When we were living in the States I had a (not so) secret obsession with the show Chopped. It's a show where 4 chefs are given a "mystery basket" of ingredients and the asked to make something fabulous in a ridiculous amount of time. Well, just like the ship ran our own "Amazing Race" event in April, we also just had our own Chopped competition last weekend. I participated last year but was (rightly so) eliminated in the first round. My friend Heather and I decided we needed redemption and entered again this year. Unlike the actual show, we cooked in teams and only made an entree and dessert. There were 5 teams in the entree round and then 2 were eliminated so 3 went on to dessert.
The first round we were given a whole duck (eek), potato leaves and dried mushrooms.
That's one of the judges watching us work.
Heather graciously butchered the duck. We made flat bread topped with sautéed potato greens, balsamic mushrooms, pear and a balsamic reduction. Here it is:
It wasn't gluten free so I didn't try it all assembled but Heather liked it and I thought the gluten free parts tasted good on their own.
We were very pleased to make it through to the dessert round! There we were given Jack fruit (a huge sticky and stinky fruit), Malagasy chocolate, and Bon Bon Anglais (a super sweet soda popular here). We planned on making French toast sticks with dipping sauces but by the time the jack fruit was cut we had very little time left so we made bananas with Jack fruit sautéed in Bon Bon Anglais and topped with strawberries and a chocolate sauce.
I wish we would have had time to have actually tried it :)
Turns out these dishes were good enough for the WIN! Sweet redemption!
What a great community we have on this ship! Makes this crazy life we live a bit more exciting!
