This was actually done quite awhile ago (June 13th, 2010 to be exact) but I'm only just now getting around to posting it. Basically we had an Iron Chef style cooking competition to honor our 1 year wedding anniversary. (We also went to an insanely delicious fancy restaurant but I didn't take any pictures of that meal). Ruchir wants to make this a tradition, eventually involving our children to be sous chefs.
So first things first; what to use as the "secret" ingredient? Well that comes back from when we went to the Horseradish Festival in Collinsville, IL. (It was a spontaneous decision on a Sunday afternoon!). Have you ever seen a whole horseradish root? Neither had I!
Ok so now that he had these two hulking roots (they look like a femur), we had to use them up. The rules were simple, 1 hour, make as many dishes as you want, but they all have to feature horseradish. The judging categories were taste - 10 points, plating - 5 points, and originality - 5 points. We were originally just going to judge ourselves but then deciding to invite a few friends over for the judging since their softball game had been cancelled.
I didn't take any close up pictures of the individual foods, too much chaos I guess. Seriously one hour is way shorter than you'd think! But I'll give the run down. Ruchir made a sandwich, featuring beef, sauteed onions, mushrooms, and horseradish sauce topped with a fried horseradish chip. He also made a drink(!) with orange juice, vodka, rum, and horseradish. I made a sandwich with beef, deep fried onions, shredded cheese and horseradish sauce. I also made a salad with romaine, bacon, pecans, and horseradish. I also had a soup of chicken stock, horseradish, ginger, and green onions. And then finally I had potatoes three ways: mashed with horseradish, french fries with horseradish ketchup, and baked with horseradish sauce, bacon, cheese, and green onions.
The scoring was intense - and who came out victorious?? Me of course! I won in every category except I think we tied on plating. I think Ruchir's food tasted great but I edged out in taste and there was no catching me on originality! (Although inexplicably, Ruchir ranked himself higher than me in that category thinking that a weird drink was more original than three other dishes combined - cheater?:) Anyway, I got an awesome trophy and we were all happy in the end!
We'll see what happens next year!
So first things first; what to use as the "secret" ingredient? Well that comes back from when we went to the Horseradish Festival in Collinsville, IL. (It was a spontaneous decision on a Sunday afternoon!). Have you ever seen a whole horseradish root? Neither had I!
Ok so now that he had these two hulking roots (they look like a femur), we had to use them up. The rules were simple, 1 hour, make as many dishes as you want, but they all have to feature horseradish. The judging categories were taste - 10 points, plating - 5 points, and originality - 5 points. We were originally just going to judge ourselves but then deciding to invite a few friends over for the judging since their softball game had been cancelled.
The scoring was intense - and who came out victorious?? Me of course! I won in every category except I think we tied on plating. I think Ruchir's food tasted great but I edged out in taste and there was no catching me on originality! (Although inexplicably, Ruchir ranked himself higher than me in that category thinking that a weird drink was more original than three other dishes combined - cheater?:) Anyway, I got an awesome trophy and we were all happy in the end!
We'll see what happens next year!
OMG you guys are so cool. and the baby sous chef idea is my fave thing evaaaa.
ReplyDeletep.s. AMAZIN APRONS
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