Pardon me a sec while I boast. FOODalogue’s 3-Alarm Fruit Pizzette took the prize for most unique interpretation of ingredients for this month’s Royal Foodie Joust. We were challenged to come up with a dish using maple syrup, cayenne pepper and apple. Once submissions were complete, members of The Foodie Blogroll voted for best overall, best photography and most unique. I hear my trophy is the conveted ‘royal’ coffee mug.
[FOODalogue did not, however, make the cut to be nominated for the FoodBuzz Awards (boo-hoo), but I thank all of you who voted. There are a lot of awesome food bloggers out there and I will be in San Francisco to cheer when they receive their awards.]
Challenge #2…
I love food challenges. I guess that’s why I’m a big fan of Top Chef, Chopped, The Next Food Network Star, The Next Top Chef, and all shows of that ilk. I believe they enterain and inspire.
Most of you who have followed Our Family Food Fights know food challenges is a shared family sport around here. We spend most Sundays at battle. One of our favorite shows is “Chopped” where chefs have to prepare 3-courses with mystery item baskets (plus pantry items). Last Sunday we decided ‘to play’ a toned-down version of Chopped. 1 course-4 mystery ingredients.
We jointly decided on our 4 categories (protein, vegetable, fruit/sweet, condiment), wrote them down, folded them up and stuck them in a bag from which we each blindly picked a category. After that, we swore not to reveal or discuss our category till the time of the challenge. Suspense mounted as we each shopped for our item and wondered how it would meld with the others.
The Big Reveal
I selected vegetable and revealed callaloo.
Julie (our newest team member) selected condiment and revealed soy sauce.
Cassie picked fruit/sweet and brought pomegranates and pomegranate juice.
By the process of deduction, Jim had protein and revealed…
Oh, no! The 3 gals gasped, unbelieving, and literally frozen in their thoughts. Kidneys may be popular in many kitchens, but they have never appeared in ours.
Thankfully, it was a prank. Jim actually bought chicken thighs but felt it was worth the additional $1.92 just to see our faces.
So the challenge was: chicken thighs, callaloo, soy sauce, pomegranates. Visit Our Family Food Fight to view the results of the challenge.
Footnote: The next day I went to google and searched beef kidneys thinking perhaps I could find a recipe or get some inspiration from others. In my half-hearted search all I found was lots of steak and kidney pies which did not appeal to me. Kidneys, I guess, are just not FOODalogue’s thing.
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Loved your Chopped-style food fight. Have never tasted callalou. Very inventive, all of you!
It was a new ingredient to us too. Can’t say I’d rush to buy it again any time soon.
Kidneys…not an easy ingredient and who will be the tasting committee?
Congrats on your Joust entry…you’ll win the apron soon enough!
I could think about a couple of dishes using those “lovely” kidneys. LOL That sounds like a lot of fun! It must be great to have the family participate in the cooking… I, in the other hand, am all alone, boohoo! LOL
And congratulations for winning the most unique interpretation at the Foodie Joust. Enjoy your mug!
congrats on Royal Joust! Some amazing creations at your family foodie fight! Where did you find callaloo? On our vacation in Mustique (near Grenada) we had such a wonderful callaloo soup and I’ve always wanted to replicate it.
I wasn’t actually looking for ‘callaloo’…just browsing the market and and when I spotted it, I decided it would be a good ingredient for the challenge since we were unfamiliar with it. I learned it is also called Amaranth.
Congrats on the Foodie Blogroll win. You go girl.
I also thought Cassie was the winner, even without tasting it. Great presentation and ingredients. Without being there, I give Cassie 5 Yummies
Great post! And congrats on the food joust. Perhaps ‘our family foodfight’ should participate in on of the jousts, similar to when we did a tortilla battle for ben’s site.
Congrats!! That combination sounded like a winner. Very creative, as always.
Congratulations Joan!!!!!! So well deserved
. The Joust is so much fun when participating… but winning is fantastic, isn’t it?
Riñones al Jerez are one of my favourites, you should try it… it’s delicious
Juana,
So proud of you, it shows your talent and competitive nature, and it sounds as if the apple(s) didn’t fall far from the tree.
Yeah, kidneys are a bit tough…I have had my fill of them in this lifetime. I love callaloo, ate it a lot in Jamaica. Had no idea though that is was amaranth! See, you learn something new everyday.
Congrats again on your win! Well deserved – and you totally had my vote!
Congratulations on the pizette!
kidneys may smell like farts, but they can be damn good when prepared well! they also can taste horrendous if not. i don’t know what the heck you’d do w/ all those ingredients and kidneys! good thing the chicken legs were there.
ps: i’d even pay $2.50 to play the same joke on you.
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