Which MasterChef All Star will go straight through to the grand final? Chris, Callum, Justine or Kate?
Arriving at Sydney Fish Markets at Pyrmont, today the contestants will be cooking for 100 Aussie heroes and they must buy enough seafood to feed 25 people each. A choice of four ingredients are on offer – salmon, blue swimmer crab, squid or prawns and to decide who gets what, the contestants have to choose a lobster that is hiding the seafood the will have to prepare.
Callum – Salmon
Justine – Crab (funnily enough I watched her make a crab cocktail on Everyday Gourmet this afternoon)
Chris – Prawns
Kate – Squid
They need to shop fast as the first one back to the boat they will be catching, will get an advantage and it’s Callum. Off they set on Sydney Harbour arrive at the army ship HMAS Choules to prepare lunch for 100 of the crew. For a twist, Matt announces that they will get some special help for this mighty challenge, the help from four contestants from this years MasterChef – Andy, Julia, Amina and Ben. The contestants get to choose their helper in the order they got to the boat and they choose -
Callum – Amina
Chris – Ben (chosen because he likes beer – haha)
Justine – Andy (suddenly an expert on blue swimmer crab – maybe due to the fact that Justine is a young gorgeous blonde?)
Kate – Julia
The captain presents Matt with a cravat made from one of the sailors uniforms and with the crest of the HMAS Choules. Chief petty officer and cheif cook, Chuck Berry (haha) is watching over the chefs.
With two and a half hors to cook, they are making -
Justine – A bisque style crab stew with pearl cous cous with chermouls on top.
Chris – A Spanish inspired prawn dish – prawns, chorizo, chick peas and he will make a prawn oil to make a mayonnaise with. YUMMO!
Kate – A chilli and lime squid with a herb salad and a lime aioli.
Callum – A Japanese inspired, pickled nashi, tempura oyster mushrooms with a teriyaki glaze and a mirin dressing.
Amina hacks into the salmon and Gary is worried about the conflicting flavours of the dish, so Callum decides to simplfy his dish. Callum forgot to scale the fish when it was whole which will cost him time and he will have to be oh so gentle, and it’s not going well.
Chris and Ben confirm why Andy wanted to work with Justine. George and gary think she should have done a chilli crab but he rightly thinks everyone does that. Chris is deep frying prawn heads as a garnish but apparently Commander Cowan hates garnishes. Two sous chef’s tell Kate and Julia that they can crank the heat up a bit more on the chilli squid.
Gary and George aren’t worried about flavour, but the size of the portions and some of the concepts. Gary thinks justines stew should be served in a bowl (she has chosen a plate) and is seeming like an entree, as does Kates. They love the sound of Chris’ dish and is typical of him – big and bold flavours. Gary thinks Callum’s is the most successful so far and is the one he would choose. The sailors masrch in to the dining area and there is 5 minutes left in cooking time. Service begins – who will go straight through to the grand final?
The judges will now try the dishes along with Commander Cowan – the big wig of the vessel.
Now for the dishes and the judgements.
Kate and Julia
Lime and chilli squid with warm herb salad and lime aioli
It looks like an entree and is too small (as the sailors thought), it’s crunchy though and they think it’s a complete dish due to the flavours and it punches above it’s weight. Kate’s done well, but wa it substantial enough.
Justine and Andy
Blue swimmer crab with Israeli cous cous and chermoula
It’s strong and the bisque is fantastic but they question the chermoula and hard work cracking crab claws. Crab was cooked perfectly.
Chris and Ben
Spanish prawns with crustacean aioli and chorizo
The judges get basically raw prawns and the potatoes are also undercooked. Matt eats the the prawn head – ooooh! Matt says it tastes like prawn crackers (I’ll take his word for it) and thinks is one of the best he has had. The dish is tasty but not that successful.
Callum and Amina
Teriyaki salmon with tempura mushrooms and salad
George thinks is the best looking dish so far and they love it. Gary thinks that it’s a mix of Korean and Japanese and is odd.
Who has done the best and go straight through to the final? The judges are in conflict as they join the contestants. The winner going straight through to final belonged to … KATE!
No elimination, but tomorrow Callum, Chris and Justine will fight it out in 3 rounds to see who will join Kate in the final.
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