Matt has partnered with Cracker Barrel to bring you The Ultimate Cheese Throwdown. The second cheese throwdown in the series features Matt battling it out with Chef Mike Ward. In addition to watching these chefs do what they do best, you get to vote to decide who made the best dish.
Chef Mike Ward has game, no question. The earlier part of the video has some great clips of him talking about how he is going to demolish Matt in the cheese throwdown. Mike Ward is well known for his epic Salad creations, whereas Matt is much more on the meat side of cooking. Matt’s BBQ skills are truly unparalleled.
After rolling in the big wheel Mike gives it a rather tremendous spin and fortunately for him it lands on Salad. He claims that as he spun the wheel he focused his energy specifically on having it stop on salad, which is a bold claim but all part of his plan to psyche out Matt.
Both chefs have a wide variety of cheeses to choose from. Matt goes with a Parmesan to create a variation on the classic Caesar salad. He starts off by finely chopping a fair amount of Brussels sprouts and also simply pulling the leaves off a fair number of them as well. This is going to serve as his leafage. He puts the leafy sprouts into a large glass bowl and saves the finely chopped ones for later. He’s chosen to go with a non-creamy dressing. He combines olive oil, parmesan cheese, anchovies, and garlic in a food processor. He covers the leafy sprouts in the glass bowl with the dressing thoroughly coating them. After that he melts some cheese in a non-stick pan, just enough to get it crispy. This is what he will be chopping up and using in place of bacon bits. He then takes a round loaf of Italian bread and cuts off a thick slice grilling it in a cast iron skillet with a lemon. He adds his finely chopped sprouts to the leafy sprouts and then plates his bread covering it with a huge mound of the leafage and puts the grilled lemon to the side.
Mike Ward takes a different approach to his salad choosing to use just 3 vegetables chopped thin which he adds olive oil to, cumin, as well as salt, pepper, and some chili flakes. He then bakes them for 20 minutes at 400′ F. While his veggies are roasting in the oven he moves on the rest of his salad. He has some roasted hazel nuts he wants to spice up for the salad so he adds honey, butter, and cumin to a pan and sautes the hazel nuts in the mixture. He then lays them out on a baking sheet, adds cheese to them, and smashes them into smaller crumbles to top the salad with. He has decided to use the Cracker Barrel Extra Old Cheddar for his cheese sauce which he melts in a pan along with some extra spices. He then plates his entire dish by putting down a layer of the roasted vegetables and covering it in his cheese sauce. He follows that up by adding his hazel nut crumbles to the top.
Both chefs take a taste of the competitions salad at the end and are actually quite complimentary to each other. Who will win this Ultimate Cheese Throwdown? Only you can decide. Cast your vote and determine which of these two dishes will take home the gold.
As always thank you for watching and stay tuned for more Ultimate Cheese Throwdown action!
For more cheese recipes, go tohttp://www.kraftcanada.com/brands/cracker-barrel – Also take a moment to check out their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/whatscooking/
This video series is sponsored by Cracker Barrel but all opinions are those of the people featured in the episode.
