I competed this morning in the first round of NYU Master Chef. As I mentioned in earlier posts, my menu was composed of blintzs three ways (plain cheese, greens and mushrooms, and caramelized onions and sweet potato). The competition was held in a very nice kitchen classroom in the nutrition department of NYU. I quickly found a small cast iron pan worthy of blintz shell making --- whew! I had 20 minutes to prep (find pots and pans and utensils and chop stuff), and then one hour to cook. Everything went smoothly, and to my surprise I was finished with all of the fillings and making the shells with about 15 minutes to spare. I should have waited for about 10 minutes before frying the blintzs, but instead I cooked them, leaving about 10 minutes for them to sit around and cool off (this is not optimal). I plated six of them (two of each type) on a large plate, with a small plate of sour cream in the center, surrounded by six apple slices. The plate looks pretty good.
After explaining the dish and the idea behind it to the three judges, I left the kitchen to let them deliberate. Returning ten minutes later I proceeded to finish cooking the rest of the blintzs... in case other people wanted to try them.
The judges called the teams together and first gave their opinions of our dishes. Overall they thought mine was delicious. The complemented the use of winter/seasonable ingredients, and thought the flavors worked well. They did complain about the cheese only blintz, saying (as I also agree) that it was too plain and it didn't make that much sense (farmers cheese makes a much better filling). They also thought that something a little snazzier than sour cream could have been the sauce to go with these.
But..... they also told me that I had done well enough to advance to the next round!
That entails coming up with a lunch menu by Monday noon, which I will then need to cook next Friday morning. A blessing and a curse.
I purposely did not think much about this lunch menu, but now I'm going to need to do some good thinking. I'll try to post on my ideas at some point this weekend and get some feedback.
Showing posts with label blintz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blintz. Show all posts
Friday, February 20, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Master Chef NYU
Yay! I got accepted to compete in Master Chef NYU. The preliminary round for me is February 13. I am going to make Blintz's three ways: Traditional farmers cheese, savory mushroom and dark greens, and creamy sweet potato, caramelized onion and goat cheese. I have twenty minutes to prep and one hour to cook. I will need to have a few practice runs before the actual competition. That means that I will invite friends over and time myself at making this meal for them. Well, this is just an update and I don't have much more to say about it now, but I will post again when I have done my first practice run through. Also, if I pass the first round, I will need to design some new recipes, and may bounce ideas off people using the blog.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Latkas and Blintzs
By the end of the night I had two swollen fingers, a sink full of potato peels, a kugel made from left over cheese, latkas and vegis, and many new stains on my pants and shirt. But on the upside the Giants won... and my Hanukkah party had been successful.
I boasted the evening before to a friend who was staying for the weekend that I would be able to make 300 latkas for $10. This, however, was predicated on my shopping in Chinatown. This, however, did not happen -- I woke up too late, the weather sucked, and it turns out (as my roommate informed me later in the day) that the 21st was actually a Chinese holiday for the winter solstice. In any case, I resigned myself to shopping nearby --- probably a good thing in retrospect. Rather than buying 20 lbs or potato, 5 lbs sweet potato, 10 lbs onion, 5 lbs zucchini, 6 lbs carrots as I had planned, I about halved everything.
If I have any strengths in cooking, they certainly do not include calculating how much food raw ingredients will yield. I expected company at 6pm, so at about 4pm I began, with the help of my weekend guest, to peel and grate potatoes. I don't have a food processor, so everything was done by hand on a box grater. To keep the potatoes from discoloring, I kept them pre and post grating, soaked in water. When it was time to grate the onion I donned a pair of ski goggles and went to town on the bulbs. (I'm going to try to post a photo of this).
By 5:15 or so the first batch of latka mixture was ready for frying. To keep the potato and onion together I added flour and oats, plus a few beaten eggs (and pepper for flavor). No salt touched the latkas until they were fried, dried and ready to eat. I've heard this keeps them crunchier. When it came to frying the latkas I am of the three castiron school of thought. So, despite the three skillets not exactly fitting on my stove, I managed to have three pans going at the same time, allowing about 15 laktas to cook in any given moment.
For the next two hours or so I fried. At some point people began to come and between flipping of the latkas I tried to be friendly. I had determined that I should keep count of the number of latkas I made, but somewhere after 5 I lost count. My best guess is that I made about 150 of them --- some with a mix of potato and sweet potato, others just straight up potato.
Since I was afraid that there wouldn't be enough food (I'm a little crazy --- I didn't use half of the stuff I bought, so how could there not be enough food??) I had defrosted about 20 blintzs which I made a few weeks back (see the post). These fried up very nicely and went out with the latkas.
