Friendly Black Box Competition

Lately, I've been watching a lot of Chopped on The Food Network.  Chopped is very similar to Iron Chef except that they really don't know what the ingredients are(the contestants on Iron Chef know what the secret ingredient is before hand).  One of the many differences between the two shows is that on Chopped, you really have to start from scratch, from zero to something, and that you are given 4 secret ingredients instead of just 1.

So me and my friend at the restaurant tried to do something similar to this.  There were originally 4 of us who were going to this but backed out at the end. 

Our rules were:
1.  3 secret ingredients: protein, starch and vegetable
2.  No time limit
3  Helping each other out was fine, since this is just a friendly competition to help build our repertoire.
4.  All 3 ingredients must be used in a plate.
5.  $20 limit for our secret ingredients.

Me and my friend went to the nearest grocery store and started shopping.  We quickly distanced ourselves from each other like spies trying to hide an evil plan.  There was no room for error.  A quick peek into your basket from your competitor will give that extra few minutes for them to plan what to cook. 

Our grocery bags were double bagged, just in case the bag's transparency would give off the identities of our SECRET ingredients.

As soon as we got to the restaurant, we quickly exchanged bags.  No words were spoken except for a sly grin on our faces and nod of the head.  It was quite reminiscent of old mobster movies where a family member from each mob would meet up in the centre and exchange baggage and would just exchange a few threatening phrases.

As soon as recieved my bag, my heart started pumping...hard.  Maybe it was because of the excitement but it was also mostly due to the fact that I didn't know what was in it.  A time bomb or worse, some weird organ from an animal?

I opened my bag, and to my relief I saw lamb chops, celeriac(celery root) and button mushrooms. 

This bag wasn't too bad. 

A few moments after opening my bag, I hear someone cry out in agony. 

"What am I supposed to do with these? Shrimps...yeah.  Zucchini, Daikon and Yam?  This is uncalled for!"

Indeed it was.  Earlier, I saw my friend standing at the protein isle, Just in front of the chicken hearts.  So for my pre-emptive strike, I bought him zucchini, yam and shrimps.  I knew he didn't cook a lot of asian food.

Off we go! 

I stared at my ingredients for a few minutes to try and regroup in my head.  I had lamb chops, mushrooms and celeriac.  I'm used to cooking a lot of asian food but I can't do it with these ingredients since celeriac is unheard of in Asia.....I think.

After some time, I've decided to recreate that tenderloin steak  I did a few days ago.  I have decided to cook the lamb on the pan and to try and extract some flavour  from it by cooking it with chicken stock.  I also grabbed some flat leaf parsley, lemon,  green peppercorns and salt to make a green peppercorn gremola for garnish.

As soon as I was done with the gremolata, I started peeling my celeriac.  I have decided to make a puree.  To make this puree, I used some shallots, garlic and chicken stock together with celeriac.

After my celeriac has been cooked, I rushed to the blender and poured my ingredients for the puree in it.  Like a mad scientist, laughing menacingly, I started to blitz it.

Now for my lamb chops.  People always gave me a confused look whenever I described to them how I cooked it.  So, here it goes.  I seared my chops on both sides on the pan.  As soon as the last has been seared, I added chicken stock, garlic, rosemary and thyme to increase the flavour and juiciness.  When the chops have cooked in it for a bit, I took it off from the pan, transferred it to a plate and placed it inside the oven.  to cook further.  

At this point, I was starting to scare myself that maybe I've have used to many methods to cook it and that maybe the chops will come out well-done instead of my goal to have it cooked medium-rare.  I  followed on since I've already dug myself a hole so deep that I can't climb back up.

For the cooking liquid left over,  I used this as some kind of sauce and added some butter to help it thicken up some more.  

As for the mushrooms,  I've decided to keep it simple.  Just sautee it.  Simple enough, right?

I was ready to plate my food.  So did my friend.  Before we started cooking, we have decide that we'll plate our food into small tasting plates.

We have also decided that there weren't going to be winners for this.  This is just for fun.  A programme to get our minds and artistry to get going again, since we make the same kind of food in the restaurant every day.  Menu changes doesn't occur often at the restaurant.

This was also an opportunity for us to showcase our skills to our fellow cooks and to inspire them(some of us don't go to culinary school).  People I work with gets discouraged, saying they need to go to school to progress themselves in the restaurant.  In reality, all you need to do to progress are dedication, lots of reading and practice and a lot of hardwork.  Lots of it.

The end result looked good! My friend prepared to different plates, because he's that good(apparently he almost qualified for team Canada's Bocuse d'or).

Our general manager, sous chefs were just finishing their meeting so we decided to serve our food to them.

It was demolished quickly.