way. Carmen in particular finds herself the Anti-Jody. Because her background is spicy and porky she just couldn't find a way to make a dish that made her mark. The critics seem to think she didn't work as hard as the rest of the team which I don't believe it's just that she chose to submit to the wishes of her client. In the end, she takes one for the team and is sent packing.

Next up: The Simpsons?

Dim Sum Sunday - Bakery

What to make for a baking Dim Sum Sunday? I generally don't make a lot of sweet bakery things because 1) I'm not good at resisting the temptation to eat whatever I make all by myself and 2) I'm more of a savory sort of gal. So I thought about what would be fun but would also be something quick and easy to make for lunch during the work week. Empanadas immediately came to mind.

An empanada is simply a pastry dough disk wrapped around a meat filling. Their origin is Spanish and Portuguese in nature but many countries have their versions. The recipe I used today was from the blog From Argentine With Love. There's even an adorable video of the author perfecting the rolled crimp method and the enthusiastic cook complimenting her work. Yours truly failed miserably at the rolled crimp and resorted to the decorative scallop edge. Now many of the recipes out in the internet ether mention using the Goya frozen empanada disks. If you can find them they are a quick fix but nothing beats making your own dough and producing that lovely flaky shell. Unfortunately I could not find the dough recipe referenced in the posting so I resorted to Epicurious's empanadas dough recipe. It turned out perfectly. The great thing about this dish is it's versatility. Ground meat is a wonderful canvas to play out your favorite flavors. Cumin, paprika, garlic and oregano for ground beef work well together. Because I started with an original recipe, green olives and a hard boiled egg were added. I also added some golden raisins even though this particular recipe did not call for it but had from previous experience enjoyed them in other empanadas. But you could also do so much with other ground meats. I could easily see a ground turkey with sage, dried cranberries and toasted pecans. You're only limited by your imagination.

Now I did have one regret. After I had put together all my empanadas and baked them I remembered I had some hot and spicy pickled quail eggs in the fridge. (what? doesn't everybody?) Little slices from those little gems would have powered up the flavor factor quite a bit. Ah well, next time. The bonus about these empanadas? The wonderful smell that will happen when I warm these babies up at work this week. Sorry co-workers, they're all mine.