Contestant comments to tilapia challenge
Michael Lalagos: My first reaction was relief, because I've worked with all the ingredients before, so I was comfortable thinking of a way to combine them into one harmonized dish. I've had mahi mahi before that had a nut crust on it, so that's the first thing that I thought of doing with the tilapia, and then work the rest of the ingredients in to compliment it. Macadamia nuts come from tropical places, so I wanted to theme the dish around that. The mango salsa is something I've done before and fresh cherries served well as an addition and worked with the mango to compliment the heat from the jalapenos. I make brown rice at home often and usually put black beans in it with vegetables, so continuing with the tropical theme I substituted black eyed peas in with the rice along with the roasted squash, and added fresh vegetables for some crunch and texture.
My mind races when I have to create something, so I quickly researched using all mediums available. Then I came up with two different dishes that used each of the ingredients in different ways and eventually gravitated to the one I used in the challenge after testing and input from friends.
Ann Marie Nordby: When I saw the ingredients I had a dual reaction. First I was excited to see some of my favorite ingredients! Second I realized they called for some great fall flavors and I wasn't sure I was ready for fall yet — my garden is finally in full swing.
After I got the ingredient list I just started writing down different options and ideas for each ingredient alone and together and then kept moving them around like puzzle pieces until I settled on a combination I thought would be delicious, harmonious, and pretty on a plate. I had just brought in a bunch of sage from my garden to dry and jar and realized it could be an element that tied everything together because it is so complimentary to all the ingredients. I made enough to serve my husband for dinner to get his feedback. When he practically licked the plate, I figured I didn't need to do much tweaking I just needed to make the plate look prettier and also wanted to experiment with one more technique for the fish (which was good, but wasn't quite right). Made it a second time for my husband and a neighbor with a little different plating and a few minor tweaks and declared it ready for its close-up.