Tournament of Champions ™
Baker:
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Challenge Type:
Crispy Thai Collard with Manila Clams
Crispy Thai Collard Salad with Fried Manila Clams, Spiralized Daikon and Breakfast Radish
Voiceover: "Judges, this is a crispy Thai collard salad with crispy clams, crisp breakfast radishes, and their tops. Anchoring this all together is a chiffonade of collard greens and spiralized daikon radish. In terms of crispy components, we have rice noodles that were fried and crumbled up. We have the breading itself. There are some dry shrimp. There are dry peanuts. There are chicharron, the radish tops, and bean sprouts."
Chef (Kenny Gilbert): "I'm going to make a collard salad that's going to have crispy clams. Think tiger prawn and papaya salad."
"I'm known for my international cuisine and my Southern roots and flavors. I want this dish to really represent that."
"It was really important for the clams to be cold because I'm going to have to cook these again. My buttermilk egg battering. As the clams are chilling out in the blast chiller, I'm gonna work on a batter."
"These spices are my foundation. I'm going to fry the clams. I want this to be extra crispy." "So I'm going to shave the radishes to go in the salad. I'm also going to chiffonade the greens to go in with the collards. And daikon radish. I can add another element of radish in the dish."
"To make my dressing, I'm adding fish sauce, lime juice, garlic, galangal, bird chilies, and dried shrimp."
"This dish is going to really knock the socks off of the judges, because not everyone takes collard greens and makes a beautiful salad with it. They certainly don't add Thai flavors to make it pop."
"Now it's time to build my plates. I have my collard greens. I take my rice noodles, I crunch them up, mix in chicharron, crunch it up, and then I put the clams all the way around the bowl. Any excess dressing will just go towards the bottom of the bowl, which is not going to affect the clams from getting soggy."
Marcus Samuelsson: "Fried clams are very tricky, especially with Manila clams, which tend to be smaller, sweeter. To be able to cook them, shell them, chill them, bread them again, cook them again the second time and not have them taste like rubber requires a lot of skill. I love the chicharron. I love the fried rice noodles. I love the peanuts. So there's crispy on top of crispy. Very tasty dish."
{Scott Conant}: "Talk about playing the game. This is a really delicious dish with depth of flavors. The daikon spiral is so centered to the dish. The crispiness here comes from four or five different places. The breakfast radish. I wish chef would have treated the breakfast radish a little bit differently."
{Kenny Orringer}: "Yeah, I agree with the breakfast radish. It's just shaved on top. Great rendition here with the spice mixture on top of it. Also, really good acidity. Great backdrop of flavor. I think the chef hit all the notes as far as crispy, but a big miss on the breakfast radish."
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