Male: 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 culinary skills against his toughest opponent yet. Let’s see today’s random ingredients.
Female: Squid, chocolate, buffalo?
Male: Now, let’s play Stump the Chef!
Matt: Squid and buffalo, I can see that coming together, but the chocolate? Maybe I will go Mexican.
Male: And he’s off!
Male: What a challenge, squid, buffalo meat and chocolate. I can’t imagine a way that these three flavors are going to work together.
Male: Huh, one sweet and two meats, that doesn’t equal much to me.
Male: You can see there he diced up that buffalo meat before throwing it into the sauté pan, and he’s chopping up some garlic as well as some onion. I can only assume that’s going in with the meat. How it’s all going to come together is anyone’s guess at this point.
Male: Well, my guess is, is that Matt is going to rock our taste buds today. Am I crazy or is Matt actually going to liquefy that buffalo?
Male: No, no you’re not crazy, you’re actually just stupid. He actually cooked down the onion by itself. He didn’t add that to the buffalo meat like I thought he was going to. He is adding on a lot of spices there. He has got some cumin; he has got some chili powder. It looks like he is making the basis for some sort of sauce that’s going to be a part of this dish.
Male: You know usually we know which Matt is going with the recipe. But today I have to say that he is the preverbal cosmonaut, spinning in space, tripping the light fantastical.
Male: It looks like he had some sliced almonds to that as well that’s an interesting move, he put in some chicken stock, brought it to a boil, and he is going to be liquefying it now, not exactly sure where this is going to be going.
Male: It’s going to go all over the counter, that’s where it is going my friend.
Male: Maybe we should try that one more time. You always want to be careful when you are dealing with hot liquid you got to pulse that blender. If not the steam will come out all at once and you saw what happens when that happens.
Male: It goes all over the counter, that’s how the steam engine was invented.
Male: It looks like he is liquefying this mixture now and he’s getting ready to drop something in there. Is that?
Male: I think that was the chocolate.
Male: Yeah, sure enough that’s one of our three ingredients today he is putting the chocolate into this almond, onion, cumin, chili powder mixture. You know he did mention Mexican at the start. I am guessing we are seeing some mole sauce here.
Male: Well holy Mole, you add some vermouth tops it with ice and you have my dad’s favorite after dinner drink. It’s an instant party classic.
Male: Sorry to interrupt guys, but its time for Matt’s tangent.
Matt: Chocolate is made for the fermented, roasted and ground seeds of the cocoa tree. Over 2600 years ago Mayans made a variety of chocolate beverages which were enjoyed by only the highest of nobleman. Now surprisingly 2/3 of the world’s cocoa is made in western Africa. In North American and Europe, chocolate is used in mainly sweet dishes. But it is also used to make savory sauces in Italy, Spain, and South America. My chocolate favorite, triple chocolate ice-cream, sinfully delicious, enjoy
Male: Meanwhile, back in the kitchen.
Male: Mixing it up with the buffalo meat, now it looks like Matt is adding that in to a bowl of rice. Still no sign of the squid, no idea where this recipe is going but I have to say I am really happy to see mat cooking with buffalo today. As a Native American I really feel that buffalo is under represented in American cuisine.
Male: You know as a fellow Native American I couldn’t agree with you more. And I really enjoy its pine nut scallion and diced tomato mix.
Male: What the hell are you talking about, you’re not Native American.
Male: I am from Indiana, how much more native can you get? Go Hoosiers.
Male: And finally we see the third ingredient of the day, the squid being stuffed with this buffalo meat mixture. He has got the rice, the diced tomatoes, scallions, and toasted pine nuts in there. A lot of really interesting flavors being mixed together this is going to make one fascinating dish today.
Male: What is truly interesting is the fact that he is not slicing the squid up, and he is using it as a shell.
Male: Yeah you can see there now he is suturing this together with a toothpick that keeps the stuffing from coming out when he cooks it. That’s actually a technique Matt picked up from his time in med school.
Male: Oh in Guatemala right?
Male: That’s right where he graduated last in his class.
Male: Oh so that’s why he is a chef now.
Male: What I want to know is how Dr. Weaver is going to choose to cook the today, he could bake them, grill them, fry them. He has got a lot of options. But the one thing that comes to mind watching him stuff this squid is, to always make sure you practice safe cooking techniques, especially when dealing with strange foods.
Male: And of course the safest cooking, is cooking after marriage.
Male: Getting down to the wire today with three really tough ingredients, Matt has decided to grill up the stuffed squid. He is basting them now with a mixture of lime juice, brown sugar, red pepper and a little olive oil. Got a lot of nice sweetness and spice going on in there, but I have to say I am still on the fence with this one.
Male: Huh, slippery when wet, I do not think that I want to try this. I have to say it is not looking too appetizing to me. I do not envy the judges. You got to wonder how confident Matt’s feeling about this. Matt how do you think they are going to react?
Male: Well I imagine the judges are a little grossed out right now, and I have never put mole with seafood before, but I am interested and I really want to try this. I think it will work. We’ll see.
Male: Sounding a lot more confident than I expected him to be, this is a tough combination for any chef. We will see how it goes.
Male: It’s plating time.
Male: Hey I know I am changing my tune here but that actually looks pretty damn good.
Male: You know Matt always makes these dishes look good at the end with the plating. You can see he is pulling the toothpick out now, very important step for safety.
Male: And I guess here comes the sauce right?
Male: That’s right, the mole sauce being poured right on top.
Male: I don’t know about that—
Male: Yeah I would maybe try it but I think I would have to have a blindfold on.
Male: Too bad for Matt, the judges wont get one.
Male: Its judgment time.
Matt: Today guys I was given buffalo, squid, and chocolate. And what I did with that was I seared the buffalo, made a stuffing, stuffed the calamari, and grilled it. And I made a chocolate mole sauce. It is a little dish I like to call where the chocolate squid roam. Check it out guys.
Shawn: Well Matt, I do not like mole sauce. And when I heard that that was one of the three ingredients I was immediately kind of scared. But I do have to say the mole did not overpower. Everything was fairly balanced and I could taste all the different flavors. And since I wasn’t disgusted by the mole sauce, I think it’s a pass. I think you did good.
Carlos: Very good considering the ingredients you had to work with, so I am very impressed. The squid that’s not something easy to cook with, so kudos on that, you did a great job. Buffalo meat being so lean it works really well with the mole sauce, which I actually love. The richness of that compliments the lean buffalo meat and the stuffing. I thought it was well done and overall surprising. I would like not make it for myself so good job.
Rex: I guess my first impression hearing that the squid was going to be on it I was a little nervous. I am not a calamari fan. So I just kind of pretended that this was a corn tortilla wrapper. But it was actually really, really delicious. My favorite thing was the buffalo, small pieces wasn’t too big, wasn’t hard to chew. And again mole sauce I can take or leave, but this was actually very delicious, it was a very delicious kind of bringing everything together on the plate. I would say this is a definite thumb up.
Matt: Thanks. I am glad you liked it.
Male: Let’s tally the votes. Matt I wouldn’t have eaten that but somehow you passed.
Matt: Wow, I never would have thought that squid and chocolate would go together, much less with buffalo. But it turned out into a really good dish. And I had fun making it. I hope you had fun watching me stuff the squid. Don’t be afraid of the kitchen, thanks for joining us. See you next time.
Male: That’s it for this episode of Stump the Chef.
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