cooking @ home

Archive for October, 2007

I feel like I wasted half a year in many respects. It all came down to Dale, Casey and Hung. In order, likeable guy, likeable gal, and the number one most disliked person ever to be in a reality series. The Top Chef jury went for Hung.

Obviously Hung would never win a popularity contest. He would also never win “Mr. Congeniality”. This surprises no one. He wasn’t judged on that. Nor was anyone else. It was cooking.

Here’s the problem: Cooking is a culinary art. But who won but a master technician. Hung winning is putting the artist out of the game. The engineer over the architect; the precision over the heart. Pure science.

You see, for anyone who wasn’t watching, all season judge Tom Colicchio had been saying Hung was a brilliant technician, did everything technically, but he never put his heart or soul into his food. Other judges and guest judges echoed these comments, but for Tom it was a refrain.

Then, at the end, bang, Tom votes for and pushed for Hung saying “he found his heart”. Sorry if I’m coughing up all over the screen here but I am. That was a little too convenient. It’s a nice end to the “Wizard of Oz”, but come on, Tom aren’t you trying to justify choosing him?!

Do explain in detail please exactly where did he magically turn the corner on the very last episode with his dishes? What did he do that showed a leap, a personal challenge, something not in his cooking rule book, something unique, something “Hung”. He didn’t. He did nothing different than ever before. He’s probably unable to do so in fact; it’s not in his programming.

I’m sorry I have to be rough on Tom. I like him a lot. Having bought the book he’s best known for and gone maybe a third in to it, I like him even more and feel I know much more about him than from just watching the show. But hey, quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Translated: who watches the watchers, or guards the guardians, or in this case judges the judges. If you can dish it out, you better be able to take it. If you make a call, you damn well better be able to explain and or defend it. I see none of that here.

One way or another, Tom was not true to himself, to his own criteria of judging. Either he wasn’t for the entire season and found himself at the end, or he was true all season, and as I said “Hung suddenly has heart” was too convenient a revelation. In short it came down to this. Per Tom. A technically beautiful dish with no heart is not a Top Chef (the view he had all season), or what taste best wins. And I think all season Tom wrestled with this, because for the first time, in the embodiment of Hung he found they were two separate things. It seems in the end it came down to taste, and a well-trained robot preparing everything properly can deliver taste. Rather than admit that though — how could he? — instead Tom proclaimed the tin man got his heart.

This above though only partly illustrates a season of inconsistent judging. Inconsistent with what was said and then how they would continually vote. All season, every judge, every guest chef would all say the same thing to everyone. In a negative way: “You’re playing it safe” which was then usually followed by a disappointed head shake. “You’re not talking enough risks”. Everyone said this to everyone and in nearly every episode and more than once.

But every single time a contestant (foolishly it seems now) tried, they usually got reprimanded — “Just what were you thinking?” and “How could you serve that dish?” and “Did you actually taste it before sending it out?” and “What was going through your mind when this came to you?” — often followed by the infamous “pack your knives” line. What the heck was this? Why constantly, beratingly, bludgeon the contestants with the same mantra every single week about experimenting and then every next judgement time throw it up in their faces like they’re crazy? It makes you want to scream to the contestants: “Ignore them! They’re bipolar!!”

And that was the nail in the coffin for me when in the finale it came down between Hung and Dale (Casey having gone all helter-skelter on herself on the last challenge.) Why? Because here they decided of the last four dishes, two went to Hung, and two went to Dale. Among those that went to Hung was his sixth or eight or tenth dish of duck. Talk about full-out playing it safe. Whereas one of the dishes that went in favor of Dale was something he’d never tried before and worked superbly.

Based on all the judges said for the past long long long four plus months, the winner had to be Dale. That is, based on their own criteria, and their bludgeoning record-looped mantras, Dale should have won. It went to Hung. Why? No idea. I felt like I was the awards ceremony of a hypocrites convention. What was it all for in the end? Why speak out of one side of your mouth and vote the other way Tom, Padme, Ted, Gail???

The silence is deafening. I’m sure this will never be answered to my satisfaction, in fact, never answered at all. Leaving us to sit here and wonder… Why did we spend six months of our lives on this drivel?

