Pre-show text message that pretty much sums up my sentiments of this season:
Jess: Here's to Nikki getting voted off tonight!
Des: And to Lisa washing her hair!
The bad news is that a nice guy left, and neither of those two did...nor did my least favorite, drama queen Zoi. It's going to be so much fun to watch the whining when the couple gets broken up.
The good news:
We finally got a chance to see some actual culinary technique, after a few weeks of mac n' cheese and corn-dogs. During the quickfire, the chefs had to use 3 classical culinary techniques on vegetables...have the producers been listening to us about too much lowbrow cooking? Dale's nifty knife techniques got him immunity for the round. (By the way, i gotta get one of those cool scallion crowners!)
Lots of love was thrown around for my boy Richard...looks like I'm not the only one who thinks he's the guy to beat.
The movie themed dishes from the elimination challenge looked good overall. I think a few of the movie references were stretching it a bit, but the interesting techniques from Andrew's winning team were worth the price of admission. I was surprised not to see Mark in the finalists for that round, I thought his team did a nice job of combining Asian cuisine and Christmas flavors to get to A Christmas Story.
I'm feeling pretty good about my prediction. Richard all the way.
-S
The Ardmorons Top Chef Archive
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Oompa Loompa
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Tagine... 1st attempt
This is my first time blogging and I don't like it. I don't think that anyone cares what I have to write about what we made for dinner tonight. But Steve says that we signed up to blog because we might make a few dollars if enough people click on the ads and we are poor because I have no income, so I have to write. So here I go, but know that I feel really stupid doing this.
I got a Moroccan tagine for Christmas this year and Steve and I were really excited to use it. We have gone to Marrakesh in Philadelphia a few times and have loved it - it is a 7 course Moroccan meal and it is a lot of fun - I would recommend going - it is $25 and it is your night's entertainment. It used to be BYO, which was great, but now it's not. But the carafe of wine is only $12, so that's not too bad. Anyway, we were excited to use the tagine since we love Marrakesh so much. Then I saw a Take Home Chef episode where Tyler made a lamb tagine. So I invited my parents over for it on the last day of my finals. However, instead of shopping and cooking for my parents after my final, I decided to go to the bar at 11: 30 am with classmates to celebrate by getting drunk on margaritas. While drunk I cancelled on my parents, invited my friend Leah over to hang out, and then cancelled on her because I was hungover. I have to remember to stay away from sugary drinks like margaritas in the future - they are really too syrupy and give me headaches. Beer, red wine, or gin & tonics for me. Even the tonic can be too much - I wonder what a gin & diet tonic would be like?
Anyway, the stupid TLC website doesn't have the Take Home Chef tagine recipe up yet even though the episode was on close to 2 weeks ago and may have been a rerun. But the lamb was going to go bad soon, so since I'm off from school this week so I decided to find another recipe on http://www.foodnetwork.com/. Here's the recipe I used if you are interested: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_6848,00.html. My tagine unfortunately cannot be used on the stovetop, so my options were limited. If you are in the market for one, I'd definately say to get one that you can use both on the stove and in the oven. I made a few changes to the recipe based on other recipes I saw out there - added almonds, minced ginger, and 1/2 lemon. I also didn't make the harissa (I'm not even sure what that is) and made a saffron couscous instead of the basmati rice.
The tagine kind of turned out like a stew without too much moroccan flavor. Next time I'll have to be more aggressive with the spices. Usually Steve complains that I "overspice the shit out of things", but this time I didn't because it was the first time I've made anything moroccan, and I wish I had altered the recipe as usual. I think next time I'll add more cumin (yum!), paprika (yum!), honey, and lemon. I think I will also sear the cubed lamb on the stove before putting it in the tagine in the oven - it might keep the flavor in more. Everything was cooked really well though (it cooked for 2 hours!), and Steve said he liked it, so it wasn't a failure or anything. Just a learning experience.
So that was the tagine experience. My parents and Mal are coming over for tagine in 2 weekends (after they get home from spring break in Vero Beach - this is the 2nd time they've taken Mallory on spring break, and they never took me!). So hopefully it will turn out a little more flavorful next time. Then we'll probably go out for karaoke at Yeats and the karaoke-mummer guy will hit on Mal.
So this whole blogging thing wasn't so bad once I got into it. Now back to my boxed wine (Pinot Evil) and the Buddy Holly Story on TV Land.
D
I got a Moroccan tagine for Christmas this year and Steve and I were really excited to use it. We have gone to Marrakesh in Philadelphia a few times and have loved it - it is a 7 course Moroccan meal and it is a lot of fun - I would recommend going - it is $25 and it is your night's entertainment. It used to be BYO, which was great, but now it's not. But the carafe of wine is only $12, so that's not too bad. Anyway, we were excited to use the tagine since we love Marrakesh so much. Then I saw a Take Home Chef episode where Tyler made a lamb tagine. So I invited my parents over for it on the last day of my finals. However, instead of shopping and cooking for my parents after my final, I decided to go to the bar at 11: 30 am with classmates to celebrate by getting drunk on margaritas. While drunk I cancelled on my parents, invited my friend Leah over to hang out, and then cancelled on her because I was hungover. I have to remember to stay away from sugary drinks like margaritas in the future - they are really too syrupy and give me headaches. Beer, red wine, or gin & tonics for me. Even the tonic can be too much - I wonder what a gin & diet tonic would be like?
Anyway, the stupid TLC website doesn't have the Take Home Chef tagine recipe up yet even though the episode was on close to 2 weeks ago and may have been a rerun. But the lamb was going to go bad soon, so since I'm off from school this week so I decided to find another recipe on http://www.foodnetwork.com/. Here's the recipe I used if you are interested: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_6848,00.html. My tagine unfortunately cannot be used on the stovetop, so my options were limited. If you are in the market for one, I'd definately say to get one that you can use both on the stove and in the oven. I made a few changes to the recipe based on other recipes I saw out there - added almonds, minced ginger, and 1/2 lemon. I also didn't make the harissa (I'm not even sure what that is) and made a saffron couscous instead of the basmati rice.
The tagine kind of turned out like a stew without too much moroccan flavor. Next time I'll have to be more aggressive with the spices. Usually Steve complains that I "overspice the shit out of things", but this time I didn't because it was the first time I've made anything moroccan, and I wish I had altered the recipe as usual. I think next time I'll add more cumin (yum!), paprika (yum!), honey, and lemon. I think I will also sear the cubed lamb on the stove before putting it in the tagine in the oven - it might keep the flavor in more. Everything was cooked really well though (it cooked for 2 hours!), and Steve said he liked it, so it wasn't a failure or anything. Just a learning experience.
So that was the tagine experience. My parents and Mal are coming over for tagine in 2 weekends (after they get home from spring break in Vero Beach - this is the 2nd time they've taken Mallory on spring break, and they never took me!). So hopefully it will turn out a little more flavorful next time. Then we'll probably go out for karaoke at Yeats and the karaoke-mummer guy will hit on Mal.
So this whole blogging thing wasn't so bad once I got into it. Now back to my boxed wine (Pinot Evil) and the Buddy Holly Story on TV Land.
D
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