Quoted Text

Lola: Scrambled eggs with chunks of grapefruit, and a horseradish/walnut pesto "relish"

a grapefruit soufflée might be more appropriate eh?

Quoted from Lola

You rock, muñeca.   Totally a Class Act.

with the walnut horseradish relish on the side

I'll be back at dark but for now? We'll I'm a Nomad!

Quoted from Lola

with the walnut horseradish relish on the side

Your claim to fame: Horseradish Pesto.
Ironically, O First Chopped-One, that may well turn out to be the legacy of the whole show!  

Here is the Mystery Basket for gcg, JillP, and Chloe, for the Entrée Round on "Virtual Chopped":

Salmon steaks
Jicama
Apricot preserves
Whole roasted almonds

You have 30 mins. execution time.
Go.

I have to use my B Imagination to "taste" your dishes, yes, and even to envision them.
Please present them with as much detail (ingredients, recipes, presentation) re your execution and decisions thereabout as possible, so we don't have to back-and-forth before the critique.

(You're lucky, because the overwhelming majority of contestant demerits are for errors/omissions in execution: Undercooking, overcooking, forgetting to use an ingredient or plate it, bad butchering, not really knowing how to prep an unfamiliar ingredient, etc. I obviously can't judge how well you do anything but imagine / conceptualize / plan.)

Have fun in there, friends!

Okay 30 minutes is doable with one proviso, my charcoal grill is allready fired up.

First Apricot Rosemary Glazed Salmon

Mix a teaspoon of finely chopped fresh rosemary from my bush with olive oil and apple cider vinegar in a 2 to 1 ratio. Add apricot preserves a tablespoon at a time tasting as you go so that is sweet but doesn't overwhelm the rosemary, add half a finely minced habenero pepper. Oil and salt the steaks and put them over a lump charcoal fire with some of the rosemary twigs in the coals. Do not over cook. Flip once and spread the glaze on the cooked side. Take off the grill when it is slightly underdone as it will continue to cook from residual heat.

Jicama Salad

peel and shred the jicama
peel and shed a cup of carrots
finely mince a jalapeno pepper
a couple of tablespoons of finely minced green onions(bunching onions) from the garden
a cucumber chopped
1/2 tablespoon of sea salt
3 tablespoons honey or agave
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
mix and let marinate for 15 minutes or more.

Chop the almonds
toss in oilive oil , sea salt, and a table spoon of minced fresh rosemary and roast in a sheet pan.

Sprinkle the slaw with the toasted almonds. Serve with the glazed salmon steaks.

Serve with a beer in the bottle, Shiner boch maybe.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (to bake the salmon)

Pour  into a large pot 3 cups of vegetable oil (to fry the jicama slices) and with
a thermometer clipped to side of pot, heat the oil to 350 degrees.

Take 3/4 c almonds and put them in a zip lock bag and bang with a rolling pin to crush them lightly.

Immediately after this, get out a fry pan and add a few tablespoons of EVOO and add one pound
of raw string beans after oil is heated....Watch carefully and keep turning beans as they slowly
and very lightly cook.  When still firm, add the crushed almonds and a small amount of ghee...
Sea salt to taste and turn off heat.  Cover pan with a lid and let sit until ready to serve.  Beans
will continue to cook and be tender by the time other items are finished cooking.

Make the salmon seasoning mixture using the following ingredients
1 tsp of paprika
1 tsp of cumin
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl....

Take one teaspoon of apricot preserves and spread evenly on top of each piece of salmon

Divide evenly onto each slice of salmon the seasoning ingredients

Place each piece of salmon on a separate sheet of parchment paper, fold in half and then fold around carefully creating a half moon container.  Place salmon packets on a baking sheet and bake for 22 minutes.

While this is baking, make jicama fries

Oil should have now come close to the targeted 350 degrees

Take two large jicamas and cut with a mandoline very thin slices, as if making potato chips

When temperature reaches 350, fry in small batches and turn with a wire basket tool until chips
have reached desired shade of light brown.

Remove batches and add more jicama until all is fried. Drain on a paper towel.

Season with a mixture of equal parts paprika, onion powder, garlic powder and a pinch of sea salt.

To plate...

Remove salmon packets from the oven and open each packet carefully (allow as much time as possible to let salmon rest in parchment before slitting packet for plating).......with spatula, carefully lift each piece onto a plate and spoon sauce that was created from salmon juices and apricot preserves on top of each piece.....Serve with string beans almondine and fried jicama chips.

YUM!  

I have made Baked Apricot Salmon
String beans almondine
Fried seasoned Jicama chips

We are just waiting for our third contestant, JillP, to submit her dish.

Apricot salmon - you guys are great!    would never of thought of that.

Mon Dieu! My mouth is watering...great ideas from the chefs...great idea from SanJ for this thread. It is intriguing...  

Well I probably should have added a third dish but I was giving myself a 30 minute time limit. I later thought of a navy bean puree with rosemary, olive oil and garlic but the bell has rung.