The latkas went over really well. Many of my friends had never had them before and enjoyed their oily goodness. What surprised me the most was how well the blintzs went over. This has prompted two conclusions -- first is that I will have shavous party in May, and second is that I really should try to apply for that NYU top chef competition and use blintzs as my breakfast dish.
Other lessons to learn
1. Four containers of sour cream is too much for any number of people. In fact, one container is probably too much.
2. Three jars of apple sauce (50 ounces each) is also too much.
3. Two castiron pans is probably enough to fry latkas.
4. One day a year for making latkas is probably enough.
Well... that last one might be wrong. In fact, I did it again today (though much scaled down) at my brother's house near Albany. We had latkas, this time cooked on an enameled castiron. The flavor and consistency was just as good. However, the feeling of having contributed positively to the seasoning of a castiron pan was just not there when cooking on enamel.
Returning to the end of my night (last night), as my last guests we leaving, I realized that I still had 6 peeled potatoes soaking in water, plus many cheese ends, and a bunch of vegis which would certainly go bad while I was away this week. The only conclusion which seemed reasonable was, at 1 in the morning, to make a kugel. Oh, I forgot, there were also about 15 latkas left over, which formed a wonderful base for the kugel. Now I am starting to realize why latkas and blintzs are relegated to special holidays while kugels are an everyday food --- its much easier to make. And while it was cooking, somehow, with a last bit of strength, I cleaned the kitchen!
[Gross-out warning]
As a last remark to this remarkably long post, my two swollen fingers should be accounted for. One was a simple mistake in opening a wine bottle. The second was a lesson to all who make latkas via box grating potatoes --- keep your finger nails short. I thankful, and unwittingly had heeded my present advice, or else things would have turned out much worse. In grating, my finger slipped and my nail got caught in the potato, driving a wedge of the potato under my nail. Pain ensued, but thankful, due to my diligent hygiene of cutting my finger nails, my nail was short enough that it did not break on account of this. Whew.
I boasted the evening before to a friend who was staying for the weekend that I would be able to make 300 latkas for $10. This, however, was predicated on my shopping in Chinatown. This, however, did not happen -- I woke up too late, the weather sucked, and it turns out (as my roommate informed me later in the day) that the 21st was actually a Chinese holiday for the winter solstice. In any case, I resigned myself to shopping nearby --- probably a good thing in retrospect. Rather than buying 20 lbs or potato, 5 lbs sweet potato, 10 lbs onion, 5 lbs zucchini, 6 lbs carrots as I had planned, I about halved everything.
If I have any strengths in cooking, they certainly do not include calculating how much food raw ingredients will yield. I expected company at 6pm, so at about 4pm I began, with the help of my weekend guest, to peel and grate potatoes. I don't have a food processor, so everything was done by hand on a box grater. To keep the potatoes from discoloring, I kept them pre and post grating, soaked in water. When it was time to grate the onion I donned a pair of ski goggles and went to town on the bulbs. (I'm going to try to post a photo of this).
By 5:15 or so the first batch of latka mixture was ready for frying. To keep the potato and onion together I added flour and oats, plus a few beaten eggs (and pepper for flavor). No salt touched the latkas until they were fried, dried and ready to eat. I've heard this keeps them crunchier. When it came to frying the latkas I am of the three castiron school of thought. So, despite the three skillets not exactly fitting on my stove, I managed to have three pans going at the same time, allowing about 15 laktas to cook in any given moment.
For the next two hours or so I fried. At some point people began to come and between flipping of the latkas I tried to be friendly. I had determined that I should keep count of the number of latkas I made, but somewhere after 5 I lost count. My best guess is that I made about 150 of them --- some with a mix of potato and sweet potato, others just straight up potato.
Since I was afraid that there wouldn't be enough food (I'm a little crazy --- I didn't use half of the stuff I bought, so how could there not be enough food??) I had defrosted about 20 blintzs which I made a few weeks back (see the post). These fried up very nicely and went out with the latkas.
The latkas went over really well. Many of my friends had never had them before and enjoyed their oily goodness. What surprised me the most was how well the blintzs went over. This has prompted two conclusions -- first is that I will have shavous party in May, and second is that I really should try to apply for that NYU top chef competition and use blintzs as my breakfast dish.
Other lessons to learn
1. Four containers of sour cream is too much for any number of people. In fact, one container is probably too much.
2. Three jars of apple sauce (50 ounces each) is also too much.
3. Two castiron pans is probably enough to fry latkas.
4. One day a year for making latkas is probably enough.
Well... that last one might be wrong. In fact, I did it again today (though much scaled down) at my brother's house near Albany. We had latkas, this time cooked on an enameled castiron. The flavor and consistency was just as good. However, the feeling of having contributed positively to the seasoning of a castiron pan was just not there when cooking on enamel.
