This is in reference to the post of May 23. Guest editorial by Brother-in-law and Sister. They must have made notes (I forgot I even used a garnish). Their reviews rock! I was in Edmonton earlier this month. Brother-in-law suggested a cook-off. We tweaked the rules and then we conquered…at Iron Chef Sherwood Park!
The rules:
1. We each chose a secret ingredient.
2. We put them in a hat and drew the ingredient.
3. We had 15-20 minutes to plan and write a grocery list. No internet or cookbook referencing allowed.
4. Grocery shopping.
5. One kitchen, three people, and 60 minutes (and only 60) to make one dish with the secret ingredient.
6. Serve and judge (based on originality, presentation and flavour).
The ingredients:
My secret ingredient was smoked gouda. Car’s was mushroom. Brother-in-laws was shrimp. The winner: mushroom
[side bar: First of all, I knew Car was going to pick mushroom and secondly, I knew that would be the one picked!!!! AAGH!!!!]
The first road block was trying to decide what to make. What can you prep, cook, and plate in 60 minutes? We sat in the kitchen, sketched out our plan of attack, then shopped. A major stumbling block was discovering not only the Superstore but Sobeys, too, had very limited mushroom selections. We ended up buying a lot of Portobello’s and not as many shitakes as planned. The fresh oyster mushroom selection was slimy so was subsequently skipped.
The preparation:
Brother-in-law had a one pot effort, due to his burner greedy competitors. This meant he had to be making soup. And being that he is an over the top Asian food lover, it would obviously have to be of the Asian persuasion. I immediately thought of the good ol’ favorite of mushroom soup; however, thought I would take a spin and make it a chowda with some texture added. Carlyn went rich and satisfying with a pasta dish. Sister and I both required two burners so we did some alternating.
There were some tense moments in the kitchen as the three of us sliced, diced, and sautéed our way through 60 frenzied minutes. Brother-in-law found that his competitors were mushroom greedy. “Where's the mushrooms???” screams brother-in-law, as the last shitake gets chopped up into my soup. “Please please BOIL” howls Carlyn as she prays to the Burner Gods to boil in three minutes or less… [Side note: Car almost got disqualified as in the last ten minutes she discovered that she had to cook her pasta through before stuffing. We let that slide.]
The recipes:
Sandy: Mushroom Chowder with Shrimp
Carlyn: Deconstructed Mushroom Ravioli
Bro-in-law: Jay’s concoction
[side note: I know Jay has a better title for his dish but it wasn't guest edited in!]
The ratings from Sandy:
Carlyn's dish: very tasty but salty (blamed on the pecorino), original but not super original, v. nice presentation
Brother-in-law's dish: very tasty but not too mushroomy, original fusion, good presentation
Sandy's dish: mushroomy, original but mediocre presentation (yeesh!)
The ratings from Jason:
Carlyn's dish: Whoa salty! Presentation was really good and it really tasted amazing. Totally something you would get in a fancy restaurant and enjoy. Not the most original, because it was exactly what Carlyn would cook. All the flavors were familiar. Looked wicked and tasted great. I placed this second because of the salt, but presentation was top notch.
Jason's dish: My soup was really good and tasty. Adding chili flakes last minute as decoration on the top of the soup, made it really hot once they were stirred in. Bad call. The soup did not taste much like mushrooms. Used mushroom soy, 2 types or mushrooms, but the broth of the soup and the lemongrass overpowered. I thought I should get bonus points if successful, because you would never order a soup at an Asian restaurant whose feature flavor was mushrooms. Deserved last place, but if I made it for supper…you’d love it. Also, I could never re-create it, no clue what I even put in it.
Sandy's dish: I picked this as the winner. The mushroom soup was really tasty and she used shrimp, which to me was the last thing I think of with mushrooms. She made it work, but although she can paint, she struggled to snaz it up visually. Her mushroom decorations were woody. Cost her the win. I ate all of it.
The rating from Carlyn:
Sandy’s dish: Really good. Love the cream soup. Did not die for the shrimp on top but it looked really pretty. I did not eat the mushroom garnish on top because it was one of those strong porcinis but again – it looked great. This was a dish that I would love to have in the winter time on a cold day.
Jason’s dish: Excellent Asian themed soup. Of course he went Asian themed because that is all that he focuses on from culinary point of view :-). It was a bit hot but only because of the chili flake garnish- if that had been excluded it would have gotten a higher score in my books!
Carlyn’s dish: I loved the way that this looked as I thought that it could have come on a plate from a restaurant….that said, it was WAY TOO SALTY. Helps if you taste the sauce as you make it because had I done that, I would have stopped adding pecorino romano cheese ages before I actually did. Also, it wasn’t that I didn’t know that I had to cook the pasta – it is just that I thought the pasta sheets would be softer and I could mould them into actual ravioli (i.e., seal the edges). Once I realized that that was not possible, I just cooked each sheet and made “deconstructed” ravioli- it was actually supposed to be one big ravioli on each person’s plate that was filled with mushrooms…
The total scores were out of 25 (5,5,10) [guest editor note: Sandy we can’t remember. It was close though. It’s a guess.]
Carlyn 23
Sandy 22
Jason 19
The winner of Iron Chef Sherwood Park: Carlyn. We can't wait to cook-off again in July!
