Top Chef Canada: Taking The Challenge Home, Week Eleven

Dan    Season 2, Top Chef Canada: Taking The Challenge Home     CHARCUT, cheese, Dan Clapson, Food Network Canada, grilled cheese, Kraft Dinner, recipes, Top Chef Canada

Oh Kraft Dinner…I’m sure all of the remaining contestants were very happy to cook with macaroni in the quick fire challenge this past week.

I’m sure everyone can admit that there’s a box of prepackaged mac ‘n cheese lurking in their cupboards. Yes, definitely a guilty pleasure for many a Canadian.

Many of the chefs’ creations seemed interesting, but David’s winning dish from this challenge, the ‘Mac ‘n Cheese Grilled Cheese’, looked like a guilty pleasure on a plate. A sandwich that would be most fitting for the late night (post-party) weekend crowd no doubt. The mac ‘n cheese grilled cheese sandwich won by a landslide in my poll this week, which I was definitely ok with!

Since I didn’t have the time constraints of a quick fire challenge, or six cameras recording my every move, I decided to make some mac ‘n cheese from scratch. The ingredients for the grilled cheese sandwich itself were fairly simple, so I decided to go with a cheese with some flavour.

The grocery store just down the road from me has the largest selection of cheese in the city, so I knew I would be able to find something perfect there.  After perusing the aisles, I finally settled on a double smoked cheddar cheese. Once I started to grate the cheese, it had the most amazing smell.

It took all my will power to need eat the majority of the cheddar before I cooked with it.

If you’ve never made mac ‘n cheese at home before, I would encourage trying to. It takes about 15-20 minutes maximum and you always end up with a big bowl of cheesy goodness. Now, I’m not saying you should make this all the time (everything in moderation), but the next time it’s a grey and rainy day outside, I suggest trying to whip up a batch yourself! What I do not recommend, however, is leaving a bowl of the freshly made mac ‘n cheese unsupervised on a counter. You may discover your pet trying to sneak a bite behind your back (like my parrot, Baub, pictured!). Trust no one!

To make the asparagus relish, I just did a quick pickling of some asparagus spears and red onion. Since relish is generally fairly fine in texture, I used my magic bullet to get a nice mince on the vegetables. Man, what can’t a magic bullet do? A food processor would have worked just as well, but the bullet was already plugged in on the counter. It was almost like it was just waiting to help me out…I let the vegetables sit in a pot pickling liquid for about ten minutes, then I strained them, mixed them with some grainy mustard and black pepper, and let the, let’s call it ‘cheat’, relish chill in the fridge.

To see the final recipe for the mac ‘n cheese grilled cheese sandwich with asparagus relish and to see a picture of my parrot trying to eat my food, head over to FoodNetwork.ca here!

Last, but not least, a photo of myself with the restaurant version of my Top Chef Canada recreation at Charcut this past Monday night! Now that’s a sandwich!

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