Post: #1

Of all the reality TV I like Hell's Kitchen-the rest all suck dead mans balls and IDGAF. Its the reality of the Wire mixed with the edgy pace of the Sopranos and Gordon Ramsay is the Man. Watching him make an experienced executive chef look like a fucking dishwasher is almost as good as fucking. I'm currently going over the youtube videos and I must ask how difficult is it to do scallops and a proper beef wellington?
In Nairobi our apps are prawns and we don't know scallops ,also we tend to overcook meat so even if you specify your steak rare you'll be lucky to receive medium well done.

Post: #2

Scallops can be very challenging as they become rubbery when just slightly overcooked.

Post: #3

I dig the Hotel Impossible show too. The guys overall confidence and smooth demeanor is impressive.

Post: #4

I think scallops are one of the easiest dishes to make if you know how to saute something. Just put a couple tablespoons of salt in about 2 cups of water and stir to dissolve. Pour the brine over your scallops for about 5-10 minutes, no longer. Dry off the scallops and heat up some clarified butter in a stainless pan over medium to high heat and put the scallops in and DO NOT MOVE until it forms a nice crust on the bottom, the scallop will release itself, and turn over and do the same. Done. Garnish with lemon wedges.

If you were watching Hell's Kitchen, they cut the scallops in half to cook faster for service.

Beef wellington is a much harder, because you have to make a duxelle paste, puff pastry, cook a filet perfectly and make a sauce to go with it. Traditionally, foie gras is used in lieu of the duxelle mushroom paste; but Ramsay uses the mushrooms and English mustard, I'm guessing because it's cheaper and more English?

Post: #5

I don't like to think of anything as "hard" per se. But some things definitely require more work, time, and attention.

Some scallop info: Always buy dry-pack scallops. Ask to smell them. There should be nothing fishy about the smell. They should smell like fresh shellfish with a sweet note. They come in different sizing, like U16, U10, U8. The number refers to the number of scallops in a pound. For instance U16 means there's 16 scallops in a pound, so they're an ounce a piece. U8 would mean each scallop is 2 ounces, and a U4 would be a 4 oz monster.

As far as cooking, Farm's advice about clarified butter works well. Myself I'd probably start in very very hot rice bran oil and throw a knob of butter halfway through cooking a la my steak method: /thread-17690.html

I prefer not to brine scallops since they already have some natural salt and sugar. I add just a touch more kosher salt on the surface and get a nice hard sear. Scallops should absolutely be served medium rare. You'll know by touching. Feel the raw scallop and when it starts to firm up in the pan pull it off and let it rest for a minute.

Scallops are incredibly versatile, serve them with:
sauteed mushrooms
beurre blanc
corn succotash
Romesco sauce
with some marcona almonds shaved over the top

Beef Wellington is just a matter of having the right components on hand. I say, if you're not going all out, don't bother. You'll need a sheet of very good quality puff pastry, a great filet of beef, some mushrooms, preferably wild, preferably some black truffles and foie gras, and to finish a top notch red wine sauce. Chances are you don't have that stuff on hand...and if you could get this stuff a proper wellington would wind up costing you about 80 bucks per portion. If you see it in a restaurant it's usually a cheap knockoff.

Post: #6

Scallops are my second favorite seafood after shrimps/prawns. Thanks for the info!

Post: #7

haha great thread....

another one they ALWAYS cook on this show is risotto....

risotto, scollops, wellington....it's the trifecta of power in hell's kitchen.

Post: #8

(12-12-2012 12:45 PM)thedude3737 Wrote:  I don't like to think of anything as "hard" per se. But some things definitely require more work, time, and attention.

Some scallop info: Always buy dry-pack scallops. Ask to smell them. There should be nothing fishy about the smell. They should smell like fresh shellfish with a sweet note. They come in different sizing, like U16, U10, U8. The number refers to the number of scallops in a pound. For instance U16 means there's 16 scallops in a pound, so they're an ounce a piece. U8 would mean each scallop is 2 ounces, and a U4 would be a 4 oz monster.

As far as cooking, Farm's advice about clarified butter works well. Myself I'd probably start in very very hot rice bran oil and throw a knob of butter halfway through cooking a la my steak method: /thread-17690.html

I prefer not to brine scallops since they already have some natural salt and sugar. I add just a touch more kosher salt on the surface and get a nice hard sear. Scallops should absolutely be served medium rare. You'll know by touching. Feel the raw scallop and when it starts to firm up in the pan pull it off and let it rest for a minute.

