My life through pictures...: Iron Chef

At school we had a friendly little Iron Chef competition! And I took a ton of pictures, so I am going to pick and choose which ones I put up and I am going to mix them among all the explaining! We had 4 teams made of 3 students and a faculty member. We met at the school at 8:30am and went over the rules. At 9am Chef Marc brought out the 4 carts containing the "secret ingredients"! It contained a whole chicken, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, spaghetti squash, lemon juice, oatmeal cookies, sugar cookies, cantaloupe, eggs, half and half, and rice! We were able to use the staples of the kitchen, like flour, sugar and all the spices. Each team had to create 2 dishes, an entree and a dessert and each team had to have 2 plates of each, 1 to present and 1 for tasting. The catch was that each ingredient had to be used!

My team!

Shaun, Me, Danny, Troy and Kim

Chef explaining the rules

Me and Kim

Me and Danny

My team was me, Danny, Shaun, and David Hoffman. We came prepared and put our heads together to come up with our 2 plates. For our entree we were making a chicken roulade, sauteed spaghetti squash, curry potato chips and fried onion strings. For dessert we made a rice pudding that we were going to serve along side a cantaloupe tart.

Shaun started breaking down the chicken and getting it ready. We took the bones and roasted them in the oven before adding them to a pot of water to make a quick stock for our sauce. Danny took the leg and thigh meat and made a stuffing by grinding it up with some carrots, celery and seasoning. They took the chicken breast and pounded them out thinly, stuffed it and rolled it. They covered it with the skin of the chicken and tied them up. They got seared in a skillet before going into the oven where they finished cooking.

Danny prepping the stuffing

Me getting the cantaloupe ready

Danny rolling up the chicken

Me with Shaun and Danny

Love this picture of Shaun!

We cut the spaghetti squash in half and roasted it in the oven until they were tender. It was taken out of the oven and scraped out to make the "spaghetti" strands, then they were sauteed in a pan with some garlic, oil and butter until done.

We started the half and half in a sauce pot with a split vanilla bean and some sugar and let it simmer. The cream mixture was used for both the rice pudding and the cantaloupe tarts. The rice was simmered in a little water and then the cream mixture was added a little at a time to finish off the rice.

David working on the rice pudding

We had time for a few pictures in between cooking!

I must have said something to get that look from Danny!

Dean Carol and Jason hard at work

Kim and Pam

Janelle

Chef Marc

Chef Marc and Chef Renalto walking around looking...

Me and Danny

Carla, Me and Kim

Troy and Kim

For the tart shells, we crushed up the oatmeal and sugar cookies and added some melted butter. Then we pressed it into some tart pans and baked them. Then, we whisked egg yolks and sugar together and added the cream mixture to it to make a custard. The cantaloupe was pureed and added to the custard mixture. Then it was poured into the crusts and baked until it was set. Then we julienned some cantaloupe and carrots, soaked them in some lemon juice and placed them on top the tarts. A cantaloupe puree went on the plate first along with a another sauce made of vinegar, sugar and cantaloupe. The tart went on top of the sauces.

David putting together the tart shells

Our winning dessert

The plans changed a little as we got in to it! Since the tarts came out great, we didn't want to put the rice pudding on the same plate. So for our entree we put the rice pudding down, topped it with the chicken roulade, then the spaghetti squash, and then the the potato chips and fried onion strings. Sounds odd, but it worked! The sauce that was made with the roasted chicken bones went over the plate before the food. It helped tie the sweet rice pudding to the savory chicken roulade and sides.

After we were all done...everyone was happy to finish!

Everyone waiting in the halls for the verdict!

We left the kitchens and 1 person from each team stayed behind to explain the dishes. Then the judges tasted all the dishes, critiqued them and move on to the next dish! It was crazy and they were being very harsh! We had a guest judge, he is the executive chef and owner of the Brazilian Grill here in Indy. Once the judging was done, we came back in to find out who the winner was....and he said it...Team #1...that was my team! WE WON!!! It was awesome! Then the chef asked who made the dessert, I raised my hand...kind of scared...and he said it was incredible and that he would serve it in his restaurant! Then he asked how I did it! I almost fell out of my chair and I wasn't even sitting!!