What to Watch: Pantry Recipes, Make-Ahead Meals and Guy Cooks with Duskie Estes
This weekend get some great ideas for home cooking with new episodes from Ree, Trisha, Rachael, Giada and Jeff. They've got everything from cooking with pantry staples to making meals on a budget. Guy gets in the kitchen with Chef Duskie Estes to make a taco dinner, plus he's got a taco challenge for the contestants on the finale of Guy's Grocery Games. Also on this weekend is a new episode of The Kitchen, where the hosts give a tour of their personal pantries and make their favorite wing recipes. Plus, there's a new episode of Cutthroat Kitchen in which one chef must use a work light to cook his or her quesadillas.
Ree hasn't been to the store in weeks and she's still got another day to go before she can hit town. Over the next 24 hours she dips into her trusty staples plus whatever she can find in her pantry and freezer to whip up some fabulous food. There's Pantry Pasta for a mom-daughter dinner, French Toast with Berry Butters for breakfast for the kids and Simple, Perfect Chili with Apple Brown Betty for lunch for the whole family.
Nothing makes entertaining easier than a good make-ahead meal. After Trisha ropes her sister Beth and friend Ann into attending a hip-hop dance class, they head back to Trisha's for an oven-ready meal. On tonight's menu: baked spaghetti pie, spinach salad with garlic dressing and a cheesecake with fresh strawberry sauce.
The hosts decide to peek inside one another's pantries in this episode. Then Marcela Valladolid makes pan-seared pork chops with pineapple and couscous. Katie Lee and Jeff Mauro brave the cold to grill salmon, and Sunny Anderson and Geoffrey Zakarian make their favorite wing recipes. Geoffrey gives tips on muddling while mixing this week's delicious cocktail.
These three meals won't only save you time at the supermarket, but in the kitchen as well. That's because Rachael is getting double duty out of a whole poached chicken: first, a head start on Lemon Chicken and Leek Rice Pilaf. She uses the rest of the bird in Chicken Suiza Chilaquiles smothered in a creamy tomatillo sauce. To mix things up, it's Linguine with Kale Pesto.
Guy Fieri jumps on the farm-to-table bandwagon and cooks a Mexican-inspired meal with local celebrity Chef Duskie Estes. First up, Al Pastor Tacos — pork shoulder in a pineapple-chipotle marinade served with corn tortillas, Roasted Tomatillo Avocado Salsa and diced grilled pineapple. On the side, Tex-Mex Rice with fire-roasted tomatoes, sweet corn and diced carrot. And wait until you see Chef Duskie's Backyard Gigante Beans and Butternut Squash — a sweet-savory dish finished with squash blossoms and papalo.
First up on Jeff's ooey gooey menu is a Roasted Cauliflower Melt served with a salad of fresh radishes and watercress. Then it's a nacho grilled cheese sandwich with chorizo and honey-chipotle crema. For dessert, apple hand pies filled with a sweet caramel sauce.
Giada De Laurentiis creates four tasty Italian dishes made with inexpensive ingredients, like Cannellini Bean and Sausage Stew, open-faced eggplant and mushroom sandwiches, Spicy Garlic and Anchovy Farfalle, and Almond Affogato.
In the first game, the chefs are tasked with making tacos, but tortillas, taco seasoning and ground beef are all Out of Stock. In the second game, Guy challenges the chefs to make him a sandwich using only frozen food. Then, with only Five Ingredients or Less, the final two chefs must make a super seafood dish. The winner gets a $uper $hopping $pree worth up to $20,000.
One chef must get to work when he or she is handed a 500-watt work light as the only heat source to cook a quesadilla. Then it's careful cooking time when someone is forced to cook chicken soup on a cookie sheet. And finally, Alton's bait bucket becomes one chef's main supply for a fish fry.