top chef experiment: take four (southern fried chicken skin with squash casserole and tomato)

Three out of the four Top Chef recipes that I have recreated thus far have been Kevin's.

What's with that?

When I look at the list of recipes that I copied down from the Bravo website (no criteria other than instinctive stomach growling) there is a fair mixture of the different chefs. But something about Kevin's dishes have just drawn me to make them first.

Maybe it's the apparent simplicity of Kevin's food that makes it seem like a good way to wade into Top Chef re-creationism.

Or maybe it's the obvious comfort food aspect of Kevin's cooking. The stick-to-your-ribs ingredients and preparations are perfect for this time of the year.

Still, maybe it's because when I start out to cook one of Kevin's dishes I recognize that my Mom would have loved it. The flavours are bold, but simple. The ingredients stand on their own. There's no completed technique or scientific component to cloud the experience of the food. It's just straightforward good cooking and a wonderful understanding of flavours and how to bring disparate components together on a plate.

The simplicity in Kevin's dishes is derived in part from his focus on local, sustainable and organic ingredients. This is another reason I'm drawn to his recipes.

When you look at Kevin's food, at the same time thinking about his food philosophy, you can't help but realize the simple logic of a focus on the ingredients in your immediate environment.

"What grows together, goes together."

Logic.

Kevin's food is harmonious. It is comfortable. Most importantly it is damn good.

And that is in no small part due to his food philosophy.

For this week's Top Chef recipe I cooked one of Kevin's finale dishes; the one inspired by his mother. There was something about the decadence of cooking just the chicken skin for the dish (after so many years of eating skinless chicken breast I couldn't resist!) That and the squash puree that Tom Colicchio specifically complimented Kevin on totally called out to me.

* I used 2 small carnival squashes that I received in my Good Food Box. The taste is quite similar to butternut squash but milder.

Chicken Skin:

Remove skin from chicken.

Remove all fat from skin (should have only thin layer of skin remaining.)

Place in small bowl or ziploc bag and add salt, pepper, cayenne, sugar.

Rub mix all over skin.

Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Blot dry with paper towel.

Fry in oil at 370 degrees until golden brown.

Break into shards.

Squash:

While chicken skin is refrigerating:

Saute onion and garlic in butter over medium heat until lightly caramelized.

Add diced squash to onions.

Reduce heat to low and simmer until squash in fully tender (about 30 mins.)

Add cream to squash mixture.

Transfer squash to blender (or hand blend) on high.

Season with s&p and lemon juice to taste.

Pass through chinois.

Reserve mixture.

Tomatoes:

Score tomatoes.

Blanch them in boiling water and then shock in ice bath.

Peel skins.

Season with s&p and olive oil.

To Serve:

Spoon squash mixture onto bottom of plate.

Top with tomatoes.

Sprinkle on chicken skin shards.

I know Kevin wasn't totally on his game in the final challenge and I know that (obviously) it wasn't the favourite dish of the day. But it was still a damn good dish.

For me it was another experience of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.

On it's own, the chicken skin was pretty salty for my taste and the tomatoes, well, I wasn't sure I understood their role at first. The squash, on the other hand I could eat anytime, anywhere, under just about any circumstance.

A bite of all the components together though? Suddenly the chicken skin is refreshed by the tomato and balanced again with the earthy squash. The citrus of the squash cuts through the density of the chicken and adds brightness to the raw tomato.

Each ingredient is most effective in bringing out the notes of the others.

Another Top Chef success!

Any requests for next time? Dishes? Specific chefs?