Cooking and Dining

[Dickie Dunn]

Watching the first episode of The Final Table on the Netflixes. Some of the contestants would be qualified to judge Top Chef, and the judges are from some of the best restaurants in the world. Grant Achatz, Enrique Olivera, Claire Smyth, Andoni Luis Aduriz..... it's nuts.

We're through episode 3. I enjoy the show, but it has a weird format to it. First round, cook for a couple random celebrities and probably a food critic. Lose the first round and have to compete in the second round? Well then you get to cook for a famous world class chef who you're more likely to give a **** about. I also don't understand the purpose of naming the three best dishes of the first round when in reality everyone but the bottom three is moving on. Maybe if there was actually a benefit to being one of the top three it wouldn't seem like such an unnecessary addition. I could also go for a more in-depth look at their cooking techniques and construction of the dish instead of seeing 10 minutes of action before the judges taste test. I love the overhead tracking shots though.

I thought Enrique Olvera came off as kind of a dick in episode one, whereas Andoni Aduriz seemed like an excellent teacher and Clare Smyth just seemed awesome. Teamwise I'm a big fan of Monique Fiso and Amninder Sandhu, after seeing the type of restaurants they run in episode three, and Rafael Gil and Esdras Ochoa, who both seem to have a ton of talent.

[tifosi77]

We haven't seen Ep3 yet, but from what I know of Claire Smyth that seems like an apt characterization. Aduriz was super intimidating imo, coming by each station and tasting everything, pointedly asking the one team "Did he taste this?" Yikes.

I tend to agree with your comments, there doesn't really seem to be much benefit to not being in the bottom three.

[Dickie Dunn]

Aduriz was definitely intimidating, but to me it was more of a helping "uhhh did you taste this?" vs. Olvera's "I certainly hope that's not what they're going to make". At the end though Olvera was more complimentary than when he was making the rounds.

Another thing about the format that bugs me: 12 teams, 9 preliminary individual country episodes to whittle it down to 3 teams for the final table; so by luck of the draw a Mexican chef (SHOULD) have an advantage with their country being first on the list, while a Japanese or French chef has to make it through half a dozen countries before making it to their home cuisine. There has to be a better way to do this. Maybe a points system ala Iron Chef and every team competes until the end and the top three in points get to compete in the finale?

[tifosi77]

That's a good point, which I hadn't considered.

[shafnutz05]

It's in the white paper packaging from the deer processor. Not sure what's under that.

Damn. Yeah vacuum sealed is the only way that meat is good.

[Shyster]

Do a crockpot pot roast with, say, plenty of red wine. It will still be okay.

[tifosi77]

Freezer burn doesn't mean the meat is bad. You just have to trim away the 'burned' bits before you cook.

[mac5155]

Edible absolutely.
Taste good, well, maybe.

[count2infinity]

Made use of the instant pot today for the first time in a while... Made a big batch of refried beans and (froze about 3 portions to split between the wife and myself and kept one portion out for dinner tonight) and made Kenji's chili verde recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/201 ... ecipe.html

Tastes pretty damn good. I thought the blended peppers were a little watery, so the liquid is currently reducing on the stove. I know that might kill some of the freshness of the parsley (I have to sub parsley in for all things cilantro as my wife hates cilantro... soap taste) but without reducing it a bit, it would have been wayyyyy too liquidy. The taste is quite good though.

[tifosi77]

That chili verde recipe is pretty tasty.

[count2infinity]

That’s an understandment. Damn was that delicious.

[count2infinity]

Christmas pot luck once again... this year: hand pies. I think I'm going to make jamacian beef patties, chicken pot pie, and beef bourguignon.

[tifosi77]

One of my all-time favorite episodes of Mind Of A Chef is from Season 1 or 2 (I think technically he presented two seasons?) where Chang visits Torrisi Italian Specialties (with Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone), and they talk about their childhood experience growing up and going to NYC public schools. Despite being hardcore Italian Americans by blood, a lot of their childhood was defined by Jamaican food, because that's where a lot of the school cooks in Queens were from; things like Beef Patties featured heavily in their personal stories. They take that cultural reference, and combine it with their family traditions, and make a Jamaican Beef Patty Cavatelli.

[count2infinity]

I had never heard of a jamaican beef patty before visiting. We got to the resort late, and the only thing that was open was the bar by the pool. I saw beef patty on the menu and asked what that was and the guy says "You've never been to Jamaica before, have you?" I had one and fell in love. What's not to like? It's a jerk/curry empanada.

[blackjack68]

I had never heard of a jamaican beef patty before visiting. We got to the resort late, and the only thing that was open was the bar by the pool. I saw beef patty on the menu and asked what that was and the guy says "You've never been to Jamaica before, have you?" I had one and fell in love. What's not to like? It's a jerk/curry empanada.

Tower Isle sells a line of frozen patties. They have (mild and hot) beef and chicken and mini (cocktail) beef patties. Not quite like the island but serviceable.

I've done the cocktail ones with a mango habanero dipping sauce for parties and they always disappear.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

im pretty sure trader joes has Jamaican patties

[Viva la Ben]

Dollar Tree has Jamaican patties.

[shafnutz05]

We had our potluck today, it was actually a really nice turnout food-wise.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

I am a sucky cook but I do take pride in making interesting stuff for potlucks

[DigitalGypsy66]

I'm almost ready for another batch of your fabulous Aloo Chana instant pot soup, Senor Kangaroo. Your contributions to this thread are noted.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

speaking of aloo channa, that is one of the items that was featured at a work potluck that went severely unappreciated.

[shafnutz05]

speaking of aloo channa, that is one of the items that was featured at a work potluck that went severely unappreciated.

This is actually not surprising at all

Cook for the masses!

[blackjack68]

Lechon Kawali (Filipino Crispy Fried Pork Belly)
Made this over the last two nights. Big hit!
Didn’t have rice or cane vinegar so served with with four different options; bbq, a local hot sauce, soy sauce and a red Thai chili sauce. I liked the Thai sauce best.

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/201 ... ecipe.html

[mac5155]

My buddy made some pork jerkey out of a loin
Wow it's good!

[tifosi77]

Mark your calendars, new show on Cooking Channel will premiere on Monday 12/10.

Kitchen Think is presented by Grant Crilly, of Modernist Cuisine and ChefSteps fame, and will be a deep dive into the whys of cookery. If you miss the OG ChefSteps video content, this show will bring some of that aesthetic back. We got something of a sneak peak in October when Grant gave us a bit of a BTS run down on the show. The first episode looks at air as a cooking ingredient ("why don't we carbonate food?"), so that's the kind of stuff to expect.

The pilot will be on Cooking Channel, but I think the plan is to move the show to Food Network for subsequent episodes.