At least the contestants for next year have a clear path based on all this. To win next season’s show, be a robot, make no friends, make enemies, become a nuisance, be a totally arrogant selc-righteous, self-centered bastard, cut your meat finely and know your technique. And ignore the judges totally no matter what they say and give them the exact same thing week after week. Do that and you’ll be Top Chef in no time. Oh and if you get sick one week, just have your robot proxy come in and do it for you. No one will notice the difference.

At last, some true “play time” with food. I let my inner child run amok and came up with a grown-up fantasy come true. This is, as the title suggests, what I consider to be my ultimate twice baked potato.

Well, almost. I couldn’t believe when I shopping the day before the party I could not find a good, large baking potato! Must be a Murphy’s Law thing. If I didn’t care, they would have been there at the store the size of watermelons. But no, the day I want to get a big bag of really large ones, every single bag of russets — and not an Idadho in the place — contained pm;u three inch and unders.

You ever get that feeling you’re on Candid Camera? (For the younger folk reading, ever think you’ve been Punk’d?) Long story short, between a choice of red bliss and the in-betweener thin-skinned yellows from Jersey, I went with the Jerseys.

You’ll note below in the recipe I say six large potatoes, I ended up using nine medium. As always, vary as needed, or to fit in with what you can get at the market. Also, since it’s a good time saver — and this was part of a big party the next day and I had a lot of other dishes to cook — I “nuked” the taters in the microwave for about 18 minutes instead of the oven for 50. Same difference.

Next day about an hour before the party I sliced the potatoes in half length-wise and scooped them out, and then filled them back up with nothing but good stuff. Quick tip: You know those grapefruit spoons in the back of your drawer that you never use? The one’s where you got this thing that’s mostly spoon but with a serated, knife-type top on them? If you have those, they work awesome for scopping out the potatoes!

Needlesstosay (but I will any how) they were a party hit. Enjoy!

Ultimate Twice Baked Potatoes
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

Six large potatoes
 (large as you can find, preferably baking kind)
8 oz extra thick sliced bacon. diced 1/2 squares
4 oz shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup milk
3 tblsps butter (or margarine)
salt
pepper

Place potatoes in the oven and bake at 400F for 50 minutes or until done. Alternately about 18 minutes in an 1100 watt microwave (about 25 minutes in a 700 watt microwave, placing plenty of fork vent holes in each). When potatoes are done let cool. You can either work with these the next day (storing in the fridge over night) or when cooled down at least 1/2 hour.

Take diced bacon and brown in frying pan. Take out and place on plate between paper towels to drain excess fat and let cool.

Cut each potato in half, lengthwise and scoop out into a mixing bowl. (Leave enough on the sides and bottom that you still have a firm “shell” of potato.) Place skins aside, covered in plastic or foil wrap so they do not get hard or dry.

To potato mixture, make as you would normally for mashed potatoes with milk, butter, salt and pepper. Now add cheddar cheese and about 80-90% of the bacon and mix with hand mixer or large spoon. Once thoroughly mixed, take out potato “shells” and fill each evenly as possible. Place pinches of cheddar cheese atop each of the 12 potato halves, and then top each with remaining bacon bits.

I had a BBQ party this weekend with relatives and friends attending. The star was (no surprise) my BBQ pork spare ribs. But that wasn’t going to be enough to feed this hungry crowd — not even with appetizers and sides, so I needed a second “main” course or second meat here, and while still maintaining that grill theme wanted to vary it as much as I could. Fist way to go different was a different meat, natch, in this case good-ol’ chicken, still there was no way it was going to be sauced identically to the first one.

Afterall, just because it’s barbeque doesn’t mean it has to be the “same BBQ”, if you know what I mean. If you don’t, then what I mean is this: there’s the traditional wood-chip “real” smoked BBQ. As you might recall from the primer, real BBQ means smoked and cooked by indirect-heating. Now to vary things up there’s the other way — which here in America is not technically called BBQ but grilling and this is — with direct heat, over the coals, and using dry rub and BBQ sauce

What ways can you vary it? Many. Go a different direction: Spicy, or sweet, tangy, fruity, mustardy, tomatoy, southwestern, Asian, Morrocan, Turkish, etc .. plus combinations of each. So for me, for this party, time to change up with sweet, so an apricot glazed chicken drumstick. Now mind you “sweet” is another relative word. I’m not trying to make this dessert. As you’ll see later in the ingredient list there’s some tang and always a touch of fire. But the predominent characteristic is, in this case, sweet.

