Dim Sum Sunday Anniversary - Pot Pies

Two years ago we started a little thing called Dim Sum Sunday. It was a challenge really, to make something. We set a theme, you made it your own and shared the results with all the world. We grilled, we constantly explored the vast world of fruits and vegetables, we even entered the Land of the Peeps.

To celebrate our two year anniversary we decided to go back to the beginning and repeat the first delicious entry into the Dim Sum Series. The Java Junkie set the bar high with this amazing and beautiful chicken pot pie.

I wanted to honor her hard work with a pot pie that was delicious but still distinctly me. That can only mean one thing.....Crab Pot Pie.

(What? Doesn't everybody have a crab dish?)

I am not the first to do crab pot pie. Savory pies with seafood fillings have a long history in a country with as much coast land as we have. Frankly it's just taking the best things about a chicken and turkey pot pie and making a couple of adjustments. Oh and the dish? That was a gift from my culinary godmother that I wasn't sure I was ever going to use but it was absolutely perfect here. I don't have a recipe I can actually link up. There are recipes out there on the web, just google and you'll find them. Instead I'll just describe what went into my crab pot pie.

(What? Doesn't everybody have crab cookie cutters?)

First the crust. As you know from the Java Junkie's pot pie, she uses puff pastry for her crust. I haven't had a lot of experience with puff pastry and I wanted something a little more rustic. I went with Cook's Illustrated Savory Pie Dough crust. It was enough dough to cover my big plate of pot pie and still have enough for my little crab plate. The next decision I had to make was what vegetables to add to the filling? This is the great thing about making your own food, it's put together with exactly the vegetables you like in the amount you want. I'm big on potatoes so that was a must, carrots are good, some green beans and mushrooms joined the mix. I caught a break at Whole Foods when they happened to have fresh English peas. Nice fat pods too. Now most pot pies like throwing in some celery but crab and celery don't mix, at least in my kitchen they don't. Instead I opted for leeks and shallots. So I sauteed the mushrooms, leeks, shallots, carrots and green beans in some butter until they were just soft. I took those out of the pan and added a little more butter, my finely diced potatoes and some seafood stock that I made from crab and shrimp shells. I cooked the potatoes until they were almost tender. Took them from the pan and added two tablespoons of butter. When the butter had just melted, I sprinkled in two tablespoons of flour and stirred until well mixed. I slowly whisked in a cup of milk and stirred that until it thickened up. Then I slowly added a cup of chicken stock, stirring until thick and finally finished with a cup of the seafood stock. It was slightly thick and smooth. I seasoned with kosher salt, white pepper and a healthy dose of Old Bay to taste. Once I got the taste I was looking for, I added my vegetables back into the sauce. Lastly I added some fresh parsley and thyme and set the mixture aside.

Now for the meat. You could use just about any sort of meaty seafood, shrimp, lobster and of course crab. The place where I buy my crabs did have blue crabs available....but it would have been a lot more work intensive to cook and shell enough blue crabmeat to make my pot pie. I chose the dungeness crab because it's much easier to handle and the meat can be extracted in nice big chunks perfect for my pie. I bought a two and a half pounder that gave me just the right amount of meat especially when you use the clawmeat. You want that meat to stand up in texture and flavor against your vegetables. So I put my vegetable and sauce mixture in my baking dishes, gently placed lumps of crabmeat down into the mixture and then topped it with the crust. Brushed the crusts with an egg wash, slit some air vents in the crust and baked it for about 20 - 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Obviously not everyone is a crab freak like I am. But if you are, you would love this dish and by extension....me. The crust is incredibly flaky and buttery, the crabmeat is sweet, substantial and peppery from the Old Bay, the vegetables luscious with sauce but still fresh and savory with the taste of parsley and thyme.

Part of me is really sorry none of you can taste this amazing pot pie right out of the oven and an even bigger part of me is glad you're not here to fight me for seconds and thirds. I would like to say thank you to all past participants of Dim Sum Sundays and I look forward to many more years of culinary adventures with all of you.

HAPPY DIM SUM SUNDAY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!

Is It Better In the Bahamas?

After last week's wonderful food from our five remaining chefs, I had high hopes that they would build on that momentum and step up their culinary game...and I'm not talking about the chefs, I'm talking about the show. It's part one of the Finale, it should be about food, high end, letting the chefs show the best that they can produce. Or at least in my mind that's the way it should be.

