Top Chef: Grudge Match

When Beti and I both got nominated for dodgeball queen, we joked that we should cook for it. And so it began. Last week, Beti and I competed in a head-to-head cooking competition. Secret ingredient was picked in advance by our peers and, once revealed, we would have 30 minutes to walk across the street to the grocery store and pick up whatever else we needed. Then we would have an hour to cook. Meanwhile, we picked a secret drink ingredient for the others who would have the 30 minutes (while we were at the store) to make a cocktail and set it on the table for a blind taste test. When we came back from shopping, we sat down our groceries and enjoyed picking our favorite cocktail before starting to cook.

Last week, the secret ingredient was bacon. We had 4 lbs of bacon and an hour to each make three dishes for 8 people. The secret drink ingredient was the beer, PBR. Alyson won the drink competition with a strawberry cocktail version of the PBR. Jafo scored second with an inventive and refreshing anise-flavored cocktail. Third went to Kathy for a different fruity-style cocktail. You would never know any of them had beer in them.

Beti and I had a great time cooking. Beti made a perfectly-cooked asparagus dish with mushrooms and bacon in a lemon garlic sauce, new york steak bites with bacon in lime and a twist on a classic spinach salad featuring orange, raspberries and bacon crumbles. She also made, for fun, a dessert: a sundae of vanilla ice cream with espresso caramel sauce that was topped with bacon bits. INSANELY good. For my three dishes, I made clams casino, a BLT with avocado and bacon-wrapped dates. (Here are the recipes: Steam clams until they open. Break off the top shell and detach the clam. Add a little garlic butter, a slice of cheese -- I used provolone, then top with parcooked bacon. Broil until the bacon gets crisp. Then squeeze a lime over the top. You can make sheets and sheets of them -- especially when you get an assembly line going. The bacon-wrapped dates are also super easy and I hadn't made them before last night. (get dried dates, slice open and put in some goat cheese and, if you're trying to kill brian, some slivered almonds. push the date back together and wrap in bacon (raw or parcooked). Bake until the bacon is crisp. BLT is standard fare. I tried using fancy bread, which backfired since it was too big and crispy. I did get to add avocado though. I love avocado.)

Everybody ranked the dishes from 1 (best) to 6 (least favorite). The clams casino took first, followed by the steak bites, then the asparagus, dates, BLT and salad. I ended up winning by one point: Lisa (10) to Beti's (11). It was fun. I also realized that 4 lbs of bacon plus a couple of drinks left me with a wicked hangover the next morning. I think all the salt in the bacon sucking water out of my cells. Another friend felt the same way.

We decided to try this again and two people volunteered to cook. This time it was at our house. Here's the play-by-play from last night:

Natascha arrived first and started getting set up. Levi arrived a few minutes later. Levi said he was nervous. Natascha let out a big sighand agreed she was, too. Then they hugged and started discussingtheir most-hoped-for ingredients. Among them were: cheese, mushrooms and sausage.As people started arriving, they put their secret ingredientcontributions in a covered container in the dining room. We tappedthe warm keg and people slowly started making themselves drinks. I think most were waiting to see what the secret drink ingredient wasfirst. Brian was the last to arrive due to traffic and the secretingredient was unveiled at 5 past seven. Beti explained how we were going to do mushrooms, but that they guessed it so we were going to do a meat substitute before deciding on cheese. Levi and natascha looked excited that it was cheese and started looking at all the different kinds. There were lots of options.Then they unveiled their secret ingredient: Hornsby's Hard Apple Cider. As a group, we looked confused since nobody really knew what to make. Levi and Natascha wrote their grocery lists and headed to the store. Everyone started making their drinks. I think there were 13 drinks or so when they were all presented. I think the most commonly heard thing as we were making them was "I keep adding things but it keeps tasting worse". Beti made a killer mint julep-type drink, which was amazing but too strong for the tender palates of Levi and Natascha. The top three drinks were Kathy's (used goldschlager and hornsby's to have theapple cinnamon thing going on), Brian's (tasted like fruity bubble gum) and mine (an apple twist on a moscow mule). I ended up winning, which is always sweeter when you beat brian.

People cleaned and moved out of the kitchen so Levi and Natascha could get to work. Since cheese can be a pain, both had help with some of the prep. We tried to stay out of the kitchen.When things were plated an hour later, each produced three dishes. The winning dish was Natascha's grilled peppercorn steak that was sliced thinly and placed on a baguette slice, topped with carmelizedonions, blue cheese and a balsamic glaze. It made me drool when I ate it. Second place dish was Natascha's dessert of marsacapone cheese, cookies and fresh berries. There was a tie for third among three dishes: Levi's olive and cilantro marinated grilled steak topped with blue cheese. It was Brian's favorite. Levi's amazing cantaloupe dish featuring fresh cantaloupe, fresh mozzarella cheese, olives and otherthings that I would have never thought of but blew my mind. It was amazing. Also tied for third was Natascha's grilled quesadilla usingthe pepper jack and cotija cheeses, grilled portabella mushrooms androasted poblano peppers. And in 6th was Levi's pasta: a rigatoni-type noodle with a fresh tomato sauce made in the magic bullet, fresh herbs and slices of parmesan cheese. Everything got ravaged. Ken made a spreadsheet with everyone's names where we got torank our favorites. Ken and Brian then tallied the votes and announced a winner. Natascha 6, Levi 12. Most folks left after the winner was announced. A few stayed to watchTop Chef. Everyone left around 11-11:30. Super fun.