Cook of the Week Challenge: Geddes's pear-glazed meatloaf, Allen's stir-fry earn them spots in Round 2
For incorporating pear into a glaze for her Modern Meatloaf, Geneva mom Emily Geddes advances to Round 2 of the Cook of the Week Challenge, narrowly edging out Tim Hoffman of Buffalo Grove in a matchup where they both turned barley into a risotto-like dish.
Geddess will meet Denise Allen of Hanover Park in Round 2, which will play out in early October. Allen impressed the judges with her garlicky-anchovy noodles and stir-fry, beating mom-to-be Collette Amabile of Bloomingdale and her minty virgin mojito and anchovy-laced pesto.
The judges evaluated the recipes on creativity, use of ingredients, ease of preparation, appearance and perceived taste. Here's what the judges said about the recipes.
Stuffed Meatballs, Barley Risotto and Baked Pears — Tim Hoffman
Brian Emmett: These sound delicious! Just be careful on the use of too much blue cheese, as it can overpower a dish as it is used in both. But I love the meatballs and the unexpected flavor of the blue cheese as you bite into it!
Sarah Sacker: I would have liked to see some flavor mixing of the meat with the blue cheese. The pear does really tie in with the fried meatballs and the risotto. It looks fairly easy to make and is very tasty looking.
Michael Pennisi: What's not to like about blue cheese stuffed meatballs? Yum! The recipe makes use of a panade (bread soaked in milk) which is great technique. In the spirit of this competition, I would have liked to see ground beef be the star of the meatball instead of sharing the stage with pork and veal and yet I know these two meats add flavor to the finished dish. I like the use of barley as substitute for rice in a risotto style recipe but I feel like the blue cheese sauce might be a little overpowering. Roasting the pears in a sweet wine is never a bad idea and the amaretti stuffing is a very interesting twist. Nevertheless, I wish the chef had used some of the blue cheese with these pears because pears and blue cheese just play so well together.
Chef Suzy Singh: These meatballs are divine! Huge points for creativity on stuffing the meatballs with Roth buttermilk blue cheese! It would have been a perfect dish if you incorporated the pear into a sauce for the barley risotto, instead of creating a main dish and dessert. I was looking for one cohesive dish that used all of these ingredients — now that is the true challenge!
Modern Meatloaf with Pear Glaze — Emily Geddes
B.E.: I think the meatloaf sounds very good, but I believe the glaze would be too sweet for the flavors in the meatloaf. The use of pears may have been better served by using minced Bartlett pears in the meatloaf. You can sauté them with the vegetables … they have a mild flavor and will add moisture to the meatloaf. I love the barley risotto recipe with the use of sherry vinegar and blue cheese.
S.S.: I would have liked to see more blending of the blue cheese and pear flavors, or the blue cheese and meatloaf flavors. Nice job of incorporating the pear into the meatloaf and tying all three recipes together.
M.P.: This meatloaf recipe is very well thought out and I like the chef's tips about precooking the veggies (really important) and not over-mixing. Using the pears in the glaze is a creative variation from the standard ketchup-based topping and yet it keeps that sweet-sour dynamic. Meatloaf began as a way to “stretch” meat with a filler and I think in that spirit, the barley would have been more interesting inside the meatloaf instead of underneath as a risotto. Adding the pears again with the fennel and green beans gives the meal an excellent nutritional balance. The overall presentation is just gorgeous.
Chef Singh: This contestant can have a whole restaurant based on her recipe for risotto! This recipe was on point with technique and use of the ingredients. Great job with creating a cohesive flavorful dish with these difficult ingredients. My only suggestion is when plating the dish, be careful on the amount of fennel and fennel fronds are on the dish. Remember fennel is a very strong flavor, and it almost seemed as though fennel was one of the recommended ingredients for this challenge. Wonderful cohesive dish and overall great job contestant!
Shrimp Stir-fry and Spring Roll — Denise Allen
John Engle: Can't wait to try this recipe. I love all of the ingredients and the combination of them makes my mouth water! TOUCHDOWN!
B.E.: This sounds awesome! Just wondering if the sauce should be thicker like a Mongolian sauce? But either way I love the use of ingredients! Spring rolls also look amazing I would love them with a hoisin chili sauce.
M.P.: This was such a tough combination of flavors to work with and I respect what this cook tried to do with them. The stir fry looks delicious and is packed with veggies but I'm having a very difficult time imaging how the bits of anchovy would taste in the mix. The double-use of the veggies in the spring rolls adds variety and efficiency to dish. Overall, I feel the cook has done a good job working with Asian ingredients. One suggestion I have concerns the sesame oil: it's an excellent addition to the recipe but it should be added at the end of cooking.
S.S.: Wow! This contestant really delivered on flavor! The best dish always has a balance of sweet, salty, spicy, sour, bitter, and umami and this contestant did a fantastic job in combining these flavors to highlight the recommended ingredients. I suggest adding the shrimp into the pan with the cellophane noodles at the end. Shrimp only needs to cook for a maximum of 3 to 4 minutes instead of the 9 minutes that it is sitting in the pan for this recipe. Also, I am looking for one cohesive dish — the stir fry noodles and spring roll are great recipes but it was two separate dishes instead of one restaurant quality dish. Great job and keep this in mind moving forward contestant.
Summer Salad with BAM Pesto — Collette Amabile
J.E.: Looks and sounds very good. I will try this recipe. The reasons I felt it didn't score as well as it seemed to me to lack the creativity and sophistication of the (stir-fry) recipe.
B.E.: Salad combo sounds good and I love the BAM pesto. I would switch up the dressing you have to be careful what you pair with lime flavoring. The mojito sounds very refreshing.
M.P.: I like that this cook stopped the cooking process of the noodles and then finishes the noodles with the other ingredients so that the flavors penetrate the noodles while the same time the starch from the noodles thickens the pesto sauce. I am not a fan of anchovies so I'm quite happy to see this cook hid the anchovies in the pesto where they will create an invisible, mysterious flavor. The chef made good choices in teaming the mint up with basil and arugula. Overall I think the dish is pretty well thought out but I feel like it needs a little zip from some red pepper flakes or Sriracha sauce.
S.S.: What a fun recipe! The combination of basil, mint and coconut milk screams tropical summer! The contestant seemed to take this dish into a very Thai direction, which worked perfectly with the recommended main ingredients. The use of lemon grass would have really balanced out the flavors of this dish and instead of creating a pesto, a green curry sauce would have been more appropriate for this dish. Overall this is a very refreshing dish that works well as a side dish or depending on the serving size a delicious main entree. Great work and keep these recipes coming!
Challenge 3 and 4 Fan Favorites
Voters picked Tim Hoffman's Fried Blue Cheese Stuffed Meatballs and Collette Amabile's Summer Salad with BAM! Pesto Shrimp as the Challenge 3 and 4 winners, respectively.
Cast your vote for each week's recipes at surveymonkey.com/s/2014COTW. Each week we'll select one person at random to win a prize from one of our sponsors.
For voting on Challenge 3 and 4 recipes, Danielle Fournier will receive a Go Orange, Hunger Action Month T-shirt from Northern Illinois Food Bank.