Iron Chef :: Red Lentils

Well Ben and I just participated in yet another fabulous Iron Chef cook-off! Though this time around our regular chef-going group was a little altered. The Mayo family left Norfolk back in January (after 5 fabulous years on The Rock). At their finale Iron Chef competition, which was held just weeks before they moved to Oz, Tam and Dave were deservedly presented with the winners trophy, one last time.

With the Mayo's now off island, and our group of four couples shrunk to three, a new couple had to be chosen and inducted. And so we welcomed Gill and Dave (yes, out with the old Dave, and in with the new) as part of this highly creative, culinary club. It was a very democratic process with nominations put forward, votes cast and carefully counted. It was all done so securely and privately you'd have thought we were electing a new government! We do take our Iron Chefing reasonably serious you know! Initially Gill and Dave did wonder at what crazy caper they'd got themselves into. For some strange reason they'd got the impression we are all trained master chefs. Let me assure you that some of our dishes turn out...um....ghastly! Master Chefs we most certainly are not.  But how we try....and what a LOT of laughs we have along the way.

Now as I've explained before, the winning couple not only hosts the next round, but also chooses and reveals the secret ingredient one day prior to the actual cook-off. Tam and Dave are now over 1600 km's away, but that didn't get them off the hook (what a disappointment we couldn't all fly to Bellingen so they could have been our gracious hosts once again). Thanks to the wonders of modern technology however (ie email), the reigning champions were able to send through the details of their chosen ingredient: LENTILS! Wonderful, wonderful gas fueling economical lentils! Actually, we all sighed a HUGE sigh of relief, having convinced ourselves that Tam would most certainly have chosen Pepsi Max (Tam's Norfolk addiction) as the secret ingredient!

Adding up the numbers at the end of the night, it looked as though our fabulous new couple Gill and Dave were on the home stretch to scoring the trophy first go with their three tasty dishes; lentil soup, vegetable and lentil lasagne and a Scottish inspired oats and lentil dessert, which Gill affectionately calls Flapjacks! But after a controversial recount of the scores (the trophy having already been awarded), it was Ben and myself declared the winners for the night. Our winning combination included a spicy Indian lentil soup, Hungarian lentil stew with jasmine rice and a rich chocolatey lentil infused brownie served with chocolate sauce and fresh cream. All throughout the evening, we were treated to dishes inspired from a variety of countries, with Italian and Morrocan just some of the flavours enhancing the taste and texture of otherwise ordinary dull red lentils! One participant on the night stood out as being particularly creative, presenting three original dishes that portrayed "The story of Norfolk" (in a most imaginative way*). Included in "the story" was a dessert, quite unusual in all forms. Think lolly dinosaurs submersed in jelly. Think floating lentils. Think whipped cream from a can. Hmmm...you probably can't conjure up an image at all. Let's just say this dessert was definitely unforgettable!

Stay tuned for the next Iron Chef!

* Involving (amongst other things) prawns! Ah....a tribute to the Mayo's?