Fantasy Top Chef and Confit Tomatoes

Fantasy Top Chef
Fantasy Top Chef

Top Chef comes on in less than 1 hour!

My pick for tonight’s strikeout pool is Laurine!  I’ll be back in about 2 hours with Fantasy Top Chef updates as well as tips on how to cook like the top chefs.

And while you’re waiting, don’t forget to check out TNSmackdown‘s live blogging!

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Okay, Fantasy Top Chef Update.
Suicide Pool: I picked Laurine and I am still in.  (I sweated that ending like a whole bunch.)
Me: 19
Michele: 15
Josh: 13
Debbie: 12
Karen: 11
Colleen: 10
Elise: 8
Again, it looks like I am still on top.  Who would have figured I’d still be scoring points with Robin.
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Okay, so the cooking topic for today is confit tomatoes.  Kevin put them on his almost winning Quick Fire dish and seems to just love the darn things.  I, personally, have never made them, but they sound awesome.
Real quick, anything confited means that it is slow cooked in fat.  The most common example is duck confit, which is duck meat cooked in its own rendered fat.  It is totally yummy.  However, you can confit just about anything if you want to slow cook it in fat. 
When I say slow cook, I am talking about cooking the tomatoes for several hours in just enough oil to cover them.  This slowly infuses them with all the delicious flavors of the fat and develops their flavor.  Of course, it makes them a little less healthy than they would be in their raw form since, well, they did just take an oil bath.
But sometimes, things have to be sacrificed on the altar of flavor!
Anyway, I found two different recipes for confit tomatoes.  The first is a long version, taking about an hour.  The second is a much quicker version using cherry tomatoes that would be just perfect for … say … a Quickfire.
Long version: LATimes.com
Short version: The Maltese Bacon
Now, get to slow cooking and enjoy!
Oh, by the way, picture from BravoTv.com!

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