Announcer: One seasoned chef, three random ingredients, and three tough judges, its time for Stump the Chef. Today award winning chef Matt Weaver will set his creative culinary skills against his toughest opponent yet. Let’s see today’s random ingredients.
Female Announcer: Potatoes, Peanut Butter and Prickly Pear Cactus?
Announcer: Now lets play Stump the Chef.
Matt Weaver: Peanut butter and potato, I think I could go Thai, but what the hell am I going to do with Cactus.
Announcer: And he’s off
Announcer 1: And it sounds like Matt has an idea where he is added with this but that’s really going to be the question of the day. What is he going to do with that cactus?
Announcer 2: Actually I have a lot of suggestions; I grew up eating a ton of cactus.
Announcer 1: Really?
Announcer 2: Yes, in fact my favorite was peanut butter and cactus sandwiches.
Announcer 1: Well that doesn’t sound appetizing at all.
Announcer 2: Yeah, um foster parents.
Announcer 1: And you can see there Matt cut up a little bit of ginger along with those scallions. He has those sweating in a fairly large pot right now. If I had to guess, I would guess we are seeing the basis for a soup here today.
Announcer 2: Peanut butter and soup, that sounds nasty.
Announcer 1: And this seals the deal now, it looks like Matt’s adding some heavy cream to this pot, definitely making the basis for some sort of soup. So far we got the cream, the scallions, and the ginger. No sign of our three ingredients and it looks like he is adding some coconut milk to that now.
Announcer 2: That really tasty back to my coconut farm days where I had to get up at three o’ clock in the morning and trudge through the mud to milk the coconuts.
Announcer 1: He’s adding a little salt and sugar to this now, not exactly sure where the cactus peanut butter and potatoes are going to fit in all of this. He has got a little lime juice and it looks like he is adding in a touch of Cyan pepper. That’s going to give it a nice little bite.
Announcer 2: Coconuts are really hard to herd, they roll around a lot.
Announcer 1: You know generally at this point Matt has at least one if not two of the ingredients in play. But he definitely seems to be taking his time today. We’ve got the cactus sitting off there to the side, but no idea how he is going to use it yet. No sign of the potatoes or the peanut butter.
Announcer 2: Yeah, you have to agree this is looking incredibly tasty right now.
Announcer 1: And finally using one of the ingredients Matt’s adding peanut butter to the soup?
Announcer: Sorry to interrupt guys, but its time for Matt’s tangent.
Matt Weaver: Potatoes are the world’s most widely grown tuber crop. And are they fourth largest crop in terms of fresh produce. They were domesticated in southern Peru, 2,000 years ago. And wild potatoes can be found growing as high as 13,000 feet. Europeans first encountered the potato in 1537, but up until the 1800’s were falsely regarded as poisonous and unholy, and only fit for prisoners and cheap labor. Now there is so many ways to cook a potato. But my favorite is French fries, twice cooked, a little sea salt. Enjoy.
Announcer: Meanwhile, back in the kitchen.
Announcer 1: Pulling out one of his favorite appliances now it looks like Matt’s blending up some cilantro. He put some basil in there as well, and spooned in a little bit of that soup mixture. That’s really going to help it liquefy.
Announcer 2: Ah, there is the potatoes.
Announcer 1: And there you go the second ingredient of the day, he is chopping up some potatoes I am assuming it is also going into this soup.
Announcer 2: Hey you could put everything into this soup, one pot, one meal.
Announcer 1: I got to say real creative approach from Matt today just takes all three ingredients, throw them into a blender and let’s see what happens.
Announcer 2: I would have made a smoothie.
Announcer 1: So he’s got the peanut butter in the soup now. We saw him chopping up the potatoes. But still no sign of the cactus, what part do you think that’s going to be playing in this?
Announcer 2: You know Matt loves using that blender so much. I was thinking if he is ever a cyborg, wouldn’t it be cool if he had one for his hand?
Announcer 1: As long as he was grounded I think that would be perfectly safe.
Announcer 2: Wow valid point.
Announcer 1: And it looks like the potatoes are going directly in to the soup. That’s all going to be mixed together. Now he’s going to let those potatoes cook down and get nice and soft.
Announcer 2: Where is the cactus my friend?
Announcer 1: And it looks like the bionic chef has decided to grill up these cacti.
Announcer 2: The Weaver 3,000 cook’s meals faster, better, tastier.
Announcer 1: You can see there he started out by slicing up the cactus before boiling it. This really helps in getting a lot of that sliminess out before grills it.
Announcer 2: That’s what my foster parents called cactus snot.
Announcer 1: I’m not sure if that’s the culinary term for it. But there is indeed mucus like liquid inside the cactus.
Announcer 2: My job growing up was to wash the snot off before you cooked it.
Announcer 1: Oh really. Was that before or after you milked coconuts?
Announcer 2: Chopping up the cactus now it looks like Matt’s going to be throwing that in the soup as well.
Announcer 1: That’s going to be one big pot of mixed love.
Announcer 2: It absolutely is you know this is an odd combination today. I have never tried cactus before. I can’t imagine it is going to taste all that great. I wonder how confident Matt’s feeling at this point. Matt what do you think about this?
Matt Weaver: Well, this cactus here really threw me for a loop. I have actually never cooked with it before. But I’m using it as a substitution for green beans and a traditional Asian dish. I think I pulled it off. We will see.
Announcer 1: Matt’s sounding slightly on the fence about this. When I got to say he should be fully confident. He is putting the cactus right on top of there and that soup is looking fantastic.
Announcer 2: I think it looks like baby syrups.
Announcer: Its plating time.
Announcer 1: Now that’s what I call presentation, putting the soup right into a bowl.
Announcer 2: This is a dish Linda Blair would love.
Announcer 1: I have to say it’s looking pretty good to me. The cactus and potatoes giving it a nice texture and he is putting the scallion ends in there now as a nice garnish.
Announcer 2: May the power of Christ compel you to try Matt’s soup.
Announcer 1: Amen to that.
Announcer: Looks good to me, but let’s see what our judges have to say about it.
Matt Weaver: I have got here potatoes, peanut butter, and prickly pear cactus. So, what I did as made a Thai curry from scratch, with the peanut butter a little cilantro and basil. I then cooked the potatoes in there to make sort of a stew. And then I used the cactus as a green bean replacement, which is traditional in Thai cuisine. I call it three P’s to the wind. Give it a shot.
Shawn: Well, Matt I’m going to keep this short and sweet. I have never had cactus that was an interesting pairing of ingredients. But all in all, I think it was absolutely fantastic. I loved it. Home run, you passed.
Carlos: I love Thai food so this was exciting. As far as the potatoes I thought they added kind of freshness to it when you bite into it. I loved how you kept them whole. And I loved the cactus. It was real sweet; it was kind of something else that kind of exploded in your mouth, which contrasted the creaminess of the soup. This was definitely great. And I’m going to really like and I’m going to take some home with me, so you passed.
Rex: I think the flavors in this dish are very smooth. The texture is wonderful and I personally don’t think I would stop until I saw the bottom of the bowl. Thumbs up you did a great job.
Matt Weaver: Thank you I am glad you enjoyed it.
Announcer: Let’s tally the votes. Well I will be flambéed and drizzled in chocolate. Matt you passed.
Matt Weaver: Yeah, I did and you know the judges really enjoyed it, even the unholy potatoes. And you know I had never worked with cactus before but I tried it and it worked out great. I had fun, I hope you had fun. Don’t be afraid of the kitchen and don’t be afraid to try new things. Thanks for joining us see you next time.
Announcer: That’s it for this episode of Stump the Chef.
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