Cook Like a Top Chef - Edward Lee's Tomatillo Gazpacho

While lots of recipes from Top Chef seem like they might be delicious, not all of them are do-able at home. Sometimes the chef's directions aren't particularly clear. Other times the recipes are simply too complicated. But there's nothing complicated at all about Edward Lee's tomatillo gazpacho, which he prepared for the Quinceanera in episode 3 of Top Chef Texas.

I'm a big fan of gazpacho - toss a bunch of raw veg in the blender and end up with a flavorful, nutritious soup. Doesn't get much easier than that. Ed's recipe is a bit more involved in that he cooks most of the vegetables before puréeing them and mixing them with cucumber purée. He included his poblano peppers in the cook pot, but I thought they might have more flavor if roasted first. I also tossed out his watermelon, jicama, and pork rind garnish because I didn't want to buy a bunch of extra stuff. I already had a daikon in the fridge and thought if I pickled it, it would cover the juicy, sweet, and crunchy bases covered by his original garnishes. I also didn't bother to strain the soup; after all, I wasn't being judged on its appearance. I thought it was pretty nonetheless, as pretty as something Army green can ever be. And it tasted good, too.

Tomatillo Gazpacho, adapted from Edward Lee

1.25 pounds tomatillos, quartered
1 medium onion, quartered
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
2 jalapenos, seeded and deveined, roughly chopped
2 cups vegetable stock
1 poblano peppers roasted, seeded and roughly chopped
1 1/2 cucumbers, peeled and roughly chopped
sour cream
ground cumin, to taste
cilantro, chopped, to taste

Garnish
2" long piece of daikon, or 5 radishes, cut into tiny dice
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons agave syrup
salt

Place tomatillos, onions, garlic, jalapenos, and vegetable stock into a large pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn heat down to medium. Cook until vegetables are soft, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature.

When veg are cool, puree in a blender. Pour puree into a large bowl.

Place cucumbers in the blender with a handful of cilantro and puree. Stir into tomatillo puree in bowl. Cover bowl and refrigerate until cold.

Serve in bowls. Garnish with dollop of sour cream, spoonful of daikon, and a bit of cilantro.

Makes about 2 quarts.

Garnish directions: place daikon or radishes, vinegar, agave, and pinch of salt in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate for an hour or more so the vegetable pickles.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Cook Like a Top Chef - Sarah Grueneberg's and Floyd Cardoz' Seared Fish with Coconut Curry

The recipes on Top Chef are often so complicated that it's difficult for the home cook to recreate them exactly. I tend to take liberties with just about every recipe I encounter anyway, so it made sense for me to tinker with this recipe, too.

The whole reason I decided to try the dish that won Sarah Grueneberg a Quickfire Challenge in the Top Chef Texas finale was because I happened to have fish, coconut milk, and shallots in the house. There was also a lone orange in the fridge. As I started cooking the dish, I decided that the rather mild-seeming coconut sauce could use a little more zip, so I dug through the cupboard for my little baggie of vadouvan, a type of curry seasoning that I first heard about when Jamie Lauren used it to spice a carrot purée way back on Top Chef season five. With the addition of the vadouvan, I could hold back on the excessive amount of turmeric (4 tablespoons!) called for in the recipe, and I also halved the amount of coriander. And since I had to peel the orange that would essentially be a garnish, I tossed a strip of it into the sauce to add extra flavor.

Needless to say, I did not have a Dungeness crab hanging around (this is Maryland! Such alien creatures are not allowed!), nor did I have any other crustaceans on hand, so I skipped the crab salad part. Now that I look back on my recap for that particular episode, I see that the judges felt this dish needed more acid; even if I couldn't make the salad, I should have added a squirt of lime or two. The finished dish was a bit on the mild side, although it was quite tasty. And, surprisingly, easy to prepare.

Seared Fish with Coconut Curry (inspired by this dish from the Top Chef 9 finale part 2)

1 naval orange
Extra virgin olive oil, as needed
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into coins
2 whole shallots, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons roughly chopped coriander stems
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon coriander
1 teaspoon vadouvan or regular curry powder
1 can coconut milk
2 8-oz mahi mahi fillets, halved
4 asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 1" segments
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons bias-cut green onion
Cilantro
Salt and black pepper, as needed

With a vegetable peeler, cut a 1" x 3" long piece of orange rind, scraping off the pith if necessary, and set aside. Peel the rest of the orange and cut into supremes. Set aside.

In a medium sauce pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil, add ginger, shallots, and coriander stems and sweat for 10 minutes. Then stir in turmeric, coriander, and vadouvan. Top with coconut milk, add strip of orange peel, and simmer on low for 10 minutes, strain and set aside. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

In a medium pan, heat 4 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Season mahi with salt and pepper. Cook fish on both sides a total of 8 minutes, finish the pan with butter.

Remove fish and add asparagus pieces, cook for 2 minutes.

