Wednesday, May 12, 2010

A New Signature Dish


It was in the very first week of this season’s Masterchef that they aired a challenge that raised my hackles. It is the only thing in the series that really irritated me (well, besides that lurking, persistent niggle in the bowels of my mind that queries whether the entire thing is rigged). The challenge where the contestants had to re-create a favourite dish from their childhood. We saw some of the contestants stay true to the original recipe made with love by their parent, grandparents etc; using ingredients like store-bought mayo and canned seafood to keep intact the flavours that took them back to the past and made these dishes their childhood favourite. But these poor sods didn’t stand a chance against the contestants whose Mummies regularly plated up a 55-dish feasts for dinny-dins.
And what do you know? Surprise, surprise, the contestants from the humble home-cooking origins were penalized for it. For their honest re-creation! I was outraged! And somewhere throughout this travesty, I came to a crucial decision.
I HAVE to come up with a better signature dish. A dish that imprints itself into the heart and soul of my offspring.
Why?
For the sake of my childrens’ future furtherment in the Masterchef competition. Duh! I do not want any child of mine marginalized in the Masterchef kitchen because their Mama’s signature dish contained less than 5 ingredients, 3 of which came from a tin or worse still- a packet.
Over the years, I have gone through several signature dishes I would churn out quite regularly: my Middle Eastern lamb tagine; my Mexican buffet….my marinated lamb pieces and assorted condiments in pita. But of when I think of my meals that the KIDS really adore and regularly request, none of THOSE dishes are anything special; none of them would stand a culinary chance in Masterchef’s ‘walk down memory lane’ segment.
I thought briefly of glamming up one of my old signature dishes, but you know what? Seeing as there is a wealth of new dishes to choose from already in the current Masterchef, and seeing as I got the previous season’s Masterchef cookbook for Mother’s Day….I owe it to myself, (and my children’s future Masterchef success) to experiment with a new recipe.. To see this as a chance for personal epicurean advancement……
So this Saturday, Only Daughter and I will give Caramel Parfait Glace With Salted Peanut Caramel and Milk Chocolate Mousse a red hot go. *gulp*
The Masterchef contestant had 1 hour and 45 minutes to do this dish. We are going to time ourselves from whoa to go, but not race. And we will document our culinary adventure accurately, even if it is an epic fail-ure.
(If only I could learn to make injera, so this could be my signature dish! Nothing like Ethiopian food)

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