Master Chef finals menu

I needed to submit my menu for the finals for the nyu master chef today. I've included it below. In other news, I'm at a conference in Salt Lake City, and after eating out for a few days straight i have reaffirmed my many reasons to seldom eat out and if i do to be very selective in my choice of venue. Anyway, here's the menu and recipe.

1. (Kheer - rice pudding; 1 sauce pan, 1 wide pan, 1 cast iron pan) Boil ½ cup rice and one cup water in sauce pan. Simmer 3 cups almond milk with whole cardamom pods and ¼ cup coconut milk in wide pan. Before adding basmati rice, remove the cardamom pods. When rice has cooked for about 15 minutes add into the almond milk and simmer at low heat. Add 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1.5 tsp vanilla extract, cardamom powder. Near the end of cooking heat oil in cast iron pan and add crushed cashews and almond slivers plus more cardamom powder and golden raisins. Add to the pudding. Chill for as long as possible before serving.
2. (Dal porridge; 1 large pan, 1 sauce pan for boiling water) In large pan heat veggie oil and brown cumin seeds. When popping add dry red pepper flakes and two bay leaves. Add in crushed garlic, chopped onion, green chili and ginger. Cook until onion has caramelized a little. Then add 2 diced potato, 1 diced carrot and 1 cup of peas. Spice with salt, pepper, turmeric and red chili powder. After a few minutes clear an area on the bottom of the pan and add a little more oil and then ½ cup of red dal. Roast dal for about two minutes and then add in two cups of pre-boiling water. Cook until it is half cooked and separating then add in ½ cup basmati rice and a little more hot water. Cook on medium heat until dal is fully broken down and rice is cook done. Spice to taste with more salt, turmeric, chili powder, cumin powder and pepper.
3. (Chapatti; large bowl, rolling pin, 1 large cast iron pan) Sift 1 cup of whole wheat flour with a pinch of salt. Mix with 1 Tbs olive oil and 1/4 cup water. Add more flour if dough is too wet. Put aside for 30 minutes. Split into small balls and with some flour, roll until flat. About 10 minutes before serving time, heat medium cast iron and with a little oil brown both sides, but do not cook until fully crisp. Cover before serving.
4. (Curry sauce; 1 deep pan) Heat oil in a deep pan. Add bay leaves and dried red pepper and let sizzle for 30 seconds. Add mustard seeds, sizzle another 30 seconds, then add turmeric, garam masala and crushed cardamom. After about 15 seconds add medium sized pieces of chopped onion and garlic and hot pepper. Cook for a few minutes until onions start to get a little translucent, but not browned. Add in ½ cup peas and 1 chopped carrot and cook until they get a little tender. Meanwhile take 1 large can of unseasoned tomatoes puree and pour into the pan. Cook for 10 minutes or so then add in goat cheese and mix until smooth. Add salt and pepper and any additional spice to taste.
5. (Vegetable kofta; grater, medium bowl, 1 large cast iron pan, draining rack with paper bag) Add 1 cup chickpeas to a large glass bowl with 1 cup goat cheese and 2 eggs and ½ cup crushed cashews. Peel and julienne 1 carrot, 1 zucchini and 1 long hot thai pepper. Mix in with 1 thinly sliced onion and well crushed garlic (4 cloves). Spice with red pepper powder, cumin/ coriander, tumeric, curry powder, and salt/pepper. Then add in a few spoonfuls of chickpea flour to thicken up the mixture. Let sit for a little. Take you favorite cast iron skillet and cover bottom with oil. Heat and then shape into latka like patties (maybe 2-3 inches in diameter) and place into the pan. Let these get browned before flipping and repeating. Occasionally add more oil, and when cooked place them on paper bags for draining.
6. (Cabbage curry; large pan) In a large pan heat oil and add in black mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Roast until popping and then add in crushed garlic, sliced onion and green chili. Then add in ½ cup peas and ½ of a cabbage finely shredded. Add salt and turmeric as well as some garam masala. Cook until cabbage has taken on the color of the turmeric but is still semi-crunchy.

Course 1: In a medium sized bowl spoon out a portion of the dal porridge.
Course 2: On a small side plate put two, freshly cooked, chapatti. On a large plate place three vegetable kofta, covered with curry sauce, and a side of cabbage curry.
Course 3: On a small plate chill a few spoonfuls of kheer.