Place a pool of coconut sauce on a plate, place fish on top. Scatter asparagus and orange segments around the plate. Garnish with green onion and cilantro.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Cook Like a Top Chef - Mike Isabella's Pepperoni Sauce

During the Top Chef All-Stars finale, chef Mike Isabella produced a sauce that had judge Gail Simmons swooning. "Pepperoni sauce" was all she murmured for the last 20 minutes of the episode. With such a glowing endorsement, how could I not give it a try (despite the fact that Isabella lost the challenge and the competition)?

He served it with chicken, as did I: Top Chef Masters cheftestant Suvir Saran's lemon chicken, without the lemon (and with very little salt). Plain boring chicken breast, cooked sous vide, poached, or pounded thin and sautéed quickly, would benefit from a couple of tablespoons of Isabella's concoction, as would pork tenderloin or a bowl of pasta. The sauce is spicy, salty, and tangy--a little goes a long way.

Isabella's original recipe calls for six tablespoons of olive oil. It seems that most prominent Italian chefs like to drown their food in olive oil (I'm pretty sure Mario Batali even cooks bacon in it), but since pepperoni is such a fatty product, I figured one tablespoon to cook the onions would be more than enough. And it was--I skimmed off about 2/3 cup of liquid fat before I dumped the cooked sauce into the food processor. (That luscious dark red grease did not get wasted...it made a very nice vinaigrette when whisked with a bit of balsamic vinegar, honey, and Dijon mustard.)

Mike Isabella's Pepperoni Sauce (adapted slightly from the recipe in the Washington Post)

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, cut into small dice
5 medium cloves garlic, cut into very thin slices
1 pound pepperoni, cut into thin slices
1 teaspoon fennel seed, toasted
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 15-oz ounces can imported Italian plum tomatoes, chopped, with their juices
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 bay leaf

Toast the fennel seed in a small dry skillet over medium heat, shaking the skillet often to keep the seeds from burning. They will become fragrant and slightly darker in color. Remove from pan and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, until the oil shimmers. Add the onion and garlic; cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until they are golden and fragrant. Stir in the pepperoni; cook for about 5 minutes, until fragrant and evenly coated, then add the toasted fennel seed and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook for 1 minute, stirring. Add the tomatoes and their juices, the broth, and the bay leaf; stir to incorporate. Bring to a boil, then lower heat so the mixture is simmering. Cook for 45 minutes until the pepperoni softens. Remove from heat.

Skim sauce with a tablespoon. Discard fat, or save for other use. (Make vinaigrette!)

Working in batches as needed, transfer to a food processor or a high-powered blender (including the bay leaf). Puree until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until very cold, to remove additional fat. When ready to use sauce, remove fat and reheat sauce.

After skimming, I had a quart of sauce. If you don't skim, you'll have more.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Cook Like a Top Chef - Paul Qui's Turkey Kalbi

With Healthy Choice providing the big money prize for this year's Top Chef Texas winner, it was no surprise that there would be a challenge involving healthy food at some point during the season. For this particular Elimination Challenge, the cheftestants had to make a healthy version of a dish suitable to serve at a block party (yeah, I don't know what that would be, either). Chefs Ed Lee and Paul Qui did riffs on the Korean dish, kalbi. While Ed pretty much stuck to beefy tradition, Paul chose to use ground turkey, which is lower in fat. To mimic the fatty mouthfeel of perfectly-cooked beef shortribs, he added diced eggplant, which was nothing short of brilliant. In addition to the meat component of his dish, Paul made hot sauce, white peach kimchi, and a yogurt topping. 

While all well and good, the accompaniments seemed a bit excessive for my simple dinner for two, so I skipped them entirely. I also changed the quantities in the original recipe quite a bit. The gochujang I used was so fiery, if I had used an entire half cup PLUS an additional 1/4 cup of sambal oelek, I might have caused internal bleeding. I also thought a full 1/4 cup of sesame seeds might make the dish seem gritty. It didn't make sense for me to buy a half gallon of apple cider for the mere 1/4 cup called for in the recipe, so that ingredient got skipped altogether. It was replaced with a simple salad of Fuji apple matchsticks dressed in a squeeze of lime juice.

Despite all of my changes, the dish was pretty amazing - sweet, fragrant, and spicy. The little chunks of eggplant did indeed seem like bits of fatty goodness and is a trick I'm inclined to use in other ground-meat-based dishes. Sloppy Joe comes to mind. How about meatballs? 

Here's my version of Paul's recipe. I'm definitely going to make it again. It was pretty simple, and I think it could be a great party dish, served either with slider rolls or lettuce leaves.

Turkey Kalbi (adapted from a recipe by Paul Qui)

1 pound ground turkey
1/2 cup diced onions
2 tablespoons green onion whites
1 1/2 cup diced Chinese eggplant
3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
3 tablespoons agave syrup
3 tablespoons gochujang
Salt, to taste
Olive oil, as needed

Heat olive oil on medium heat and sweat onions and green onions until translucent. Add sesame oil, sesame seeds, eggplant, and soy sauce. Cook until tender. Then add garlic and ginger.

Add ground turkey. Mix in agave syrup and gochujang. Cook on medium heat until ground turkey is cooked. Season with salt to taste.

Posted on Minxeats.com.