Chopped Canada, Season 3 Episode 8: Deconstructed Beef Tongue Enchiladas?

The basket for the main course were as follows:  peach drink box (ew!), beef tongue, pinto beans and salsa morita.  Well, that’s an easy thing – kind of – enchiladas!  Better yet, deconstructed enchiladas. Raw beef tongue One might think that the peach drink can be used as part of the sauce, perhaps giving the […]

Chopped Canada, Season 3, Episode 6: Eggs Benny with Bitter Melon & White Bass?

If you ever eat bitter melon with my dad, he’ll tell you a story of how guys in his university residence “forced” him to eat bitter melon because that was the only thing available for dinner said evening (because everything was shared family style, as per Chinese custom and the guys KNEW my dad hated […]

Chopped Canada, Season 3, Episode 5: What To Do With Figs and Sausage Patties?

Well, since the Year of the Monkey started on February 8, why not use the mystery ingredients from episode 5’s second round (frozen sausage patties, Long Island Ice Tea, heirloom carrots and figs)  to make dumplings?  Not too hard to think of something, right?  And to make it more main course-like, it can be served […]

Chopped Canada Season 3, Episode 2: Using Bean Curd Sheets

Bean curd sheets, or tofu skins, are often see as savoury items at dim sum (fu pay guin).  However, it was a mystery ingredient on the third episode of the third season, along with white Saturn peaches, black peppercorns and vanilla powder.  If you look at it from a dim sum perspective (even though it’s […]

Chopped Canada Teen Finale: Baked Eggs!

The Chopped Canada Teen finale aired on Boxing Day in Canada with the winners of the previous four episodes competing for $20,000 (a little surprised that the finalists – winners from the previous four episodes – weren’t awarded anything.  Honestly, $1,000 to $2,500 towards their education would have been great!).  Mystery ingredients for the three […]

Chopped Canada Teen Tournament Episode 2: Goat Chops and ‘Cereal Treats’

There are always weird ingredients on Chopped, regardless of whether the chefs are adult professionals or kids!  On episode 2, these included “ants on a log” (peanut butter and raisins on celery) and “marshmallow rice cereal” treats (basically Rice Krispies squares, but Chopped never gets food brand sponsorship (why IS that, anyway??), so a generic […]

Chopped Canada, Season 2, Episode 26: Lotus Root Quiche

Episode 26 is season 2’s finale, so there won’t be another Chopped Canada write-up until season 3 premieres, probably some time in 2016.  For the main course, the mystery ingredients were:  trout caviar, lotus root, brunost cheese and butterscotch rice cakes.  Kind of a random box, I think.  I know some people complained about the […]

Chopped Canada Season 2, Episode 25: Grape Jelly, Mushroom Soup Lobster Bake

Ingredients for the appetizer from episode 25 were:  Lobster, cream of mushroom soup, matzoh crackers and grape jelly.  The first thing I thought of were those rice casserole dishes one sees at Hong Kong style diners (cha chaan teng) and some dim sum places.  So why not do something similar with quinoa?  Quinoa, after all, […]

Chopped Canada Season 2, Episode 23: Chicken Sliders with Parsnip and Cabbage Slaw

For the appetizer round, the mandatory ingredients were chicken breast, stout, parsnip and jelly rolls.  A little bit weird, but not a complete throw-off.  Not that difficult to figure SOMETHING out, either.  What I’d make would be sweet and sour chicken sliders topped with parsnip slaw.  This would work very well both as a passed […]

Chopped Canada Season 2, Episode 22: Turkey with Maple Fudge

Maple fudge was one of the items in the main course basket, along with soft pretzels, chili fries and corn on the cob.  So what should one make with that?  Why not pulled maple turkey over pretzel and fries cake?  Topped with corn and kale salad? Maple fudge – would you use it for a […]