March Madness Nom-taste-ular Cook Off! *Voting Up!*

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Who made the nomtastiest foodz?

Poll ended at Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:02 am

Dirty n Evil - Goat Cheese Risotto w/ Balsamic Flavored Pork & Oyster Mushrooms
6
21%
GothPoet - Spam Musubi
1
3%
MuchachoNL - Mac-Salad
1
3%
ExplodingJoe - Cookout Essentials
10
34%
Lighthawk - Hot and Spicy Tofu Stir Fry
2
7%
JVDifferent - Rawrful Slimy Dinosaurs
2
7%
Midgetshrimp - Spicy Meat and Tomato Omelette
7
24%
 
Total votes: 29

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midgetshrimp
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March Madness Nom-taste-ular Cook Off! *Voting Up!*

Post by midgetshrimp »

Get ready for another wild and crazy contest, because...

Its the March Madness Nom-taste-ular Cook Off! (the crowd goes wild!)

For those that remember from last year, and for those that don't, the March contest is - you guessed it - a cook-off! Thats right, its a culinary contest to show off your kitchen skills. How to enter? It's so simple even Frankie could do it...

All you need to do is make your favourite recipe, be it snack, desert, main meal... whatever! Not a good cook? Who cares! Make the best damned PB&J the world has ever seen! Just have some fun and make the tasty happen!

The format is fairly straightforward. Make the food, take pictures of the food, tell us what it is and how you made it. All entries must include a recipe and step-by-step instructions, as well as at least one picture. If you only take one picture, it must be of the finished product. Also, to prove that you actually made your masterpiece and you didn't just swipe it off of google images, the picture of your finished product must include YOU (or if you're really uncomfortable with that, include something in the photo that let's us know it's the real deal, such as a personalized card to the forum or something).

Entries will be open until the 26th, and voting will end on the 31st. As always, this thread is for entries only, and all discussion shall be kept in the discussion thread.
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Dirty n Evil
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Re: March Madness Nom-taste-ular Cook Off!

Post by Dirty n Evil »

I bring you... Goat Cheese Risotto with Balsamic Flavored Pork & Oyster Mushrooms

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Ingredients:
For Risotto
1½ cups of diced Shallots (roughly 3 Shallots before chopping)
2 tablespoons of Butter
2 cloves of Garlic, Minced
3-4 ounces of Oyster Mushroom (dice the stem, cut the cap into slivers roughly half an inch wide)
2 cups of Arborio Rice
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
½ cup of White Wine
3½ cups of Chicken Broth
1 cup of Frozen Peas
2 tablespoons of Parsley
1 tablespoons of Black Pepper
4 ounces of Soft Goat Cheese
1 ounce of Parmesan Cheese

For Pork
½lb of Pork Loin (trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces)
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
2 tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar
1 tablespoon of Black Pepper

Utensils Required:
Spatula, Mixing Spoon, Medium Sized Saucepan, Skillet, Cutting Board, Knife

Directions:
Into medium saucepan, add shallots and butter and cook for 30 minutes over low heat. While this is slowly cooking, put the cut up pork loin into a sealed plastic back with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and black pepper to marinade and leave in refridgerator. After 30 minutes have passed, to saucepan add mushrooms, rice, olive oil, white wine, chicken broth, peas, and parsley. Allow rice to cook over medium heat for about 25-30 minutes. Stir occasionally early, and then stir more frequently as the broth & wine thicken. If more moisture is needed, add more white wine. Tasting rice occasionally to test for firmness, turn heat to low and add goat and parmesan cheese to saucepan and continue to stir occasionally. Add pork loins and marinade to the skillet and cook over medium high heat until finished, about five minutes. Draining excess sauce, add to risotto and stir.

Serves 2 to 3 portions.
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GothPoet
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Re: March Madness Nom-taste-ular Cook Off!

Post by GothPoet »

I made a Hawaiian favorite, Spam Musubi

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Ingredients

* 1 can Spam (I like Spam with Bacon if you can get it ;) )
* 3 cups uncooked sushi rice (I used Purple Sticky Rice)
* Soy sauce
* Sugar
* Nori sheets
* Furikake or li hing mui
* A musubi-maker

Tip: Before you begin, have all your ingredients at the ready so the Spam is at its hottest and crispest once it hits the rice.

As a starting guideline, three cups of uncooked sushi rice for every can of Spam is average. Prepare your sushi rice. I cooked mine in my shiny new rice cooker and it came out perfect.

Slice the Spam into eight even pieces—or ten if you prefer, but I like my musubi on the meaty side, heavy on the Spam.

