The BBC Good Food Show – Masterchef Challenge

November 30, 2010 By 4 Comments

The Good Food Show is a massive showcase of food and drink producers held in the massive hangar at the NEC in Birmingham. The Masterchef Challenge was added to the show recently as a crowd puller and a way to further promote the Masterchef brand.

Miele, the sponsors of  the Masterchef Challenge invited some bloggers to join in the fun, which was to include a Masterclass with  Matt Follas, a cookalong with Alex Rushmer and Dr Tim Kinnaird and to top it all, to compete in the Masterchef Invention Test. After conferring with some twitter friends, they convinced me that it would be fun so I signed up.

The day began on the train to Birmingham with @memalee and @fussfreeflavours. MiMi was saying how people were practising and memorising recipes prior to doing the challenge, but I was totally unprepared, didn’t have any ideas for recipes and thought it too late so I would have to wing it.

The NEC was heaving, didn’t know there were so many ardent foodies around. It also became really obvious that we weren’t serious enough foodies as we didn’t bring our wheelie bag and miscellaneous Good Food Show merchandise.

Challenge #1, the Rosemary Chocolate Mousse Masterclass with Matt Follas of Wild Garlic fame

I had no idea we would be doing this on stage with an audience, slightly scary. He was ably assisted by our new best friend Edd Kimber (@theboywhobakes) who recently won the Great British Bake Off. Backstage, we were given a recipe to prepare ourselves and were led out to our work stations and to meet our sous chef. Then we had to go backstage again while Andi Peters did his bit to warm up the crowd before we were led out again, in single file.

Masterchef Challenge Masterclass Matt Follas Edd Kimber
Masterchef Challenge Masterclass Matt Follas Edd Kimber

We kicked off with instructions as per the recipe but as they were waffling so much, I wasn’t paying much attention of instructions. We were supposed to be watching the screens in front of us to see what the pros were doing but the camera was roaming the crowd and not showing what Edd or Matt was doing in front of us. At this point, I started to do my own thing, which ends up with some underwhipped warm cream, resulting in a very runny mousse. Looked pretty but although not succesful it was rather yummy. Get the chocolate mousse recipe here.

Masterchef Challenge BBC Good Food Show

Challenge #2 – Cookalong with 2 other Masterchef finalists Alex Rushmer and Dr Tim Kinnaird

These two make a great double act and had the audience in stitches for this cookalong. We made Alex’s Duck Breast with pickled cucumber and spiced tobacco caramel and Tim’s Spicy Hot Chocolate but without the biscuits as there wasn’t enough time.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-m1JDGWakk

Masterchef Challenge BBC Good Food Show Alex Rushmer Dr Tim Kinnaird

As before, Andi was waffling away while Alex was slowly explaining the cucumber pickles. Again, I wasn’t paying much attention as we couldn’t really hear what they were saying. I started cutting up my cucumber into circles instead of batons as Alex was doing. Well, too late, I couldn’t uncut them.

Then we used the gloriously sharp Kin Knives to score the duck breast and fried it skin side down. Wasn’t too sure about the right heat as the duck fat kept spitting but saved in a nick of time from burning. We also made the really clever Spicy Tobacco Caramel that Alex created, yes that is using real tobacco as a flavouring. The caramel smelt amazing, especially with the cinammon, cloves and star anise. You can recreate this with this Duck Breast recipe.

Secret Ingredient -Tobacco (Photo by Meemalee)
Secret Ingredient -Tobacco (Photo by Meemalee)

MiMi's beautifully pink duck breasts (Photo by Meemalee)
MiMi’s beautifully pink duck breasts (Photo by Meemalee)

Masterchef Challenge BBC Good Food Show Alex Rushmer Dr Tim Kinnaird
MiMi and Helly’s finished dish

Masterchef Challenge BBC Good Food Show Alex Rushmer Dr Tim Kinnaird

In between sessions, we went to see Sarah at Bray’s Cottage for some of her amazing Pork Pies. If you haven’t tried her Onion Marmalade Pork Pie, you haven’t lived. You can buy them online here.

Bray's Cottage Pork Pies

We also dropped by to taste Dr Tim’s lovely multi coloured macarons. We scoffed down the passion fruit macarons really quickly so didn’t get a chance to take a pic.

Tim Kinnaird's macarons

Tim Kinnairds Gold Brownies
Tim Kinnairds Gold Brownies (photo by Meemalee)

Lunch at the Masterchef Restaurant

A short respite from cooking, we had a bite to eat the Masterchef Restaurant where all the dishes are recipes of previous Masterchef participants. The kitchen was a bit confused which meant we had to wait ages for main courses but the food when it arrived was fab.

