Iron Chef PA, Round 1: Valentine's Day

Schrodinger

Kenji Fukui wrote:

Nearly two decades ago, a man's fantasy became a reality in a forum never seen before: Kitchen Stadium, a giant cooking arena. The motivation for spending his fortune to create Kitchen Stadium was to encounter new original cuisines which could be called true artistic creations. To realize his dream, he secretly started choosing the top chefs of various styles of cooking, and he named his men the Iron Chefs: the invincible men of culinary skills. Iron Chef Japanese is Rokusabaru Michiba/Komei Nakamura/Masaharu Morimoto. Iron Chef French is Hiroyuki Sakai. Iron Chef Chinese is Chen Kenichi. And Masahiko Kobe is Iron Chef Italian. Kitchen Stadium is the arena where Iron Chefs await the challenges of master chefs from around the world. Both the Iron Chef and challenger have one hour to tackle the theme ingredient of the day. Using all their senses, skill, creativity, they are to prepare artistic dishes never tasted before. And if ever a challenger wins over the Iron Chef, he or she will gain the people's ovation and fame forever. Every battle, reputations are on the line in Kitchen Stadium, where master chefs pit their artistic creations against each other. What inspiration does today's challenger bring? And how will the Iron Chef fight back? The heat will be on!

This is a food thread for all the cooks on the board who respond best to a challenge.

Rather than posting the latest recipe that you decided to prepare on a whim, this is our chance to periodically come up with new themes and ingredients to help spark our creativity while keeping our bellies full. A theme might be a seasonal ingredient, a type of technique, an upcoming event, etc. People are free to make nominations for the next challenge.

Why run things this way when we already have a few food threads going on? Well, two reasons. First, sorting recipes by challenge makes it easier to keep track of them. Second, by giving people a common theme to work on, it increases the odds that some of them will actually prepare some of the recipes presented in the thread. You can either post an original, or you can post a link. Photos are always welcome.

With that said, there is still one more ingredient in this battle. Our secret ingredient. Today's secret ingredient is...



Valentine's Day. Come up with a dish to impress your date with.

Are you ready? Good. With an open heart and an empty stomach, I say unto you in the words of my uncle...

ALLEZ CUISINE!!!

KalTorak

Mannn, I thought the secret ingredient was going to be sentient dogs.

Chanus

My plan, thought not really Valentine's-esque in any way, is to make a tilapia roulade.

The stuffing will be crab imperial.

Hollandaise on top.

Served with a rice pilaf and grilled asparagus i have marinated all day in orange juice.


Edit: I suck at writing recipes.

msh1283

-Scallop and jerusalem arthichoke risotto

-Micro green salad with pears, toasted walnuts, gorgonzola, and a balsamic vinaigrette. Got a beautiful 50 year old balsamic to use for this.

-Sea Bass with crispy skin with red chile sauce served with a buttery herb polenta

Oh, and a simple lemon tart for dessert.

Schrodinger

I should specify that if you're going to post something, you should include a link or instructions or something to help people know how to create it themselves.

There's a recipe that I've made in the past. It takes a lot of time and can get really messy, but if you can pull it off, then it will impress your date for sure.

Tiramisu Truffles

1) Start by making the cream filling recipe. I used the one from here: http://www.wickedlocal.com/scituate/archive/x596316821/Kitchen-detective-No-excuse-for-su-su-tiramisu

2) Chill the cream over night

3) The next day, get a bunch of gladware 3 cup square containers, and line the bottom with plastic wrap. I've found that I usually need about 5 containers, which equals about 90 lady fingers.

4) Fill a plate maybe 1/4 in with espresso. Dip your lady fingers in a few second each, on both sides.

5) What you want to is line the bottom of the container with lady fingers, then add a layer of cream, then repeat until you have 5 layers total. You want the cream layers to be fairly thin in order to squeeze in all five layers in one container. Add another layer of plastic wrap, then place the lid on and freeze it for at least 4 hours.

6) Remove containers from freezer. Note that the lids are very brittle by now, and prone to breakage. Carefully remove lid, then place the tiramisu on a cutting board. Cut into 25 individual squares, then squeeze into a ball shape.

7) Here is the tricky part. Shaping the tiramisu at this point is like making a snowball. Too dry, and it won't stick. Too wet, and it's mush. So you may need dry it out with paper towels or dip them very briefly in more coffee, depending on the consistency.

8) Once the balls have been created, refreeze them.

9) Set up a double boiler with dark chocolate. Dip the balls in the chocolate. Coat with finely chopped almonds.

radroadkill

Whoo, it's like Iron Cupcake challenge and Daring Bakers!

So, are we restricted to creating our own unique recipes or can we bring up the results of recipes from other places we decided to use (or tweak)?

I don't think I'll be doing anything for this one... we quite possibly shot our food budget building up our liquor stock. But I might be able to depending on our next paycheck. And how creative I need to be- I had a menu I wanted to try from a magazine rather than do it on the fly.

Schrodinger

radroadkill wrote: »

Whoo, it's like Iron Cupcake challenge and Daring Bakers!

So, are we restricted to creating our own unique recipes or can we bring up the results of recipes from other places we decided to use (or tweak)?

Either is fine, since creating completely original recipes is hard.

jeddy lee

Hmm... I will have to come up with something. I was thinking about making some roast, french style, and poblano/irish cheddar mashed potatoes, followed by poached/candied pears.

But I was also thinking of going out to eat. I will have to see what the wife thinks of this.

Chanus

jack eddy wrote: »

Hmm... I will have to come up with something. I was thinking about making some roast, french style, and poblano/irish cheddar mashed potatoes, followed by poached/candied pears.

But I was also thinking of going out to eat. I will have to see what the wife thinks of this.

Your dinner idea sounds de-lish.

Going out to eat on Valentine's Day is a horrible, horrible mistake