Celina Tio are processed on TV Chef and his kitchen

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Photos BY Shane Keyser | The Kansas City StarPart of the creative process for Celina Tio, owner of the restaurant Julian in Brookside, is to taste her ingredients to make sure the flavors will blend well. She sampled some shibazuke.

Celina Tio is always up for a challenge, even when it involves fruit that can kill you.

This summer, the chef and owner of Julian, a casual neighborhood restaurant in Brookside that just celebrated its one-year-anniversary, competed in the latest season of “The Next Iron Chef,” debuting at 8 p.m. Sunday on Food Network. In each episode there are two “battles.” One involves a secret ingredient, and one’s an elimination challenge.

It’s no wonder Tio was chosen as one of the contestants. The midtown resident has garnered local and national accolades, including 2005 Chef of the Year by Chef magazine, and the James Beard Foundation’s 2007 Best Chef: Midwest.

OK, so she can win national awards and take on some of the best chefs in the country on a high-pressure cooking show.

But could she rise to our challenge?

That’s right. We had one for her, too.

What was it?

Er … that took some thinking. Let’s see, what could we throw at such an accomplished pro, a 40-year-old self-taught chef who has worked at the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia, helped open two specialty restaurants at Walt Disney World and headed the kitchen at the American Restaurant for seven years?

Then it hit us: the Star Challenge. We asked her to develop three delicious dishes using fascinating ingredients we found at the 888 International Market at 10118 W. 119th St. in south Overland Park. There had to be something in there that would provide a challenge.

Never been?

Words do not do this place justice. The cavernous Asian grocery store carries items from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and more. It is stocked with aisle after aisle of foods you just won’t find in mainstream Midwestern grocery stores.

For instance?

We gave Tio durian fruit.

For the uninitiated, a durian is a large, heavy, stinky, dangerous and occasionally illegal Asian delicacy. Covered in sharp spikes and weighing more than many a bowling ball, it can draw blood if it scratches you, or knock you unconscious (or kill you) if it hits your head after falling from a tree. And, oh yeah, did we mention it’s against the law to take the stinky sucker onto public transportation in Thailand?

Well, it is. Just so you know. We weren’t making this easy.

Why, you might be saying, would anyone bother with such an openly hostile fruit in the first place?

Because many think it’s worth it.

Durian, which is bought frozen, has no smell until it thaws. It’s often called “the king of fruits” and the fruit that “smells like hell, but tastes like heaven.” Tio described the scent as sour onions or old gym socks.

In the market, when we picked one up, a Thai man stopped his cart and smiled.

“Ohhh,” he said, nodding toward the durian. “That is awesome. That’s from my country!”

Sold.

Durian fruit surprise

Here’s how the challenge worked. We presented Tio with more than a dozen items and told her she had to use at least five, including the durian fruit. Other items we gave her to choose from were dry fungus, pork fu, sweet beans, shibazuke, a cactus leaf, Chinese-style sweet sausage, dried lily flower, bean curd sticks, Silkie chicken, sea cucumber, shrimp sauce, dried lemongrass and lotus root. She could add any of her own ingredients, but the recipes had to be new, tried and tasty.

We gave her two days and wished her good luck.

Could she pull it off?

Could you?

Two days doesn’t seem like a lot of time. But keep in mind: On the show she was lucky if she got an hour to create a dish. So she’s used to working fast. Immediately after she saw our challenge ingredients, one dish sprang to mind.

“I saw the dried lemongrass, the durian and the sweet beans and knew instantly I would do a Thai-inspired dish,” she said.

While she hadn’t ever worked with durian before, she knew what it was and what it was like on the inside.

“And having been in Bangkok, I had walked past many a cut-open durian. Every market I walked into in Bangkok smelled like that.”

She figured she’d take advantage of the unique sweet and pungent flavor and make a durian panna cotta, accompanied by diced mangos, red Thai curry paste, lime juice, lime zest, sugar, water and the sweet beans (which included a bean called “Job’s tears.”)

Awesome.

Tio cut the durian before we arrived. Slicing it along its seams, she pulled out the lobes of pudding-like fruit and pureed them in a blender with whole milk and sugar before straining, adding gelatin and letting the mixture set. Later she garnished with the diced fruit.

Catching only a slight whiff of the sweaty gym sock smell, I decided I would try only a bite of the finished dish and keep my mouth shut if I didn’t like it. Oh ye of little faith. When the panna cotta was set and topped with the garnish, I had one bite all right. Followed by another, and another, and … well.

Fine. I ate the whole thing. It was delicious. If I had been alone, I would have licked the plate. Who knew something that smelled so bad would taste so good?

“It’s kind of like Morbier cheese,” she said. “It’s this really stinky cheese, but if you can get it past your nose and into your mouth it’s really delicious. But some people can’t get it past their nose.”

Inspiration on demand

When Tio saw the rolled up bean curd sticks she had a great idea. She would cook them and unroll them. After all, moo shu is usually served with a pancake, she said.

One problem: The bean curd sticks were “unrollable.”