Masterchef Restaurant at the BBC Good Food Show
Salmon Ceviche by Andi Peters

Masterchef Restaurant at the BBC Good Food Show
Dandelion Salad

Masterchef Restaurant at the BBC Good Food Show
Monkfish and Butternut Squash Fondant Lisa Faulkner

Masterchef Restaurant at the BBC Good Food Show
Spinach and Ricotta Tortellini Chris Gates

Masterchef Restaurant at the BBC Good Food Show
Poached Pear with Masala Chai Ice Cream Dhruv Baker

The highlight of the day was still to come, the dreaded Masterchef Invention Test.…cont’d

Filed Under: Foodie News Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Masterchef Invention Test – I won!

November 29, 2010 By 6 Comments

I’ve never entered a cooking contest before and I unthinkingly agreed to participate in the Masterchef Challenge Invention Test at the BBC Good Food Show thinking it would be fun do a bit of cooking with the Masterchef guys in a fabulously well equipped Miele kitchen.

I didn’t realise how ill prepared I was until  @meemalee and @fussfreeflavours were discussing tactics and how other people had memorised recipes.

The hour dawned and the contestants were trooped out to our workstations to check out the ingredients which were :

  • pork fillet
  • butternut squash
  • sage
  • basil
  • aubergine
  • ginger nuts
  • a pear
  • bag of prunes

What can you make with this lot? Pork and prunes something?

We then got a few minutes backstage to concoct something edible  out of this lot.  Ideas and recipes were flying around the room, at least in our corner with some help from Mimi and Edd. The only thing I could do quickly was to do just make some sort of Asiany stir fry with fried rice. On the bright side, there was not time to get nervous or worried about looking like an idiot or cooking in front of an audience and the Masterchef judges and mentors.

Masterchef Invention Test

As we kicked off, 30 minutes seemed like ages. We each had a sous chef to help and mine was very handy in helping me fetch more crockery and implements. She soon got bored and insisted on helping me chop up some ginger for my throw everything in dish. On watching the videos after the event, I realised that I didn’t hear a thing the presenters said througout, except for the time checks,  as I was so busy just getting on with it.

Alex Rushmer, Tim Kinnaird and Dick Strawbridge were the mentors who would decide on which dish would get into the finals. Dick kept telling me to add chillies as John likes it hot, so I did.

Tim checking out Pippa's sugar

Tim checking out Pippa's sugar

Alex checking out the pork stir fry

Alex checking out the pork stir fry

(Photos by Meemalee)

I can try and recreate the recipe here but can’t guarantee the results. (Health Warning)

Spicy Stir Fried Pork with Egg Fried Rice Recipe

Step 1 – Cook some rice, bring to boil and leave on low heat for 10-12 mins.

Step 2 – Slice up the pork into thin slices for the stir fry, add soya sauce, dash of port ( or any other availabel alcohol like rice wine or sherry), corn flour and sliced ginger to marinade. Also cube some of the sliced pork fillet for the fried rice.

Step 3 – Peel and slice the butternut squash into bite size pieces. I sliced it very thin to cook a bit faster.

Step 4 – Chop up garlic to taste, I did about 4-5 cloves for both the dishes.

Step 5 – Julienne loads of red chillies for the pork dish

Step 6 – Slice some onions, as much as you like to give the dish a bit more bulk and flavour

Now for the cooking:

1. Heat some oil in a frying pan, fry the garlic with a pinch of salt, don’t brown. Add the onions and the marinaded pork. The pan is at the highest possible heat setting. Add in the butternut squash and the chillies. Keep stirring and add some water which will create the sauce as there is cornflour in the mix. Keep tasting it to adjust flavourings. Add 1tsp of sugar and some black pepper.

2. In another pan, heat oil, fry garlic, add pork cubettes. Fry till pork is cooked. Add the rice and stir to mix evenly. As there was nothing green I could add to this for some colour, I had to add some chopped chillies. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as required. At the end, make a well in the rice and break in an egg. This was a small one portion serving so one egg is enough. I usually add a dash of soya sauce to the egg and scramble it into the rice. When the egg is cooked, serve.

Stir fried pork and garlic fried rice

Stir fried pork and garlic fried rice

3 finalist were chosen by the mentors and I was the 1st one picked. Both John and Greg the Pumpkin really liked it, even though the finished product was really hot. Next came Pippa with her lemony cheesecake and thirdly was a couple who made 2 dishes.

