Avacado, cabbage, basil and hot dogs

Get excited, guys! Two successful challenges in one post! Bon appetite!

Dinner: avocado, cabbage, basil and hot dogs

Chef: Monica  

This will sound crazy. But Tristan and I will both tell you this was the best PC challenge so far. When I saw the hot dogs, I knew I wanted to do something completely different than a hotdog on a plate. There is actually a Chopped episode where firefighters were given hot dogs and about half of them kept it whole and it looked lame.

            A few weeks prior, I saw a quinoa burger on Pinterest. I think it is mostly beans and quinoa but when I saw this basket, I thought quinoa burger! So I cooked the quinoa just as the box said. I made sure that there was no extra moisture because that would really water everything down. In the food processor, I threw the hotdogs, celery, carrots and corn. This recipe could easily me modified to whatever you have on hand. You just have to add ingredients at the appropriate times. The corn I added last so it would stay whole. The carrot went in first to get nice small pieces. You can also modify the herbs and spices to what style you’re going for. I believe I did fresh basil, fresh cilantro, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper. 

 

            When the quinoa is cooked, drain off any extra liquid and cool it down just a tad to make it easier to work with. Add the quinoa, and egg and breadcrumbs. I wish I could tell you how much of everything but I honestly don’t know. I used about ¼ dry cup of quinoa, two hot dogs, one carrot, one small piece of celery and that’s about all I know. As long as you can form patties that will stay together, you’ll be good. Looks nasty, doesn't it? That is the quinoa in the background.

            Just form patties, fry them in a pan like you would burgers and throw on a toasted bun with some fresh avocado. Also, you don’t have to cook as long as a burger, just get them brown and warmed through.

 

            I also made a slaw. The slaw had cabbage, carrot, red wine vinegar, oil and spicy brown mustard. I learned form Michael Symon’s book, “Live to Cook” (so awesome!!) that when making a vinaigrette to start with a 1:1 ratio of oil to acid. Add oil until you have the taste you’re looking for. So that is what I did. Much like the burger, you can modify the slaw with your favorite flavors.

 

YUM!

Dessert: Molasses, Reddi wip, apple chips and brie.

 Chef: Tristan

I don’t know about you, but when I think of brie and apple chips the first thing that comes to mind for me: brownies.

I found a recipe for a cream cheese apricot brownie. I decided I would make a brie, apple chip and raspberry brownie.

I mixed the brie with some butter, added some sugar, some sliced raspberries and a little bit of bourbon. The recipe I had called for brandy, I didn’t have any brandy and thought bourbon would taste better anyway. Mixed in one egg and some molasses and let that sit while I worked on the brownie batter.

For the brownies I melted butter and dark chocolate chips. I kept mixing things together in the wrong order with this recipe so ultimately I mixed the eggs, flour, sugar etc together at the same time. Added the chocolate and butter to this and some chopped walnuts.

Continuing the theme of not having half of what my recipe called for, I didn’t have the right size pan. Decided to use a bread pan instead. Was supposed to layer brownie batter, with the brie and fruit mixture. With the pan I was using I didn’t have enough brownie batter to cover the brie mixture. Did the best I could and threw it into the oven.

30 minutes later the kitchen smelled amazing. Topped the brownie with some Reddi Wip and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The dish was good, but other than the Reddi Wip none of the basket ingredients were really easily identifiable. The chocolate overpowered everything. Still it was a delicious dessert.