Apparently my mind is out there in some unknown hinterland because what we got instead was Induction Cooking Theater. Which is kinda hilarious considering what happens later because one of the selling points of induction cooking is that you won't burn yourself. I would have liked this challenge a whole lot more if all the chefs had real kitchens and equipment to work with.

The Quickfire is simple. The Chefs must cook against the Top Chef winner of their season. That means the winners of Season 4, 5, 6, and 7. Each season gets a different secret ingredient. If the challenger wins, they get $10,000 and if the Top Chef wins, they get the money. Already Richard is salivating to beat Stephanie, the woman who stole his title, because he knows he was the best during his season and this way he can finally prove it. I can only assume then by that logic everyone who won a Quickfire during this season against Richard is the best chef....

Richard fans should probably skip on down...

That means Tiffani, Tre (won $20,000), Mike (won a car), Dale T., Dale T. again (won a trip), Mike again (won $5000) and Carla are all better chefs than Blaise. As a matter of fact, the only Quickfire Richard won on his efforts alone and not as a part of a team was the one Quickfire that wasn't judged on taste, just presentation. I said it before and I'll say it again...Dude, you didn't win your season, you weren't the best, Stephanie was and nothing you can do or say will ever change that. During your season, Stephanie was the first chef to win four Elimination Challenges and be in the top of the Elimination Challenges ten times. Not to mention winning fan favorite. In the category of what people have done lately, it's Izard's Girl and The Goat restaurant that's up for a James Beard 2011 Best New Restaurant. It's also Kevin Gillispie who was nominated for a James Beard Rising Star and Dale Levitski's Sprout up for Best Chef in the Great Lakes region. I don't see Richard's name or his restaurant anywhere on the 2011 nominee's list. Perhaps you should not pin all your hopes and dreams on winning the title of Top Chef. Just ask Ilan Hall how that's worked out for him.

OK rant is over...for now. Back to the Quickfire. Of which the most important question is...

...just how much duck fat did he use in his hair? Perhaps that's why he loses against Mike in Battle Duck.


Hosea apparently has his own ax to grind against the Haters who think he didn't deserve to win in Season 5. We don't hate you Hosea, you just bore the hell out of us. Frankly, even the most ardent Top Chef Crack monkeys have a hard time remembering who you are. Still he finds a $10,000 validation in beating Carla in Battle Lamb which is fine because you can never tear Carla out of our hearts. There she will always reign supreme.


Wow....what a surprise....Team DC has pork at their mystery ingredient. Tiffany who has not won one Quickfire or Elimination challenge finally wins $10,000 for beating Kevin.

Stephanie gets to compete against two chefs and a rack of veal. In a split decision she wins against Antonia but loses against Richard.

The losers? Induction table top units for unreliability. Hope they didn't pay too much for that pimpage.

Next up - Burning Down the House.

Top Chef All Stars - The Finale

Holy crap do I ever need one of these after the first episode of the Finale and not because of who was auffed. When you have a chef who confesses that he hates every single dish he makes? When everyone second guesses themselves into a deep well of depression except Mike? Do I really want to watch next week?

Excuse me while I go find some cute puppies to play with.

Given Enough Time and Inspiration

As we head to the final few episodes of Top Chef All Stars, I can't help but think how incredibly jaded I've become to the whole cooking competition faux reality show genre. When Top Chef first aired with it's twelve unknown chefs back in 2006, it was about people who wanted to win a big chunk of change to further their dreams. The producers were lucky to actually get advertisers and sponsors for the products and prize money. Thank the highly successful Project Runway for making that happen. Season Eight finds us with eighteen former competitors, fighting for more money and prizes than any other season before it and some coveted title that they think will bestow some honor or respectability to their efforts. All I could think about during the Elimination Challenge was it could have been very touching if it didn't have that creepy sort of feeling that any moment, bottom of the screen crawlers would pop up pimping NBC's second season of Who Do You Think You Are or as it's known in my house, Has Been Celebrity Genealogy. The fact that they used the chefs and their close relatives and spouses and a whole lot of family history to sell any number of things seen during this challenge really bugs me. However, I realize that my hide has been deeply impregnated with so much jade rust that it makes it impossible for me to enjoy the challenge for what it was. What I did enjoy was the competence of the food we were presented with. Finally.






