Battle II: Milk Chocolate Presentation to Judges


 

Wolgast

TVWBB Olympian
Our goal with this cook off was to make great tasting food. Hopfully picture perfect aswell. We all 3 tryed alot of different things but choose these three dishes to compete with.
Alot of the other dishes looked good but did not really had the chocolate flavour that supported the dish. We dont add chocolate to make the pics look good WE add it to make these dished taste Fantastic.
We are Proud to share all recipes with this community! Everything you see here are made outside by the grill by hand!

Here we go :

Daniel Andersson - Starter.
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I started with the chickenbreast, i placed them between plasticfoil and hammered them to make em thinner.

Melted the milkchocolate on the Kettle and glazed the chickenbreast with it. I chopped up som red chilies and put them on top of the chocolate and finished it of with some seasalt.(maldon) (prep pic2)

I wrapped the chickenbreast in Prosciotto and placed the chickenbreast on some aluminiumfoil and rolled it into a sausage. (prep pic3)

I put it on indirect heat on the weber until it reached 149 degrees inside. Unwrapped it and placed it on direct heat for some color. (prep pic4)

When the chicken was on the weber it was time for roasted corn Crème.

I cut of the corns from the cob and roasted them in a pan one the grate for a couple of minutes, put it in a foodblender and added: hotsauce, vinegar, Crème Fraiche and some brown sugar.

I slieced the Chicken and placed it on salad and with the Roasted corn crème on the side

Enjoy:



Daniel Wolgast - Main.
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Plank Steak.

First off i rubbed a sirloin steak with a chocolate rub. Added some chanterelle´s in a pan with some butter/salt/pepper.

Wraped fresh asparagus with some Prosciotto. In the Sauté pan i started with some butter and added choped shallot´s. When they turn transparent i add the cognac and start the flambé.
Next up i add the cream,soy and some rich beef fond and ofcourse Chocolate. Last but really important i added some fresh choped tarragon.

When the steak has seared 40 sec/side i took it off. Same with the Prosciotto/asparagus roll,and let it rest.


We pre cooked a oak plank 10 min brushed with some oil on the grill.

Then we added a potato mash with garlic/parsley to the plank Spritzed out around the borders and put it back on the grill for 5 min.
Added the seared steak and the asparagus for another 10 min. Setup for this is my Primo D-plate(heat deflector) on the grate indirect...Then added the Primo grate with feets(2") to hold the plank closer to the dome(radiant heat).

Served with the Cognac/chocolate sauce in a glass. And added the chanterelle´s and some lettuce.( Frisé,Lollo rosso ,Mâche,rucola in a cabbage bowl)

Enjoy:



Dennis Lundin - dessert.
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Milkchocolate fondant with orangecooked pears and cointreu whipped cream.

Our goal with this dessert was to take the challenge to another level. We made a fondant of milk chocolate and stuffed it with milk chocolate.
To even out the sweetness of the milk chocolate we added pink peppers (Rosé peppar) to the fondant to get some heat into it.

We also wanted to go for different textures in the dessert. As you can see we have the soft creamy fondant. The pears where we have orange. And the cream with cointreu to bring back the orange into the cream. To top it of we have salty pistagios on the cream.

Step 1.
Make the fondant batter. To do this butter is brought up to heat on the grill. And the milkchocolate are put into the pan ones the butter has melted. Take of the pan from the grill and make sure the chocolate melts with the butter. After that flour, bakingpowder and salt are added. 2 eggs and 2 eggs yolks are added one by one. Finally the pink peppers.

All the batter are put into forms(buttered and coated/dusted with breadcrumbs) and put into the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Step 2.
Pears boiled in orangejuice and muscavadosugar.
Juice from 2 oranges and muskavadosugar. Cut up the pears in good bits and add into the juice. Bring up to heat and then let them go on lower heat for 5-6 minutes untill soft.
Put a side and let chill on the table.

Step 3.
Time to bake the fondants and make the cointreucream. Add bits of milkchocolate on each form of fondant. The goal is for it to melt down into the fondant and stay on the inside to bring even more milk chocolate taste.
Bring the heat in the grill up to around 500f. And let the fondants grill on indirect heat for about 15 minutes. They shall be soft on the inside, tricky and real easy to overcook.
Make whipped cream with vanillasugar and cointreu.

Enjoy:

 
For personal reasons Jennifer K could not post. The Judges were informed and Bill W Michigan submitted 2 dishes to fulfill Team America's obligation. Jennifer K should be back soon to explain her situation.

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Our object is to show the simplicity and complexity of the secret ingredient Milk Chocolate. It's pairing with different ingredients make it very versatile. It can either be sweet or savory depending what you are trying to achieve.

Our first dish is Milk Chocolate in it's simplest form, Melted. This is a dish that I used to make for my kids while we were camping. Who doesn't love donuts? Cake flour was used to make the dough. The chimney was filled 1/3 full of charcoal briquets and a cast iron skillet was placed over the coal grate to form a deep fryer. ( I do not recommend this when young children are around because flare ups and fires can occur if the oil is splashed into the chimney.) The dough was cooked to a golden brown in three different forms Donuts, donut holes, and long johns or Bavarian which were filled with using a pastry bag and some whipped cream. As the coals cooled a double boiler was set up to melt the Milk Chocolate and the donuts were dipped. Sprinkles were added to some of the donuts to give a little variety. Served with a cup of coffee, a shot of Bailey's Irish Creme and whipped cream with shaved milk chocolate to complete the presentation.

