Iron Chef: Dual Competition

I beg Erik all the time to do iron chef. This week we did iron chef not once, but twice! Yipee!

I surprised Erik with green peppers as the secret ingredient and he surprised me with onions. I'm so glad Erik humors me with this.

Iron Chef Erik

 Erik made:

• Green pepper and blackberry smoothie. I can't believe Erik did this! He used the green pepper juice rather than actual green peppers so that the smoothie would be smooth. This was actually really yummy!
• Green pepper and onion salad. This was a delicious blend of green pepper, carmelized onions, and bacon. I loved it but thought it would be better as a topping for a dish rather than stand alone. 
• Beef and green pepper burritos with cheesy green pepper fingers. This burrito was good but the real treat on this dish was the cheesy green pepper fingers. He fried strips of green pepper then rolled them in parmesan cheese. This was tasty.
• Green and red pepper cookies. Again. I can't believe Erik made sugar cookies with shredded green and red pepper in them. They were yummy- yes you could taste the green pepper and the cookie dough was fantastic too. He got lots of originality points.

Erik's overall score was 15.375 by himself and 15 by me. I rated him low on plating as he did not do much for the appearance of his dishes. However he received high marks for originality.

Iron Chef Gina

I made:

• Red onion salsa and chips. This was a fresh salsa with chili powder for some kick. It was delicious but not terribly original. We all loved it though - even the kids.
• Green onion bacon corn cakes. These cakes were awesome. I cooked some bacon, then made these cakes (with corn, bacon, and green onions) and fried them in the leftover bacon grease. Why not? They had a bacon/onion flavor that worked well together.
• Brown butter chicken with carmelized onions. My idea for this was great however the execution was not so great. I ended up overcooking the chicken. Not surprising since I had a lot of "helpers" while cooking. Even so, the carmelized onion with the brown butter chicken was a fabulous combination.  I know since I made it the next day so I could do it right :).
• Honey, orange, and carmelized onion couscous. I mixed fresh oranges, carmelized onions, and craisins in couscous then drizzled honey over the top. I think it needed a little stronger flavor so grating some fresh orange peel on it would have made the dish stand out.

My overall score was 15.175 by Erik and 15 by me. Erik rated me higher on taste and less on originality. 

Only 41 points on quiddler today