Returning to the end of my night (last night), as my last guests we leaving, I realized that I still had 6 peeled potatoes soaking in water, plus many cheese ends, and a bunch of vegis which would certainly go bad while I was away this week. The only conclusion which seemed reasonable was, at 1 in the morning, to make a kugel. Oh, I forgot, there were also about 15 latkas left over, which formed a wonderful base for the kugel. Now I am starting to realize why latkas and blintzs are relegated to special holidays while kugels are an everyday food --- its much easier to make. And while it was cooking, somehow, with a last bit of strength, I cleaned the kitchen!
[Gross-out warning]
As a last remark to this remarkably long post, my two swollen fingers should be accounted for. One was a simple mistake in opening a wine bottle. The second was a lesson to all who make latkas via box grating potatoes --- keep your finger nails short. I thankful, and unwittingly had heeded my present advice, or else things would have turned out much worse. In grating, my finger slipped and my nail got caught in the potato, driving a wedge of the potato under my nail. Pain ensued, but thankful, due to my diligent hygiene of cutting my finger nails, my nail was short enough that it did not break on account of this. Whew.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Blintz
[First announcement is that I will begin to post some pictures stuff I make. My brother gave me his old camera (my old camera had broken)!]
I'm considering applying for an NYU version of top chef. The first task is to design and then cook a breakfast spread. So yesterday I tried out some of my ideas --- all of which involve blintz. For those who do not know, a blintz is an east European (Jewish) food which involves a filling wrapped in a crepe like shell, and then pan fried until golden crispy. They are often eaten on Shavuot, as their filling is usually dairy, and Shavuot is associated with dairy. In any case, I decided to experiment with different types of fillings, and to pick a few to form a breakfast platter of blintz. Unfortunately for me, most of my ideas involve ingredients (types of cheese mostly) which are not available for the contest. I made them anyway for fun.
The shell is really fun to make. The recipe I used called for
4 eggs
1 cup milk (or water)
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
I used jumbo eggs, and so I increased all of the 1s, to 1.3 or so to adjust for the larger sized eggs. Mix this until the flour is fulling mixed and there are no pockets of dry flour. The consistency should be runny but able to coat a spoon. Refrigerate and make the fillings. After about an hour, take the batter and mix it again. Then take a small (5" diameter) cast iron pan and put it on a medium to low flame. Before pouring on the batter, take a paper towel, or a piece of bread and rub some butter on it, and then rub that on the pan. Repeat this before pouring the batter for each blintz shell (though you don't need much butter --- i used maybe a half an inch of a stick of butter for the whole process). Take a measuring spoon and pour enough batter to coat the bottom (turn the pan in the air to coat) and then pour out excess into your batter bowl. It will take maybe a minute per blintz to cook, and you'll know its done when the top is dry and the sides start to curl a little. Remove the shell (only one side is cooked) with the cooked side up, onto a plate on which all shells will be piled. Repeat until done.
The fillings: I made three different fillings.
The simplest filling is just farmers cheese. Some people mix in an egg yolk, or some honey, or some butter. I just used the farmers cheese.
Getting a little more complicated now.
2 medium red onions
1 large sweet potato
1/2 lb Gorgonzola cheese crumbled
a few splashed of port, or red sweet wine
a few sprigs of rosemary
cinnamon
brown sugar
In a heavy stainless steal pan caramelize two onions, chopped into half rings. When nicely browned, add a splash of port and deglaze. Meanwhile cook a sweet potato. The easiest way to do this is to poke some holes in it, wrap it in a wet paper towel and microwave it for 5 or 6 minutes. When done, skin it and chop into chunks. Add these to the caramelized onion and cook together for a few more minutes. Also add in some chopped rosemary and salt. Before turning off the heat, deglaze the pan again with some more port. Transfer this all to a bowl and add the crumbled cheese. Mix until uniform and add some brown sugar, a pinch of cinnamon and a little more rosemary.
The final filling was a more earthy mix of flavors. In fact, the cheese I used (which I don't know the name of since I got it at a Courant party) had a rind which almost look like it had been buried in the ground for a while. Weird.
2 cups frozen chopped spinach (or fresh if you are some sort of rich person)
1 package of mushrooms (the small white/brown type you usually see in packages -- though small field mushrooms would be good too)
6 cloves garlic
1/2 onion
garlic/onion powder, pepper, salt
a hard earthy flavored cheese (again, not sure of the name...)
Saute the onion and garlic for a little, then add in the spinach and cook until nicely wilted. Add in the mushrooms, chopped into half inch spices. Add some additional garlic/onion powder, and some pepper and salt. Cook until mushrooms are tender. Put into a bowl and add the earthy cheese, shaved and chopped. (You could probably also include pine nuts here. The whole idea is to attain a very earthy flavor.)