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John Solak Dish #2

John's dish shows you both the sweet and savory side of Milk Chocolate. The entree is braised short ribs with a chocolate cinnamon reduction. The salad is a mixed green salad with sliced strawberries and a chocolate balsamic vinegar dressing. Chocolate covered cherries, strawberries and bacon was also added to the plate. 100% of the entire cook was done on the kettle.

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Our third and final dish shows you how complex the main ingredient can be. After spending the afternoon with a chocolatier I attempted to vary the sweetness of the main ingredient. Cacao nibs were roasted in a cast iron skillet then run through a juicer to give it a paste like consistency. Milk solids, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar was added in varying forms then run through a food processor/mixer to produce a milk chocolate with varying sweetness to accompany the following dish.

Filet Mignon was the star of this dish seared over a chimney and served with a cabernet/chocolate sauce with beef stock,rosemary,shallot,white and pink peppercorns, balsamic vinegar, milk chocolate and butter.

The butternut squash was twice baked in a phyllo dough tartlet layering the dough with butter and chocolate then piping in the squash and serving it with chocolate butter.

A spinach salad with dried cherries, chocolate covered bacon, walnuts,Parmesan cheese served with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

The drink is a chocolate martini. Melted milk chocolate is poured into a chilled Martini glass and milk and vodka are mixed to your satisfaction to complete the dish.


Enjoy

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Wow is right. Congrats to all for inspirational presentations.
A couple questions:

Dennis Lundin - Did you bake the dessert in the oven or on the grill? What was the procedure?

John Solak - The short rib braising reduction is intriguing; seems somewhat like a Mexican mole. Please elaborate... ingredients, etc.
Thank you.

By the way, I hope Jennifer K is fine and there's no real problem. Our best to you Jen!
 
Originally posted by Gary H. NJ:

Dennis Lundin - Did you bake the dessert in the oven or on the grill? What was the procedure?

Yes it was baked on the grill on indirect heat. The grill was brought up to around 500F in heat. Took me a overfull shimney to get that heat up. And then the form with the fondant was put on the grill straight from the freezer.

Baking it took around 15-16 minutes. Its a gamble for sure because 1 minute to long will make it overcook and not beeing soft in the middle but just turning into a cake.

So what you see on the picture is the soft inside coming out from the fondant, not some sauce put on it afterwards. Thats why its a little colapsed on the top. I got a picture taken before we opened it up to.
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Just a few questions first for Mr Wolgast.....can you tell me a little more about your chocolate sauce, just wondering how much chocolate was in there combared to some of the otehr ingredients, also if you could tell me more about the rub you used on the steak....! Thanks!

For Johns dish Just a little info on the braising process used on the kettle would be helpful, also a little info on how the chocolate was melted for the berries and what else went into that mixture (or if it was just straight chocolate) as well as what sort of nuts and things are added on top of the bacon. And finally just to confirm that the sauce on the potato is the same as the short rib.

Sorry for all the questions folks just want as much info as possible to make a decision, you all made this really hard with excellent dishes!

Thanks!

Clark
 
I first added about 4 strips worth of bacon lardons and cooked them until brown. Removed the bacon and then browned the short ribs. Removed the short ribs and sweated an onion then added the bacon and short ribs and braised for 2.5 hours in chicken broth and sherry.after 2.5 hours I added the chocolate and a Cinnamon stick. I removed the ribs and placed in the fridge overnight. Next day I took the fat off of the top and warmed the ribs on the kettle. The braising liquid was reduced and added on top of the ribs and baked potato.

Nothing was added to the chocolate for the fruit and bacon. Some crushed peanuts was added to some of the bacon.

A pic on how I melted the chocolate.
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Oh my! So happy I'm not a judge. So many lovely dishes and I can't find words to describe the high levels of creativity shown by everyone. Congratulations to both teams!

I sincerely hope all is well with Jennifer K.
 
I'd like to know if any LEFTOVERS are available....



Cuz... you know me, I'm HUNGRY![/I

FANTASTIC complete preparation and execution by all members of BOTH teams!

OUTSTANDING!
 
Clark Here is some info:

Potatoe mash:

Pre boiled potatoes.
butter
Parsley
Garlic
Milk
2 egg yolks
salt/white pepper
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Chocolate rub:

3 tbs coarse Cane suggar
2 tbs seasalt (Maldon)
2 tbs grated chocolate
3 tbs garlic(minced)
1 tbs onion(minced)
3 tbs kumin (minced)
2 tbs chilipowder.
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Cognac/chocolate sauce:

2 small choped shallot´s(and some butter to Sauté them)
2-3 tbs cognac(after your own taste)
1 dl heavy cream
a splash of beef fond.
30g chocolate
1 tbs chopped fresh tarragon.
salt/pepper.(to taste)
Topped with some choped Parsley
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One word for all: Splendor .
A very difficult task, but you all showed us how you accomplished. I admire you all.
 

 

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