Not So Quickfire

Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Wok-a Wok-a

POSTED: Monday, September 13, 2010, 6:30 PM

Filed Under: Food TV | Not So Quickfire | Recipes | Top Chef

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Sichuan Cockle & Squid Stir-Fry

Go Get This: 1/2 lb. cleaned squid, rinsed and cut into rings 1/2 lb. cockles, purged* 1 lb. dragons tongue beans (or another, not-as-badass variety) 2 garlic cloves, chopped 2 stalks lemongrass, minced, or lemongrass paste 1 small knob ginger, julienned 2 tbsp. Sichuan peppercorns, toasted and ground 1 lime, juiced 1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce 1 tbsp. canola oil 1 cup cilantro leaves, chopped Salt and pepper, to taste Now Do This: Place the wok over high heat and add oil. Once the oil is rippling, add the garlic, ginger and lemongrass. Saute 30 seconds, then add the Sichuan pepper and cilantro root. Saute an additional 30 seconds, then add the beans, tamari and lime juice. Saute 2 minutes, then add the calamari. Saute another minute, then add the cockles. Saute till the cockles open, about 2 minutes, add the cilantro, toss and serve. * Most cockles available at your neighborhood fishmonger are farmed, which eliminates a lot of the sand and grit. Still, I always purge them by soaking the bivalves in a bowl of cold water with a handful of kosher salt (and cornmeal if Ive got it around). Leave them in the fridge for and hour or so, and the cockles will expel any residual sand hiding inside. (This also works for mussels and clams.) And as always, discard any that dont open after cooking. Theyre as dead as anyone who drops spoilers in the comments.

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Posted 2010-09-17 14:11:44

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Posted by Adam Erace @ 6:30 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Grape Expectations

POSTED: Tuesday, September 7, 2010, 4:11 PM

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If youre a food nerd like me, you cant watch Top Chef without screaming obscenities at the contestants while peacefully pondering what youd whip up for Transcendently Beautiful Padma each Quickfire. If a case of backseat cooking is what ails ya, dig this fresh weekly column featuring recipes based on each TCQF. This latest ep of Top Chef (recap plug, what up) had the Five Alive work a wine pairing into their Quickfire dish. Far more interesting and applicable than cooking with idioms and no gratuitous Terlato BJs! Way to go, producers! If you can drink wine, you can pair wine. And unlike Angelo while lacquering short ribs, its not hard. One no-fail combo is off-dry (grapespeak for slightly sweet) wines with spicy food. For this NSQF, I pulled a bottle of 2008 Willm Alsatian Gewurztraminer from the ~~dusty nook between the pantry cabinet and the TV stand~~ wine cellar. Gewurtz can range from bone-dry to diabolically dessert-like, though as a general metric the ones made in Alsace are not as sweet as their German counterparts. This leggy vintage contains just enough residual sugar to temper the heat of spicy tofu, as well as lingering spice notes (ginger, coriander, cinnamon candy) that can keep up with the recipes aggressive deployment of chipotle and cumin. As an added bonus, this Gewurz delivers a spice-extinguishing effervescence that foams over the tongue like Scrubbin Bubbles. Refreshing, yo.