Scallops are incredibly versatile, serve them with:
sauteed mushrooms
beurre blanc
corn succotash
Romesco sauce
with some marcona almonds shaved over the top

Beef Wellington is just a matter of having the right components on hand. I say, if you're not going all out, don't bother. You'll need a sheet of very good quality puff pastry, a great filet of beef, some mushrooms, preferably wild, preferably some black truffles and foie gras, and to finish a top notch red wine sauce. Chances are you don't have that stuff on hand...and if you could get this stuff a proper wellington would wind up costing you about 80 bucks per portion. If you see it in a restaurant it's usually a cheap knockoff.

Then why does everyone make a monkey of themselves on scallops and beef wellington? Instructors,experienced enthusiasts and pro chefs all embarrass themselves constantly.What gives?

Post: #9

(12-13-2012 02:41 AM)bkamurray Wrote:  Then why does everyone make a monkey of themselves on scallops and beef wellington? Instructors,experienced enthusiasts and pro chefs all embarrass themselves constantly.What gives?

I think the show is at least partially scripted. Look for example at Gordon´s show Behind Bars, where he teaches some guys in Brixton Prison how to cook. The prisoners, with absolutely no former experience, make better Beef Wellington than most of the contestants in Hell´s Kitchen.

Post: #10

Yeah Ramsay's shows all suck. It pains me to think that anyone thinks that that's what working in a kitchen is actually like. Ramsay is just another TV personality these days and he spends almost zero time in his kitchens. That said, he's a tremendous cook and chef, and he has some very talented people working in his restaurant group. But what you see on "reality" T.V. is anything but.

Wellington isn't hard, it's just time and ingredient intensive. Here's a basic rundown:

You need to make what's called a mushroom "duxelle". This is simply mushrooms that are very very finely chopped with some shallots and cooked down to a paste. You can run a bunch of mushrooms through a food processor with a shallot, put it in a pan, and slowly cook it down with a sprig of thyme, knob of butter, and splash of white wine until it's a reduced paste. Set aside.

Season an 8 ounce center cut filet mignon with salt and pepper and pan roast over high heat to get a very dark exterior. Cook in the oven for about 4-5 minutes to bring it up to a rare temperature inside. Cool completely in a fridge.

Slice a couple medallions of foie gras approximately 1 inch thick, season them, and set aside.

Shave about 12 shavings of fresh black truffle. (If anyone's genuinely interested in truffles I can open up a data sheet on them. Black truffle season starts late Dec/early Jan and lasts about 3-4 months)

Cut a square of puff pastry so that there's about 4" of overhang on either side of the cooled filet. You assemble it "upside down", meaning put the black truffles down first, then the foie gras, then a thick layer of mushroom duxelle, then the filet. Pull up the sides of the puff pastry to wrap the package, seal the seams and press together, and flip over. Brush with egg wash, you can cut some little design in the pastry, and cook at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

You'll want a good red wine sauce for this. Reduce about a cup of good red wine in a pan with some shallots and whole peppercorns. When it's reduced down to a glaze, add about a cup of rich veal stock or demi glace and reduce it down to a coating sauce consistency. Swirl in a small knob of cold butter at the very end before pouring the sauce on the plate, and the beef wellington on top.

Post: #11

(12-13-2012 01:48 PM)thedude3737 Wrote:  Yeah Ramsay's shows all suck. It pains me to think that anyone thinks that that's what working in a kitchen is actually like. Ramsay is just another TV personality these days and he spends almost zero time in his kitchens. That said, he's a tremendous cook and chef, and he has some very talented people working in his restaurant group. But what you see on "reality" T.V. is anything but.

Wellington isn't hard, it's just time and ingredient intensive. Here's a basic rundown:

You need to make what's called a mushroom "duxelle". This is simply mushrooms that are very very finely chopped with some shallots and cooked down to a paste. You can run a bunch of mushrooms through a food processor with a shallot, put it in a pan, and slowly cook it down with a sprig of thyme, knob of butter, and splash of white wine until it's a reduced paste. Set aside.

Season an 8 ounce center cut filet mignon with salt and pepper and pan roast over high heat to get a very dark exterior. Cook in the oven for about 4-5 minutes to bring it up to a rare temperature inside. Cool completely in a fridge.

Slice a couple medallions of foie gras approximately 1 inch thick, season them, and set aside.

Shave about 12 shavings of fresh black truffle. (If anyone's genuinely interested in truffles I can open up a data sheet on them. Black truffle season starts late Dec/early Jan and lasts about 3-4 months)

Cut a square of puff pastry so that there's about 4" of overhang on either side of the cooled filet. You assemble it "upside down", meaning put the black truffles down first, then the foie gras, then a thick layer of mushroom duxelle, then the filet. Pull up the sides of the puff pastry to wrap the package, seal the seams and press together, and flip over. Brush with egg wash, you can cut some little design in the pastry, and cook at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

You'll want a good red wine sauce for this. Reduce about a cup of good red wine in a pan with some shallots and whole peppercorns. When it's reduced down to a glaze, add about a cup of rich veal stock or demi glace and reduce it down to a coating sauce consistency. Swirl in a small knob of cold butter at the very end before pouring the sauce on the plate, and the beef wellington on top.

