Recipes from Top Chef

[CDRFloppingham]

I'm new here so if this has been discussed, please disregard.

However, I've tried making one recipe before (Ilan's fideos) and I'm thinking about making Spike's sensual beef salad now.

The fideos recipe was inaccurate; if I had followed the recipe the pasta would have been hard and the dish dry.

Spike's recipe says to mix 1/2 c fish sauce, 1 c lime juice, 4 chiles, 1 T white vinegar and "1 sprite."

Does that mean the soda? Would you actually use a can of Sprite?

:grumbling:

[prasantrin]

I know Thai people in the US/Canada who use Sprite or 7-up in dressings. It's usually done when lime juice isn't readily available, though, so I'm not sure what the purpose is in this recipe, except it would add the sugar component to the dressing.

[CDRFloppingham]

Thanks prasantrin.

But would you use a whole can + 1/2 c nam pla + 1 c lime juice? Those proportions sound way off.

[prasantrin]

I wouldn't, but I've seen farangs do weird things with "Thai" food.

(In the olden days of the Food Network, the Two Hot Tamales put like a cup of fish sauce into some soup or curry or something supposedly Thai. A cup!!!!! We wrote to them telling them it would be inedible, but they never replied...)

[laurelm]

I don't know about the Top Chef cookbook, but some of the recipes online (at least the ones I have done) have errors and some confusing directions. Yumm, but Tre's shrimp and white chedder grits- delicioso!!

I do not think they test them too much before sticking on the website.

Is the cookbook better?

[WiscoNole]

I imagine it meant 1 tablespoon Sprite.

[prasantrin]

I imagine it meant 1 tablespoon Sprite.

←

That still wouldn't be enough to balance the other flavours. I think it would need to be more, but how much more, I don't know. Perhaps mix up the other ingredients, then add sprite to taste.

[Dieck]

I can't advise you about that particular recipe but the recipes on the Bravo site are terribly inaccurate. It's as if an intern who doesn't know anything about cooking typed them up.

I tried to make the banana bread with salted caramel and meringue that Stephanie Izard made earlier in the year. The bread was way too salty.

When I looked at the caramel recipe, it had egg whites in it, which baffled me. And the part of the recipe labeled caramel meringue didn't have any egg whites -- and I don't know a way of making meringue without them. After scratching my head for a minute I realized the titles had been switched (I know, it takes me awhile). But even with that correction (which was made after I -- and probably others -- pointed it out in a comment), the meringue was still titled caramel meringue and it clearly didn't have a caramel component. At any rate, after tasting the salty bread and realizing the titles had been switched, I didn't trust the recipe enough to continue.

When I've looked at recipes since then, I've noticed crazy mistakes -- I just can't remember what they are right now.

I would love to know if the recipes in the cookbook were actually edited and tested.

Lotsa luck with your cooking!

[Ndy]

I was just wondering how funny it would be if the Top Chef Cookbook simply took the recipes straight from the net. Much hilarity would ensue!