Lucky for me

I competed today in the semi-finals of the Master Chef NYU competition and to my surprise I did well enough to make it to the finals! As my previous post indicates I made pierogi and borscht, plus a little pastry type dessert. It just so happened that of the three judges, each one of them had a special place in their hearts for both pierogi and borscht, so that worked out pretty well for me. Their comments were very nice, with really no criticisms. I would have made one criticism of my pierogi's though --- I felt that the skin was a little too sticky (which was probably because I cooked them in water I had used to boil potatoes). Otherwise I was very happy with the day. In fact, two of the judges asks to bring home portions of both of my dishes, so I felt really good about that.
That said, I will need to compete again in three weeks in the finals. The challenge is to create a full three course meal, again in only 1 hour of cooking time, but with 30 minutes (instead of 20 minutes) of prep time. My preliminary thoughts are to make an Indian feast! We are afforded one special ingredient, not on the list, and we are allowed to bring in one tool from home. I don't think I'll bring in any time because I don't want to unkosher it by using it along side their tools. For the special tool, maybe I'll use paneer, or if they don't have basmanti rice (they say white rice) I may ask for that. I will also need to look into the types of lentils I can get from them. A menu I've made before which works well is a dal and rice stew, malia kofta type indian patties with a sweet vegi sauce, and cabbage curry. I'm not too crazy about trying to make any sort of bread, though possibly I could find a flat bread which doesn't take that much time to make... probably not though. As far as dessert goes, I could try to make a rice pudding with cardamom and coconut milk.
The competition for the finals looks pretty good. The other team is of two people who both came with their own chef-type uniforms on, and who were both talking about their cooking experience, which seems rather extensive. They made some really good looking meat dish this round. Anyway, I look forward to competing again in three weeks, and for anyone interested, on April 13th there will be a showing of the competition show at the Kimmel center. Win or lose it will still be fun to go and watch.

Indian patties and curry (with persimmon)

Yes, I have found another use for the 50 some-odd persimmons I bought last week --- its as a sauce thickener (and slight sweetener). I was have been contemplating this for many days and finally, yesterday, decided to chance disaster and mix persimmon with tomatos as a base for an Indian curry. I dare say it went off without a hitch. I also found use for much of the 1.5 kilogram brick of goat cheese I got at the cheese shop for a measly 6$. Stay tuned and you too will learn how to cobble together a meal out of stuff you bought on impulse without thinking.
That premise of dinner last night was that my cousin Johanna (who was very helpful in the kitchen) was visiting (I got tickets to the Daily Show and she was coming with) and we had decided to have my other cousin and my brother and sister-in-law over for dinner. Cooking didn't commence until like 8. The menu was to be Indian vegi and cheese patties, rice, and a thick curry sauce. Think Malia Kofta... but don't think that too much.
Highlights of the evening were:
1. Tricking everyone into thinking that they were drinking Johnny Walker Blue Label and listening to their high praise (it was really old Canadian club in a Johnny Blue bottle).
2. Realizing that despite trying to make Indian patties, I was really just making Indian Latkas (no potato, but they really look the part).
3. The success of Persimmon as a thickening/creamening agent.
4. The use of a significant portion of my goat cheese.

Wow, as I write about the evening I realize that what I am saying is pretty boring. So rather than blabbing more, here's the recipes.

Indian Patties. (I'll try to make this a recipe for 4 or 5)
1 can chickpeas
2 carrots
1 zucchini
1 cup goat cheese
1 cup crushed cashews
some flour
1 long hot pepper
1 or 2 eggs (depending on size)
1 small onion
4 cloves garlic
Curry mixture (red pepper powder, cumin/ coriander, tumeric, or curry powder)
Drain and was chickpeas. Add to large glass bowl, with the cheese and eggs and cashews. Peel and julienne carrots, zuchinni and pepper into almost thick pieces (the thinner the better). Mix in with diced onion and well crushed/chopped garlic. Spice with indian spices and salt/pepper. Then add in a few spoonfuls of flour to thicken up the mixture. Let sit for a little. Take you favorite cast iron skillet and cover bottom with oil. Heat and then (just wait until Hannukah's post) shape into latka like patties (maybe 2-3 inches in diameter) and place into the pan. Let these get browned before flipping and repeating. Occasionally add more oil, and when cooked place them on paper bags for draining. Yum.

