Chopped

My parents just visited for a week of eating and cooking fun. One night, we decided to go to an awesome local grocery store called Berkeley Bowl, each pick out ingredients, and then host our own version of the television show "Chopped." I have not had this much fun cooking in a long time, and that is saying a lot. There were three secret ingredients for each of the two courses the three teams were making. We could then use anything in the "pantry" (which we fully stocked with odd items, including buffalo steaks). For the first course, the secret ingredients were hot peppers, beets, and rambatans. The resulting appetizers were harvest nachos, Asian beet salad, and our own beet and cream cheese raviolis over a bed of beet greens with a rambatan salsa. (This is the recipe that will follow.) For the second course, the secret ingredients were eggplant, pumpkin puree, and dried apricots. My parents made puff pastry topped with eggplant, mushrooms, and sausage with an apricot bourbon sauce and pumpkin base. My cousin and her boy made shells stuffed with tofu or sausage (for the respective meat-eaters) and eggplant with a pumpkin apricot sauce and cranberry chipotle cheese. Adam and I made a pumpkin puree topped with chopped apricots and pecans with seared buffalo steaks and pan-fried eggplant with melted blue cheese. Everything was absolutely delicious. It was amazing to see how different everyone's dishes were from the same basic ingredients. If you want a fun cooking night, I definitely suggest "Chopped" at home.


Beet Ravioli over Beet Greens with Rambatan Salsa

This recipe is for 6 ravioli.

3 beets, peeled and quartered
1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
6 wonton wrappers
beet greens from the 3 beets, chopped
10 grapes, sliced
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
6 rambatans, peeled and sliced
1 manzanilla pepper, seeded and sliced thinly

1. Steam the beets in the microwave until tender. Mix in the cream cheese and season with salt and pepper.
2. Take each of the wonton wrappers and fill with a sixth of the beet and cream cheese mixture. Brush a bit of water onto the edges of the wonton. Fold the wonton into a triangle and seal securely. In a pot of boiling water, boil the ravioli two at a time until done, about 3 minutes each.
3. Meanwhile, saute the beet greens in a touch of olive oil. Add the cumin and cinnamon. Season with salt and pepper to taste. At the very end, mix in the grape slices.
4. To make the salsa, combine the rambatans and pepper slices.
5. To plate, make a circle with the beet greens. Place the ravioli in a line in the center of the platter. Top with salsa.