As they deliberated, they announced that since the judges could do what they wanted, we all won.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h95FKlqwl8A

Masterchef Invention Test Dick Strawbridge

Masterchef Invention Test Dick Strawbridge, thanks for the tip Dick.

Masterchef Invention Test

Masterchef Invention Test - The Winners

Masterchef Invention Test - The Winners

It was such a fun day out with lots of fun people, filled with all sorts of foodie escapades. Thanks to Miele for the invitation to such a fun day. Bring on the next cooking competition.

Filed Under: Foodie News, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , ,

Fluffy Spinach Koftas in Creamy Tomato Curry

November 4, 2010 By 3 Comments

I am always trying to incorporate more leafy greens into my diet and just don’t have enough nice recipe ideas. I tried making Anjum Anand’s Fluffy Spinach Koftas in Creamy Tomato Curry recipe today since it is yet another way of using spinach but not in the normal, stir into sauce until it melts kind of style. This is from her book I Love Curry which has tons of simple recipes which are also mostly not dishes you would find in your local Indian.

anjum anand i love curry

On the surface, it looks quite simple. Most of it is actually quite simple but my efforts didn’t look like the lovely picture in the book, but it tasted amazing though. The sauce from this recipe is just so tasty and I can see myself using just the sauce part of the recipe and adding in some other vegetable or even some meat. The cashews used in the sauce, which is then blended, creates this spicey and creamy base.

What Anjum has done is taken a recipe that normally uses paneer and substituted ricotta cheese instead which is much easier to find and you don’t have the hassle of making the paneer yourself it you didn’t want to.

You will need several pans and it does involve some deep frying.

Spinach Koftas Recipe

Serves 4-5

Ready in 1 hour 30 minutes

For the curry

  • 2 large tomatoes, quartered and deseeded
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 10g fresh root ginger, peeled weight
  • 5tbsp vegetable oil, plus more to deep-fry
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 40g cashew nuts
  • ½tsp turmeric
  • ½tsp chilli powder for heat, or ½tsp paprika for colour
  • 1¼tsp ground coriander
  • 1tsp ground cumin
  • 1tsp garam masala
  • Salt, to taste
  • 2-3tbsp double cream, or a knob of butter (optional)

For the koftas

  • 200g whole leaf spinach, well washed
  • 2tbsp cornflour
  • 200g ricotta cheese

Blend together the tomatoes, garlic and ginger to a fine paste, using a little water to help – I use a hand-held blender. Heat the 5tbsp oil in a large nonstick pan. Add the onion and cook until lightly browned. Add the tomato paste, cashew nuts, spices and salt.

Cook over a moderate heat for around 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the paste releases oil. Blend until smooth with a hand-held blender, adding a little water, if necessary, to help. Pour back into the pan, add 500ml water, bring to a boil and simmer for 8-10 minutes, until the curry is the consistency of single cream.

Anjum Anand I Love Curry

While the curry is cooking, make the koftas. Wilt the spinach in a pan with a little water and a good pinch of salt. Once cool enough to handle, squeeze out the excess water and blend to a coarse purée with a stick blender. Add the cornflour and ricotta and stir well.

( I forgot to blend it before adding it to the cheese) Also, my resulting mixture was too soft and couldn’t be formed into balls so try adding the cheese little by little.

Anjum Anand I Love Curry

Spinach into Ricotta

Heat the oil for deep-frying in a wide sauté pan or a karahi. There should be enough to come 5cm up the sides of the sauté pan, or 10cm up the sides of a small karahi. Test the oil temperature by dropping in a small amount of the spinach mixture – it should sizzle immediately but not colour straight away.

Drop heaped teaspoonfuls of the mixture straight into the oil. You may need to do this in batches, so as not to crowd the pan. You should be able to make about 20. Carefully cook them, turning to ensure even cooking – they take about seven or eight minutes and will, unfortunately, turn brown, losing their vivid green colour. Remove and blot off excess oil on kitchen paper.

Once the dumplings are all cooked, place them in the curry and cook for five minutes. Stir in the cream of butter and serve. Best eaten with some rice or naan.

Anjum Anand I Love Curry Spinach Kofta Curry

What mine looks like, flat koftas

So my oil was too hot and my kofta mixture was too runny and didn’t form the ball shapes.

Anjum Anand I Love Curry Spinach Kofta Curry

What it looks like in the book

Next recipe in the book I want to try are the Bengali Mustard Fish and the Prawn Patia.  More reviews of the book can be found here.

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