re: Feb Chopped Challenge Results: Champion is: #8 Got Blaze! (Voting is Closed)

Yea good challenge

Hey Rohan check your email when you get a chance.

Ok sounds good. I will have to enter the next one..

And look forward to seeing your reply this weekend

Meh, I'm not in the running, so I don't mind talking more about what I did before voting closes. Because of a serious diversion, I was under the gun to finish not only my dish, but actually sending it off to Fun Bunch (2:58pm).

I didn't even get to post the ingredient pic...



Again, as with past cooking competitions where I've made caviar from Russian Imperial Stout, used toasted pumpkins seeds as a crust rather than merely roast or puree the flesh, I wanted to do something over and above simply purchasing store bought wasabi peas...I wanted to make my own. Research yielded different approaches, some on a very low oven temp, and some criticizing low temps lending themselves to dense, hard peas. I decided to go 250 degrees for four hours.

Yup, these are merely blanched frozen peas, patted dry, then tossed in olive oil.



Into the oven, then after four hours on 250...



Now they are nice and crisped up. For the first time, I'm making tahini from scratch. I never knew exactly what is in it, but I knew that I loved it in restaurants. I had NO idea that it was simply toasted sesame seeds and olive oil in a food processor. I will be making this again very soon. Anyhoo, the peas were then coated with the homemade tahini, wasabi powder, and mustard, then back into the oven.





Meanwhile, the ribeye was seasoned with Quebec Beef Rub from The Spice House (hand mixed from: coarse salt, cracked black Tellicherry pepper, sugar, minced garlic, white pepper, and cracked coriander seed), and a pat of butter added for good luck. Vacuum sealed, then sous vide into the immersion circulator for four hours at 131. Wanting this to resemble a tartare, I didn't sear or torch it in any way, although the beef turned out perfectly seasoned from the rub.



In my entry I failed to mention that the fruit cocktail was made into a gastrique, by adding sugar, vinegar and reducing to a syrup. This was spooned over the cucumber. Unfortunately, the clever use of the actual can didn't hold up, and beef collapsed when I lifted the mold. Perhaps a raw egg would have bound it together. My intent was to do a layer of beef, small layer of peas, then beef again with the egg on top. It turned out looking like a can of catfood instead.



Again, I learned quite a bit from this challenge. How to make tahini, killer tasting chilled beef, even the egg yolk I had to prepare differently this time. I usually drop it whole in a water bath at 148 degrees for an hour, but usually cannot clean all of the white from the yolk after it's cooked. This time I separated the yolks from the whites before hand, then placed the yolks in a ziploc bag (vacuum sealing it would destroy the yolk) and clipped it to the side of my circulator so that water wouldn't enter through the ziploc seal. So in all, I learned about ingredients, preparation and execution. For that person who asked earlier in this thread how the tartare dish came out?...it was incredibly tasty. In hindsight, I would have added a bit of salt to the peas to give them more of a caper taste to the tartare.

Kudos to all who entered. My only regret is that I was sorry to hear some people are deterred from entering future challenges because of intimidation. The more the merrier! Please enter in March. The worst that can happen is you can learn new things like I had the privilege to.

Yeah, I couldn't help my elation of making homemade wasabi peas. I really want to panko fry my cooked egg yolk, but ran out of time.

I thought whoever made the sushi this time would throw people off and think it was me.

Thanks to this month's challenge I also have a new habit.

Eating a handful of wasabi peas at a time to feel the burn!

Gaston is always looking for blood.

quote:

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Try curing the egg yolk next time

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It's on my to do list

Great avatar of Ramis!

That's the only pic I have of the beef, after it's been chopped. The slight brown on what used to be the outside was the pepper rub.

Yeah, the presentation sucked, but I can say that I put the leftovers into the fridge until today and I tasted all of the ingredients together, and the wasabi peas softened up beautifully. All of the ingredients melded together. I would make again.

Damn that looks good, Juice