Look at those dishes. There is not one dish I don't want to eat. If all five of these meals were offered on a menu I would never eat because I would spend forever trying to decide. Pillowy gnocchi with burrata cheese? This dish alone has snatched Mike back from the brink of Cheese Vomit Soup. Short ribs with fried bone marrow? My mouth is watering and if I'm correct, liquid nitrogen had nothing to do with Richard's meal. And where the hell did Tiffany pull oxtail marmalade from and why hasn't she been pulling from that bag of tricks all along? Thank goodness the third time was a charm for Carla frying something even if she had to switch from fish to grits and threw in a little liquid nitrogen for good measure. But you know Tom just had to give the win to Antonia after his previous meltdown about risotto. When the risotto works on all levels and your meat is tender and juicy, it's hard not to give her a car. Or maybe it's a consolation prize for finding out that Mike's your cousin AND your mother wants to invite him over for dinner. The food was just gorgeous and as Gail pointed out in her blog, all five chefs chose to focus on braised meats. I don't know if they were all pulling from family history or if it was just a challenge with a time frame that allowed for this cooking method to work but frankly who cares when you get to see food like that.

Especially with a backdrop like this. What a beautiful setting and a beautiful night.

Now it didn't go entirely smoothly for all of our chefs. Some of them just don't realize that the chefs are as playthings for the judges.

This is Blaise after Antonia is announced as winner. I'd guess his stress vomit is about halfway up his throat.


This is Blaise after Mike is deemed safe. The stress vomit has probably reached the back of his throat and his bowels most likely have started gurgling.


Look at this pale sweaty man....I hope they had a defibrillator on site for this particular segment because I thought his heart was going to explode at the thought of getting auffed before even getting to the finale. And don't think these judges aren't devious. Just look at the glee on their faces.


You know they enjoyed every second of torturing Richard. That, my little TC Crack Monkeys, is the one thing that has remained constant throughout all those seasons, that the chefs are only here for the judges and our enjoyment. They will use you, they will abuse you, they will edit you from Mother Teresa-like saintliness to Charlie Sheen freakishness in the blink of an eye. Don't you ever forget it.
Now bring on the Finale.

Meme's Blackberry Cobbler

Feeling kinda fruity. Also feeling kinda lazy. Yanked out Bon Appetit Y'all....again, to make Meme's Blackberry Cobbler.

I love blackberries so this quick dessert is perfect for me. However not everyone enjoys blackberries due to their seeds. Probably the same people who eat their steak medium. We will not speak of these people again.

I love blackberries so much I planted a mini-patch in my back yard. I don't think they are dead....yet. Springtime will tell. In the meantime I will have to enjoy the fresh ones from Cost Co. and Meme's recipe.

Quickfire de Merde

Here we are again. I didn't think we'd be here again so soon. Where you ask? Quickfire de Merde (and really, to enjoy that phrase to it's fullest, go to Google Language Translate and use the Listen button, it's so much more elegant than it deserves to be). I thought we had suffered the worst Quickfire ever with the plating but not eating Quickfire in which Richard's ashtray dish won him immunity.



That I even have to rethink the title of Worst Ever is a sad development indeed. Yet here we are. It begins innocently enough, the chefs hanging around their loft, trying to figure out what madness is in store for them. Or perhaps they were discussing the finer points of Chef Law. I think the hostess of Top Chef dropping in for a visit must be a violation because the chefs freak out.


Of course anywhere Padma shows up, a ten minute Quickfire is sure to follow. She takes them to the roof to point out their next location, Ellis Island. To get to the island they must take a ferry. This is where the nastiness begins. They must produce their QF dish from the product they find in the snack grill of the ferry. Whole Foods it ain't.



Even worse? They don't know what their time limit is. When the ferry horn blows, they start, when it blows again, they stop. Obviously it's at least 10 to 15 minutes. We're not talking Miami Vice cigarette boat here, it's a New York City ferry.


Still the chefs must scramble to make something....anything. Blaise decides that the ferry boat snack bar food can only be enhanced by a secret weapon in his knife kit. A product so powerful it will make any guest judge bow down to his superior knowledge. He has waited until the ultimate moment to unleash this weapon.....


...an MRE. Except I don't know if Richard pulled this out to use for the food contents or as a method to cook the hot dogs he yanked from the fridge. I suspect the latter. The MREs use a Flameless Ration Heater (FRH), a water-activated exothermic reaction product that emits heat and thus allowed Richard to cook his hot dogs. I guess because using the hot dog griller wouldn't have been as sexy.
Definitely not sexy was whatever Mike came up with.


