Cooking like a master

Food TV truly gives me pleasure, but honestly there is nothing that gets me more excited than Bravo TV's show Top Chef. Tonight started Top Chef Masters, where well-known chefs compete for a charity of their choice.

This season is a little different than the other ones. Every week 4 chefs are competing for a spot in the championship. The first thing the chefs have to do is a quickfire challenge, which if you're not familiar with the show is a challenge where they have a limited amount of time to get the assignment done. Tonight the chefs had to make desserts for a group of girl scouts. Now these are all chefs who own restaurants and have worked there way up in kitchens. They complained about the task and two definitely failed immediately, but overall I was impressed with their one hour desserts.

Something that I really liked was Tim Love's strawberry trio. He actually made a chicken fried strawberry. For a banquet in Oregon we experimented with different dipped strawberries. It is still strawberry season, so it might be fun to try to experiment with a few of our favorites yourself.

Caramel Strawberries: Put a cup of sugar and 1/2 cups of water into a pot. Bring it to a boil and let it boil. Do not stir the mixture. If anything brush the sides of the pot with a brush dipped in water. That way the sides of the pot won't burn. Boil till the mixture thickens and changes color. To test how dark the color is drip a tiny bit on a piece of paper. Be careful; boiling sugar is hot. Once the caramel is at a nice brown shade(you don't want it to get too dark or it will taste burned, so be careful towards the end and remember you control the heat; take it off the burner if it's turning too quickly)remove it from the heat and quickly dip some washed and dried strawberries. If you feel like practicing your knife cuts chiffonade some basil and sprinkle some on the warm sugar so it sticks.

Lemon Strawberries: Zest a lemon. You can either make lemon curd or buy it. Lemon curd is not difficult to make. You just must be careful to not curdle the eggs, even though you are making lemon curd. The only time curdled eggs are appropriate is when they are scrambled for breakfast. Warm the lemon curd and dip the strawberry into warmed curd. Then sprinkle with the lemon zest.

I'm not so sure about Chef Love's chicken fried strawberry, but the key to dipping fruit is to know your fruit. Is it sweet, sour, or slightly bitter? It is also important to know what your dip is going to do to the fruit. The lemon offset the possible sour of the strawberry and gave it a new and interesting flavor. The caramel offset the possible sourness with an interesting crunch. Chocolate of course is always an option and creates a lovely taste and texture.

In case you were wondering Hubert Keller is moving on to the champions round on Top Chef Masters. Watch the episode, but I really think that he was the best of the four tonight. It's always interesting to see how a chef thinks and what they do with little time and limited ingredients. It really does take a master to know and understand their ingredients enough to know what to do and how to do it in a split second and then be able to grab a cutting board and go. Watching this show puts the fire in me to don the chef coat with pride and work with as many amazing chefs as I possible can. I hope it gives you that same fire to get into your kitchen and make something amazing.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily