Challenge #1: Prepare a 30 second promo for what could be their new show. Unlike in previous versions of this, each promo was carefully scripted (including wardrobe) by the Food Network and the contestant had a fair amount of time to do it, with multiple takes, a director, and rehearsals. Each promo was broken up into 2 or more mini-scenes.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t done completely fairly. Aaron just had to walk down a hallway then he had to say something before throwing dice down a craps table. Adam had to stroll along a stage with a showgirl on each arm, with some closeups. But Lisa was harnessed to a rig where she went up a couple of stories, grabbed a bottle of wine from a shelf, and had to say her lines in multiple locations along the way. Needless to say, the quality of the promos was inverse to the difficulty.

Challenge #2: Prepare a buffet for 50 guests (the selection committee, hotel chefs, and Vegas performers). They had a reasonable 6 hours to cook and a $1000 budget. The buffet was supposed to be “over the top, Vegas style” and they had to do an “entertaining” intro before the service. Although they didn’t state any rules for the foods, each contestant appeared to have 3 main courses, one vegetable side dish, and a dessert.

How did things go? My favorite, Aaron, did the best with his promo but totally bombed at the buffet. His intro was embarrassingly bad and all three of his main courses were pasta (the reviews of the food were that it was okay but not great). Lisa did so-so with the promo (hard to do when dangling 15 feet in the air), fabulous with the buffet intro, and well with the food. Adam did decently with the promo, well with the buffet intro, and was the runaway favorite with the food.

It’s been obvious that the selection committee loves Aaron, likes Lisa but has reservations, and isn’t too fond of Adam. But because they traditionally gave immunity to the person who won a particular challenge, they couldn’t get rid of Adam. And they didn’t want to dump Aaron for having one bad week. So they wimped out and are bringing all 3 contestants to the final episode this Sunday. At least it’s in New York.

So, enough of that, what the heck would I make if I were feeding 50 people? The budget isn’t an issue, even with expensive items, because everyone ate all 3 buffets, so portions were small. $1000 is $20/person and you can do a lot with that (catering budgets include labor, not just ingredients, and they weren’t serving alcohol). I’d want to be true to my personal food restrictions, at least the basic ones.

Main Courses:

Sweet peppers stuffed with shrimp paste with a hoisin sauce (hot)
Grape leaves stuffed with fish (cold)
Vegan soup, maybe chickpea with Georgian Walnut paste (hot)

Vegetable/Side:

A beautiful raw salad (cold)

Dessert:

Mango sorbet topped with pine nut cream and toasted almonds (cold, but with hot almonds if possible)

The shrimp I envision is the kind you get in dim sum restaurants stuffed into tofu. You take raw shrimp and process it with some other ingredients. I’ve made it before but it was years ago. I’d add spice and something to bind it, egg or flax goo. Maybe peas or something like that for texture and a fresh flavor. Stuff into those gorgeous colored sweet peppers that are 1-2 bites each. Roast. Serve with a salty intense dipping sauce based on hoisin.

The grape leaves came to me as a great choice but, if I were really in a competition, I might swap them out since I don’t have much experience with grape leaves. I’d cook a mild white fish like halibut and mince (not process) it well with a lot of fresh flavors like parsley then either add chutney or use similar flavors.

I’ve made the soup before from one of my favorite cookbooks, Olive Trees & Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World, and it’s simple but really good. The walnut paste has a unique flavor and is used regularly within the country of Georgia.

The raw salad would have no lettuce but lots of carefully cut items to make it special. Lots of long thin strips like noodles. Avocado, some more of the sweet peppers, pea pods, bean sprouts, specialty mushrooms. I’d have to see what looked good in the store and went together. A variety of colors. Served either with a chimichurri sauce (lime juice, parsley, mint, cilantro, very good olive oil, and garlic) or something else with an intense flavor that would pull all the other ingredients together.

Mango sorbet is very simple, which is the best way to do it. Take very ripe mangoes, remove the skin and pits, and puree them. A touch of salt, a squeeze of lime, some vanilla is all you need. It’s plenty sweet enough. Most people would add simple syrup but mango doesn’t need more sugar and all that water will just dilute the flavor.

I’d serve it with some vanilla bean pine nut cream (because you don’t have to soak pine nuts) and some toasted almond slices on top. If the kitchen didn’t have an ice cream maker, I could freeze half the puree in ice cube trays and then blend it up and then freeze again (watching it carefully so it doesn’t get too hard).