“So I was a little disappointed,” she said. “Didn’t work out, so you adapt and make it happen anyway. I just julienned the bean curd stick and sauteed it with the cabbage, fungus and chicken. And it’s on a lotus chip, so it’s sort of like an hors d’oeuvre.”

I was going to have only a bite of one. They were too good for that. I had three.

Did she ever have to adapt like that on the show?

Absolutely.

“Resourcefulness is important,” she said. “You have a plan going in, and it doesn’t work. You still have to make something happen, because if you don’t present a dish, you can’t be judged.”

Ryan Spruhan, Tio’s sous chef, is looking forward to seeing his boss cook on the show.

“She’s always run nice kitchens and had great crews to do it for her,” he said. “The few times I have seen her cook it’s a project here or there, or she’s schooling me when we’re working next to each other. It’s never just her on her own, being responsible for everything that she does and the end result being all from her hands. So I am very excited to see it.”

While such pressure was tough, Tio said, it taught her something.

“Never underestimate the power of what you can do,” she said. “It’s hard to have inspiration on demand. But I did it and had fun with it.”

She had fun with our challenge, too.

First date jitters

For the record, Tio presented us with three dishes and used 10 of the challenge ingredients. Like the other dishes, her final creation — Pork Belly Ramen — did not disappoint. It was as flavorful as it was beautiful, a big bowl of steaming hot goodness. While the crispy pork belly and homemade ramen were the stars of this dish, she used the black fungus, the shibazuke (pickled cucumbers and eggplant) and the pork fu (dried, shredded pork) to add fascinating flavors that kept me eating until I was too full to go on.

And so our experiment ended.

While Tio wasn’t nervous completing our challenge, she was nervous on “Next Iron Chef.”

“The first challenge was hard because you didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “We didn’t know each other’s cooking abilities. Just to deal with that unknown was hard and scary. One of the other chefs, Bryan, described it as your first kiss, your first date, with two dudes fighting in your stomach.”

In completing our test, Tio had only two easy objectives: Make it delicious and stay true to the ingredients’ origins.

“I think I succeeded,” she said.

We think so, too.

The lesson? Just because you might be unfamiliar with an odd-sounding, or looking, or smelling, ingredient, doesn’t mean it can’t be scrumptious in the hands of a skilled chef.

“When you come to a restaurant and a chef puts together a meal, you have to trust that we know what we are doing, and we’re not going to serve you weird stuff,” Tio said. “The other night I had a dish on my menu which was seared halibut with candied ginger jasmine rice, braised bok choy and a Chinese fermented black bean sauce. And a guest was saying, ‘I like potatoes a lot better than rice.’ But, you know, mashed potatoes would not go with fermented Chinese black bean sauce. Things have to work together.”

Boy did they ever.

Durian Panna Cotta With Thai Sweet Beans

Makes 8 servings

* 1 durian

3 cups Shatto whole milk

Slightly less than 1/2 cup sugar

1 envelope (about 1/4 cup) unflavored gelatin, bloomed (see note)

2 limes zested, then juiced (reserve zest)

1 teaspoon red curry paste

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup water

* 2 tablespoons dried lemongrass

* 1 (4 to 6-ounce) bag sweet beans

1 mango, small diced

To cut and prepare durian: Cut along “seams” with a knife. Pull out the wedge, removing all of the soft flesh. Continue to take out the pudding-like flesh, removing seeds, and place in a small saucepan; reserve the shell, if desired.

To make the panna cotta: Pour milk over durian. Add 1/2 cup sugar and warm just long enough for the sugar to dissolve. Puree fruit mixture in blender on high until smooth, and put through a fine-mesh strainer. Add the bloomed gelatin, and swirl until dissolved. Pour panna cotta into the cleaned shell of the durian, or into 4-ounce ramekins, and chill in refrigerator until set (about 2 hours).

For the garnish: Place juice of limes, red curry paste, 3/4 cup sugar, water and dried lemongrass into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and allow to steep for about 10 minutes; strain mixture through a fine-mesh strainer. Add the beans and diced mango. Sprinkle with reserved lime zest.

Gelatin note: To “bloom” gelatin requires soaking granules in the amount of cold water specified on the package for 3 to 5 minutes, or until thoroughly dissolved.

Per serving: 298 calories (21 percent from fat), 8 grams total fat (2 grams saturated), 13 milligrams cholesterol, 57 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams protein, 86 milligrams sodium, 4 grams dietary fiber.

Pork Belly Ramen

Makes 4 servings

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 pound pork belly, cut into four portions

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 sheet kombu (seaweed)

1/4 cup bonito flakes (Japanese dried, smoked fish)

* 1/4 cup pork fu, packed

* 1/2 cup high-quality dried black fungus, rehydrated and divided in half (slice half of them, then reserve)

2 quarts simmering water

2 shallots, chopped

12 black peppercorns

1 package ramen noodles (not instant)

4 eggs, poached

4 green onions, sliced diagonally

* 1 (4-ounce) package shibazuke (pickled eggplant), sliced thinly

For the pork belly: The pork belly can be prepared a day ahead of time. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a saucepan, heat the canola oil on medium high. When the oil “dances” or ripples, season the pork belly with salt and pepper and place in the pan, fat side down. Cook until golden brown. Turn over and cook the other side for 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a braising pan. Add kombu, bonito flakes, pork fu, 1/4 cup fungus, simmering water, shallots and peppercorns to cover the pork belly. Cover with aluminum foil, and place in oven for about 3 hours. (This next step isn’t necessary if you don’t want the pork belly to be crispy, but I would highly recommend it.) Remove the pork belly and place between two trays, weighing it down with two cans or anything heavy. Allow to cool. Strain the braising liquid and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. When the pork belly has cooled, sear again in canola oil, fat side down, turning it over and finishing in a 300-degree oven for 20 minutes.