Curry sauce (also with 4-5 people)
2 Persimmons, ripe (if you don't have these, no big deal... it just makes it a nicer, creamier consistency)
1/2 cup goat cheese
1- 1.5 large can of whole tomatoes
1 cup peas
1 cup cauliflower
2 carrots
1 large onion
5 cloves garlic
bayleaves
dried whole red pepper
crushed cardamom
garma masala
tumeric
mustard seeds
Heat oil in a deep pan. Add bay leaves and dried whole red pepper and let sizzle for 30 seconds. Add mustard seeds, sizzle another 30 seconds, then add powdered spices and crushed cardamom. After about 15 seconds add medium sized pieces of chopped onion and garlic and hot pepper. Cook for a few minutes until onions start to get a little translucent, but not browned. Add in vegis and cook until they get a little tender. Meanwhile take 1 can of tomatoes and the two persimmons and blend in a blender to a slurry. Pour into the pan and add any additional tomato. Cook for 10 minutes or so then add in goat cheese and mix until smooth. Add salt and pepper and any additional spice to taste.

Rice
Cook Indian rice.

Eat.

Quick and easy Indian green beans

I was just reading my friend's cooking blog (http://themistaskitchen.blogspot.com/) and she gave a very nice recipe for roasted green beans (when you make my recipe and it turns out terrible and you are left with a pound of untarnished green beans, you should look at here recipe) prepared in an Indian, or dare I say Bangladeshi way. I, of course, can not claim that these are really authentic Indian or Bangladeshi, but I'll give my best rational for why I think they are. First, I have a vague memory of one of my close elementary school friend's (he was Indian) mother preparing a meal which included a spicy green bean dish; and second, I had a roommate last year whose fiance was Bangladeshi, and many of the recipes she made included the very nice mixture of sweetness and sourness which figures into this dish.

Well enough storytelling:
A few handfuls of green beans (if you want an exact number 87 will do)
Between a cup and half a cup of slivered almonds
A cubic inch of fresh ginger
A few cloves of garlic
Curry Powder
Honey
Balsamic Vinegar
********
Take you favorite cast iron pan and roast the almond slivers until they get a little toasted, but not burned. Let them cool (I usually let them cool on the pan). Then take you second favorite cast iron pan and heat a little olive oil, then add the ginger and garlic (which you should dice before hand). After cooking for a minute or so add the beans (make sure they are not really wet when you add them). While this cooks add in the curry powder to taste, plus some salt might help. Cook until done and then transfer to a glass bowl. Add in the now dried almonds (when you roast almonds they get a little soft, so letting them cool keeps them crunchy in the mix), and then give the mixture a few splashes of Balsamic plus a few squirts of honey. Mix thoroughly and taste.

I really like this dish and often when I make it I end up making a meal out of it. Yeah... I'm pretty lame, but it tastes good, so why not.

Cumin Dal and Rice Stew

Two years ago I had a roommate, Sheel, who was Indian. We both enjoyed cooking and explored many types of food. Some of the best recipes we made, though, came from his mother. Today I remade one of those recipes --- a stew of dal, rice and vegis, spiced with cumin (and many other spices). Here's the idea:
In a small cast iron pan brown cumin seeds and once cooled grind into powder. Meanwhile heat oil (canola) in a pot then add in dry red pepper and bay leaves. After like a minute add in garlic, onion, green chili, and ginger and let the onion brown/carmilize. Then introduce the potatos and vegis (I used carrot and peas). Spice with salt, turmeric and red chill powder. After cooking for a little, push the vegis to the side and add a little more oil to the middle and add in dal (1 cup) and roast two minutes. After that add 4 cups of hot water and cook until the dal is half cooked --- it should be getting softer and separating a little. Then add in 1 cup rice and a little more hot water and cook until done. When most of the water has been absorbed, add in the ground cumin seeds.
This dish is best after its cooled down and even after its sat in the fridge for a day because the spices really meld and develop. Its pretty much a complete meal in itself (I'll probably be eating it for the next four days or so). Its also a really good dinner party food --- on two or three occasions I've made it, along with some other dishes, and its gone over really well.
In other culinary news my roommate Steve and I are going to a knife demonstration at William Sonoma tomorrow noon; my friend Jess and I have made plans to try to create a good peanut butter cheesecake (I agreed to this because I don't like peanut butter and hence won't be tempted to eat it in all its fatty goodness); my friend Mike had a great idea of starting a bi-monthly food club where we learn to cook different dishes as a group. So as far as cuisine I have my plate full (lame joke).