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The Food Thread Presents: Cooked - July • Page 6

Discussion in 'General Forum' started by Justice Beaver, Jun 29, 2017.

  1. coleslawed

    Eat Pizza

    crying.
    and also realizing i need to do this tonight or never.
     
    AelNire, Ken and Colby Searcy like this.
  2. Justice Beaver

    Crime Fighting Beaver

    [​IMG]

    Tell us your approach for these secret ingredients, @coleslawed.
     
    AelNire and Ken like this.
  3. Ken

    entrusted Prestigious

    These ingredients are so fucked. Sunday will be interesting.
     
  4. Justice Beaver

    Crime Fighting Beaver

    [​IMG]

    Ah yes, @Ken is using the "so fucked" method, similar to a souffle or halfway between sous vide and charcoal grilled. That's not something we see often here in the Cooked Thread but I'll be interested to see if it pays off. Back to you, Kevin.
     
    coleslawed, Joe4th, AelNire and 2 others like this.
  5. AelNire

    @RiotGrlErin Supporter

    Try it next time you're at the bar and you might be singing a different tune, my dear!
     
  6. Justice Beaver

    Crime Fighting Beaver

    Tequila causes me to make bad decisions.
     
    Ken and AelNire like this.
  7. AelNire

    @RiotGrlErin Supporter

    Me too. Especially when you mix it with orange juice and can't taste it. I can't drink the gold anymore bc it makes me gag just looking at it. :crylaugh:
     
  8. angrycandy

    I’m drama in these khaki towns Supporter

    I can't drink tequila in any form other than a margarita anymore


    I will never do another shot of tequila again. if I think about it real hard, I can still remember the taste. how I loathe the taste
     
    MikeyPaine and AelNire like this.
  9. Ken

    entrusted Prestigious

    I love tequila. I'm going to include it in my dish not really
     
    coleslawed and AelNire like this.
  10. Joe4th

    Memories are nice, but that's all they are. Prestigious

    Tequila makes me vomit almost immediately, I can't drink it at all.
     
    AelNire and angrycandy like this.
  11. coleslawed

    Eat Pizza

    trying not to burn my house down. and also not anger my roommates by making a custard at 10 pm.
     
    AelNire likes this.
  12. Justice Beaver

    Crime Fighting Beaver

    [​IMG]

    Kevin, it looks like we're coming down to the last couple of hours of the competition. Are you seeing dishes starting to take shape?

    [​IMG]

    Well, Alton, it looks like our contestants are really going to need every last minute here in Cooked Stadium. We've gotten some hints at final dishes but we haven't seen anything come together quite yet. It's gonna be a nail biter.
     
    Joe4th likes this.
  13. BlueEyesBrewing

    Trusted Supporter

    I'm not going to have anything by tonight. Between selling our house and looking for a new place all my free time has been spent. Really bummed too because I was kind of excited for my dish.
     
  14. Justice Beaver

    Crime Fighting Beaver

    So....

    Maybe we need an extension?
     
  15. Ken

    entrusted Prestigious

    Yeah, I think so.
     
  16. coleslawed

    Eat Pizza

    i wouldn't mind another week to take another go at it.
     
  17. Justice Beaver

    Crime Fighting Beaver

    What do we all think is a new fair deadline?

    Can we get things done by the end of this weekend?
     
  18. Justice Beaver

    Crime Fighting Beaver

    Friends?
     
  19. coleslawed

    Eat Pizza

    :/ i'm starting to give up hope that pickles and jelly beans can be friends. at least not with my skillset.
     
  20. BlueEyesBrewing

    Trusted Supporter

    Since nobody has posted anything I figured I still had time to make my dish, plus I was kind of excited to try a couple of these things out.


    [​IMG]


    I present to you my dish of coffee rubbed ribeye, sweet potato with marshmallow butter, and a spinach and arugula salad with quick pickled radishes and a pickle juice vinaigrette.


    The assholes that picked this month’s ingredients definitely made it challenging by not picking any sort of protein, fruit, or starch in the basket; but I also thought it made it a good challenge because it allowed for us to choose any type of dish we wanted and not be pigeonholed into one.


