That time I did a mini version of Chopped
Hello everyone! A few years back my mom got the idea that my friends from home and I should do our own version of Chopped. And for the last few years I was reluctant to do it. That was, until my friend brought it up to my Mom over Christmas break and before I knew it my friends from home (the neighbs) and I were participating in a scaled down version of Chopped. Granted we got a generous time limit of 60 minutes to make one dish, but there was a twist. We had to make an entree AND a fireball cocktail. Our basket ingredients included danimals, orange, kale, american cheese, ground beef, candy cane, flour, tortilla, eggs, and fireball.
The dish: Ground Beef Burger with Cheese and Pepperoni, Kale Salad with Dressing made of Danimals, Red Wine Vinegar, Olive Oil, and Mustard.
The Fireball Cocktai:l Fireball, Fresh Orange Juice, Prepared Orange Juice Garnished with a Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Crisp And Crushed Candy Can
A little bit about my thought process. The ingredient that threw me the most was an egg (of all things). I didn't know what I wanted to do with it, but I knew I did NOT want to cook a scrambled egg/fried egg/ omelette. I am not particularly talented at cooking breakfast food so I decided to cut my losses. I ended up mixing the egg with the ground beef and some breadcrumbs for a burger.I was lame and use the kale for a (non-inventive) kale salad and hid the raspberry danimals in a red wine vinaigrette. I yell at my TV when the chefs on Chopped use salad greens for salad or hide an ingredient in a dressing, but I now have much more respect for that. Like I said, not inventive but it worked. The salad dressing was not well received, but I liked it. For the burger, I topped it with some pepperoni and cheese. Hamburger, pepperoni, and cheese is a classic combination of flavors so I knew it would work.
Finally, time for the cocktail. My goal was to use the fresh oranges to squeeze fresh orange juice and mix it with the fireball and some other ingredients to make an upscale fireball and coke. Like I said, that was my goal. I really wanted to highlight the fresh orange juice. What happened was I was running out of time. I blindly mixed store bought orange juice, fresh orange juice, and the fireball. The store bought orange juice completely drowned out all the other ingredients. The cocktail tasted like store bought orange juice with hints of fireball. The judges (friends and family) liked it which was good. However, the upscale adult cocktail I dreamed of making ended up being a bit pedestrian. I did think the cinnamon sugar tortilla crisp with crushed candy cane was a neat garnish.
When the points were added up I placed 2nd out of 4 competitors. Overall, I think I had a good dish. However, people were either much more inventive with parts of their dish or had a DELICIOUS cocktail. I would choose my friends cocktails over my own. Also,my presentation was a little lackluster. My salad looks a little boring and I didn't even cut my burger artfully in half. I was really happy with my dish, but I didn't think it had that X factor to win. All in all, I had so much fun doing a mini version of Chopped. I can't wait to compete again next year and (hopefully) get that win!