For the ramen: In a pot of boiling, salted water, cook the ramen noodles. Heat the strained braising liquid with the remaining 1/4 cup sliced black fungus. When the ramen is cooked, divide into four bowls, top with boiling broth, the crispy pork belly, a poached egg and sliced green onions and place a good tablespoon of the sliced shibazuke on top of the pork belly. Enjoy while steaming hot.

Per serving: 437 calories (52 percent from fat), 25 grams total fat (7 grams saturated), 288 milligrams cholesterol, 20 grams carbohydrates, 31 grams protein, 1,071 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber.

IS TIO THE NEXT IRON CHEF?
“The Next Iron Chef” premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday on the Food Network.

While Celina Tio can’t reveal how she fared against the other nine chefs, she is having a watch party at Julian ( http://www.juliankc.com/), her Brookside restaurant, for the entire eight-episode season, Sundays through Nov. 21. Guests will be served dishes that Tio cooked on that night’s show.

Tio was pleased with her Star Challenge dishes for this story. In fact, if there’s enough interest (e-mail her at info@juliankc.com if you’d be interested in trying them) she may feature them in one of her Sunday night family meals (after the watch party ends, of course.)

Also see her in the October issue of Food Network Magazine, featuring bios of Tio and her challengers.

We asked Celina Tio to make three dishes using five exotic ingredients. One dish must include the spiked durian fruit (below right).

Tio actually chose 10 more ingredients: the Silkie chicken in the plastic wrap and (in bowls, left to right from top): dried lemongrass, sweet beans, rehydrated bean curd stick, rehydrated lily flower, dried lily flower, bean curd stick, pork fu, shibazuke (pickled eggplant), sliced lotus root, rehydrated fungus, dried fungus, whole lotus root.

* in recipes = challenge ingredients

‘Moo Shu’ Silkie Chicken

This recipe uses a cooking method known as sous vide, a French term meaning “under vacuum.” If you don’t have a sous vide machine, you can buy a Cryovac machine and cook the packet in boiling water at 165 degrees for three to four hours. Just be sure meat is thoroughly cooked before shredding from the bones.

Makes 2 dozen appetizer servings

* 1 Chinese Silkie breed chicken, split and Cryovaced (or vacuum packed) (see note)

4 star anise

20 black peppercorns

1 teaspoon fennel seed

4 cloves

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup housemade or low-sodium chicken stock

* 1 lotus root, sliced thinly

1 tablespoon peanut or

canola oil, plus more for frying chips

1/4 of a small cabbage, cored and shredded

* 1/4 cup high-quality dried black fungus

* 1/4 cup dried lily flower, rehydrated and diagonally sliced

* 1 (6-inch) piece of bean curd stick, thinly sliced

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar

1/4 cup housemade or low-sodium chicken stock

2 teaspoons Maggi sauce (similar to soy sauce)

Salt and pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons plum sauce

1 green onion, sliced

diagonally

Place Silkie chicken, star anise, peppercorns, fennel seed, cloves, kosher salt and stock in a bag and vacuum seal. Place chicken packet in a pot of water heated to 165 degrees for three to four hours. (Use a thermometer to keep the water temperature constant.) Remove cooked chicken from bag and discard liquid. Shred meat from bones. Reserve meat, discard bones.

Soak slices of lotus root in water for 30 minutes; drain. Heat a deep skillet with a half inch of canola oil until it reaches 280 degrees on a thermometer. Fry lotus root for 2 minutes on each side or until crisp. Place chips on paper towel; set aside.

In a saute pan, over high heat, add 1 tablespoon peanut or canola oil. When it “dances” in the pan, add cabbage, fungus, lily flower and bean curd stick. Saute for about 1 minute, then add the shredded chicken. Push the ingredients to one side of the pan and add the beaten egg, scrambling. When the egg is cooked, incorporate it into the rest of the ingredients. Add the sesame oil, black vinegar, additional 1/4 cup chicken stock and Maggi sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary with salt and black pepper.

Put a dot of plum sauce on each lotus chip. Spoon mu shu chicken on each chip, and garnish with sliced green onions if desired.

Cryovac note: Once used only in professional kitchens, Cryovac machines are becoming more commonly available at housewares and warehouse stores.

Per serving: 72 calories (52 percent from fat), 4 grams total fat (1 gram saturated), 26 milligrams cholesterol, 2 grams carbohydrates, 7 grams protein, 109 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber.

To reach James A. Fussell, call 816-234-4460 or send e-mail to jfussell@kcstar.com.

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