MasterChef SA is getting down right exciting! If you love desserts and sweeties, you would have enjoyed the Dessert Mystery Box Challenge this week.
Dessert Mystery Box Challenge
The remaining contestants from last week were given the task of making a dessert from a set of ingredients supplied to them. Among the ingredients were: sweet potato, oranges, pear, risotto, coconut milk and cocoa powder. They had a total of 60 minutes to whip up something sensational.
The Catch
The desserts were to be judged in a blind tasting panel made up of the contestants’ loved ones! Manisha’s husband, Thoneshan; Deena’s wife, Kathy; Sarel’s wife, Lieze and Sue-Ann’s mother, Gail.
What they cooked
Deena made a chocolate fondant with toasted pears, spun sugar and custard. The problem was however that he only realised later that he didn’t have any chocolate! But it wasn’t all doom and gloom because he was able to use his reward bell from last week’s challenge.
Sue-Ann went the classic route and cooked pear tart with Chantilly cream. Sarel baked a cupcake with sweet potato filling, Amarula icing and spun sugar, while Manisha did poached pears with spiced chocolate sauce. She and Deena went through the challenge unscathed but unfortunately Sue-Ann and Sarel had to go into the Pressure Test.
The Pressure Test
The Pressure Test was designed by Peter Tempelhoff, executive chef of EatOut number 1 restaurant in 2011, The Greenhouse at Cellars-Hohenort.
The dish? Roasted duck breast with hazelnut milk gel, confit duck pastilla & honey roasted figs. Sarel and Sue-Ann had 2 hours 45 minutes to complete it.
Oops!
Towards the end of the prescribed time, Sarel realized he had forgotten to make his hazelnut milk gel. ‘When I realised that I’ve missed this important element, it was too late’, he said.
Unfortunately a mistake like that, at this stage of the competition cannot be swept under the carpet. Sarel’s time was up.