Spicy Tofu

Lima-Coconut Puree and Macadamia Crunch

Go Get This: ... for the tofu 1/2 lb. block of firm tofu, pressed and drained 1/2 cup chipotles in adobo 1 tbsp. honey 1 tsp. cumin seed 2 tbsp. neutral oil, like peanut or canola Salt and pepper, to taste ... for the puree 1 cup lima beans, shelled 1 can coconut milk 1 tsp. cumin seed Juice of 1/2 a lime Few leaves fresh lemon verbena, chopped Salt and pepper, to taste ... for the crunch 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, toasted 1 tsp. cumin seed, toasted and ground Few leaves fresh lemon verbena, chopped Zest of 1/2 a lime Salt and pepper, to taste Now Do This: Start by making the marinade by pureeing chipotles, 1 tsp. cumin, honey and 1 tbsp. of oil. Cut the tofu into four half-inch slices, toss in marinade and refrigerate 30 minutes to an hour. While the tofu is marinating, combine half the can of coconut milk with a cup of water and 1 tsp. cumin in a sauce pot. Bring to a simmer, then add lima beans. Cook 10 minutes. Separate the beans and cumin from the coconut milk and water with a strainer. Discard the liquid and transfer the beans and cumin to a blender. If youre patient you should let them cool first. (I am not.) Get the blender going, add lime juice and stream in fresh coconut milk until the beans pull away from the sides of the pitcher and form a thick, smooth puree. Pass the puree through a strainer to make it extra-smooth, add chopped lemon verbena and season with salt and pepper. Reserve. Prepare to cook the tofu by heat a tsp. oil in a pan. Remove the tofu from the fridge and blot off extra marinade. Sear on one side until the marinade has caramelized, approximately 10 minutes. Flip and cook an additional 8 minutes. While the tofu is cooking, toast and chop the macadamia nuts for the crunch. Mix with toasted, ground cumin, chopped verbena, lime zest, salt and pepper. Plate: Spread the coconut-lima bean puree on a dish and arrange the squares of tofu on top. Sprinkle with macadamia crunch on top and pop that bottle of Gewurz like an Alpine gangsta.

bravoTV.com

Spinaderella cut it up one time.

Kelly

Posted 2010-09-07 12:22:28

I knew that was tofu when I saw the pic, but I told myself it could not be.

Then I read the recipe.

It was true. I will make this immediately.

Posted by Adam Erace @ 4:11 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Early Bird Special

POSTED: Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 12:15 AM

Filed Under: Food TV | Not So Quickfire | Recipes | Top Chef

And now that we have your attention ...

If youre a food nerd like me, you cant watch Top Chef without screaming obscenities at the contestants while peacefully pondering what youd whip up for Transcendently Beautiful Padma each Quickfire. If a case of backseat cooking is what ails ya, dig this fresh weekly column featuring recipes based on each TCQF. You thought baby food was bad? This latest episode (read our recap) began with a masterfully corny Quickfire. Having exhausted all its presidential puns, Top ~~Chef~~ English Teacher had the crew cook dishes based on food idioms "bring home the bacon," "the big cheese" and the like. Kelly blushed at the risque "hide the salami." Amanda wondered what an idiom was. Since I had a pasture-raised Cornish hen from Mountain View Poultry defrosting in my fridge dont we all? I decided to put it to use in this NSQF. My food idiom? "Early bird special." The Cornish hen isnt a different breed of bird, but a regular chicken, slaughtered at the ripe old age of four to six weeks. Early bird, get it? Check out the sweet, smoky Southern accent (peaches, bacon) Ive given this Cornish bird, then tune in next week when the chefs will probably cook dishes based on gerunds.

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Hazelnut-crusted Cornish Hen with blue corn grits, bacon-fried peaches and sherry syrup

