Foodblogger Battle Royale Cook Off 2010
It’s on like DONKEY KONG! These were the first thoughts that came to mind when I read an invitation from Billy, Ellie and Linda. Although it may not have involved any throwing of barrels of collecting of magically hanging bananas, I was extremely excited in anticipation of all the creative dishes that the others were bound to come up with. Then the weeks went past, and I had not even thought about what I was to make and then that excitement turned into a frantic panic of googling and speed browsing cookbooks. For there were some simple laws that we had to follow:
- Each person will be assigned one of two categories- Savoury or Dessert
- For Savoury, you MUST use any form of “fruit” in your dish.
- For Dessert, you MUST use any form of “vegetable” in your dish.
- Each person will prepare their dishes at home and bring it to the party.
The groups were decided to be Savouriers:
Myself
and the Desserters:
Here Comes the Food
Pumpkin soup with port melon and vanilla creme fraiche (Minh)
A very smooth and silky start to the feast was this creamy pumpkin soup with a good tangy spoon of creme fraiche. The perfectly cut pieces of rockmelon and honeydew added a, gladly welcomed, sweet burst of juiciness to this dish.
Melon Triplets Salmon Tartare (Me ^^!)
I think the sauce was the saviour to an otherwise pretty ordinary dish. Fresh and zingy, I liked the contrast against the sweetness of the melons (watermeleon, rockmelon and honeydew) and the mix of textures between the salmon and the melons. I did get stressed about the presentation as it did not end up in a neat little pile as I had hoped but ended in a nice blobby mess instead.
Korean fried chicken - Twice fried chicken thigh pieces with a pineapple chili sauce (Simon)
Crispy chunks of deep fried chicken can never go wrong especially when it is from Simon of katsusando Simon. The sauce added a nice chilli flavour to the juicy and tender chicken, with the subtle hint of pineapple sweetness.
Twice-cooked orange salt rub pork belly with toffee-crisp crackling, potato and apple mash with smoked bacon, savoy cabbage with smoky bacon and…
Caramelised cherry and brandy glaze (Ellie)
I think we all expected a ‘wow’ dish from Ellie, the culinary Queen, but we eneded up getting a double ‘wow’ dish. The pork belly was twice-cooked to perfection with a beautiful crackling and the cherry and brandy glaze was soooooo good. Supported well by the potato/apple/bacon and savoy cabbage/bacon combination.
Pig on a Holiday – pork ribs marinated in lychee and soy served with lychee and green olives (Helen)
Loved the name, loved the ribs. Beautifully sweet and sticky ribs infused with the wonderful flavour of lychee and then blasted with Helen‘s business-sized blowtorch to caramelize it a bit more just before serving. The red cabbage did a good job refreshing the palate and I ended up picking at these ribs while waiting for the desserts hee hee.
Trio of beetroot – Chocolate & beetroot macaron, beetroot chocolate brownie with beetroot ice cream and a beetroot lollipop with fizzy sherbert powder (Steph)
Desset started with a bang in the form of fizzy sherbert powder with Steph trio of beetroot. A tasting plate for all the senses! The homemade heart-shaped lollipop had brought out the inner child in all of us while the beautiful macaron, brownie and ice cream entertained our outer adult.
Rainbow Vegie Layer Cake- beetroot & chocolate, carrot, spinach with cream cheese frosting (Suzey)
I was waiting for Suzey‘s dessert which she had decided to dub just ‘CAKE’ prior to the event but Rainbow Vegie Layer Cake also has a nice ring to it heh. The array of colours and flavours provided a feast for the eyes and mouth although the beetroot and spinach layers were not intensely flavoured, the carrot layer stood out for me.
Tasting plate of rhubarb – rhubarb financier, Rhubarb mousse gateau, lemon shortbread with rhubarb jam and rhubarb crumble (Karen)
Karen also went all out with a rhubarb tasting plate. A wonderful mixture of textures and flavours as each item emphasized another aspect of the rhubarb with my favourite being the rhubarb mousse gateau. The smoothness of the mousse with a soft and fluffy base won me over but the others were also very tasty in their own way.
Fennel Creme Caramel with fennel mousse & beetroot sorbet (Sheryl)
These cutest little creme caramel had the smooth fennel flavour which matched the caramel and fennel mousse wonderfully. The beetroot sorbet was very refreshing on the palate and worked well with the creme caramel while the brandy snap just added that extra sweetness and topped off the dessert.
Eggplant chocolate tart with candied carrot, purple carrot ice cream with citrus peels and roasted almond (Billy)
A very interesting combination with eggplant and chocolate which I found a little bit odd but quite tasty. The purple carrot ice cream came speckled with wonderful bits of citrus peel while the candied carrot twist was surprisingly crispy.
Caramelised onion panacotta with burnt butter ice cream and olive macaron (Linda)
I finally got to taste one of Linda‘s famous macarons hee hee. It easily exceeded my already high expectations. The pannacotta had an intense onion flavour that it reminded me of onion dip while the burnt butter ice cream was perfect, I could had eaten the whole tub myself.
After stuffing ourselves silly there was only one thing left. Whose cuisine reigns supreme?
Savoury – Ellie!
Dessert – Steph!
Most Outrageous – Linda!
It was a great night full of fun, food and great company. Big thanks to the generous Ellie, Billy and Linda and everybody for coming up with wonderful and creative dishes! Hope we can Battle again soon ^^! Time for photo splurge.
Billy full and content
Such a poser 
hee hee
‘CAKE’
Hooray for complete pannacotta… nothing suss!
Mmmm glistening chocolate always looks so good
Linda’s pro presentation but ever-the-perfectionist, she did not use
Linda and Minh
Karen plating on all fours
Steph
Sheryl (too busy for photo) and VTB
Return of the b00b!
Billy
FFichiban
May 15th, 2010 at 4:25 am
Bah, all fours?! Richard!!
Can’t wait for blogger cookoff round 2! Such an awesome night and I can’t believe after ALL that, we still feasted on curry!
May 15th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
LOL I fad fun reading through your post Richard. I had such a blast that night, mmm your melon and salmon salad, one of my favourites of the night. Like Karen, I can’t wait for our next cook off, bring it on =D
May 15th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
You kept your promise, no body parts of moi!! hahahahaha!! It was such great fun. Love the picture of Billy fanning himself in front of Marilyn Monroe.
May 15th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
I can imagine how many plates there were. What a great party, great to see some more photos.
May 15th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
i really liked your dish richard! i couldve eaten 10 bowls of it i swear!
May 17th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Aww your dish was great! I loved the spicy dressing, it went so well with it. Love the photo splurge
May 17th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Nice write up dude! Man… I LOLed at the “Nothing suss” pannacotta. Oh so naughty!