Chopped (weird one)

This week's episode of chopped had weirder ingredient combos than usual.

App - watermelon, zucchini, pepper jack cheese and canned sardines
Entree - beef shoulder, yuca, raisins, ancho chile, dill pickles
Dessert - prosecco, canadian bacon, chestnuts, tortillas

App - a summer garden inspired mini-pizza & watermelon fizzy float. English muffin pizzas with a sauce made from fresh tomatoes (crushed, seasoned and sauteed with some olive oil) and zucchini and small pcs of sardine and pepper jack cheese to top it. A watermelon cooler with fresh watermelon blended with some seltzer water and vanilla ice cream.

Entree - slice beef fairly thin, season with salt, pepper, garlic, lime & cilantro. (Let lime help tenderize it for a while before cooking) Saute meat quickly & slice on a diagonal. Use beef stock to cook up fond at bottom of pan, and plump raisins in it. reduce and finish with a pat of butter. shred the yuca and combine with salt, pepper and some ancho chile to make a yuca pancake/hashbrown. Use finely diced dill pickle, and other pickled vegetables as a quick relish. Plate the hashbrown first, meat slices on top of the hashbrown with some raisins and pan sauce over it and (after tasting outcome) decide whether to plate relish on top of meat or in a couple small piles around the plate. My guess is I would go for three small spots of the relish around the plate rather than piling it on.

Dessert - a sweet and savory strata. Maybe a brioche and the tortillas sliced up for the bread and get a quick 'custard' mix of eggs, cream, prosecco, & almond extract over the bread for it to soak. thinly slice canadian bacon, roughly chop chestnuts, walnuts and pecans. Mix into the bread and custard combo. Take out small, individual ramekins & butter. spoon a little of the strata mix into the ramekin using a slotted spoon to not get too much custard (there are only 30 mins per round here...), sprinkle a little brown sugar and top with a little more of the strata mix. While individual stratas are baking, start whipping some cream. When soft peaks form, add some powdered sugar and prosecco to flavor the cream. Continue to whip to stiff peaks. Serve hot ramekin on a plate with the whipped cream on the side (so that it doesn't melt INTO the strata before the judges get to eat it.)

I think that's it for Chopped.

Obviously on Monday we did the fajita thing for dinner if I didn't already post about that. Tuesday was leftover night since Bryan worked late and tonight was chicken pot pie night. I think I got just the right ratio of everything. 2.5 chicken breasts, 3/4 of a HUGE parsnip, about 1/3 bag of baby carrots, can of green beans, 1 cup of stock and a deep dish pie plate. Came out SUPER delicious! Could have used another few mins in the oven for extra browning of the top crust, but it still tasted GREAT!

Tomorrow night I'm going to try a new (invented) ratatouille recipe that I'll just sort of make off the top of my head. I have a whole bunch of produce just sitting in my fridge waiting. Eggplant, summer squash, & zucchini, though I think I'll use some canned tomatoes. Maybe throw a few fresh in for a different texture?? I'll have to keep an eye out for some when i go shopping tomorrow. I'm going to bake this one in the oven rather than cooking on the stovetop and finishing in the oven. This means I'll get to play with my enameled cast iron dutch oven from IKEA. (For any strapped-for-cash cooks out there, IKEA makes an enameled cast iron dutch oven that probably costs a quarter of what the fancy French brand costs. And I don't see any durability issues. No problems whatsoever with this pan!)

Okay - time to get back to trying to remove a stubborn virus from my husband's PC. I'll let you know how the ratatouille comes out!