Go Get This: ...for the hen 1 1-lb. Cornish game hen 1 cup raw hazelnuts 1 tbsp. smoked black peppercorns 1 tsp. kosher salt 1/2 cup sherry vinegar ...for the grits 1/2 cup blue corn grits 1 cup whole milk 1 cup water 1 pat butter 1 garlic clove, crushed 1/2 cup smoked cheddar cheese, grated 1/2 lb. slab bacon 1 peach, peeled and cut into eighths Salt and pepper, to taste Now Do This: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, then get the hazelnut crumbs working by toasting the nuts and peppercorns in over medium heat in a dry skillet until fragrant, 5 minutes. Once toasted and slightly cooled, transfer the hazels to the dish towel, fold in half and rub gently, which helps remove most of the papery skins. Put the nuts in the food processor or spice mill with the peppercorns regulars OK, but smoked is worth seeking out for this recipe and kosher salt and buzz into a fine powder. Sprinkle the hazelnut crumbs liberally over the hen and press in firmly to create a crust around the bird. Shake off excess and place hen on pan fitted with a roasting rack. (If you dont have a roasting rack, put the hen directly in an ovenproof pan; just make sure you oil it first.) When the oven comes to temp, bake the hen. Mine weighed just over a pound, and 50 minutes cooked the bird through without drying it out. Were I making this for my living-in-fear-of-salmonella parents, Id probably take it another 10 minutes, but it was perfect for me. Make sure you let it rest 10 minutes before eating. As the hen cooks, make sherry syrup by adding the sherry vinegar to a saucepan, reducing by half and whisking in a touch of butter off the heat. Reserve. Then cut the bacon into lardons and fry them up in a skillet. Remove the bacon but leave the fat in the pan, lower the heat and add the sliced, peeled peaches. Ideally, you want to use firm peaches, but mine were ripe and they turned out swell. They only need 5 minutes per side to caramelize. Remove them from the pan and use the mingled bacon fat and peach juices to baste the hen half an hour into cooking. Get the grits going by combining them with water, milk, butter and garlic in a pan. My fave grits come from Anson Mills in South Carolina, but white or yellow Quaker work just as well in a pinch, and you can use any combos or ratios of liquid to cook them in. (Chicken stocks nice.) Bring the mix to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer, stirring every few minutes as the grits thicken. Theyll come together in 20, but give them another 20, adding liquid if you needed. After 40 minutes, fish out the garlic clove and stir in the cheese and lardons. To plate, lay down some grits and place the rested hen on top. Ring with the bacon-fried peaches and garnish with a drizzle with sherry syrup and crushed hazelnuts.

Posted by Adam Erace @ 12:15 AM Permalink | Post a comment

Top Chef Not So Quickfire: WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!

POSTED: Monday, August 23, 2010, 3:15 PM

Filed Under: Food TV | Not So Quickfire | Recipes | Top Chef

If youre a food nerd like me, you cant watch Top Chef without screaming obscenities at the contestants while peacefully pondering what youd whip up for Transcendently Beautiful Padma each Quickfire. If a case of backseat cooking is what ails ya, dig this fresh weekly column featuring recipes based on each TCQF. This weeks Top Chef episode (read our recap) had remaining chefs Tiffany, Ed, Angelo, Jersey Kev, Amanda Isabella Soprano and Alex Skeletor cooking a dish based on a succession of mystery ingredients concealed in mystery boxes. Which, naturally, brings to mind ...

It also made me think of The Riddler, but Drew Lazor beat me to that reference. Riddle me this: How would the Quickfire Kid recreate this challenge at home? Lazor stepped up and went grocery shopping at Hung Vuong (Wing Phat Plaza, 1122 Washington Ave.), hiding his culinary curveballs in bags labeled 1 through 4. Id start with No. 1, and open each consecutive bag in 15-minute intervals. I was sure hed bought me a durian. I hit the time and opened bag #1 to find:

Culantro, a broad-leafed, saw-edged tropical herb that tastes and sounds (but doesnt look) like its cousin, cilantro, and head-on shrimp, which, as I made clear the other day, I really, really like. I washed the culantro and set it aside before turning my attention to the peeling and cleaning the beady-eyed shrimp. I yanked off the heads and using kitchen scissors, snipped through the shell from where the skull had been back to the tails. This makes it easy to remove the shell, as well as exposes the shrimps digestive tract. I ran the peeled shrimp under cool water and set them aside:

Heads and shells went right into a sauce pot; they pack so much flavor in their entrails-splattered hollows that throwing them out would be a tragedy. I added bay leaf, black peppercorn, a halved corn on the cob and two cloves crushed garlic to the pot, filled it with water and set it on high heat. What Id eventually end up with was anyones guess, but I knew whatever it was would involve homemade shrimp stock:

