Top Chef Canada: Breakfast of the Champ

This week’s Top Chef Canada had, of course, two challenges; the quickfire and the elimination.  The elimination challenge consisted of cooking a healthy school lunch for kids. Now I gotta be honest with you, that really doesn’t float my boat even though Jesse’s winning dish of nitrogen frozen yogurt was vaguely interesting, simply because I wanted to play with liquid nitrogen. No dice on that score, so I went with the winning quickfire dish, which was from Rich who made steak and eggs.  Now let me tell you, it’s easy to sit on the couch and say “that’s too simple. that’s not creative” but part of the reason I started cooking the Top Chef Canada dishes was to taste what was really going on. So if you think steak and eggs is too simplistic, you really have to try this dish.



























I made my own version with a little help on twitter from Rich, himself. It’s “rich” and satisfying to say the least.  My version was a pan seared, butter basted filet mignon, with an amazing bordelaise (thank you Rich for teaching me this one!), apple and potato hash and sunny side up quail eggs. (the photos are deceptive - it was an appetizer plate!)

For the Bordelaise; which I am adding to my permanent repertoire:
1 cup red wine (I used shiraz)
2 shallots, chopped
1/2 cup rich veal stock (this took me a whole day to make by itself!)
1 tsp thyme
4 Tbsp roasted marrow
splash lemon juice
knob of butter

Simmer wine with shallots and time until it’s a thick syrup. Set aside. Sear the meat and butter baste in a shallow fry pan, remove meat to rest, pour the remaining butter into another fry pan, which you will used for the potato hash. Pour the wine reduction into the searing pan and deglaze, adding the veal stock. Simmer to reduce again until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon, add the marrow to the sauce, slowly dissolving (it’s ok if some solids remain). Strain the sauce back into the saucepan you used to reduce the wine pressing on any solids. Add a splash of lemon juice and chopped parsley (optional). Mount the sauce with butter. I have a simmer function on my stove so I left it at the lowest simmer setting while the hash finished cooking and the meat rested. Taste and adjust seasoning.



























For the hash:
1 potato diced (brunoise)
1 peeled apple diced (brunoise) - I used granny smith
2 chopped shallots

Add a dollop of olive oil to the pan with the butter (to raise the burning point of the oil), heat pan & add shallots sauté until just translucent.  Add potatoes, season well with salt and pepper and shake the pan well.  I used a medium to low heat and put a lid on it to fully cook the potatoes. You could use a diced baked potato and this would go very fast for you.  Add the apples (I also added a chopped red pepper for color) and sauté until the potatoes start to brown.

To plate; slice the filet and top with gorgonzola or bleu cheese and spoon sauce over. Add the apple hash and top with the sunny side up eggs.



























There were three of us here for the tasting and we fought over the plate!  The last dregs of the bordelaise were wiped out of the pan with bread and greedily consumed! So don’t kid yourself that a dish is too simple just because it seems so at first blush. The rich bordelaise was the best I’ve ever had and of course anything with bleu cheese is a winner for me. But the apples in the hash were a nice balance and the yolk of the eggs was, of course, wonderful scooped up with a forkful of taters.
Give it a try - imagine a Sunday brunch that packs a punch!  Way to Go Rich!