Cook of the Week Challenge: Contestants cook up pork chops, mascarpone, snow peas and chia seeds
Juanita Harrell vs. Chris Crabtree
Juanita Harrell: I have to admit that the chia pet song played over and over in my head when I found out what the mystery ingredients were. I immediately thought of a cheeseburger, french fries and a shake when I was trying to come up with recipe ideas. This is my interpretation of that meal. The pork chop pita is the "burger," the tempura-fried snow peas are the "fries" and the smoothie is the "shake." I was also inspired by the snow peas realizing that they are often used in Asian dishes. So I decided to carry an Asian theme throughout the meal.
Chris Crabtree: I knew I wanted to stuff a pork chop and then balance that with a light vegetable side dish and a simple dessert. I had never cooked a bone-in pork chop, so I researched and found that brine is a necessity, so I designed a brine that had some Asian flavors to compliment the peapods. Next was how to incorporate the other ingredients into multiple dishes. I used the snow peapods in the stuffing for color and crunch, as a key ingredient in the side dish and even added peapod shoots (I tried growing but not enough time, so I purchased them at Whole Foods) as a garnish on top of the pork chop. The mascarpone cheese was perfect to create a creamy gravy for the pork chop and replaced the cream cheese that I like to use when baking cookies. I decided to soak the whole seed and add to my stuffing for nutritional value and a binder. For dessert, I ground the seeds and used as an egg substitute. I did try and sprout them for my garnish to go on the pork chop, but they just weren't big enough after five days to use. My mom came for lunch for my test run. She found herself really enjoying the Asian influence the spices brought to the meal and was amazed at how the chia can be easily added to just about any dish for nutritional value.