by Ian Jackman
8 slices tomato, from 1 small vine-ripened tomato (4 ounces)
BASIL KETCHUP
¼ bunch fresh basil leaves
½ cup ketchup
2 garlic cloves
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 tablespoons water
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Divide the beef into four equal parts, about 6 ounces each. Divide each portion in half and shape into patties about the size of the bun (you should have 8 patties altogether). Place 2 mozzarella slices on one patty, then top with another patty. Pinch the edges of the patties to enclose the cheese, basically stuffing the burger with the mozzarella. Season with the salt and pepper and press a piece of pancetta onto the top and bottom of each burger.
3. Heat the 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium-size ovenproof skillet over medium heat and brown each burger on both sides. Place the burgers in the oven to finish cooking.
4. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the garlic, basil, and crushed red pepper. Split the buns and brush both sides with the butter mixture. Toast under the broiler or in a toaster oven.
5. Toss the arugula and the remaining 1 teaspoon of the olive oil.
6. Spread some of the Basil Ketchup on the bun bottom and add a burger. Top with the tomato slices, arugula salad, and more ketchup. Cover with the bun tops and serve.
BASIL KETCHUP: In a small blender or food processor, mix all of the ingredients. Transfer to a small bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.
SPOTLIGHT ON
THESE INTREPID FINALISTS
Finalists were driven to the USS Intrepid, anchored on the Hudson River docks in Manhattan. Following a color guard, in walked Guy Fieri.
Finalists were asked to throw a homecoming party for soldiers returning from the Middle East, making an all-American home-cooked dish using seven ingredient baskets specific to a state. They had ninety minutes to prep and had to tell a story in their presentation. The winning dish would be featured on the cover of USA Weekend.
Teddy, with his New York basket, had Long Island duck, cream soda, and apples. He made a DLT—a BLT with duck instead of bacon. Jeffrey got Maine, with lobster, smoked sea salt, and blueberries. “I’m thinking this is impossible,” said Jeffrey, when he had a sudden epiphany—potpies, with blueberries and chipotle chiles, which would bring his signature sweet heat. But the ship’s tiny burners were a problem, so he had to scramble—and start praying. Presenting, Teddy talked about his grandfather serving in World War Two, but he ummed and ahhed and used notes written on his hand.
Susie said that the “presentation bummed me out again.” Bobby said Teddy’s DLT was a good sandwich.
“Yeah, this is rockin’ it,” Guy agreed.
“The DLT was an absolute hit back home. It stayed on the menu for six months [which is long at Granville’s, Teddy’s gastro-pub in Washington, D.C.], and we still run it as a ‘throwback’ special on Thursdays. One of my all-time favorites.”
—Teddy Folkman
Jeffrey found his own potpies horrifying. His presentation was flat; the pie was worse. Susie: “I think it’s disgusting. I would never eat this unless I had to right now.”
“Was there anything I’d do differently at the Intrepid? Jump overboard from the get-go. . . . One of the many cool things about the show is that every episode had a life lesson in it. I made the mistake of being determined to stick to my idea of a potpie, which would tie into a great story. By the time I realized that those little electric burners were not going to let that happen, it was too late. I should have cracked those twenty lobsters open and broiled them in a chipotle-blueberry glaze (my assigned ingredients) and then made a salad. I truly thought it was over for me at that moment. I think they may have used my potpie to patch some holes in the ship!”
—Jeffrey Saad
Melissa’s New Mexico box had chiles, skirt steak, and mesquite honey. Her family didn’t eat chiles, so she had to taste them raw to test the heat. She decided on a tostada with the skirt steak and a mango salsa to play off the honey and the heat. “I’m a little bit nervous about serving these flavor profiles to the king of this flavor profile, Bobby Flay,” said Melissa.
In her presentation Melissa said her mom was a lieutenant commander in the Navy who died when Melissa was twenty. A single mom, raising two daughters in Tucson, she was Melissa’s inspiration. This was a new side of Melissa, said Susie. For Bob it was “a delicious home-cooked meal.” Bobby said, “I think it’s delicious. It’s nice and crispy, it’s well cooked.”
“I had never made this recipe before, but I took inspiration from my childhood. My mom used to make a marinated steak for our birthdays when I was younger. And I grew up in Tucson eating tostadas all the time as a kid. So I married the two ideas and the result was the Skirt Steak Tostada.”
“Melissa started out talking about being a mother at home and about cooking for her family every night. I kept looking at her, thinking, Does she know what she’s talking about? Finally I said, ‘Melissa, this is a critical moment for you. I have a question. You talk about all these chicken dishes that you make. Fine, give me ten right now.’ And she did. I said to myself, This is a woman people will tune into, people who are like her, who need to get things on the table. I knew she was smart and not afraid and that showed me she was the real deal.”