Buzz! Bag No. 2:

A ripe mango, easy-peasy. And ... sardines canned in tomato sauce! Have I mentioned that I really, really, reaaaaally dont like sardines? (Oh yes, I have.) I smelled sabotage. I opened the can of sardines, steeled myself and dipped a finger into the marinade. It wasnt terrible thin, vaguely tomatoey and not as fishy as youd expect from a can that cost 49 cents. Using a mesh strainer, I separated the sardine fillets from the sauce and tossed them into the now-bubbling stockpot. How to proceed? The culantro and mango dictated a dish with a Latin-American or Southeast Asian profile, so I went the latter way, whisking the tomato sauce with circa-2006 tamarind concentrate and red curry paste, ground five spice, salt and pepper into a fly Far East marinade for the shrimp:

Buzz! Bag No. 3:

Pre-cooked Hong Kong noodles a score that said soup I could base on the aromatic shrimp stock and an imposing head of red cabbage, which threw a wrench into those plans just as fast as they coalesced. I could never braise the cabbage tender in time, so I halved the head and shaved it coleslaw-style. Possibly a garnish for the soup, something crunchy?

I remembered the cornthere was more in the fridge. I pulled out an ear, shaved off the kernels do it in a bowl or on a towel so they dont bounce everywhere and added them to the cabbage with a fistful of chopped culantro. The dish was coming together, but I still had a mango to deal with. Not exactly the stuff soups are made of. Buzz! Bag No. 4:

Quail eggs, easy to work in as a thickener for the soup, and a jar of something brown and murky as swamp water. Pickled lettuce, according to the label. Pickled. Frigging. Lettuce. Confound you, Drew Lazor, you dastardly scoundrel!

I popped open the jar and stared at the bog inside. The lettuce looked like chopped celery; it was crisp, but didnt taste like anything except the brine, though brine is probably the wrong word for this glossy, viscous liquid. It reminded me of an intensified soy sauce thick, salty, sweet. Caramel! Reducing the brine into a syrup, maybe with no yes, definitely with the mango would be a great way to incorporate both ingredients as a finisher for the soup.

I peeled and chopped the mango, ran it through my juicer, poured it into a saucepan with about half a cup of the lettuce brine and cranked the heat. Soon, it looked like this:

By now, the stock was ready. To remove the solids, I poured the contents of the pot through a mesh strainer into a bowl, but even this doesnt remove the smaller particles of gunk. Pro chefs would prob use a chinois, but I find a wet paper towel (or cheesecloth) and rubber band work just as well. Cover a bowl with the paper towel, draping it so theres a crater in the middle, and fit the rubber band around the rim, which keeps the edges from falling in. Like this:

MacGyvered chinois! The liquid will trickle into the container below, while the solids stay in the paper towel well. Voila! Pure, clear stock:

Only a few more steps to finish the soup. I got a teaspoon of red curry paste toasting in pot, added the shimmering shrimp stock and a few dashes of soy sauce and brought the soon-to-be-soup to a high simmer. In a bowl, I whisked six quail eggs till smooth, tempered them this way and slowly added the huevos to the pot. I lowered the heat to a slow simmer and whisked until the broth turned frothy and pale gold. I cracked in some black pepper and tasted a spoonful. Bangin.

I seared the marinated shrimp on both sides:

And meanwhile finished the corn-cabbage-culantro relish by adding a handful of chopped pickled lettuce to the mix and seasoning with salt, pepper, lime, sugar and fish sauce:

Two bowls came out of the cabinet. I filled them with soup noodles, nested a spoonful of relish in the middle and arranged the seared shrimp around the rim. I poured the broth right in the bowls, its heat relaxing the noodles, and garnished the soup with additional chopped culantro and a dab of mango caramel:

Not bad for cooking blind. Were I going to recreate this recipe, Id fortify the broth with ginger, kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass, but this was still pretty damn delicious. A head in Brad Pitt's box might have ruined his day, but the ones in mine made for some dynamite impromptu eats.

