3rd Annual Anniversary Cook Off!

So my previous post about the 1st and 2nd Anniversary Cook Offs probably foreshadowed this one, and here it finally is! We did the 3rd Cook Off about 2 weeks ago and it's time to reveal the results here.  Some basics rules about the cook off:

Strict 1 hour time limit
Make as many dishes as you want
All dishes must contain the central theme ingredient
No recipes or preparation
$20 grocery budget, all pantry items are considered free
Points scored on taste, plating, and originality

Now about the secret ingredient...it's actually not a secret.  We mutually agree on the ingredient based on whatever we have a surplus off.  The first year we had just gone to a horseradish festival and the second year we had a large abundance of strawberries from a farmer's market sale.  And this year, well we had recently gone to a "sugar shack" which is where pure maple syrup gets made.  So yes, being the East Coasters that we are now, the secret ingredient was Maple Syrup! We actually ended up having a lot of similarities in our menus but remember there's no preparation beforehand and we don't tell each other what we are making so it was basically just random coincidence.  Or maybe we are more alike than we care to admit!

Anyway. without further ado, let's get to the pictures!

Kitchen Aftermath (it's a small kitchen and we were both scrambling for space!)

The Menus (any idea which is mine and which is Ruchir's?)

Spinach salad (Menu A)

Maple Lemonade (Menu A)

Maple glazed steak with brussel sprouts (Menu A)

Maple Rice Tea (Menu A)

Maple salmon with maple cauliflower puree (Menu A)

Reconstructed deconstructed doughnut (Menu A)

Maple carrot halwa (Menu A)

Maple caramelized onion jam and goat cheese (Menu B)

Maple butter roasted brussel sprouts with cayenne pepper (Menu B)

Soy maple salmon (Menu B)

Maple Lemonade (Menu B)

Coconut maple beef sliders with maple mustard (Menu B)

Maple mashed sweet potatoes with maple marshmallow topping (Menu B)

Also not pictured for Menu B was vanilla ice cream with maple topping which became a soup because it was crazy hot inside after all the cooking.

Let the judging begin!

All smiles before the reveal...

 And who came out victorious?? Well let's just say it wasn't me :(  But Ruchir and his Menu A definitely deserved to win.  We both were pretty tied on taste, I had a tiny edge on plating, but Ruchir killed on the originality front.  I mean reconstructed deconstructed doughnut??  And yeah, it was delicious.  So well deserved dear husband, well deserved.

Now the official score count is me ahead 2-1.  Looking forward to next year!!

Banofee Pie for Pi Day!

Ok so I came across this can of homemade "dulce de leche" in the pantry and it brought me back to the reason that I made it - for this delicious Banofee Pie made for Pi Day!  Nerdy, I know.  But I can't believe I never posted about it!  Anyway here's the low down on this delicious treat.

First, a crust of crushed vanilla wafers.  I mixed some melted butter in here and then pressed it down into a pie pan.

Now this next part uses an ingredient that was prepared a couple days earlier.  To make this dulce de leche caramel, you take a can of condensed milk, put it in a large pan, and cover it completely with water.  I put two cans in, one was used for this recipe, and one I just discovered in the pantry, huzzah!  Anyway, you have to make sure the water is completely covering the tops of the cans.  Then put a lid with ventilation on the pot and start the water boiling.  Keep it boiling for about 2 hours  adding water if needed to make sure the cans are completely submerged at all times, let it cool, and that's it!  The condensed milk will have turned into this delicious caramel.  Now for a disclaimer:  this method can have some dangerous outcomes.  Apparently some people have had the can explode on them!  This is probably because the water level dipped below the tops of the cans, but this is why I put a lid on the pot (and actually rubberbanded it to the handles to keep in in place) although make sure it has a ventilation hole.  That way, if the can did explode, everything would be mostly contained by the lid.  Yeah, there'd still be a mess, but not as bad as if the exploding can's contents went straight up to the ceiling!

Anyway, after you've boiled it, let it cool completely!  I mean totally and completely - like wait a day or so.  That way there's no chance of explosion when you open it.  And man the wait is worth it!  Open it up, scoop out all the goodness, and then spread it on your crust!

All gone!

Now for the banana part.  Layer sliced bananas on top of the caramelized condensed milk. No need to make a fancy design - not sure why I did that actually!

Now you just have to top it with whipped cream....

...and add a nerdy decoration!

This was seriously good.  Basically the only bad thing was using the pre-made spray whipped cream which started to collapse after a few minutes.  Some stiff peak homemade whipped cream would stand up better and probably be tastier but I didn't have any on hand that day. Now I'm thinking about what to make with the other can of condensed milk that was boiled....I'll let you know if inspiration ever strikes!

Our Anniversary!

If you've been reading this since when I started it, you may remember our first annual Anniversary Cook Off.  If not, go back and remind yourself!

http://anjalisfood.blogspot.com/2010/09/1st-anniversary-cook-off.html

Basically, we do an Iron Chef style cook off every year.  The above link was from our first year.  Today is our third year!  But we aren't doing the cook off until this weekend due to some logistical issues. So instead for today, I'll recap last year's cook off (since that was during my year long blogging hiatus!)

Without further ado - 2nd Annual Anniversary Cook Off: Secret Ingredient Strawberries.

Here we are at the beginning, all smiles!

Whew the cooking is done!  Way too much chaos (and a large grease fire) to take pictures during!  But here are the menus - this was after the eating and judging so that's why they are a little beat up.

Strawberry Cornbread (Menu 2)

Flank Steak (Menu 2)

Chicken Legs (Menu 2)

Salad (Menu 2)

Steak (Menu 1)

Pork (Menu 1)

Smoothie and Mousse (Menu 1)

Gazpacho in the upper left and Strawberry tea in the mug (Menu 1), Chocolate and candied ginger strawberries (Menu 2)

I'm predicting the results here!  You can also see the sangria (Menu 2) in the right back.

So could you tell which menu was mine and which was Ruchir's?  Mine was #2!  And yes, I won again this year!  Ruchir looks so dejected :) Once again, we'll see what happens next year - or actually, since this really happened last year, we'll see what happens in just a few short days! 

Chicken Breast Roll Up

This one was born out of the need to use up random things.  I had two chickens breasts that I had just thawed the day before but now was seriously lacking inspiration.  I also had a lot of those little Laughing Cow cheese triangles, these were chipotle flavored.  So I decided to make stuffed chicken breast which I've seen before but never attempted.  I butterflied the chicken breast, put a layer of foil over them, and then pounded the crap out of them with a can of tomatoes (hey, who needs a meat mallet!!).  

Then I opened all those little Laughing Cow triangles and mashed them together with some chopped green onions - hey I needed to use those up too!  I spread that mixture on the inside of the chicken, then rolled them up and spread more on the outside.  Then I discovered some old bread crusts in the freezer, so I threw them in the generic magic bullet, and voila - breadcrumbs. I rolled the chicken in the bread crumbs and then plopped them in a little glass dish. Cover with a little fresh ground pepper and then I sprayed it all with some olive oil. Baked at 350 for about 40 minutes and taadaa!

Overall, quite tasty!  If I would change anything, I'd definitely add more of the cheese mixture and probably more breadcrumbs.  I'd make this again probably but there are probably better uses of chicken breasts (like making butter chicken!).