Has JillP left the country? the building?
Mid-game?
It's Sunday - No one gets chopped tonight.  

gcg: wouldashouldacoulda...

Quoted from san j

Has JillP left the country? the building?
Mid-game?
It's Sunday - No one gets chopped tonight.  

gcg: wouldashouldacoulda...

It's starting to feel like a game of chess.

Quoted from Chloe

It's starting to feel like a game of chess.

It is Monday. This is the first program, and we never laid out the time-frame for this, so JillP was away from her computer over the weekend? Power to her!
Let's wait to hear from her today.
If I don't hear from her today, I have a few ideas for moving forward. Gimme the time to work this out, today, Thanks.

Sorry...my father in law took a bad spill and ended up in the hospital and Mom in law has memory and vission issues...I was being a care giver.  I just got back to my computer.  I read the thread to the dinner basket ingredients and then popped here to the bottom to type this note.  

I will give you my recipe by 6:00 PM EST today...so sorry for the delay it could not be helped  

Quoted from JillP

Sorry...my father in law took a bad spill and ended up in the hospital and Mom in law has memory and vission issues...I was being a care giver.  I just got back to my computer.  I read the thread to the dinner basket ingredients and then popped here to the bottom to type this note.  

I will give you my recipe by 6:00 PM EST today...so sorry for the delay it could not be helped  

Understandable. Hope Dad's okay!
Looking forward to your yummies, JP.

JillP: I understand it will be impossible for you to ignore the completed entries of your two competitors. I would ask simply that you take a look at the "mystery ingredients" and do with them what you would have, anyway: Something original, creative, tasty, and pleasant to the eye, all (of course) completely prepped and executed within 30 minutes.
Good Luck.  

Tonight I prepared for you a Salmon and Spinach Salad with Jicama Chips

preheat oven to 450

Cut rind off of jicama, cut into quarters or sixths whatever will fit in chute of food  processor and using slicing blade make THIN chips.  Dry chips in a towel and then microwave for 2 minutes.  Spread on cookie sheet with parchment paper, spray with olive oil cooking spray, sprinkle with Cajun Seasoning, sea salt and garlic powder.  Bake until time to put on plate.

In LARGE frying nonstick frying pan.  Put 2 TBL spoons of olive oil. Spread it around and add Salmon filets.  While salmon is cooking on first side grate ginger.  Flip steaks, pour 1/4 to 1/3 cup of lemon juice over steaks (it will then be in the pan to finish sauting the steaks) spread a think layer of grated ginger on the steaks and simmer until steaks are flakey.

Lightly chop almonds and toast in dry pan.

Get a pretty plate and spread with a dinner salad size portion of washed baby spinach.  Sprinkle with Feta, Craisins and toasted almonds.  Add steaks when they flake easily.  Put jicama chips to the side where they do not get soggy.


Drizzle with dressing  which is 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup lemon juice and enough apricot preserves to make it sweet (start with 3 Tablespoons and add more if you like it sweeter) blend or whisked togeter.

This meal is A and O compliant...not sure about others but should be easily adaptable.  Enjoy  

Quoted from Chloe

san j ....are going to give us the ingredients to use?

Waiting for instructions....

Jill I love your quote.  Who is the author Maria Robinson?

Yes, the author of the quote is Maria Robinson  

Quoted from san j

JillP: I understand it will be impossible for you to ignore the completed entries of your two competitors. I would ask simply that you take a look at the "mystery ingredients" and do with them what you would have, anyway: Something original, creative, tasty, and pleasant to the eye, all (of course) completely prepped and executed within 30 minutes.
Good Luck.  

Actually I did not look at their meals until I had completed mine...Thanks for understanding the delay.  Father in law is 86 and broke shoulder and pelvis.  Thankfully no surgery, just lots of therapy.  He is sharp as a tac and his main concern is his bride of 64 years and who will care for her while he cannot.  She is in early stages of Alzheimers, short term memory is going fast. Sad, they are such a sweet and loving couple.

Jillp, your FIL is so remarkable to be 86 and still so strong. I do hope this awful accident won't turn out worse than we hope! Best wishes! Spring

Quoted from JillP

Spread on cookie sheet with parchment paper, spray with olive oil cooking spray, sprinkle with Cajun Seasoning, sea salt and garlic powder.

Curious about "Cajun Seasoning". Composition? Proportions? Merci!

I use a Cajun Seasoning that is premixed at the store, Tones is one of my favorites.

Ingrediants Dehydrated garlic, spices, salt, paprika, dehydrated onion and red pepper.  Best part NO MSG  

If I had more than 30 minutes I could mix my own

Also love this on parsnip fries...but that is another round.

Quoted from JillP

Quoted from Chloe

san j ....are going to give us the ingredients to use?

Waiting for instructions....

Well -- it looks like you got 'em somehow: You submitted your entry before asking!

I'm going into The Special B-Multisensory Imagination Zone now, to..."experience"... the entries. May pop out with a question or 2 along the way.