Helpick the theme ingredient for my Iron Chef Party

In My Humble Opinion
1

For my upcoming 30th birthday party, MinkWife and I are planning on having an Iron Chef party. The plan is to invite 5-7 other couples to the party and ask them to each bring a dish featuring the theme ingredient (TI). To stay truer to show we’ll probably not reveal the actual choice of TI until the morning of or perhaps the night before the party. So, I need some help deciding what the TI should be. Here’s some guidelines:

  1. The TI should be versatile enough so that it can be used in more that one course. (I don’t what to pick a TI that is only good for desserts, or main dishes.)

  2. A couple of our friends are vegetarian, so meats should be avoided.

  3. The TI should be fairly widely available so people don’t have too much trouble finding it (a bit of a challenge would be fun though), but it doesn’t have to be so ordinary that everyone will have it their pantry.

  4. Cost of the TI should be within reason. (No truffles or saffron.) Let’s say that enough of the TI to fix a dish for 12 people should cost less than $40.
    Any ideas?

2

Fish Guts is a favorite on the Iron Chef. Oh, wait, it has to be vegetarian. Ummm… how about a specialty mushroom, like Chanterelles or Morels?

Winter squash is also versatile, and if you leave it as “winter squash” and not a specific squash, ie, “butternut squash” you might get some interesting varieties. If I got that, I’d be tempted to make a pumpkin pie, or something like spaghetti squash with marinara sauce.

Other ideas:

Apples - in season and could make for some interesting entrees
An herb that’s available fresh and dry could be neat. Basil, rosemary, or mint comes to mind.
Yogurt is versatile, and can be used in a variety of dishes, as can Tofu.
Saffron-coated Truffles would be good as well. Oh, wait, too expensive :slight_smile:

3

Well, you might want to steer clear of some seasonal things that people are going to get sick of over the next few weeks, like pumpkin, yams and such.

I’d also choose something that the average cook can apply to any course (avoiding the dreaded fish sperm ice cream syndrome.)

A couple of possibilities:

Limes–very versatile and refreshing.

Rice (People could go all out and get some of the exotic varieties.)

4

Wow! Is today Iron Chef day and nobody told me? I feel like I’ve been in 5 separate threads on this show today. Maybe it’s just anticipation for Friday’s upcoming Iron Chef USA.

My recommendation for your theme ingredient: Eggplant

I’m not sure if it’s in season though - does eggplant even have a season?

5

Truly versatile key ingredients?

[li] Shrimp[/li]
[li] Eggs[/li]
[li] Garlic[/li]
[li] Cheese[/li]
[li] Sausage[/li]
[li] Rice[/li]
[li] Crepes[/li]Any one of these could be worked into a huge variety of dishes. I’d go with the shrimp (barring any vegetarians), but any of the others would render a great selection of recipes.

6

Oops, missed the vegetarian note.

I’ll second the rice theme. Wild rice, basmati, jasmine, abrorio, pecan… So many to choose from.