Top Chef Season Six Casting

Bravo and Magical Elves are looking for cheftestants for Top Chef Season Six - if you think you have what it takes, you can apply, but you must do it by March 20th!

More details here.

Kitchen Sink BBQ Sauce

I was in the mood for bbq today, so I braised some bone-in country-style pork ribs on top of the stove, glazed them, and popped them in the oven.

I initially consulted my copy of Steven Raichlen's book, Barbecue!: Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades for a sauce recipe, but when I saw that many of them were just combinations of sundry ingredients, I decided to make up my own recipe and clean out the fridge at the same time.

To about a cup of ketchup I added about 1/4 bottle of leftover Trader Joe's red chile sauce, a scant tablespoon of mystery Thai curry paste (could have been Massaman, could have been yellow), a quarter cup of brown sugar, the juice of half a lemon, the last few tablespoons of red wine vinegar, a couple squirts each of Sriracha and gochujang (a Korean hot bean sauce), soy sauce and Worcestershire, and some garlic powder. I added this to the about three cups of beef stock used to braise the meat, about 2/3 of the way through cooking (about 2 hours 20 minutes, total). When the meat was tender, I removed the ribs to a foil-lined baking sheet and glazed them with a mixture of ketchup and some raspberry garlic jalapeno jelly I had in the fridge (yeah, I have lots of weird crap in there).   

Served with cornbread and a salad, it was quite fabulous, if I do say so myself.  Plus I had less stuff in the fridge and a couple more bottles in the recycling bin.

Since the sauce is pretty much impossible to replicate, I thought I'd include the easy cornbread recipe instead. :)

Cornbread

2 cups cornmeal

4 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 1/2 cups milk

1 egg

2 T veg oil

Preheat oven to 450F.  Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add milk and egg and stir until everything is incorporated.

Place veg oil in 8x8 or 9x9 square baking pan and place in oven for a few minutes to get the oil hot.  Add the batter and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until done.

I added 2 scallions, chopped, and 1/2 cup of cubed cheese (Jarlsberg, because we have an abundance of it), plus about half a teaspoon of smoked paprika to the batter before baking.  And I will sheepishly admit that I saw Rachael Ray do the same thing (plus bacon) to a box of cornbread mix recently.  

A Chat with Stefan Richter

Some people love him, some people hate him, but Stefan Richter was part of what made this lackluster season 5 of Top Chef interesting for me. And when I found out that he reads my blog, I was tickled.  

To you haters (God, I sound so...urban), Stefan is really a nice guy. He doesn't take himself as seriously as his detractors seem to. Sure, he's cocky - but he has reason to be: he's talented. I find him to be quite flirty and amusing and rather charming. 

I participated in a conference call with him on Thursday afternoon in which he was asked all of the usual questions about the show. Here are some of the highlights.

When asked what he could have done to win Top Chef:
“I won! If you’re the winner, you get the egg. A 100K egg. But if you’re the runner-up, you get the chicken. (When I called him to elucidate the chicken/egg thingy, he simply said, "I have more freedom." He couldn't reveal more than that, and I took that to mean that the winner of Top Chef ends up with a lot of responsibilities that the runners-up don't have to deal with. Meanwhile he's gotten tons of positive exposure, which is always a good thing.)

When asked about consoling Carla when she started to cry:
“Carla is very sweet. I love her. She’s funny, she’s nice. I am a softie! I can’t see a woman cry; it breaks my heart. That’s why I picked Marcel. I looked at her and thought she would not be able to deal with Marcel. I love Carla. Of course I’m a softie.”

Stefan then complimented Marcel, saying he was a good chef. But also a prick, a twat. When asked if he was surprised that word made it on to television, he said, “no, it’s not that bad. I said cock two times before.”

On being disliked:
“I’m always very confident. People call it cocky or arrogant. I call it confident.”

“I’m Type A. It’s my way or the highway. You saw that on the show.”

About his relationship with Jamie:
“I love the lesbians! Who doesn’t? She has a great smile, the best laugh. She’s a great chef. I love Jamie. We’d make pretty babies.”

What’s next?
“I have a line of clothing coming out, shirts and panties at cockychefclothing.com. A book is coming out, my story, my life. (Dirty Dishes)” “I do want to open a restaurant but I want to do it the right way. I don’t want high-end, not in this economy. I don’t want a place where you charge $13 for a Bud Light!”

What he learned by being on Top Chef:
“The most important thing I learned by being on Top Chef is that the public does matter. I love the blogs. They can make you or break you. I was never a blog reader but now I realize they are very important.”

About making friends:
“I have made wonderful friends: Hosea, Carla, Fabio, Leah. I’m 36 years old. There’s no time for arguing anymore. I’m over that shit. I want to keep them all in my life. I love them all.”

“We all understand it’s a reality show. Sometimes we say things we regret. But I meant everything I said.”

I'm sure you'll be seeing more about Mr Richter here on this blog in the near future. Stay tuned. :)

Top Chef Contest Reminder

Don't forget, tomorrow is the deadline for the calendar contest!