It was a snowy day in the Cooprider kitchen stadium. Two chefs came together to cook two different meals. No one had any expectations; no one had any limits. This was just the beginning of their culinary journey to the top...Food Network.
But first, it was up to these two chefs to make a meal out of one seeming impossible secret ingredient.
The rules were as follows:
1. 1 Secret Ingredient picked at random (coupons from Buy Low)
2. $5 to buy any other ingredients that would enhanced the secret ingredient
3. Use of our kitchen for any other spices or additions to the dish
The dishes were "judged" on three criteria (we had very unbiased judges...ourselves!):
1. Originality
2. Taste
3. Plating
And thus began the competition. The battle of whits; the creative fight for good food!
What was the secret ingredient you ask?!
Drum roll please..........
FRESH NECTARINES ($1.00/lb at Buy Low)
To the store we rushed. We bought the nectarines in bulk (we need fruit anyways) and then both took $5 to spend on whatever we thought would make a nectarine friendly dish.I bought the following for $4.88
1. 1 Eggplant
2. 2 Carrots
3. Mango nectar
4. 2 Apricots
5. Boneless pork rib
6. 1 Zucchini
Jimmy was a little more money saavy, spending $3.75
1. Boneless pork rib (It was the cheapest meat available!)
2. 2 packages Raman noodles
3. Canned Pineapple
4. Tamarind soda
Notice the differing menus. Can you tell our differences in cooking styles?!
On to the play by play:
We rushed home and Jimmy made use of the kitchen in the first couple minutes.
He took the nectarines and blended tamarind soda and pineapple into a marinade for the boneless pork. Yum!
He then took the ramen noodles and cooked them, addinh some cut up onion and pepper.Meanwhile I made my own marinade by cuttin up the nectarine and adding a little bit of lemon juice, fresh orange juice, a dash of sugar, salt, mango nectar, pepper, and onion. I then cut the pork into thin slices and added it to the marinade to sit and soak.
After setting the pork aside, I cut the eggplant, zucchini, carrot and onion in to small slices....As I furiously cut, Jimmy put the canned ringed pineapple on the Forman to grill, adding nice grilled flavor to the sweet fruit. This he added to his ramen mixture.
After several minutes of marinading Jimmy took the meat and placed that on the Forman.
I however was still cutting, in effort to make the vegetables seem as much like a pasta mixture as possible. I thought of Heather's christmas present, and how wonderful it would have been to cut these veggies up jullian style....
I made another marinade for the zucchini, onion and carrot. It was based off of the last marinade with no pepper or salt and blended into a smoothie consistency. I decided then that I would use the rest as a drink along with the meal.As Jimmy's pork was finishing he add some sliced nectarines to the grill as another garnish to his creative spin on sweet and sour pork.
He plated his masterpiece and awaited his wife who was still cutting vegetables.
I finally finished the eggplant and put it on a cookie sheet with a little lemon and E.V.O.O. You Food Network fans should know what that means. Then I steamed/fried the eggplant on the stovetop, just to that it would absorb all the flavor and soften. I then added the marinaded veggies and a little salt to the pasta-like stirfry.
As that was absorbing the flavors, I took the pork and all the fixing and placed them in a hot stirfry pan. The juices cooked the pork and kept it moist.
As the pork finished and the "pasta" cooled, I began plating.... These are the final results.
And that ended the cooking portion of our battle.
As we ate and "judged" the meals we made a few good critiques to our food.
1. The Forman takes a lot of moisture out of the meat. It was hard to taste the nectarine in Jimmy's meat simply because the Forman does a great job of getting rid of everything but the meat...cooking the meat in the marinade keeps the meat moist and it absorbs and keeps the flavors.
2. Eggplant is hard to gauge in terms of how long it should be cooked and how much flavoring should be added.
3. The eggplant mixture was not as colorful as hoped. Perhaps the veggies lost their energetic color due to too much cooking.
4. Raman noodles are in fact the cheapest noodles you can buy at the store!
5. Rachel Ray is right about juicing lemons. If you press down on them before cutting them, thus making them juicy and ripe, it is easier to get the needed juice out!
6. Grilled fruit is delicious!
Jimmy said that I won, but I put the results in a dead tie. Both our dishes had pros and cons. But isn't that always the way cooking goes?
And that my friends ends another chapter in the Cooprider kitchen stadium. Stayed tuned for another battle of epic proportions...main dish AND DESSERT!
