Masterchef - The Professionals.

Being not too keen on TV, I rarely watch much - but tonight watched 'Masterchef - The Professionals.
On the menu.... Beef marrow shallow fried in butter, shallots and mushroms.
Apparently, a classic West End dish.
My opinion?....
Utterly vile looking - resembling vomit.

Interesting. I didn't know that beef marrow, or any marrow for that matter (not the vegetable), can be made as a separate dish.
Maybe in West End.

I would expect it to melt and prety much disintegrate. It's largely fat. Very tasty, though, of course.

West End of where????

That dish does sound delicious though.

The restaurant I worked at years back had bone marrow on the menu. We made brioche and filled it with it.

*3.... West End of London. Hilton, Dorchester etc.

'Masterchef - The Professionals' is the only current TV food programme worth watching, imo, bb. But your Utterly vile looking - resembling vomit comment surprises me. Did you see how Roux's sous chef cooked and served the marrow?

Which leads nicely to Vinny's point that he'd expect it to melt and prety much disintegrate.

This test was one of technical skill - the chef (of five) who least demonstrated this would be eliminated. What they were after was to cook it without it disintegrating (the demo, which the chefs do not see, presenting the marrow as wee, and very much intact, medallions.) The trick: it must be cooked at a moderate and even temperature, else it will disintegrate.

Interesting, tony. Thanks.

That sounds great, mockchoc. I imagine some of the marrow would have melted into the brioche dough, not a bad thing, of course. Sort of like the butter in a deep-fried butter stick.

Thanks to shilgia for bringingdeep-fried butter on a stick to my attention. Or, on second thought, no.

They were each given crusty bread, garlic, herbs, ceps and marrow, Vinny. Most opted to toast the bread, at least one using the marrow as a pate.

But the first chef through to next round surprised the judges by deep-frying the marrow briefly. He did not toast the bread but turned it into bread crumbs, coating the deep-fried marrow in them, after deep-frying it. Then, he put the scampi-like marrow in a hot oven for a few minutes.

He served the marrow 'scampi', in a line, with the garlic ceps underneath and finished the dish with a few herbs atop the lot.

The judges said he had let his chef's intuition shine through.

Oh - you saw it as well.
I thought it looked decidedly and utterly vile.
That lady sous chef was a bit scary - huh?

I would have been afraid to deep fry. I don't understand how the marrow held up. It would be almost like deep-frying a stick of butter without the batter, or so I would have thought.

If I could have got my hands on some chicken stock I would have made quenelles with the breadcrumbs, marrow, and garlic. Soupe aux cèpes, quenelles de moëlle. Otherwise I think I would have had to go with pâté on croûtons of the bread.

It didn't hold up.
It looked like anaemic dog food - that had just drowned in an oil spillage.

The one who served the marrow half-raw offered the judges a vile-looking dish, bb - which they refused to eat.

That lady sous chef was a bit scary - huh? Monica Galetti is deadly serious in the programme since her remit is to put forward contestants to her boss, Michel Roux, jnr. This said, the editors have obviously had a wee bit of fun 'C&Ping' her shocked looked at what the chefs are doing. (I noticed that, with 10 minutes to go, they used the same expression on her face they had used with 20 minutes to go.)

If I could have got my hands on some chicken stock I would have made quenelles with the breadcrumbs, marrow, and garlic. Soupe aux cèpes, quenelles de moëlle. Otherwise I think I would have had to go with pâté on croûtons of the bread.

I'd gladly eat that, Vinny. Can one do quenelles without egg?

I would have been afraid to deep fry. I don't understand how the marrow held up. I was amazed that the marrow did hold up, Vinny. I'd have hitherto thought it'd have 'disappeared'.

It didn't hold up. bb: it did, else he'd not have been able to coat it before putting it in the oven and would not be going through to cook for Roux. (You can come clean and point out you saw only part of the programme, bb.)

I feel a famous pantomime line coming on

:-)

Even as a child I hated pantomime. My guess: 'Oh, but he did!' Or, 'Look behind you!'