Now drumsticks are difficult to cook. Hmm, difficult might not be the correct word. Let’s say, for their size, they take a surprisingly long time. A good medium drumstick will take around 45 minutes. I had bought a mix from the store, and opening the package, even though they were overall large, the 14 pieces did have a variety of sizes. About eight medium (ok, I said large overall, so medium here means “of those in the pack”, if you were looking at it normally, this medium you would consider “large”). For large (red jumbo) and four smaller ones (what you might normally consider to be “mediium”). Ah, everything is relative.

Point is that was three different cooking weights and cooking times. When this happens when I’m on the grill, I just start taking the smaller ones that look done, and move them over to a cooler side of the grill. If there is no such thing as a cooler side, or if the grill is just very hot overall, then I remove them right to a plate and cover immediately with foil.

Ok, one thing here to remind folks. You have to be careful, even over-careful with chicken. When you have something like this, drumsticks, you’re talking some meat around a big bone. That bone is what really causes “difficulty” in cooking. Especially in taking the internal temperature. You get false readings. Both pro and con, that is, high and low. They do take long. But I was having a tough time getting these to the proper temperature near the end. Every time I’d poke the largest pieces with the thermometer I was getting back 130.And after 40 minutes and having added red-hot charcoals from my chimney smoker, I knew what I was seeing on the thermometer just didn’t jive with what I was seeing with my own eyes and with experience. (Guess this is part of where cooking becomes part art and part gut feeling.)

When I finally said, these have to be done, took them inside and sliced one open, it was definitely done, even though the temperature gauge had been telling me it wasn’t.

What though had it been true that it wasn’t cooked all the way through? Hey, it happens to the best of us. Here’s a tip to be safety conscious. Use a microwave. You won’t lose any flavor, you won’t mess it up. Microwaves cook from the inside out, so you’re sure to get it right without and lose nothing that way. Who cares if a chef in a five-star restaurant or even a grizzled veteran of BBQ comptetions would never do that. This is us, not them. You want pride to stand in your way and take a chance on your guests getting sick? Hell no. A little nuking (my sometimes funny term for microwaving) might not be found in Culinary Institute’s handbook, but this is you and me in our front patios and backyards and in our kitchens. Never serve chicken undercooked, either put back on the grill, place in the oven, or give it a minute or two in the microwave if you definitely need to or just feel unsure about things.

Apricot-Glazed Grilled Chicken Drumsticks
©2007 Harry Kenney

14 large chicken drumsticks

rub:

salt
pepper
cinnamon
ginger
cumin
garlic powder
chilli powder

glaze:

4oz apricot preserves
3 tblsp apricot snapps (you can use regular brandy)
2 tblsp whole-grain mustard
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsps worsteshire
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp chilli powder
salt
pepper

Put on rub and in ziplocked bag into the refrigerator. Put in fridge for about 30 minutes minimum, up to four hours is great. Take out and leave out on table still in the bag another 30 minutes so chicken gets more towards room temperature and they’re ready for the grill.

This is should take in total about 20 minutes per side. This is one item that you baste early and you turn often on the grill. Many times my advice is leave it alone. Not this one. Place on grill, baster with glaze. Five minutes later, turn, baste. Do that about every 10 minutes, getting all the sides a few times. Do put the lid or cover down in between. At about 35-40 minutes, start checking with an internal meat thermometer the largest ones.

Drumsticks are difficult at times because of that big center bone. You don’t want to serve raw and get anyone sick. You also don’t want to so overcook as to make things dry. Chicken needs to be 165°F minimum, and starts drying out at higher than 175°F. After 50 minutes over a good hot grill if you find you are still having problems, put the larger drumsticks and any others you feel may not have cooked thoroughly into the microwave for a minute or two to be sure. Serves about seven, depending upon if you are serving lots of sides or if your guests are football player size, serves: 5-9.

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