Food Network Star Episode 1 Dish: Miso Skewer en Papillote (aka 2-in-1 Surprise Skewer)

Okay, so you’ve been dropped onto a fake beach in the middle of an amusement park. What now? You cook, of course! 

I've watched enough seasons of Food Network Star to know that the first challenge usually involves your signature dish. But here was this season's twist: it had to park-friendly. Explicitly, that meant no utensils, and it had to be plated on servingware normally found in an amusement park. Implicitly, that meant a world of intangible things that you might expect from park food. 

my signature dish in its normal form

What are those intangibles? Here were the musts I considered: 

• Fun -- think churros and Groot bread 

• Light -- this was a water park after all and I didn’t want to serve anything too heavy or hot 

• Easy and relatively unchallenging -- no one comes to an amusement park to take culinary risks 

When you're not good at hiding your discomfort ...

... and panic.

So I decided to convert my miso-glazed halibut with turmeric tiles into a skewer, cooked en papillote. The parchment papillote would keep the dish neat, ensure everything inside was warm and tender, and provide a little mystery. 

on the show

at home

In my presentation, I ended up calling this a “Two-in-One Surprise Skewer”. After our cook, I had looked around and seen people had beautiful dishes -- all visually exciting colors and textures. I had… a brown paper pouch and a piece of brown bread. Blech. 

"Everyone likes their own personal packet. And it tastes good." 

So I tried to spin the negative into a positive. Can’t see what you’re eating? It’s a surprise! Don’t know what’s inside? It’s actually two things, a skewer and brothy veggies to sop up with the bread. 

Sadly, neither the park guest, Giada, nor Bobby commented on my expert re-branding. But it didn’t hurt me either :P. 

RECIPE

2-in-1 Surprise Skewer (aka Miso-Glazed Turbot and Zucchini Skewers with Turmeric Veggies and Garlic Sesame Naan) 

I changed this recipe a bit from what I cooked on the show. My original signature dish used yellow squash, and that’s what I used here. On the show, I couldn’t find/they didn’t have any yellow squash, so I ended up using bell peppers. 

I also used turbot here because my local Whole Foods was out of halibut. Feel free to use any firm, thick white fish like halibut, turbot, or cod. 

Poached Vegetables
4 cups water
1-inch knob of ginger
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
½ head Napa cabbage
3 yellow zucchini 

Skewers
2-inch knob of ginger
6 cloves of garlic
¼ cup white miso
2 ½ tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
1 lb firm white fish like halibut, turbot, or cod 

Naan
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
Pinch of salt
Splash of sesame oil
Black sesame seeds
1 naan 

Preheat oven to 400°F. Peel and dice ginger. Slice Napa cabbage into ¼ inch strips. Slice zucchini into ¾” half moons. Add water, ginger, salt, turmeric and peppercorns to a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the Napa cabbage and zucchini and lower to a simmer for 3-5 minutes, until the cabbage has wilted and the zucchini is fork-tender, but still firm. 

Puree all the skewer ingredients (except for the fish :P)  in the blender. Cut fish into 1” cubes and mix with the miso marinade. 

Use pre-cut parchment paper squares, or cut them yourself. Lay out skewers diagonally on the paper. There should be at least one inch of room on each side of the skewer. If not, trim your skewer. 

Lay out one square. Spread a bed of cabbage along the diagonal of the square, where the skewer will be. Build the skewer, alternating zucchini and fish. When done, place the skewer on the parchment paper. Trim the corners of the parchment paper “wings”. This will reduce excess paper. Crimp the edges of the parchment paper by rolling and pinching, sealing the skewer.

Place on a sheet tray and bake/steam in the oven for 13 minutes. 

As the fish cooks, make the garlic sesame naan. Add olive oil and garlic to a small frying pan. Slowly bring to a simmer, until garlic is lightly golden. Add sesame oil. Brush oil on naan with a pastry brush. Toast in the oven or on a grill. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. 

Serve hot so your guests can open the pockets and enjoy the aromatic steam. 
 

Cooks vs Cons Round 2: Korean Beef with Toasted Quinoa, Quick Pickles & Miso Egg Emulsion

Round 2...candy! Oh boy. I don't know about you, but I've never cooked with candy before. As Bruno and Geoffrey Zakarian pointed out, it's hard to know how candy will cook. Will it melt? Hold its shape? Curdle? 

I once tried to brûlé gummy bears and it was a disaster. The heat seems to toughen the gelatin, making an impossibly tacky bite. 

So instead of opting for licorice, gumdrops, or  jelly beans, which contain mysterious ingredients with unknown properties, I used clean and simple lollipops. Sugar, flavoring and coloring. Not ideal, but not horrifying either. 

We weren't allowed to make desserts (too easy), so my mind immediately went to Korean food. Korean food is actually pretty sweet, but it's tempered by salt, spice and funk. No one-note sweetness here. I called on my go-to flavors: miso, soy, ginger, garlic and sesame (the same flavors that are in one my most popular recipes of all time). I chose pink lemonade and lemon lollipops, thinking that citrus flavors were better than, say, cherry or grape (gag). 

Once I knew how I'd feature the surprise ingredient, I worked from there. What works best with sweet and spicy marinated beef? 

Bibimbap! Concepting the rest was easy. I'd adapt the classic Korean rice-and-veggies dish with my own spin. A quick pickle added some brightness and crunch, toasted quinoa with nori contributed an earthy, umami base (and mimicked the delicious burnt rice in the bottom of a stone bibimbap bowl). I also made a miso-egg emulsion, a hollandaise-like sauce that nods to the raw egg that is traditionally stirred into bibimbop. 

The recipe below is sequenced for a tight 30-minute cook. There's no wasted time waiting for things to cook. But if you want a saner experience, then you can always make each component one by one.

RECIPE:

Beef: 
1/2 cup of sugar -- ground-up citrus candy or actual sugar
1 small onion
8 cloves of garlic
1 ping-pong-ball-sized knob of ginger
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 Scotch Bonnet chili 

1 lb thinly sliced top sirloin 

Toasted Quinoa: 
1 cup red quinoa
10 sheets of roasted seaweed

Quick Pickles:
4 radishes
3 baby cucumbers
1 tablespoon salt 

Miso Egg Emulsion:
4 egg yolks
1 heaping teaspoon miso paste
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
½ teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon butter 

2 tablespoons black sesame seed
¼ cup chopped chives

Rinse quinoa and place in pot with two cups of water. Bring to a boil on high, then cover and simmer on low until nice and fluffy. The "tails" of the quinoa should be sticking out. (This didn't happen during my episode... perhaps because the stove was so hot the water boiled off too quickly and/or the quinoa was old and took longer than normal to "bloom".) 

For the marinade, blend the onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and chili. Place in saucepan and reduce on medium-high. 

For the miso egg emulsion, blend the egg yolks, miso, rice vinegar, chili powder and butter. 

For the quick pickles, slice the cucumbers and radishes with a mandolin on the thinnest setting. Salt and let rest. 

Slice the beef and place it in the reduced marinade. While the beef is cooking and picking up the glaze, toast half the quinoa in a frying pan with a teaspoon of olive oil. Add the other half of the quinoa, add sliced nori and reserve. 

Assemble your plate. Squeeze out the excess water from the pickles and place. Add the toasted quinoa with nori and Korean candy beef. Pour miso egg emulsion on top, or serve on the side. Add chopped chives and black sesame seeds. 

RELAX because that was an intense 30 minutes of cooking.