Next, mix some soy sauce and sugar in a bowl. How much of each? It's all up to you. Some like it more sweet, others like it salty. Start with equal amounts, and adjust to taste.

OK. Now comes the awesome part. Place a sauté pan on a burner, turn up the heat, lay the slices of Spam down, and fry away.

After 1 to 2 minutes, pour the soy sauce–sugar mix over the Spam—the mix will effortlessly soak into the crisping Spam pores, making it more salty (as if that were even possible) and a tad sweet as the sugar caramelizes.

Keep frying it until you reach your desired level of crispness. Once done, transfer the Spam to a plate.

Now, work quickly and have everything else laid out for assembly, otherwise the Spam will no longer be hot and crisp by the time the musubis are assembled.

Ready? Cut the nori strips in half lengthwise, and lay the musubi-maker — everyone has one, right? ;) — on the middle of the nori. Use the rice paddle to scoop a generous mound of rice into the mold. Use the musubi-maker handle to press down on the rice. Press hard. The last thing you want is floppy, unpressed rice—that just makes it difficult to eat.

Shake a thin layer of furikake over the rice (right); lay a slice of Spam on top, and then shake on another layer of furikake. Add one more layer of rice, and one final press.

Press with all your might! You want this packed tight. The musubi is intended to be a portable treat.

Once you've given it a firm press, hold the handle down with one hand, and use the other to pull the mold upward, thus unleashing the musubi.

Quickly wrap the nori around the rice (use a few grains of rice to stick the nori together at ends if necessary).
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MuchachoNL
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Re: March Madness Nom-taste-ular Cook Off!

Post by MuchachoNL »

Please note: The taste will be influenced by how your curry powder is made.
i.e. Dutch curry powder will taste different than the original Curry powder from India because of different ingredients.

Muchacho's Mac-Salad

Ingredients for 4-6 people:
  • 400 grams Macaroni
  • 1 can of canned ham.
  • 3 - 6 table spoons of mayonnaise
  • 1 jar of Silverskin onions
  • 1 little can of corn (usually 250 grams) (or you could cook a corn cob and strip the corn from it)
  • 1 can/jar of green peas
  • 3 or 4 pickles
  • Optional: cooked carrots
  • Curry powder
  • Little bit of salt for taste.
Utensils needed:
A tablespoon and a big (wooden) stirring spoon.

Time needed:
15 - 20 minutes

Recipe:
Cook the macaroni according to the instructions.
If you're going for the fresh corn, cook your corncob at the same time.

In the meanwhile, open up the can of spam and cut it into small cubes, the size is up to you.
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Once the macaroni is done, pour out the water and let it cool off for a minute or two...
this way you won't burn yourself accidentally on the pan, and the macaroni is not that mushy anymore so you don't wreck it while stirring. ;)
While it's cooling off, cut the pickles into small pieces and strip the corncob you've just cooked or open up the can :p.
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If you want to add the cooked carrots, slice them up as well.

Add the spam-cubes, silver-skin onions, peas and corn to the macaroni and stir it around a bit (if you opted for the cooked carrots, add the slices as well)
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Add 4 tablespoons of Mayonnaise to the macaroni and stir it again. (Yes: it will look like TOGM)

Add Curry powder gently while you're still stirring, until it's getting yellow-ish as a whole.
Now add salt to your own taste or let your guests decide that for their own, since it's actually done now.
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It tastes best if you let it cool off in the fridge for a few hours before you eat it, but it's good to eat straight away. :)
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Re: March Madness Nom-taste-ular Cook Off!

Post by ExplodingJoe »

ExplodingJoe's Cookout Essentials

For this Nom-off I have prepared Steak and Potatoes with Texas Toast and a side salad.
Lets start with the steak.

I use a chocolate stout based marinade, which give the meat a very sweet flavor.
3 cups Young's Chocolate Stout (or your favorite chocolate beer)
1/2 Cup Maple Syrup (must be Maple! not that Table Syrup crap)
1/4 cup Sesame Oil
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1 tsp White Pepper
1 tsp Minced Ginger

Use your favorite cuts of steak, for this cookout I had both Sirloin and Ribeye.
Lay the cuts out in a baking dish and pour the marinade over the cuts.
This can sit for 6 hours at the least, I let it sit for a day and turned the steaks
once in the morning before the cookout.

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Next Comes the Potatoes
Lay out sheets of tin foil, and pile on a layer of potatoes, drizzel with Olive Oil
then add, to your taste, fresh cut garlic, Rosemary, salt and pepper. Fold the
tin foil up into a pouch and either bake at 400 degrees or place on grill.
Potatoes will take 30 minutes to an hour depending on how many you've made
so make them first and wait on the other dishes in order that everything else
isn't sitting out while you wait for the potatoes to finally finish (that gets annoying).
While making the potatoes, start the grill.

