fandomtownies | Chopped! [Community Center, Thursday, May 14, evening]

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jack sparrow

Chopped! [Community Center, Thursday, May 14, evening]

"Hello, and welcome t' the greatest class ever conceived: Feed Jack Sparrow Weekly!"

Perhaps that was a tad too honest.

"I mean Chopped! A test of your culinary skills, where if I don't like the dish you've made, you'll be keelhauled and marrooned!"

That was not true.

"You will be given three basket of ingredients and a set amount of time in which to make the food! You will make an appetizer with one, an entree with the second, and a dessert with the final! Try not to give me food poisoning!"

Which, given some of the ingredients, was probably not entirely unlikely.

He gestured over to a refridgerator and a pantry. "There are loads of other ingredients, but you must feature each of the ingredients in your baskets, and don't forget to use one even if you think French dressing is disgusting."

He clasped his hands together, chortling in glee. "First round is the appetizer! You have twenty minutes and your time starts...now!"

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In your basket, you discover: fillets of trout, Goldfish crackers, French salad dressing and rum.

Um.

Good luck?

Oh, this truly was a challenge, but Jane was feeling charged up by the situation. Well, the situation, and because the poor young lady assumed the rum had mostly been there to help them out, so a good portion of it was being sipped rather than used in her cooking.

The rest of the rum was used to fry little bits of trout in, and then she found some lettuce to add to make what she hoped would be a lovely little salad with rum-cooked trout bits, cracker croutons and, naturally, the French dressing. Voila!

Hey, she'd had far worse at camp, and the rum probably made her appreciate the situation more.

Millie marinated the trout in the French salad dressing, then rolled it in crushed Goldfish crackers before quickly panfrying it and firing it with a little rum.

She garnished it with some lovely greens that she'd put together and added a few almond slivers around the edges.

Of course, she had a bit of an advantage in that she could magically toss things together while her hands were doing other things.

In the entree round, you have 30 minutes to make your food. In your basket you find: duck breasts, Lucky Charms cereal, dried shrimp, and frozen okra.

Never let Jack Sparrow shop.

Jane only had the vaguest idea what the cereal was thanks to doing stocking orders for the general store, and how in the world she was going to put all these together to make something in thirty minutes left her boggling for the first few minutes before she realized she needed to get everything started. Roasting the duck breasts and making...quite an interesting stuffing out of the remaining parts, all the while reminding herself that however they turned out, it still wasn't any worse than camp food.

Millie made an interesting semi-stew of the shrimp and okra, spicing it up with some hot peppers, and served it beside duck breasts sweetened slightly with some melted mini-marshmallow lucky Charms. She was going for the whole sweet and sour combo. It was all quite edible and not bad tasting, but definitely a bit on the odd side.

Are you getting scared now? Good. You're getting the idea of the class.

You have 30 minutes for dessert. In your basket you find: frozen waffles, celery, potato knishes, and licorice.

Alright, desert! How difficult could desert be?

...Apparently, very difficult. A slight grunt of frustration did escape Jane when she sorted through the basket, but then she pulled up her bootstraps (just figuratively speaking) and set to the task of trying to make all these culinary anomalies work.

Let's see. Maybe if she could simply use the celery as a garnish for a sort of...knish on waffle dish, with sprinkles of bits of licorice with a little bit of a chocolate sauce drizzle and powdered sugar? It looked pretty at least...

Dishes and pans and ingredients were flying - literally - as Millie worked.

She sliced the knish up into interesting designs and deep fried it before standing the pieces on edge in bits of waffle, with powdered sugar and some dipping sauces of fudge, whipped cream, and licorice flavored-syrup (she might have used a little magic there to make that happen) on the side. The celery got candied and was used as decoration around the plate.

If you dare.

Jane gave a doubtful look toward her dishes before giving her head a rueful shake and looking toward Jack with an expression somewhere between pity and awe. "I must say, Captain Sparrow," she announced, "you absolutely must have an iron stomach if you plan on actually trying these dishes. But what I've managed to prepare for you today is a little trout salad (http://fandomtownies.livejournal.com/5976944.html?thread=229661296#t229661296) to begin with, followed by a hopefully lovely offering of duck breast with stuffing (http://fandomtownies.livejournal.com/5976944.html?thread=229662320#t229662320), and to top it all off, a...a...."

Jane struggled to think of a good way to present her desert course, "dubiously delectable waffle au potato (http://fandomtownies.livejournal.com/5976944.html?thread=229662832#t229662832)."

She cleared her throat a little. "Enjoy?"

Edited 2011-07-14 16:17 (UTC)

"I've spent most of my life aboard a ship," Jack said. "Anything that isn't moldy bread is a special treat, and most of this was in the cupboards at home."

Which explained a lot, really.

And, really, Jane could understand and respect that point quite a good deal. Still...

"You've an interesting pantry, Captain." And now Jane was wondering if this class was all just a ruse to take that pantry and actually put it together so that Jack didn't have to do any of the cooking himself.

Jane would be very astute to have figured that out. "Thank you," he said, trying a bite of trout salad. "This is quite interesting."

And though Jane was a very unconventional woman for someone of her time, the concern about being able to meet the expectations of being able to make a decent meal out of random things seemed incredibly deep for her. Because she'd had to do it before in the jungle, and suspected she'd have to do it many more times again.

"Good interesting or bad interesting?" she had to prod.

"Good interesting!" Jack said reassuringly. "I like the dressing with it!"

But then he liked French dressing rather a lot.

"Oh!" Hand to her heart, Jane visibly relaxed. "Excellent. I wasn't really sure, what with the throat and the run and the dressing and all. It doesn't exactly..." She cleared her throat a little, "look quite fit for consumption."

"It's not running from the plate, so it also has that to recommend it," Jack said jovially.

"Yes, well," said Jane, "perhaps I should have added a bit of moldy bread."

But she was preening like a peacock. So far, so good!

Oh, Jane, don't give him ideas.

"Perhaps we can use that next week."

See?

"We have a nice trout (http://fandomtownies.livejournal.com/5976944.html?thread=229680496#t229680496) marinated in the dressing, breaded, and then pan seared with a little rum and some nice greens for color and a bit of acidity." Millie said, sharing her first dish. "Then a sort of sweet and hot plate with sweetened duck breasts (http://fandomtownies.livejournal.com/5976944.html?thread=229680752#t229680752) and a side of spicy shrimp and okra stew. And finally some deep fried knish on waffle (http://fandomtownies.livejournal.com/5976944.html?thread=229681008#t229681008) with candied celery. Please do try all the different dipping sauces."

Before or after class!

I am so sorry about the basket ingredients.

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Chopped! [Community Center, Thursday, May 14, evening]

Appetizers!

Re: Appetizers!

Re: Appetizers!

Entrees!

Re: Entrees!

Re: Entrees!

Dessert!

Re: Dessert!

Re: Dessert!

Present your dishes to Jack!

Re: Present your dishes to Jack!

Re: Present your dishes to Jack!

Re: Present your dishes to Jack!

Re: Present your dishes to Jack!

Re: Present your dishes to Jack!

Re: Present your dishes to Jack!

Re: Present your dishes to Jack!

Re: Present your dishes to Jack!

Re: Present your dishes to Jack!

Re: Present your dishes to Jack!

Re: Present your dishes to Jack!

Talk to Jack!

OOC