Fidel Gastro

Posted 2010-08-23 12:44:06

I second that. Looks bangin'

Ticket Stubs: Meal Ticket Weekly Recap, Aug. 23-27 :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper

Posted 2010-08-30 08:32:03

[...] We challenge critic Adam Erace with a bunch of weird ingredients (pickled lettuce?!) for his Top Che... [...]

danya

Posted 2010-08-23 12:23:50

Extremely impressive.

rachelburgos

Posted 2010-08-24 13:16:48

This is so awesome, great job Adam! Love your "MacGyvered" chinois, too.

poncho

Posted 2010-08-24 12:24:28

Dude, I can't believe you made this! I'm pretty sure I would have started crying once I saw the pickled lettuce.  Oh wait, this never would happen to me because I don't cook.

Ben Kessler

Posted 2010-08-23 11:18:25

Mad skills.

Posted by Adam Erace @ 3:15 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Off to the races E-races

POSTED: Monday, August 16, 2010, 7:50 PM

Filed Under: Food TV | Not So Quickfire | Top Chef

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If youre a food nerd like me, you cant watch Top Chef without screaming obscenities at the contestants while peacefully pondering what youd whip up for Transcendently Beautiful Padma each Quickfire. If a case of backseat cooking is what ails ya, dig this fresh weekly column featuring recipes based on each TCQF. I liked this column a lot better when I was making food on toothpicks. Organizing a four-person Quickfire relay race identical to the one on Top Chef D.C.'s Restaurant Wars episode proved more difficult that youd think, but I forced against their will graciously invited three different kinds of cooks to participate cousin Melissa, she of epic porchetta and opulent pavlova; bro Andrew, whos just learning to cook without recipes; and mom Francine, whos been making mom food like meatloaf and macaroni "for 99 years," as she will happily tell you, and missed the Assumptions blessing of the ocean ceremony to be here today and is not happy about it. I asked each of these unwitting cohorts to describe their cooking style in one word. "Amateur." Andrew "I dont know. You should have told me this earlier. I didnt know there was going to be a pop quiz." Melissa "Old-school. Is that two words? Old-school, but not old-fashioned. How about Italian? Can I say that?" Mom Long sigh. Logistics: Ma Dukes would kick off, followed by Andrew and Melissa, cooking for 10 minutes each, while I chilled in a soundproof booth like a Miss America contestant. Id come in like Lidge, bottom-ninth to (hopefully) close. Any foods in the kitchen and garden would be fair game. Hostess with the Mostess Padma Penelope, what do you think of this plan?

"This bone is ... pungent."

Ready ... set ... let the relay race begin. The three 10-minute shifts flew by, punctuated intermittently by clattering pans, banging cabinets and lots of "Shitshitshit!" When it was my turn, I bounded into the kitchen to find dirty dishes, knives, colanders piled into the sink with moms contributions, sliced frozen carrots and a partially defrosted breaded chicken breast, discarded (smartly) by Andrew. On the stove, one burner had a pot of boiling water filled with fusilli; a saute of broccoli, onions, garlic, bell pepper and button mushrooms sizzled on another. I tested a strand of pasta, al dente, drained it off and set it aside, then dashed out to the yard, where I pinched off a few springs of globe basil and Mexican tarragon. I washed the herbs and set them on a paper towel to dry. "Five minutes!" I tasted the saute, checking for salt so as not to pull an Alex, added sel and black pepper and cranked the heat. From the fridge, I pulled out heavy cream and a jar of roasted peppers, added a little of each to the blender and zipped up a sauce that I added to the veggies. I separated the basils tiny leaves from stems and roughly chopped the tarragon, adding them both to the rust-colored sauce, bubbling and thickening like a magma. Three minutes! On a saucer off to the side, I found a "sandwich" of breaded sliced Jersey tomatoes filled with basil-flecked ricotta Melissas contribution, I guessed. The crumbs were damp, so I added more from the open can of Progresso on the kitchen table. I put the drained pasta pan back on the stove, added olive oil, blasted the heat and threw in the "sandwich" to crisp. One minute! I added the fusilli back to the pan of sauteed vegetables and roasted red pepper cream and tossed them together with tongs as the tomato-ricotta-napoleon started to sizzle. I wielded a spatula and flipped the tomatoes. "Sixteen seconds!" Plate down, pasta in. I pulled the tomato-ricotta sandwich, now golden brown and balanced it atop the curly noodles. To finish: grated Manchego, the nearest hard cheese I could find, dried chilies and the leaves of fresh basil. Considering the recipe came together blindly, it tasted pretty damn good and without any pea puree-related incidents.

