Cooking with Top Chef Carla Hall

Melissa and I spent an evening last week at a cooking demo by Top Chef contestant Carla Hall. This is the third class we have taken from her and each one has been a lot of fun and entertaining. Did I also mention we got to try some great food? During the past season of Top Chef All-Stars, Melissa and I were pulling for Carla and very happy that she made it to the final 5 and won the fan favorite prize. We have a few pictures here from the class, including the dishes that we got to try. Just overlook the fact that my eyes are closed in the picture above, not a great shot.

For the cooking class, we had four courses to try, each accompanied by a wine pairing. The meal included Goat Cheese and Leek tart, Persian Turkey Burgers with flatbread, Roasted Lemon Thyme Chicken, and Chocolate Mousse Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce. Carla made a portion of each of the recipes herself, demonstrating the techniques she used and giving tips for improving your ability to create recipes on your own. We all were given a serving of each dish which was made earlier in her kitchen. I really liked all of the dishes, even the cucumber relish and ailoi that accompanied the turkey sliders. I don't normally like cucumbers, but the flavors worked well together in the dish.

Carla's class was at her cookie making headquarters located in Silver Spring. She has ended her catering service and is now focusing on making and selling cookies, both savory and sweet. We got to sample cookies during the class and bought some to bring home. Yum! You can order some by visiting her web site at Alchemy by Carla Hall.

Carla appears to be a very busy person. Not only has she made several Top Chef appearances, she recently appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Paula Deen's Show. She recently landed a spot on a new daytime talk show about food which premeirs in September. The show will be on ABC (after All My Children ends) and is called The Chew, and will also include Mario Batali and Michael Symon. Her cookbook proposal is also going up for auction among publishers. Looking forward to getting a copy when it is finished.

What to do with Red Peppers

Recently, I was looking at all of the vegetables in the refigerator, trying to see what we had and what we needed to eat. I found a more than ample supply of red bell peppers from a recent trip to Costco. So I started to brainstorm ideas on what to do with them. The result turned out to be a delicious soup.

Roasted Red Pepper and Lentil Soup

2 red peppers

1 onion

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes

1.5-2 cups of vegetable broth

1/2 teaspoon ras al hanout spice

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

1/4 cup of half and half

1 cup of cooked lentils (1/2 cup uncooked lentils)

kosher salt & pepper

First, preheat your grill to get it hot for roasting the red peppers. Cut each red pepper into about 5-6 large pieces, removing seeds. Also quarter the onion and leave the pieces together. Toss peppers and onion in a tablespoon of olive oil. Roast the peppers and onions on the grill. The skins of the red peppers should be blackened. Remove the pepper from the grill and set aside. Move onion to the soup pot on the stove.

While peppers cool, you can begin cooking the lentils. In a nonstick saucepan, bring one and a half cups of water to a boil, adding salt. Rinse the lentils and add them to the water. Cover and reduce heat to a very low temperature. You will let these cook very slowly for about half an hour. However, you might want to check them occasionally to make sure the water hasnt't evaproated. Do not overstir or mash the lentils. Test the lentils to see if they are indeed soft and done.

Remove skins from the red peppers. Add peppers to soup pot with the peppers. You do not need to chop the peppers further. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and the minced clove of garlic. Saute in pan for about 3 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, vegetable broth, ras al hanout spice, lemon zest, pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook the soup for about 40 minutes on low heat.

The next step is to puree the soup. Right before blending, add cilantro to the soup. Pour the soup into a blender in batches. Don't forget to remove the plastic cap at the top of the blender to let heat escape when you blend. You might want to put a towel loosely over the opening so that soup doesn't splash out when you blend. After blend, strain the soup through a mech strainer or food meal. Collect all of the liquid and return soup to the stove. Discard the solids. To the soup, add the half and half, 1 cup of cooked lentils, 1 additional tablespoon of olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Continue to cook soup on low for an additional 5-10 minutes.

Hope you enjoy.

More Top Chef Talk

The Finale

If you don't know who won Top Chef, then you probably aren't a fan. So I won't spoil anything by saying that Richard won. Yeah! That said, I though that both Richard and Mike made some really interesting food. Richard throughout his two seasons showed a range of skills, cooking many different styles of food well. I would have loved to try his fish and meat dishes that he made in the finale. I am a little skeptical of foie gras ice cream, though. Mike seems to have elevated his skill level substantially since the first season. Did he take cooking classes between the taping of the show in September and the finale in January? It was clear from the show that both Mike and Richard did research and preparation for the finale in the Bahamas before they went. It paid off. It didn't seem like Antonia, Tiffany, or Carla prepared in the same way for the finale. So congratulations to Mike and Richard and really the entire cast. They made for a great season.

One thing I really liked about the finale was how they chose their sous chefs. Each of the other competitors had to cook a one-bite dish for Richard and Mike to sample. However, they did not know who made what. Based on their three favorite bites, they picked who would be working with them. It seemed like all six sous chefs did an outstanding job for Richard and Mike. Even Jamie (who was surprisingly picked) got compliments from Mike.

Dislikes
My main dislike for this season were some of the elimination challenges. I felt that some of them were way too insane and didn't showcase the talent that was on the show. I don't mind the quick-fire challenges being a little whacky. However, when you are up for elimination, technicalities and faulty equipment should not send you home. The elimination challenges should be challenging and test the chef's skills at thinking outside the box. I strongly feel that for the challenges toward the second half of the season, the chefs should be given higher quality cooking equipment and should be tested on how well they cook with certain proteins, vegetables, and desserts. In particular, I really hated the challenge where the chefs had to collect items from Target, set up a cooking station, and make a meal all in 3 hours at midnight for a number of Target employees. I don't care how well the chef can pull off a Target shopping trip and put together a half-baked cooking station to cook. I also found the first challenge in the Bahamas at some dive restaurant with deep fryers, microwaves and heat plates to be unacceptable, especially when one of the deep fryers caught on fire. This resulted in the chefs having to start completely over since the sprinkler system ruined their food. I also did not like the tennis-type challenge where everyone did not actually serve their food. Clearly, Jamie should have gone home for her under-cooked chick peas, but since her dish was so bad, the team didn't make her serve her food and so she couldn't be eliminated. Next time, more thought should go into the challenges by the show designers.

Likes
My two favorite challenges were restaurant wars and the one where they had to cook food from relating to their heritage. In these challenges, they were given much more to work with and were able to showcase their talents well. I liked the concept of the pop-up restaurant instead of putting together something more formal in the short amount of time they have.

This season I also really enjoyed watching Carla on the show. I was really rooting for her and happy that she won 3 elimination challenges and 3 trips. However, she really seemed to get tripped up by some of the later challenges and it wasn't meant to be. My wife and I have been to two of her cooking classes in Bethesda. She is very personable and fun and makes really good food. We have added a few of her recipes to some of our favorites that we make from time to time. I also made her African Groundnut Stew that she made on her first elimination challenge win. That recipe can be found here. It was a labor intensive recipe, but very good. We are looking forward to seeing her again on April 19 for another class and hearing her stories about this season. Oh, and congratulations to Carla for winning fan favorite!

Biggest Surprises
Jen went home on the second episode. When I saw the cast, my top four picks were Richard, Angelo, Jen, and Carla. Jen really fell apart on that episode. The other biggest surprise was Dale and how much he had improved. Kudos to him for taking anger management classes.

And now, we can all get ready for Top Chef Masters.