    My initial reaction to seeing the list was to do a dessert based solely on jelly beans and marshmallows but the pickles were really throwing me off. I absolutely despise pickles and couldn’t think of any valid reason to ruin a dessert by using them so I decided to try a main course. I knew I needed a way to offset the sweetness caused by the jellybeans and/or marshmallows and that meant using something bitter. Coffee immediately came to mind and I knew a coffee rubbed steak was the way to go. I would try to grind the jelly beans into as much of a powder as I could and use that as the sugar in the rub. I also decided to add a little more flavor to the rub so I added the cinnamon, some paprika, chili powder, and a dash of cayenne pepper to the mix to make a sort of “Mexican Hot Chocolate” rub.


    [​IMG]


    I seasoned the steak the night before and let it dry out the outside as much as I could (this was mostly because I planned on cooking this last night but ran out of time). I then liberally rubbed the steak all over with the spice rub and cooked it in a low oven using the reverse sear method until it was almost to the right temperature and then finished it off in a hot skillet. My biggest concern with this was that the steak I bought wasn’t the thickest so I wasn’t sure if it would handle this method as well as I was hoping.


    The next ingredient to tackle was the dreaded pickles. I couldn’t think of any way to use the disgusting things so I thought of a way to use the juice instead. I knew you could use it as a substitute for any vinegar so the easiest thing I could think of was to make a vinaigrette salad dressing using a simple mix of olive oil, garlic, and dijon mustard to round it out. I decided to throw some thinly sliced radishes in the pickle juice, as well, to try and get a quick pickle on them and add a little something to the dish. I just bought a bag of mixed spinach and arugula to use as the salad since I don’t really mind them too much and sprinkled a little goat cheese on top.


    [​IMG]


    My biggest conundrum with this dish was what to do with the marshmallows. It was just another sweet thing to add and I couldn’t figure out how to incorporate them. The best and first thing I could think of was to make sweet potatoes since they go so well with marshmallows. I didn’t want to make a casserole so I just decided to make mashed sweet potatoes and melt the marshmallow with the butter and mix them in. I added a little cinnamon and nutmeg to these too. I wasn’t too worried about these turning out bad but I was afraid they wouldn’t mix with the other items on the plate.


    [​IMG]


    Overall everything turned out pretty decent, I think about as good as I was hoping for with the ingredients we were given. I also decided to pair it with a nice bourbon coffee stout that I made about 6-8 months ago. The steak ended up a little overcooked (which is supposed to be impossible using reverse sear) and I think that was entirely due to it being too thin. The rub wasn’t as emphatic as I was thinking it would be and I’m wondering if a lot of it came off during the cooking process or what. The good thing was that I couldn’t taste the jelly beans at all as they were hidden well in the rub and just helped offset the bitterness from the coffee. The salad and dressing surprised me the most. I was expecting to only eat one bite of it and I ended up almost finishing it. The sweet potatoes came out ok but as I suspected they didn’t really fit with the dish, plus I added a little too much nutmeg which was a little jarring. The marshmallows were invisible but just added an extra sweetness and creaminess to the potatoes. I achieved my main goal of hiding all of the actual flavors of the ingredients and just using them to help boost the other ingredients I chose. Unfortunately, my methods and some choices didn’t turn out as well as I hoped. I am pretty satisfied with the overall meal, though. I am happy I made my favorite pizza to have as my main dinner tonight though, it’s delicious.


    [​IMG]
     
    LightWithoutHeat, Joe4th, Ken and 3 others like this.
  21. coleslawed

    Eat Pizza

    well done, sir, well done.
    [​IMG]
     
    Joe4th, Ken and angrycandy like this.
  22. Justice Beaver

    Crime Fighting Beaver

    Holy fuck.
     
    coleslawed, Joe4th and Ken like this.
  23. AelNire

    @RiotGrlErin Supporter

    Holyyyyyy smokes.
     
  24. Justice Beaver

    Crime Fighting Beaver

    So... it looks like @BlueEyesBrewing hasn't galvanized any of you other slow pokes into finishing. Either that or you all saw his post and gave up, which I totally understand.

    @BlueEyesBrewing I'll write you up something nice here in a bit. But holy fuck man...just...damn.
     
  25. coleslawed

    Eat Pizza

    definitely gave up.
    I made a delicious toasted marshmallow & cinnamon frozen custard, and then attempted to make candied pickles using the jelly beans and bread & butter pickles. tasted OK. did not look appetizing in pictures.

    everyone is free to try the custard.



















    unless you voted for pickles.
     
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