Transcript: Fried Rice, Catfish, Grapes

Stump the chef
Episode “Fired rice, Catfish, Grapes”

Male announcer: One seasoned chef, three random ingredients, and three tough judges. It is time for Stump the Chef. Today award winning culinary chef Matt Weaver will set his culinary skills against his toughest opponent yet. Let’s see today’s random ingredients…
Female announcer: Grapes, left over rice, and catfish hunks?
Male announcer: Now lets play Stump the Chef.
Matt: Fish and rice, well that’s easy but the grapes. I think I am going to go old school French on that one.
Male announcer: And he’s off.
Announcer 1: Not sounding too confident today about the grapes, I guess that’s why he is deciding to tackle that first. Matt putting the grapes into the blender, not exactly sure what he has got in mind today.
Announcer 2: You know this really reminds me of the time that I was on the inside, where you can make wine with just a toilet, two weeks and a zip lock bag.
Announcer 1: Looks like he is dicing up some garlic as well, not sure if that is going to go into the grapes. He is blending up that pretty fine; I am guessing he has got the basis for some sort of Hungarian grape based goulash here.
Announcer 2: Yeah we call it cell block d merlot.
Announcer 1: You’re not seriously a felon are you? Sautéing up the onions and chalets together now. It looks like Matt is going to be adding that to the grape juice that we saw him straining earlier. Still no sign of the catfish, still no sign of the rice, I am not really sure where he is going with this, any thoughts?
Announcer 2: Well he does have rice and fish. I would like to see a little Japanese, maybe catfish sushi.
Announcer 1: Well growing up as part of a Japanese family I think I know a thing or two about sushi and eating raw catfish would be a pretty stupid idea.
Announcer 2: Well you’re pretty stupid.
Announcer 1: Catfish are bottom feeders.
Announcer 2: Well you’re a bottom feeder.
Announcer 1: Finally we see the other two ingredients we have today. Matt chopped up that catfish put it into a bowl with the left over rice, threw in a little parmesan cheese as well as parsley. I think maybe he is going with some sort of stuffing.
Announcer 2: Did he even wash his hands.
Announcer 1: Actually he is using a technique that a lot of chefs like to call, the French whisk.
Announcer 2: Hey that’s better than the Turkish whisk, that’s something you don’t want to do around food.
Male announcer: Sorry to interrupt guys, but its time for Matt’s tangent.
Matt: Catfish are named for their prominent whiskers, which give them a cat like appearance. The largest catfish caught in America was recorded at 202 pounds. But his largest in the world was recorded in Thailand at 646 pounds. Most catfish have toxic barbs. But in Africa there is actually an electric catfish. That delivers a shock of up to 350 volts.
Catfish are usually sold in large filets or in chunks. Now a good tip to get rid of the fishy flavor is to soak the catfish in water with a splash of lemon for about thirty minutes. People are most familiar with fried catfish. But they are also great seasoned and smoked bar b que style, or braised in a Cajun e’touffe sauce. Enjoy.
Male announcer: Meanwhile back in the kitchen.
Announcer 1: Well now we are getting a much better idea where Matt is headed with this. It looks like he is taking that mixture and making catfish balls out of it. You can see he cupped the balls in his hand, and then covered them up with breadcrumbs. And now there ready for frying, you have got to like that.
Announcer 2: Sweet, sweet grease I am loving this meal, I just want to see how the grape sac is going to play into it all.
Announcer 1: I was just thinking the same thing; I am guessing that is going to be that old school French twist he was talking about earlier.
Announcer 2: French and fried, I got to say I love it.
Announcer 1: He also fried up a little parsley before and, I am assuming that’s going to be a garnish. Not exactly sure how this is coming together but with fried fish balls, grape sauce, and parsley, he has got my attention.
And he is coming back now to finish off that grape sauce that we saw him start off earlier. Been cooking it down for quite awhile, you can see it has been reduced to almost nothing. He is adding quite a bit of butter to that now. And it’s becoming clear what he meant when he referred to that old school French technique.
Announcer 2: Glad my quadruple bypass has healed up because I am ready for some fried fish balls and a lot of butter in my sauce.
Announcer 1: You know this may not be the healthiest thing on the menu, but I got to say it’s looking pretty good to me. As well as those fish balls, nice and crispy, exactly the way I like them.
Announcer 2: I think this is going to be really tasty; Matt has got a winner on his hands.
Announcer 1: I couldn’t agree with you more, everything on this menu is looking absolutely fantastic to me, he has got to be feeling confident, Matt what do you think?
Matt: I think it is going very, very well. I ended up frying the catfish but I put an Italian twist on it. As well as I am making a traditional French butter sauce from essentially grape juice. But I think I did really, really good and I don’t see how I could be stumped. I think I am going to win this one.
Announcer 2: Somewhere between France and Italy, that makes this dish Swiss.
Announcer 1: I don’t think that’s how that works.
Male announcer: Its plating time.
Announcer 1: Interestingly enough he is starting out with the grape sauce out on the bottom. I was imagining he was going to pour it over his bowls.
Announcer 2: Matt is exceeding y expectations, I think he has got a great dish here and look at that presentation.
Announcer 1: Beautiful, I have to agree with you, this is a beautiful looking dish and with the fried parsley on top as a garnish. The judges are sure to like this and Matt’s looking pretty confident.
Announcer 2: Hey if he gets stumped on this, I quit.
Male announcer: Its judgment time.
Matt: I was scared at first, mixing the grapes and the fish together, especially catfish. Then I thought of turning the grapes into a sauce, and the rice and the catfish I turned into an Italian delicacy, called Otincini, which means little oranges. I think it comes together well, topped it off with a little fried parsley. I think you will like it, enjoy.
Joe Dias: You know Matt I was thinking when I saw the ingredient list that maybe catfish and rice wouldn’t be a challenge for you. On top of that when I took a bite it was a little salty for my flavor, but when I dipped it into the grape vinnegarette sauce, it ended up being really tasty. I really liked the fried parsley there; it added a nice crisp flavor to that, to go along with the breading. So all in all I think with the ingredients you were given not much of a challenge, but they wok really well together. I think you did some good work; I give you a thumbs up on that one.
Shiraz: Delicious, I absolutely love the catfish. One of the things about catfish is it’s a very fishy fish. And what I like about how you have cooked it here with the rice with the grape vinaigrette with the fried parsley. It completely not exactly masks it, but just accents it to where there is not a completely fishy flavor to the whole thing. So I give it a thumbs up, I think it’s pretty fantastic.
Tali: As we previously discussed you know I m not a big fan of the seafood. As we have also mentioned catfish is a really fishy fish. But this works all this, is all the flavors combined. I think this was a challenge, the ingredients just the whole package is awesome. This is something I would definitely order in a restaurant. I really enjoyed it, good job.
Matt: Thank you very much, thank you.
Male announcer: Let’s tally the votes. Matt what a job, you’re a palatable pimp, you passed.
Matt: Well I am glad, that dish turned out really good. I am glad I got past the fishiness and there trepidation about the catfish. I think it turned out to be an excellent dish. I had a lot of fun making it. I hope you had fun too. Don’t be afraid of the kitchen, see you next time.
Male announcer: That’s it for this episode of Stump the Chef.