After the potatoes you can start on the texas toast, this is real simple to make
Texas Toast is basically garlic bread with less garlic. Cut an Italian loaf into thick
slices and coat with butter and leftover garlic. Place in oven at the
same 400 degrees until the bread is toasted.

If you want a steak more on the well-done side, you should start grilling them before the toast is being made.
If your like me and enjoy rare meat, during the toast is fine.

Last comes the salad, which can be as ambitious as you are. Our salad is a mixture of spinach and lettuce
with tomatoes, diced red pepper and onion. Dressing is olive oil and apple vinegar.

Add a mug of your favorite drink and viola.

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Delicious food fit for a warm spring day.
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Re: March Madness Nom-taste-ular Cook Off!

Post by Lighthawk »

Hot and Spicy Tofu Stir Fry

Ingredients
3 tablespoons peanut oil
1 pound firm tofu, cubed
1 red onion, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
5 red jalapenos (or any other spicy pepper), chopped
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1/3 cup vegetable broth
3 tablespoons white vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Start by draining the tofu. I typically set it on a plate wrapped in a few paper towels, set another plate on top, and then set a soup can on that to add pressure. Give it about an hour and it will squeeze an amazing amount of liquid out.

Heat the oil in a large pan, medium high heat. Add in the tofu and fry on all sides. I find it easiest to use a spatula and gently scoop and roll the tofu semi-regularly. You'll miss a few sides on a few pieces, but it's much easier and far less tedious than trying to fuss over each individual cube; just be gentle so the tofu doesn't break up.

Once the tofu is golden brown, toss in the vegetation and let it cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly, but still gently. Mix together the broth, vinegar, soy, sugar, cornstarch and pepper flakes and give them a good whisking. Then add the sauce to be and cook another 5 minutes, or until it thickens up a bit, tossing to cover.

Very simple to make, aside from the tofu it took me about 30 minutes from prep to plate. In future I think I'll whip up a batch of rice to set it on and soak up the excess sauce.

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Re: March Madness Nom-taste-ular Cook Off!

Post by JVDifferent »

I'm pretty terrible at cooking. I burn things, can't slice things straight and forget ingredients. That said, I present to you:

JVDifferent's Rawrful Slimy Dinosaurs

This is a very simple recipe. It needs:
These
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and this.
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Usually I do this with Gummi bears, but there were none in the store. It also actually works a lot better with the Gummi.

1. Throw Gummis/jelly dinosaurs into a tupperware container.
2. Pour vodka over the candy. Make sure their entire surface is covered, like water and rice. But with more fruity colours and alcohol.
3. Put it all in the fridge.
4. Wait for a few hours, for the candy to absorb enough of the vodka. I suggest three.
5. Daringly pick out a slimy dinosaur and savour its delicious, fruity tingle, burny flavour.
6. Alternatively, you can put the dinosaurs on a plate, and pour the leftover tasty slime into a receptacle for your drinking pleasure. I suggest adding lemonade as a mixer.

NOTE: You can actually get quite drunk off these, so I don't suggest eating the entire tupperware container of them by yourself. Unless you are a dwarf.

Dinosaurs on a plate.
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A close up of the glistening, gooey, chewy glory.
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The fruity tingle infused vodka goo.
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midgetshrimp
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Re: March Madness Nom-taste-ular Cook Off!

Post by midgetshrimp »

Spicy Meat and Tomato Omelette

Ingredients:
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2 eggs
2 slices prociutto
some cabanossi
1-2 slices of your choice of cheeses
1/3 tomato
Vegetable Oil
Tabasco sauce

Directions:

Simmer 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a small sautee pan
(medium heat). While the oil reaches temperature, dice your
1/3 tomato cabanossi and prociutto. I usually would add a thin
slice of onion to the mix, but I didn't have any.
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Toss your newly sliced ingredients into the saucepan.
Simmer for about 2-3 minutes or until evenly cooked.
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Crack your eggs into a small bowl and wisk with a fork
and slice your cheese while the meat and tomato simmers.
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When your simmering is done, relocate your meat
and tomato to a plate. Start cooking your eggs.
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After about 20-30 seconds, add cheese to one side of the
omelette. This is the step where I splash on some Tabasco sauce.
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When the cheese softens, add the meat and
tomato to the other side of the omelette.
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Carefully fold the cheese side over the meat side and hold in place
with a spatula for several seconds. Carefully flip your omelette and
hold in place with a spatula for another few seconds.
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Put your omelette on a plate, get a tasty drink (I had wildberry
iced tea because it was a wonderful and warm day) and enjoy!
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