Tweets that mention Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Off to the races E-races :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com

Posted 2010-08-16 16:22:02

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Adam Erace, Meal Ticket. Meal Ticket said: Awesome: @adamerace recreates #TopChef Quickfire relay race w/ his mom, brother @andrewerace & cousin: http://bit.ly/a1RBgw #topchefdc #tcdc [...]

On Wheels: Melange Tea Truck :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper

Posted 2010-10-18 14:36:20

[...] then we saw this picture of the Ginsburgss dog, Tank, on their website and melted. Awwww! You asked for more adorable dogs on Meal Ticket, you got [...]

Molly Eichel

Posted 2010-08-16 15:37:48

I second Erica. That's what this blog needs: less food, more adorable dogs.

Erica

Posted 2010-08-16 14:54:41

More photos of Penelope!

Posted by Adam Erace @ 7:50 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Injera Report

POSTED: Friday, August 6, 2010, 8:08 PM

Filed Under: Food TV | Not So Quickfire | Recipes | Top Chef

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If youre a food nerd like me, you cant watch Top Chef without screaming obscenities at the contestants while peacefully pondering what youd whip up for Transcendently Beautiful Padma each episode. If a case of backseat cooking is what ails ya, dig this fresh weekly column featuring recipes based on each Top Chef Quickfire challenge. Have fun making injera, read the text from Drew Lazor, zapped to my phone as I gaped at Philly-chef-for-a-hot-minute/life-ruiner Marcus Samuelson on the TV screen. Sammy, born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, had just unleashed a monster of a Quickfire on the Top Chef contestant: prepare your take on an Ethiopian dish. And now I had to too. I considered making injera from scratch until I found out Id have to ferment the pancake-like batter for three days. Shortcut: I scooped some of the unleavened Ethiopian bread at West Phillys sunny Kaffa Crossing. The gentleman behind the counter seemed impressed your (white)boy was cooking a wat (stew) for dinner and assented to my begging for injera to go, which they typically dont do. Ok. Delivery will be here in five minutes, and soon a guy rolled in carrying a laundry basket full of the giant wheat-hued sourdough rounds. He made me buy a whole bag (about a dozen layers) for $6, and I hauled them out like a heap of heavy Persian rugs. Ive never cooked Ethiopian, but I have cooked chicken. So what Ive prepared for you today is a chicken wat, a la reasoning of Jersey Kev, with eggplant and chard. The stews doctored with a pilau spice blend I smuggled home from Tanzania, a short hop to Ethiopia, earlier this year. The fragrant potpourri of cumin, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and cinnamon is typically used to flavor rice, but Ive got it crusting Mountain View Poultry pastured chicken legs, an economic cut for an economic wat. This dish feed four for about $20.

