I could have been ‘Chopped’ champion!

One of our guilty pleasures is to watch cooking reality shows like Top Chef, Iron Chef and one of the newer offerings from the Food Network – Chopped. For those who have never watched the show, it pits four chefs against each other in three rounds of competition where they have to incorporate a number of mystery ingredients into the dishes they prepare.

They are given twenty minutes to prepare an appetizer and, assuming they advance in the competition without getting ‘chopped’, they get thirty minutes to prepare an entree and, ultimately, a dessert. It sounds pretty straight forward until they throw a curveball by including an ingredient that doesn’t readily go together with any of the other mystery ingredients.

I don’t consider myself to be that great of a cook, I’m just a guy that like to try new things and experiment. As a result, I usually have no idea what I would do if I were in that position. However, for the first time the other night I knew EXACTLY what I would do with the mystery ingredients they unveiled for the entree round.

The chefs were presented with knockwursts, a bag of pretzels, ramps and mangosteens. Almost immediately I exclaimed ‘crust the knockwurst with the pretzels’, and to little surprise that is exactly what the chef that won the round did. I also would have grilled the ramps and pureed the mangosteen with a stone mustard for the crusted knockwurst.

Clearly excited by my on the spot culinary creativity, I had to give it a try. We still had a package of bratwursts that we picked up while on vacation earlier this summer, so I figured they would be a good place to start. Since my wife doesn’t like mustard, I didn’t bother with making one infused with mangosteen.

I assembled the crust mixture by taking a rolling pin to a small ziplock bag full of pretzels, then mixed them with about a tablespoon of flour, onion and garlic powder, salt, pepper and some grated parmesan cheese. After getting a nice sear on the outside of the bratwursts, I split them in half, dipped the cut side into an egg wash and, finally, the crust mixture.

They cooked crust side down for five or six minutes until there was some nice color on them and the inside of the bratwurst were brought up to temperature. After completing my crusted masterpiece I served them with some green beans and homemade spatzle, which, I am ashamed to admit, was one of the most poorly executed examples of spatzle in cooking history, but at least it tasted good.

Overall, it was a solid effort and we were pleased with the results. Also, it has made me eager for the next episode to see if I can continue to channel my newfound creativity.

So, if you see me on The Next Food Network Star next season don’t be surprised.