Over at CBS, this week’s Chef On A Shoestring was Curtis Stone. They made a big deal about him being Australian, like that’s gonna make him whisk clockwise coz of the Coriolis Effect or sumthin. He deliberately mispronounced a few words on the brief segment, then corrected himself saying “…as you say in America,” in order to provide the image.
Hey, I’m bitchy, I know. Stone provided us with the best overall menu of the series so far:
Mixed Leaf Salad with Parmesan Wafers and Poached Egg
Red Snapper Steamed with Mussels and White Wine
Frozen Berries with a Hot White Chocolate Sauce
I wonder if it ever crossed their minds, those quasi-alien programming gurus at CBS, that some halfwit asshole in North Carolina would diligently recreate these menus when they dreamed up the idea of a 3-course 4-person meal with a celebrity chef for a throwaway Saturday morning feature? I dunno. It has been a lot of work and a lot of fun and I’ve learned some useful kitchen techniques, especially the fine art of coulis which I reprised with raspberries for this week’s dessert even though the menu didn’t call for it. That was good, but the real killer on this menu (which is actually from July 29 – they didn’t post this week’s show and I was out of town last week) is the pot liquor that becomes the sauce for the mussels and snapper.
Thinly sliced zucchini, used in a salad a few weeks back by another chef on the series, had a reprise appearance in the sauce. Both chefs advised using a Japanese mandoline to produce the ribbons, but those things cost nearly a Benjamin and I get equally thin slices with a $99 all-purpose electric slicer. This is a nice way to zuke ‘em.
If you’re steaming mussels, tomatoes always come to mind. Chef Stone’s twist on that is cherry tomatoes cut in half. Pictured here, you can see the cherry tomatoes I found at Earth Fare – Purple Heritage Cherry Tomatoes, intense with flavor that survives the steam bath. If you see these, buy them. They are delicious.
11:29:47 PM 
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