Pilau Chicken Wat with Lime-Clove Raita(feeds 4)

Go Get This: ...for the chicken 4 whole legs chicken 2 oz. pilau spice (buy it at spice stores or make your own by toasting and grinding cumin, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and cinnamon) 1 medium eggplant, cubed 1 shallot, roughly chopped 1 bunch rainbow chard (or other sturdy green), stemmed and chopped into large ribbons ½ jalapeno 1 bottle dark beer 1 quart chicken stock 2 tbsp. olive oil Salt and pepper, to taste ...for the raita 1 cup plain yogurt ½ cucumber, seeded and finely diced ½ lime, juiced 1 tsp. cloves, toasted and ground Salt and pepper, to taste Now Do This: First, preheat the oven to 300. Then, make the raita by combining the yogurt, lime juice, ground cloves and salt and pepper to taste in a mixing bowl. Whisk together and gently fold in diced cucumbers. Cover with plastic wrap and chill. Get the olive oil warming in deep-bottomed Dutch oven over medium heat. For the chicken, lay the legs out in a baking dish and liberally rub both sides with salt, pepper and pilau spices. (You can do this ahead of time, if youd like; just cover a refrigerate.) Once the oil is hot, sear the legs skin-side down, two at a time. If your pot is bigger than mine, feel free to do them all at once. The spices will toast and skin will brown up in about 8 minutes. Flip and sear an additional 8 minutes. Transfer chicken back to the baking dish and reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the eggplant to the pan. Saute 5 minutes. Add the shallots and jalapeno. Saute an additional 5 minutes. Deglaze with a splash of beer, scraping up all the delicious brown chicken bits on the bottom of the pan. Return chicken to the pot, cover with remaining beer and stock, and finally add the chard. Cover and transfer to the oven. Cook at 300. After 2 and ½ hours, wats up. Serve over injera with raita on the side. Eat with hands.

Tweets that mention Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Injera Report :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com

Posted 2010-08-06 16:05:09

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Lisa Chan-Simms, Meal Ticket. Meal Ticket said: Wat up, P? @adamerace cooks Ethiopian for this week's Not So Quickfire challenge http://tinyurl.com/2cvc4yc [...]

Adam Erace

Posted 2010-08-08 00:19:03

Pequea is the bomb for sure. Thick but not Greek-thick, tangy but not so much that you need to sweeten it. God bless the Amish.

Dave

Posted 2010-08-06 16:39:01

now I got the hungers for Abyssinia's Kitfo, a carnivore's dish

Danya

Posted 2010-08-07 20:41:25

Nice use of Pequea yogurt, btw

Notes from the Weekend: August 9 :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper

Posted 2010-08-09 18:43:55

[...] This Sunday, get "closer to the roaster" at La Colombe• More 13th Street Philly froyo!?• Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Injera Report Video Blog• Behind the Scenes with Kurt Vile• PSN Dodgeball Leagues• Tricking [...]

danya

Posted 2010-08-06 15:18:45

Almaz Cafe on 20th & Walnut also has injera. Very tasty, too.

danya

Posted 2010-08-06 15:27:03

Oh.... already mentioned. That's what I get for reading the recipe prior to the recap.

Posted by Adam Erace @ 8:08 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Ethical Toothpicks

POSTED: Saturday, July 31, 2010, 12:04 AM

Filed Under: Food TV | Not So Quickfire | Recipes | Top Chef

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Blue Cheese-Stuffed Meatballs on Heirloom Tomato "Buns" (makes 20)

