Sporting Eats

This month's #letslunch bunch is doing a theme based on televised sporting events.  They are thinking things like Tennis and the last week's Superbowl event.  However, I think I am one of the few non-professionals doing #letslunch these days, so I didn't feel like I could post my Superbowl buffalo wings and nachos fare.  You see lets lunch is an illustrious group of folks who cook & blog about cooking.  We now have cookbook authors, novelists, professional chefs and food writers amongst us, so my deep fried chicken wings sort of pale in comparison.

I decided that to me, a great sporting event is any televised food challenge.  There is a new program that I started watching (and likely won't watch again) called "The Taste" in which contestants compete with their entire dish contained on a spoon.  I love that concept, though I didn't love the show despite Mr. Bourdain's appearance as a regular.  I decided, after watching the first episode, to challenge myself to make a complete dish on a spoon.  I mean, I bought those darned amuse bouche spoons ages ago and had yet to use them, this was my chance!  Of course, being me, I couldn't do just one.  I made five different spoonfuls for our Friday night date dinner, which also took about four hours to complete.  I made one course at a time and we consumed each one as it was completed.
Round 1 - ding, ding:

  An appie of Tuna crudo with cucumber, crab claw, capers, lemon, a fruity extra virgin olive oil and some sea salt and pepper.  A simple start to a marathon session!

Round 2 - ding, ding.



The next dish was fresh water prawn, poached in coconut milk with Thai green curry served over a bed of fresh corn sautéed with mint and cracked black pepper.














Round 3 - ding, ding




This round was a fresh atlantic sea scallop seared in bacon fat, served over shitake mushrooms (also seared in bacon fat) with fresh corn,  scallions, paprika and lemon juice.














Round 4 - ding, ding


This round was duck breast, pan seared with a dried cherry and marsala sauce, served over a bed of Israeli cous cous with shallots & a pinch of curry for heat.















Round 5 - ding, ding


This dish was actually the most labor intensive.  It's seared beef tenderloin with a veal demo-glace (I make this ahead and freeze in ice cube trays), served over a parsnip mash with bacon bits (left from the bacon I rendered for the scallops), and pan fried crimini mushrooms.














We ended up with a TKO before I could get to the dessert round.  Hubby and I were both stuffed at this point and a wine pairing with each course made us a bit loopy too.  This is the ultimate TV sporting event for me.  Perhaps next time I will make a version for Top Chef so that we will enjoy the challenge on TV as much as we enjoyed it in our kitchen!