—Bobby Flay
SKIRT STEAK TOSTADAS
with Black Beans and Mango Salsa
Recipe courtesy Melissa d’Arabian
Yield: 4 servings • Prep Time: 25 minutes • Cook Time: about 40 minutes • Inactive Prep Time: 1 hour • Ease of Preparation: intermediate
FOR THE STEAK
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup olive oil
Juice of 3 lemons
½ cup honey
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 habañero chile, seeded and chopped
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 (1¾-pound) piece skirt steak
FOR THE BEANS
1 (15.5-ounce) can black beans, drained
½ cup olive oil
½ cup red wine
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
FOR THE TOSTADAS
Vegetable oil, for frying
4 corn tortillas
Mango Salsa (recipe follows)
Sour cream (optional)
Grated cheese of choice (optional)
MANGO SALSA
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 large ripe mango, finely chopped
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 poblano chile, seeded and minced
¼ cup honey
Juice of 3 limes
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1. FOR THE STEAK: In a large shallow bowl or baking dish, whisk together the soy sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, honey, onion, habañero, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the steak, cover, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably several.
2. FOR THE BEANS: In a saucepan over medium-low heat, combine all of the ingredients and let simmer for 20 minutes.
3. FOR THE TOSTADAS: Pour enough oil into a large pot so that it comes about 3 inches up the sides. Heat to about 350°F. Carefully slide a tortilla into the oil and fry until crisp, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the tortilla and drain on a paper towel. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.
4. Preheat a grill pan or grill to medium-high. Remove the steak from the bowl and discard the marinade. Grill for about 5 minutes for medium-rare to medium, flipping halfway through. Transfer to a cutting board and let rest for about 5 minutes. Slice the meat into thin pieces on a diagonal.
5. ASSEMBLY: Place the fried tortillas on a large platter or individual plates. Spoon some of the black bean mixture into the middle of the tortillas. Lay the steak slices over the beans and top with the Mango Salsa. Garnish with the sour cream and cheese, if desired.
MANGO SALSA: Combine all of the ingredients and set aside for 1
0 to 20 minutes for the flavors to marry.
• Yield: about 2 cups
Occupational Hazards
With Georgia ingredients, Katie made Cornmeal-Crusted Catfish with Sweet Vidalia Onion Greens. Jamika had Wisconsin—Cheddar cheese, beer, and kielbasa. She wanted to add her ingredients to mashed potatoes, but the potatoes wouldn’t boil. Katie talked movingly about her Army Ranger cousin who graduated from West Point and had done multiple tours of duty. Bobby rated Katie in the middle of the road.
Jamika knew that her dish was sloppy and the judges agreed. But they said her presentation was very good. Michael’s Hawaii yielded kampachi, macadamia nuts, and pineapple. Assigned to California, Debbie had chicken breasts, zinfandel, and almonds. As they were cooking in the galley, Michael turned and whacked Debbie hard in the face with the corner of his baking sheet.
“The whack happened so fast that I didn’t start feeling the pain till a few minutes later. It felt like someone literally took a long nail and screwed it right through my head! Add the not being able to see out of your right eye . . . yeah, it hurt a lot! But all I kept thinking about was the episode in Iron Chef when Bobby Flay got injured and kept going. I felt I had to live up to that. As Susie had said, the show must go on.”
—Debbie Lee
what is KAMPACHI?
Michael’s kampachi was a farmed version of the Hawaiian yellowtail, with a high fat content that makes it an excellent source of essential omega-3 fatty acids.
Under the circumstances, Debbie did a creditable job. Michael talked about getting macadamia nuts at home in the Bronx. Bobby liked the food: “It looks like Hawaii and it totally tastes like Hawaii.”
In evaluation, the judges were shocked that Jamika and Jeffrey made the food they did because it fell so far below their standards. Teddy’s DLT was delicious to Bobby, but Teddy on camera made him nervous, and Susie wanted to see the normal guy. The winner of the cover of USA Weekend was Melissa. “They underestimated me,” she said. “There’s a lot more to me than Melissa the stay-at-home mom.”
Teddy left. “Nobody is grabbing it,” said Bobby. “Grab the title.”
“I first made this dish at my first executive chef job in D.C. We had a great brunch crowd before I got there, and I needed something my first week to prove that I had some fun ideas. It was a huge hit but a pain in the ass because I only had a small griddle and didn’t anticipate that many people ordering it.
“As far as the pancakes go, we are serving them at the Capitol Lounge, a local watering hole in Southeast D.C. that I’m part of. The sausage made it to a bunch of different mussel concoctions at Granville Moore’s, most recently with fennel, leeks, and a Dijon broth that we threw a bunch of savory into.”
—Teddy Folkman
KATIE’S FAVORITE USES FOR SWISS CHARD
1. Sautéed with garlic, olive oil, and dried cherries, to balance the bitterness.
2. Chiffonade in a salad.
3. Sautéed for pasta, along with white beans, shallots, and pancetta (topped with roasted shrimp. “Double yum”).
BOURBON PANCAKES
with Sausage Patties
Recipe courtesy Teddy Folkman
Yield: 6 cups batter, about 25 pancakes and 10 to 12 sausage patties • Prep Time: 20 minutes • Cook Time: 20 minutes • Inactive Prep Time: 12 hours • Ease of Preparation: intermediate
FOR THE PANCAKES
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons fine salt
2 tablespoons sugar
3 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 ounces bourbon
Clarified butter
FOR THE SAUSAGE PATTIES
¾ pound ground beef
½ pound ground pork
¼ cup diced pork fat
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted
2 teaspoons fennel seeds, toasted
1 teaspoon ground red pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ small shallot, minced
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Pinch of allspice
1. FOR THE PANCAKES: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. In a medium bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs, butter, and bourbon. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and combine gently with a whisk until smooth. Don’t overwork the batter. Let it rest for about 15 minutes.