Go Get This: 1 lb. ground beef 20 heirloom cherry tomatoes 2 shallots 1/2 lb. blue cheese, slightly frozen 1 jalapeno (seed it to dial down the spice) 1 egg 1 tsp. fennel pollen (or ground fennel seed), plus a sprinkle Drizzle of good extra-virgin olive oil Handful of fresh basil Salt and pepper to taste Now Do This: Rough-chop shallots. Separate basil, leaving small leaves intact; roughly tear or chop large leaves. Separate egg yolk from white. Thinly slice jalapeno. Dice blue cheese. (It's helpful to pop the cheese in the freezer, both before and after dicing, for a few minutes.) Make the meatballs: Combine beef, shallots, basil, fennel pollen, yolk and salt and pepper in mixing bowl. Use your mitts to combine. Working one at a time, grab golf ball-size chunks and roll between your hands to form a sphere. Use your thumb to create a depression in the meat and place on a plate. Repeat until you have 20 balls (you'll have extra meat). Pull blue cheese from freezer and tuck a piece into each depression. Pinch tops of the balls closed around cheese. If necessary, add beef and re-roll so balls are smooth and even. Refrigerate meatballs for at least half an hour. Meanwhile, prep the tomatoes: After washing, remove any stems. Using a serrated knife, slice a small "foot" off the bottom of each tomato so they'll stand up straight. Cut each tomato in half around its equator, creating top and bottom "buns." Arrange on a plate, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with fennel pollen and small basil leaves (or torn large leaves). Chill. Now, cook the meatballs: In a deep-bottomed skillet, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Remove meatballs from the fridge and place in the hot pan (you should hear a sizzl)e. Sear on one side until caramelized, about 5 minutes. Flip and reduce heat to medium; cook an additional 10 minutes. Transfer meatballs onto a plate lined with paper towels to blot up any extra oil. Finally, put it together: Take tomato top and thread it onto a toothpick, followed by a jalapeno slice, meatball and tomato bottom. Stand up straight.

Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Off to the races E-races :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper

Posted 2010-08-16 14:52:12

[...] liked this column a lot better when I was making food on toothpicks. Organizing a four-person Quickfire relay race identical to the one on Top Chef D.C.’s [...]

Felicia D'Ambrosio

Posted 2010-08-02 11:34:25

Lobb-a-licious!  Now where's the bill that benefits myself and my constituents!

danya

Posted 2010-07-30 20:43:18

Have y'all trademarked "transcendently beautiful Padma" yet? Because a google search for the term leads to a few observations:

1) Pretty much all the first page is links to your posts. Or, links to links to your posts (USA Today's got your stuff?!)

2) Babynamewizard.com says: "'Padma' means 'lotus' in Sanskrit. In Hinduism and Buddhism, the lotus is a symbol of purity and TRANCENDENCE, its beautiful blossoms floating above the..."

3) The first two links for me are Viagra-MealTicket-posts, but such is life...

Also, recipe sounds delish.

Tweets that mention Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Ethical Toothpicks :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper -- Topsy.com

Posted 2010-07-30 21:44:01

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bobbie Hayes and Adam Erace, Meal Ticket. Meal Ticket said: Check out @adamerace's #TopChef Not So Quickfire recipe for Blue Cheese-Stuffed Meatballs on Heirloom Tomato "Buns": http://bit.ly/9zb8sj [...]

Posted by Adam Erace @ 12:04 AM Permalink | Post a comment

If you don't know Nutella is bad for you and your kids, then you are a total idiot and a bad parent.
First Gigs: Jeff Ziga, Little Baby's Ice Cream
Notes from the Weekend: May 13
An edible guide to Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival
Bar Crawl: What's new at Ortlieb's
Afternoon Snacks: Richard Blais's Ikea Burger, Waffle "tacos," Coffee nerdery, The U.N. wants you to eat more bugs
Extra! Extra! Lobster openings, chocolate closings and lots of free stuff
Spike TV's "Bar Rescue" turns Swanky Bubbles into Sheer
Real Talk: 50 Things They Never Told You About Being a Chef
Night Market Watch

About this blog

Founded in October 2008, Meal Ticket is a City Paper blog about food, drink and assorted other things that make you go mmm. We do recipes, interviews, restaurant news, commentary and much more. We don't do restaurant reviews here — those are handled in print, mostly by our critic (and Meal Ticket contributor) Adam Erace. Got a tip, question, thought or concern? Just want to say hello? Please shoot a note to caroline@citypaper.net.

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