I’m a little late with this blog, Chris has been hounding me all week to get it done and threatened not to get this weekends secret ingredients until I posted so.. here’s last weeks Chopped Episode.
Secret Ingredients – Wasabi Sauce, Fresh Green Beans, Hearts of Palm and Kumquats.
Okay, well, Wasabi Sauce no problem, I figured I could do anything with that. Green Beans? Unless it comes out of a can I’m screwed. Hearts of Palm? What the Hell is that? And Kumquats?? Eww, never heard of them. It sucks to be a picky person – I don’t KNOW this stuff…
So research completed and preparations began
Fresh Green Beans? Our favorite appetizer when we go out is deep fried Green beans – with.. you guessed it, Wasabi ranch dressing! Piece of cake – NOT! I was so afraid I’d screw it up, I’m not good with deep frying things but.. well, I think it turned out alright.
My thoughts? The wasabi ranch dressing was yummy. Almost like what we get from the restaurant. The green beans? Well, they had a little too much batter for my tastes but, I think I did pretty good for my first time. Of course, we had a platter full that would have fed 10 people when I was done but.. they were pretty good.
I used the Wasabi Sauce as a marinade for my meat. Figured what the heck? Give it a try. I marinaded steaks in Wasabi Sauce and minced garlic then grilled them. I over cooked them as usual but.. I think they turned out alright. I placed the steak on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes – should have added some wasabi sauce – but never thought of it until it was too late!! I added a little saute’ed red onions to top it off.
My thoughts? The steak had amazing flavor to it. So different from my usual salt pepper garlic powder seasoning. You could taste the Wasabi, but it wasn’t too overpowering in its flavor. To me, I’d definitely keep it on my list of repeats.
Hearts of Palm and Kumquats. What the hell? Really? I’ve never tasted either of them and really didn’t know what the heck they were. After doing a little research and finding out what they were, I decided to make a Kumquat salsa for our Steak (and just cheat by throwing in the hearts of palm) I diced up the kumquats with red onions and some of the hearts of palm used a little olive oil and red pepper flakes and created a beautiful salsa. The kumquats had a wonderful citrus smell and I had high hopes it would work well with our meal.
My thoughts? Holy Cow! Now I know why Scott Conant (the real chopped) HATES red onions. Overpowering much??? Big “dislike” on my side of this. It tasted alright and I’m thinking with a little “tweeking” on my part it might be something I’d do again but the onions were overpowering and the citrus…ahh, not so much liked for me, though I did scoop some on my steak and it tasted pretty good. Becca took one tiny taste and refused to touch it. The hearts of palm were very bland until the citrus and onion soaked into them.. then.. BLAM! FLAVOR BLAST!
All in all, I think I did a decent job of these 4 ingredients. I got a little cocky this week thinking it was a piece of cake, now I’m terrified what kind of challenge I’ll have this weekend with Chris’s mind going towards stumping me.
So Chris? What’s your thoughts? Taste? Presentation? Creativity???
February 18th, 2012 at 10:18 am
Seriously, before you even started, how could you even screw up this week? There was no Limburger cheese involved, everyone’s a winner!
Everything was great. If you’re looking for a critique I’m pretty much in line with what you already said.
The citrus needed to be toned down a little bit, it was very strong. I’m not sure what I would have done with the palm. I think your idea was a good one but they seemed to take on the flavor of the kumquats and amplified the citrus rather than complimenting it. But that’s not so bad, I still liked it.
The steak was delicious. A new flavor was a nice addition. I’m not sure how the wasabi paste turned the meat white like a porkchop but it tasted great!
The fried green beans/wasabi was a beautiful presentation and they were very good. I could have snacked on them all night long. When you told me what you were going to do to them I wasn’t sure I was going to like them because the ones at TGIFriday’s always have a terrible aftertaste/grit to them. These were perfect!
Overall a solid 3. Maybe next time we try the salsa you switch things around a bit but otherwise, keep everything the same. And can we have some more of those greenbeans tonight?
And no, I’m not stumping you this week. All four ingredients are variations of things you are familiar with so I think I took it easy on you actually…
February 18th, 2012 at 11:18 pm
I should come eat with you guys…..sounds like you’re having fun.
I’ve got a recipe for beef tartare I could weird you out with….;)
March 1st, 2012 at 6:06 pm
I hope you will eventually post a cookbook of your favorites. This just seems like so much fun!