Long ago, I had the idea of doing an Iron Chef party, as my whole gang of friends was really into it and I was competent at cooking.
I did it Sunday.
The secret ingredient? Bacon!
I had an hour to do something with it. Unlike the real Iron Chefs, I didn’t have a huge kitchen and foie gras and truffles laying around. We made fewer dishes, as it was our first time. So I paired off against my brother(Threll on the MB).
My dishes? A dumpling soup with bacon in the won-tons, and sauteed mushrooms (done in bacon fat) on top. The other was a ginger quinoa with bacon stirfry. The stirfry had onions, bean sprouts, plenty of garlic in it, and black sesame oil.
His? Bacon sushi(!), bacon potstickers, and bacon-miso soup.
Everyone had a fun time. We even played the IC theme music.
Isn’t that kind of a contradiction? I’m accustomed to quinoa as a vegetarian/health food. It’s one of the few grains that contains all the essential amino acids, making it a perfect protein all on its own, without adding any beans or anything, much less an animal product, much less BACON!
I’m not a vegetarian, btw–I just always wanted to be one of the judges on Iron Chef!
It’s the most healthy grain in the world. I just had some in the pantry. I had to overcome the underlying sweetness in the quinoa. I did this by adding ginger to spice it up a bit and garlic to shift the palate to savory. The bacon was to add a special crunch. The quinoa adds a unique texture.
Oh, bacon quinoa…it must have tasted like a party in your mouth. Did it remind you of summertime as a child?
Damn, I wish I was invited, I could have dressed up like Chairman Kaga, and unveiled the secret ingredient with much fanfare and drama. Oh well…maybe next time.
Yeah the party was fun but our Kaga showed up late after 45 minutes of being “sidetracked” at his house all alone with his girlfriend gee how could that happen? The Bacon quinoa could have been more bacony though I think that is why red lost.
