FDB Chopped Challenge #1: Dish Presentation Thread

here we goooooo; r2r gave us a sneak peak yesterday in the fbd thread, it looked terrible.

Still trying to figure out if I can squeeze in the time to make something, the GT game tomorrow night makes things difficult.

How many times have I had you over to my home for a meal? A dozen? And yet you've never had the stones to subject your own "cooking" to my first-hand opinions and tastes. Your opinions are pure conjecture!

Crap went to give you an up vote accidentally hit down vote. Looks good

I ain't afraid of no ghost

Here goes MD's First Entry (#1 of 2):

Pumpkin tempura pork stir fry with spicy orange pumpkin sauce and pumpkin rice

Serves two

Directions:

Pumpkin Rice – 3/4 cup rice, 1 1/2 cup water, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tablespoons pureed pumpkin, 1/2 tsp sriracha, 2 tsp oil. Cook in microwave at full power until liquid simmers, then at 30% power for 15 minutes. Remove and fluff with fork. Plate under stir fry.



Prepare pumpkin tempura for fried pork, using 1 egg white 2 Tablespoons pureed pumpkin, 3 Tablespoons AP flour, sriracha to taste, salt and a little water. Mix ingredients and dilute with water as needed for consistency.



Cut pork tenderloin into 1-2 inch pieces and marinate 20 minutes in a mixture of milk, siracha and black pepper. Coat in pumpkin tempura and fry in peanut oil until golden brown. Season with a little salt and set aside.

Make spicy orange pumpkin sauce with 2 Tablespoons orange marmalade, 1 Tablespoon pureed pumpkin, 2 tsp. soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sriracha, 1/8 tsp. finely minced ginger, 1/8 tsp finely minced garlic and 1 tsp. orange blossom honey. Set aside. This will cook when added to the stir fry.



Vegetables for stir fry - 1/3 green bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces, 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced on diagonal, less than 1/8 inch thick, 1/2 medium onion, cut into 1 inch wedges, 1/2 tsp minced ginger and 1 tsp minced garlic.
Heat 1 Tablespoon peanut oil until just below smoking point. Add carrots, onion, peppers, garlic and ginger. Cook until veggies begin to change color. Add cooked pork and spicy orange sauce. Cook a minute or two to set the sauce and plate over pumpkin rice.





MD reserves the right to read and edit foolish mistakes one time.

Good luck everyone.

Rohan2Reed's official entry: Sriracha Brined Pork Loin w/ Pumpkin Polenta & Orange Marmalade Glaze

Pork / Started out by brining 2 pork tenderloins; water + salt + Rooster sauce. Made a spice blend using my coffee grinder that included kosher salt, black peppercorns, 6 cloves roasted garlic, curry powder, nutmeg. Dried and seasoned the pork with the rub, then seared off in a cast iron skillet in bacon grease. Put in a baking dish rubbed with olive oil and roasted @ 425 for approx. 45 minutes.

In the brine:


Here's the pork after I seared it and before popping it into the oven:


Pumpkin Polenta / Milk + chicken broth into a saucepan then brought to a boil. Added 2/3 cups polenta and stirred occasionally for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, I sauteed olive oil and thyme in a small skillet which I added to the polenta after 20 minutes, along with 1 cup of canned pumpkin puree, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, salt, pepper. Stirred and kept warm until pork was finished.

Polenta working


Orange Marmalade Glaze / added to a skillet: rice vinegar, soy sauce, maple syrup, orange marmalade and red pepper flakes. reduced down until well-incorporated and proper texture.

Glaze in the pan just before the heat is starting to work its magic:


The final product


Pork came out really nice. Was a tad higher internal temp than I wanted (shot for 145 .. got 160). But thankfully brining it really helped keep it moist and tender .. covering it while baking helped as well. It had a really nice salty exterior that ended up being much needed to balance out the sweetness from the glaze and the creaminess of the polenta - all tied together really nicely .. even according to my gf who cuts me no slack when it comes to cooking. One thing I certainly wish I would have done differently is included a vegetable on the plate.. brussel sprouts, asparagus or sauteed spinach & bacon would have been great with it.

MD's number 2 entry (number 2 of 2 entries)

Had pork left over and thought I'd do another one.

Serves two:

Orange glazed spicy pork tenderloin medallions with pumpkin and potato latkes and roasted brussel sprouts

Cut tenderloin into 1/2 inch thick medallions and marinate in milk and sriracha. Coat tenderloin medallions in AP flour, seasoned with black pepper and a little salt.



Fry in peanut oil until golden brown.

Potato and pumpkin Latkes

Peel and coarsely grate one large Russet potato. Add 3 tablespoons of pureed pumpkin, 1/2 tsp sriracha, 2 eggs and 2 Tablespoons minced onion. Mix well and fry in peanut oil until golden brown. Makes two servings as shown.



For orange glaze, mix 3 tablespoons orange marmalade and 1 teaspoon orange blossom honey with 1/2 tsp srirahca, a pinch of salt and a little water. Taste and adjust to desired level of hotness with srirahca. Cook in saucepan for a few minutes to set ingredients.



Clean brussel sprouts and coat with olive oil, add a little salt and roast at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Plate brussel sprouts with latke and spicy pork tenderloin medallions. Drizzle orange glaze over latke and pork medallions .

Looking good everyone!

damn i was about to post a beer in this thread