To fill the blintz, lay the cooked side up, and about an inch in from one edge put a large spoonful of filling down. Fold the symmetric sides over this filling leaving you with a rectangle of blintz, with the filling on one side. Roll this, starting from the filling side, to make a roll.
These can be frozen and then thawed in the fridge, or immediately cooked.
I froze mine, but here's how one would cook them.
Fill your favorite large cast iron skillet with oil to cover the bottom. Heat, then add a few of the blintz. Cook until browned and flip. Once both sides are browned, remove onto a paper bag to absorb excess oil. Eat with apple sauce or sour cream, or be more creative and thing of something good to pair with the filling. I haven't thought that far yet though.
I'm considering applying for an NYU version of top chef. The first task is to design and then cook a breakfast spread. So yesterday I tried out some of my ideas --- all of which involve blintz. For those who do not know, a blintz is an east European (Jewish) food which involves a filling wrapped in a crepe like shell, and then pan fried until golden crispy. They are often eaten on Shavuot, as their filling is usually dairy, and Shavuot is associated with dairy. In any case, I decided to experiment with different types of fillings, and to pick a few to form a breakfast platter of blintz. Unfortunately for me, most of my ideas involve ingredients (types of cheese mostly) which are not available for the contest. I made them anyway for fun.
The shell is really fun to make. The recipe I used called for
4 eggs
1 cup milk (or water)
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
I used jumbo eggs, and so I increased all of the 1s, to 1.3 or so to adjust for the larger sized eggs. Mix this until the flour is fulling mixed and there are no pockets of dry flour. The consistency should be runny but able to coat a spoon. Refrigerate and make the fillings. After about an hour, take the batter and mix it again. Then take a small (5" diameter) cast iron pan and put it on a medium to low flame. Before pouring on the batter, take a paper towel, or a piece of bread and rub some butter on it, and then rub that on the pan. Repeat this before pouring the batter for each blintz shell (though you don't need much butter --- i used maybe a half an inch of a stick of butter for the whole process). Take a measuring spoon and pour enough batter to coat the bottom (turn the pan in the air to coat) and then pour out excess into your batter bowl. It will take maybe a minute per blintz to cook, and you'll know its done when the top is dry and the sides start to curl a little. Remove the shell (only one side is cooked) with the cooked side up, onto a plate on which all shells will be piled. Repeat until done.
The fillings: I made three different fillings.
The simplest filling is just farmers cheese. Some people mix in an egg yolk, or some honey, or some butter. I just used the farmers cheese.
Getting a little more complicated now.
2 medium red onions
1 large sweet potato
1/2 lb Gorgonzola cheese crumbled
a few splashed of port, or red sweet wine
a few sprigs of rosemary
cinnamon
brown sugar
In a heavy stainless steal pan caramelize two onions, chopped into half rings. When nicely browned, add a splash of port and deglaze. Meanwhile cook a sweet potato. The easiest way to do this is to poke some holes in it, wrap it in a wet paper towel and microwave it for 5 or 6 minutes. When done, skin it and chop into chunks. Add these to the caramelized onion and cook together for a few more minutes. Also add in some chopped rosemary and salt. Before turning off the heat, deglaze the pan again with some more port. Transfer this all to a bowl and add the crumbled cheese. Mix until uniform and add some brown sugar, a pinch of cinnamon and a little more rosemary.
The final filling was a more earthy mix of flavors. In fact, the cheese I used (which I don't know the name of since I got it at a Courant party) had a rind which almost look like it had been buried in the ground for a while. Weird.
2 cups frozen chopped spinach (or fresh if you are some sort of rich person)
1 package of mushrooms (the small white/brown type you usually see in packages -- though small field mushrooms would be good too)
6 cloves garlic
1/2 onion
garlic/onion powder, pepper, salt
a hard earthy flavored cheese (again, not sure of the name...)
Saute the onion and garlic for a little, then add in the spinach and cook until nicely wilted. Add in the mushrooms, chopped into half inch spices. Add some additional garlic/onion powder, and some pepper and salt. Cook until mushrooms are tender. Put into a bowl and add the earthy cheese, shaved and chopped. (You could probably also include pine nuts here. The whole idea is to attain a very earthy flavor.)
To fill the blintz, lay the cooked side up, and about an inch in from one edge put a large spoonful of filling down. Fold the symmetric sides over this filling leaving you with a rectangle of blintz, with the filling on one side. Roll this, starting from the filling side, to make a roll.
These can be frozen and then thawed in the fridge, or immediately cooked.
I froze mine, but here's how one would cook them.
Fill your favorite large cast iron skillet with oil to cover the bottom. Heat, then add a few of the blintz. Cook until browned and flip. Once both sides are browned, remove onto a paper bag to absorb excess oil. Eat with apple sauce or sour cream, or be more creative and thing of something good to pair with the filling. I haven't thought that far yet though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)