Iron Chef - San Jose

Crystal and I hosted our first Iron Chef dinner party over the weekend. We had 5 friends come over and we all cooked a dish using one (or both) of our "secret" ingredients. First, everyone submitted a single ingredient as a potential "secret" ingredient, which would ultimately be chosen at random from each of the submissions. We ended up with pineapple and lemon. The other submissions were eggplant, wasabi, nutmeg, and pineapple. Strangely, two people actually submitted pineapple as their idea for the "secret" ingredient. Then we randomly chose 5 savory and 2 sweet dishes (pretty much 5 sides/main courses and 2 desserts). We had a few weeks to come up with a recipe to cook, and Saturday we ate and judged. Scoring was based on four categories: presentation, taste, incorporation of secret ingredients, and creativity. Our friend Tim won overall for his pineapple couscous dish, pictured below. He walked away with a certificate of achievement and a bottle of wine (both of which he left at our house....).

The other "savory" dishes were Crystal's pineapple chicken curry, a beautiful presentation and AMAZING flavor. I think this dish should have won, and that's not playing favorites! She even bought special plates for presentation points!

Tim's girlfriend Becca (both were pictured in my previous post "Wine Tasting") prepared a lemon pasta dish, where the lemon flavor was actually an ingredient into the actual pasta.

Our friend Denver (Tim and Brandon's "roommate") grilled lemon marinade chicken and served it with grilled peppers and chopped onions. I must be honest, I still aim to improve my grilling skills, but Denver mastered it in one shot. I need him to show me how to use my grill...

Alexis, who is Denver's girlfriend, prepared a lemon risotto dish which really was fabulous. I was so impressed by the care and pride each person showed in their dishes and preparations.

With dinner, we also enjoyed some T&J Pineapple wine, brought directly from the manufacturer in Ware, MA. Crystal's dad brought out a bunch of wines that he's been making during a recent visit, and one happened to be pineapple wine. It fit perfectly into our delicious meal of pineapple and lemon dishes.

For dessert, Brandon and I made separate items that worked amazingly well together. Brandon actually purchased an ice cream maker for the event and prepared pineapple ice cream. It was so refreshing during our afternoon outside. I baked a play on apple crisp using pineapples and coconut and called it "Pina Colada Crisp" and added a dark rum glaze on top. It was delicious and worked so well with Brandon's ice cream. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take pictures of the desserts, but trust me, you'd get too hungry looking at it anyway.

All in all, it was a really fun time had by all. I'd certainly suggest a similar dinner party if you're looking for ideas. It takes some up front planning, but it sure was worth it. Here is a picture of us sitting down for dinner.

And a random, funny one of Denver hurdling donkey balls in the backyard (somewhere after the first round of drinks).