My meal could be done by 2 people (each contestant got a former contestant as a sous chef) in 6 hours with no problems. Granted, it did take me a few days to come up with the dishes, instead of near instanteneously like the contestants are forced to do. And I might not be able to get every ingredient I needed (in January, in the middle of the desert…oh, they’d all be in the store, just not at their peak). But hey, I’m a blogger in front of a computer, not a trained cook trying to smile for the camera. I get to imagine success.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Although you can serve borscht year-round, I almost always make it for Passover. This year was no exception. To me, beets are a necessary part of the holiday and, if I don’t make borscht, I will make another dish featuring beets.

Recipe:

6 large beets
8 large carrots
8 stalks of celery (about 1/2 bunch)
3″ fresh ginger root
Salt to taste
Fresh lemon juice (1 slice per bowl, or about 4 lemons’ worth per recipe)

Makes about a gallon of borscht, which is enough for 2 dozen bowls, plus some leftovers. Feel free to scale the recipe up or down to meet your needs.

Note that this is a raw recipe, aside from the beets. One day, I’d like to try it 100% raw, but I need to find a way to soften the beets.

Wash the beets well, cut off greens if any, and place in to a soup pot where they are covered with water (use filtered, not tap). Simmer until fork tender (a fork goes in but not with great ease), about an hour. Remove beets from liquid and soak in cold water to cool (or cool slower with no water). Don’t discard the cooking liquid.

Once cool enough to handle, the skins and tops of the beets will slip off in your hands. Compost the skins and put the beets back into cool water if they are still hot.

Using a large-holed grater, grate the beets into another container. They can be completely cooked through or slightly raw in the middle, as per your preference. I like them more on the raw side.

The liquid in this bowl is leftover from the pot (which I emptied for the carrots and celery). I removed two quarts of broth (one went back into the soup later and one got frozen).

Food process the ginger with the carrots and celery and put back into the empty pot.

Add the grated beets, season as desired, then add as much broth as you wish to get the right consistency. I like this soup thick, almost like a stew, so I only added back one quart.

At this point, you can add the lemon juice. I generally do not because one of our regular Passover guests is allergic to citrus. I serve lemon wedges on the side and strongly encourage people to add the juice from a full wedge (1/6 of a lemon) to each bowl.

Chill until ready to serve.

Good as is or with a dollop of sour cream.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t fuss over ingredients. I made this out of what I found in my fridge and freezer. Next time I’ll make it with completely different vegetables. And why are there 4 carrots in the picture but 3 in the pot? because I always grab an extra one to munch on while cooking.

Ingredients (this time):

Rock cod/fish, about 2 lbs of fillets, diced
3 carrots
1 green pepper
Cup or so of chopped fennel stem/leaf (frozen)
2 cups or so of thinly sliced onion (frozen)
Crimini mushrooms, a couple big handfuls
Diced tomatoes, 1 can
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
Water as needed

Saute the onions in olive oil until they sweat. Add carrots, mushrooms, and pepper and saute for 5 more minutes or so.

Add the other ingredients. Turn down heat, cover, and simmer for about half an hour, stirring frequently and not letting it come to a boil.

Would be absolutely amazing with Monica’s Olive Bread. We ate it plain, for two days.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

So I put some filtered water in a pot and added the fish extras and started to simmer it on low heat. As I cut vegetables for my pickled red onions and kim chee, I threw in the trimmings: onions, leeks, napa cabbage, daikon radish, and a few extras from the red and green cabbage I roasted to serve with the fish fillets for dinner. I threw in some bay leaves and salt and two squeezed out lemon halves.

I let it simmer very low for a couple of hours then I turned off the heat to go to bed. It would have been hard to make enough room in the fridge for the pot, so I left it covered on the stove. I thought I’d finish it the next morning.

My mistake. I didn’t get to it until evening. Because of that, I decided that I needed to bring the stock to a boil just in case something bad had been growing. When I tasted the stock the night before, it was delicious. Unfortunately, the boiling killed some of the flavor along with any buggies. It was still good, don’t get me wrong, but the fish had a slight overcooked flavor. Very usable, it just could have been better.

I let it cool a bit then ran it through a strainer (just a plain colander; I didn’t mind a few bits coming through to the broth). The strained bits went into the compost (after removing some skin and other yummies for the cats) and the broth went into glass jars, 1-2 pints each. I made sure to leave a good inch of headroom and I just placed the lids on top without tightening as I put them into the freezer. Once frozen, I tightened the lids.

I’ve made soup with the frozen broth twice and it was great. The most recent time I was recovering from the flu and had minimal energy so I took a sealed frozen jar, put it into a pot with some hot tap water and left until it was pourable. I emptied the pot and put the soup in. I just added some mushrooms (not sure what kind, but not ordinary white or brown) we got from our CSA (sliced), some extra firm tofu chunks, and a bit of seasoning. Wonderful and it was exactly what I needed.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.