Can o e do quenelles without egg?

No, I guess not.

My guess: 'Oh, but he did!' Or, 'Look behind you

It didn't hold up. bb: it did

Oh no it din't

:-)

OK.

No, I guess not.

But I'd still eat, Vinny.

I know some people like that modern cuisine stuff - and so be it.
To me it's all too much of a gimmick.
It's food Jim, but not as we know it - not as we know it. Sorry everyone. I just don't get it.
I mean, they did (so called) cooked lamb a few weks ago - and it still had blood dripping out of it.
Doesn't work for me.

The chef did not let the lamb rest long enough for the blood to ooze out and the juices to 're-integrate'. But, since he was behind time, he had to choose between serving the lamb or not; he was told, after he chose to serve it, 'if it's not good enough, do not plate it'.

Doesn't work for me. Beef, pork and lamb, for me, are best pink - except tough cuts destined for slow cooking. But I have my pork only just pink.

Just watched a snippet from another TV UK food thing (there are so many of 'em).
This one was called.... "Best Dish" - The Chefs.
And on the silly pudding menu tonight, it was 'Pears and Parsnip'.
I give up.

I give up.

Don't do that, bb - YC and WT will mourn ye! :)

Firefox crashed and then reposted - how stable is Windows7 (hereon)?

Edited by: tony0001

Vinny: I saw a TV cookery programme yesterday and the chef had a tablespoon in each hand. I immediately thought 'He's going to quenelle this', and then I thought of ye - and that I should come back here and point out that I was wrong to take ye to task.

No, I think you were right to point out that you would need eggs.

Urgh I hate Masterchef - it ws imported to Australia and everyone loves it here. I was lucky enough to be overseas when it first came out though I did feel out of the loop when I got back and everyone was going on about it. Then I realised what it was and was glad to have missed it.

Masterchef and cooking programmes...
I'm not sure if I've watched Masterchef, maybe I did, as all those programmes are imported either directly, or as a concept, to all other countries in this global village.
To me, most cooking programmes these days have become unwatchable. They turn the whole thing upside down. Instead of delivering pleasure at a relaxed pace, people in those programmes go into military style regime, fierce competitions with time deadlines, counting minutes and seconds, fearing punishments, cursing and other sorts of humilation, and ending up in tears.
Wouldn't they be better of changing the style to sort of 'free range', like chickens, with less stress?.

Urgh I hate Masterchef

There are two versions, kmingnath: one is Masterchef, the other Masterchef Professional. (I'm writing about the latter.)

The first involves home cooks; the second professional chefs.

The first is slightly interesting but largely boring (even when it was first broadcast - at least a decade ago, probably two). This said, BBC stats show that the original Masterchef is thrice as popular as Masterchef Professional - at least as voted for by subscribers to BBC Olive food magazine.

Methinks your points (at 28) are pertinent, Fieldgate. Indeed, I agree with all that you write. But I suppose TV (today) is about engineering shock, sadness, glee, bullshit - and capturing it to feed the never-sated appetite of manipulated fools.

84 episodes of Masterchef has to be re-runs of Masterchef o'er the years - there were never 84 in one season. (Further to my earlier comments, I think Masterchef may have started as early as 1993.)

Masterchef Professional (MP) is new - I think this is the second season. I think the MP format in Britain is this: four sets of 10 chefs.

You watch a set of 10 and at the end of the 30 minutes programme all 10 remain, whatever happens. After this all programmes are one hour in duration, except the next three 30 minute ones - what happens is that you follow each set of 10 i.e. after two from the first set are through to the semi-finals, we see the second set of 10 from the outset.)

Then the 10 in each set are broken into two sets of five; then, each five is reduced to four, the skills test eliminating one from each five. Then, each four is reduced to three, one from each being eliminated after cooking Roux's classic recipe. Then, the remaining 3x2 of this set go through to quarter-finals. These six are reduced to four. The four cook for top food critics and are reduced to two for the semi-finals.

I trust the above is clear!

I roux the day I opened this thread to read it.

:))