Wow! You've reduced the whole thing to easily understood processes-thanks! But the question remains;why does everybody turn into a fucking idiot when they make this? I'm on season 10 episode 17 and damn near every episode a potential winner is reduced to near tears by this task.
Why do they always come out of the oven half done or overdone?

Post: #12

The problem with scallops is most of what is sold in the US is counterfeit. Shark or other white fish is taken, and circular scallop-shaped pieces are punched out and sold as the much more expensive scallop meat at the grocery store. (And at every cheap restaurant you've ever eaten in)

So when you've being sold mystery meat from any one of several different species of fish that all cook very differently, it's hard to get a good routine for cooking it properly.

I've given up on buying scallops in the market. Genuine scallops are just impossible to find among all the cheap fakes.

Almost all imported fish to the US market is counterfeit and masquerading as something more expensive than it really is. Consumer Reports sampled 14 different imported fish varieties and found only 4 of them to reliably be what they said they were.

When Americans complain about seafood being difficult to cook, it's largely because of the "mystery meat" problem. We're buying pre-cut and sealed cuts of fish that look the same, but cook and taste very different.

Post: #13

(12-14-2012 10:23 AM)Blackhawk Wrote:  The problem with scallops is most of what is sold in the US is counterfeit. Shark or other white fish is taken, and circular scallop-shaped pieces are punched out and sold as the much more expensive scallop meat at the grocery store. (And at every cheap restaurant you've ever eaten in)

So when you've being sold mystery meat from any one of several different species of fish that all cook very differently, it's hard to get a good routine for cooking it properly.

I've given up on buying scallops in the market. Genuine scallops are just impossible to find among all the cheap fakes.

Almost all imported fish to the US market is counterfeit and masquerading as something more expensive than it really is. Consumer Reports sampled 14 different imported fish varieties and found only 4 of them to reliably be what they said they were.

When Americans complain about seafood being difficult to cook, it's largely because of the "mystery meat" problem. We're buying pre-cut and sealed cuts of fish that look the same, but cook and taste very different.

Where are you buying scallops? Food for less?

There's an Italian proverb that basically goes something like, "To enjoy fish you must have deep pockets". Something along those lines.

Pristine seafood is a luxury, if you're gonna buy fish, don't cheap out. If you can't afford it just stick to chicken.

A lot of the mis-classified fish isn't necessarily fishermen or fishmongers trying to screw people over. There are a lot of common names thrown around that get lost in translation or renamed to make themseves more marketable.

Black cod? That's the market name, but it's not in the cod family or related whatsoever. It's technical name is sablefish but it can also go by the name butterfish.

Tai snapper is not a member of the snapper family at all. It's a sea bream, but the japanese word for "Sea Bream" is "Tai", which translates to "Snapper". So the American market name is sometimes called "Tai Snapper" and you'll see it as such on menus, when in reality it's a member of the bream family, not snapper at all.

Similarly you might see Arctic Char or any other Ocean trout being labelled as "Ocean Salmon" because of its orange flesh. But these are saltwater trout species. Salmon is simply more marketable than "Arctic Char".

In these instances, it's not really a case of cheap product being passed off as something more high end. Sablefish, Sea Bream, and Arctic Char are all fucking delicious and I'd take them any day of the week. It's just a matter of selling items that have a more familiar name to American consumers.

But yeah if you're buying from cheap or unreputable sources you're probably getting bottom of the barrel. If you live in a major city I highly encourage you to seek out Japanese seafood companies and get there at 5 in the morning to pick over the good stuff.

Post: #14

As a kid growing up in East Harlem, we had a small fish market a couple of blocks away, right across from the #6 subway stop on 103rd street. Everything was fresh and laid out on ice. Or you could go further uptown and hit La Marqueta under the Metro-North train tracks and hit the fish markets in there. Now, I think a lot of the fresh fish markets are a counter at the rear of supermarkets, with some fresh seafood, but other seafood is already packaged. The huge Fulton Fish Market in lower Manhattan closed many years ago and moved up to the Bronx.

Post: #15

"For fucks sake!/You give me those wellingtons I'll fucking throw them up your ass sideways!/ Fuck off ok? Just fuck off!/ Fucking come here you fucking donkey!/ ohh fuck me senseless! You're worse than shit!/ Ohh fuck off you!"





My nigga for life,I swear!