Hot dog bun, cheese vomit soup. Yes there were some other pedestrian offerings, grilled cheese, nachos, orange salad, but this? Even more horrifying?


They make Dan Barber of Blue Hill Farm eat it. Just exactly who did Dan piss off??? That's not to say the segment wasn't without some entertainment value. You see there was trash talking. A LOT of trash talking.


Knocking the simplicity of someone else's dish when you yourself have produced Cheese Vomit soup is not particularly good form. Perhaps Mikey was just following his natural inclination of adhering to Douchebag Law? Not to be outdone in the douchery department, Richard finds fault with not one but two chef's dishes.


Apparently Antonia should be thrown from the ferry for daring to toast!!! Oh the inhumanity. He also tosses Carla in the Lifeboat of Shame with Antonia for good measure for slicing some oranges and making a salad.


Because don't you know that boiling a hot dog and throwing the ferry boat sink on top of it is the height of culinary genius!! Except that's not the way the guest judge saw it. Dan does put Richard in the top three but he praises Antonia's grilling technique and had the audacity to give Carla the win for her sliced oranges.


Not that it really matters. There's no money or car at stake. I mean, do you really want to win this challenge? Do you think anybody leaves Top Chef bragging about winning the Ferry Boat Snack Bar challenge?

Apparently someone really wanted to win this challenge.

So tell me Crack Monkeys, was it the worst Quickfire ever? I mean, just in this season of All Stars alone, we've had some doozys. The Make a Dish with No Utensils or Equipment QF, the Presentation Only QF or this one, Ferry Boat Snack Bar QF? Make your case in the comments section and just be glad you didn't have to taste Hot Dog Bun Cheese Vomit Soup.

But More Importantly...

Finally

A Judge's Decision I totally agree with.

Seafood Should Never Be Boring

Try as I might, the All Stars food is just not inspiring me. Doesn't tickle my taste buds, doesn't have me yearning to recreate. This past episode should have been a home run food-wise. It was about New Orleans, it was about fresh seafood, it was about being creative and inventive. Instead it was about working with a sous chef you may not like and it was about catering food for 300 people. I know the efforts were for charity but it's the results that just made me sad.

Honey Glazed Shrimp, Grits with Jalapeño and Cheese, Shellfish Sauce - Tiffany

Grit-Crusted Gulf Shrimp, Sour Cream and Chive Potatoes with Pork and Lobster Sauce - Mike

Fried Grouper with Collard Greens and Chow-Chow Pico - Carla

Crispy Gulf Snapper with Pulled Pork and Citrus Grits - Richard

Blue Crab Cake, Corn, Jalapeño and Andouille Relish with Crab Broth - Antonia

Amberjack Stew with Andouille Sausage and Potatoes, Creole Mustard Crouton - Dale

Sweet butter on a biscuit, was it raining deep fat fryers and grits in the kitchen for this challenge? Don't get me wrong I loves me some grits but not on EVERY SINGLE THING I EAT. This may have been why Dale lost, failure to incorporate some form of ground corn into his dish. Actually Dale could have won this if he had found some way to use that gorgeous amberjack like maybe some twist on a Bánh mì which is a Vietnamese sandwich using a baguette and any number of fillings thus touching on the French influences in New Orleans and the Vietnamese flavors of the shrimpers and crabbers. Instead we apparently got mustard stew. Carla lost her mind back in the Quickfire and didn't get it back at all for the Elim, hoping her previously eliminated sous chef Trey would help out in the Southern Cuisine Ideas Department. I'm not even sure why she was asking Trey, since Southern food should be in her wheelhouse but it didn't matter anyway because what can no longer be hidden is that Trey ain't all that when it comes to thinking quickly outside the box. I thought Carla was a goner for sure with her second failure to fry fish. I was excited that Antonia pulled crab because she has an interesting inventive spark with her style of cooking. Not here, just your basic, over-frilly crabcake. Blaise finally releases his death grip on the liquid nitrogen tank (I think???) and busts out.....fried fish and pulled pork on a bed of grits. This wins the challenge. Not because it's crazy mad New Southern Cuisine or takes the New Orleans culinary world in a new direction....but I suspect because it didn't suck. That's where we appear to be before the next to the last regular episode before the two finale episodes. Not sucking. Doing just enough to get by. Or to get by the person who screws up their dish. What I'm saddest about is wondering what Kevin Gillespie or Bryan Voltaggio would have done with this challenge. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been a big plate of not sucking.