2. Coat a griddle with the clarified butter and heat to medium-high. Drop the batter by ¼-cupfuls onto the griddle and cook until golden brown on both sides and cooked all the way through, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Serve with sausage patties.
FOR THE SAUSAGE PATTIES: Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, cover, and refrigerate 8 to 12 hours. Form the meat mixture into 2½-ounce patties and cook the patties on a flattop or grill pan until golden brown on both sides and cooked through.
First Demos
For their midterms, finalists had to perform a cooking demo for Rachael Ray. In honor of her Yum-o organization, they turned a traditional dish into something kid-friendly. The ingredients: Brussels sprouts, squid, and tofu. Jeffrey had never cooked with tofu.
“Next Food Network Star was my first date cooking with tofu. Since then I have had a solid relationship with the curd. Like everything, when used and cooked properly it adds value to a dish. I have been using it in some of my stir-fry dishes as well as soup. I’ve even marinated it in soy, hoisin, and chiles and grilled it.”
—Jeffrey Saad
Katie planned a Calamari Fruit Salad with Quinoa; Jamika cut her tofu small to hide it in a salad. Melissa said that the key is to attach a new ingredient to a texture kids know and give them a piece of the raw vegetable. You never know what they’ll like. The experts were kids Kylie, Michael, and Angela . . . and Rachael Ray.
The kids liked almost all the food. The presentations were good, but Jamika forgot to cook and talk at the same time.
In the Main Challenge, finalists had to take kids’ food and turn it into adult fare, live on the Rachael Ray Show. And they had to do it in pairs. Katie and Debbie were assigned chicken nuggets and mac and cheese; Michael and Melissa, tomato soup and grilled cheese; Jeffrey and Jamika, hot dogs and baked beans. Jeffrey and Jamika made an uneasy team, and neither was happy with the food. Katie decided to bake rather than fry her nuggets for health reasons.
The pairs had a hard time gelling in front of the audience. Melissa took over and talked very fast, while Michael seemed overcome by nerves. “Cook something, man!” Bobby told him. In the last ten seconds Michael started to have fun.
Debbie again said that she was Korean but didn’t take her story further. When Katie took over, she didn’t look up till the very end. And her chicken was dry. As Jeffrey performed a solo act, Jamika stood like a statue.
“People talk about, ‘Oh, you can make tofu taste like anything,’ so for me, I’m like, ‘Well, eat that then!’”
—Jeffrey Saad
Bobby Flay: What do you think about when you look at the camera?
Michael: The depths of hell.
Bob said that Jamika’s performance made him sad and that the duo was awkward. What’s more, the food was not good.
Rachael told the finalists that the next challenge would take five out of six of them to Miami.
But was there a star here? Katie didn’t engage the live audience, and there was no flavor in her chicken. The judges needed more from Debbie. Bobby liked her presentation to the kids, but Susie and Bob, watching on TV, didn’t like it at all. Michael and Melissa bummed out Bobby. Melissa rushed, lacking calm and authority, and Michael was upset that he crashed in both demos.
“The TV side was a bit of a problem for me, but looking back, I see that the issue was more about the stress than the actual filming. . . . I have become a big fan of being on film!”
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��Michael Proietti
Michael said that he needed a game plan. Be inventive, be creative, Bob told him. Jeffrey talked nonstop, and Jamika was a shadow of herself. Bob said this was a bad week to be doing that. Jamika and Katie were at the bottom.
Katie was sent home.
“This was an adaptation of a meal my dad used to make. In the summer, growing up, we used to swim all day at our pool, then my mom and dad would make a big family-style dinner. My dad made foil packets filled with chicken, sausage, veggies, potatoes—you name it. So the halibut recipe was a refined version of this that you can make all season long. I love it because you can get creative—swap out veggies that you have in the kitchen or that looked beautiful at the market that day.”
—Katie Cavuto Boyle
BAKED HALIBUT
with Veggies
Recipe courtesy Katie Cavuto Boyle
Yield: 4 servings • Prep Time: 20 minutes • Cook Time: 25 to 30 minutes • Ease of Preparation: easy
Cooking spray
4 (6-ounce) halibut fillets
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup coarsely chopped tomato or halved cherry tomatoes (about 1 pint)
½ cup coarsely chopped red bell pepper
½ cup coarsely chopped green bell pepper
½ cup coarsely chopped yellow bell pepper
1 cup chopped zucchini or yellow squash (1 small squash)
½ cup chopped mushrooms (3 ounces)
Pinch of kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
