Iron Chef Australia II

Laurel produced the above amazing announcement for the second Iron Chef Australia battle. Her photoshop skills are unmatched. Here's a nice picture from early in the evening perfectly displaying the theme ingredient for the battle. It's oranges, not wine. Also, that's our friend Tim in the picture and he actually is more excited to be there than this picture makes him look.

The party in full swing! Everything worked out beautifully, we could not have planned it better. We had seven entries- two entrees (aka appitizers), two mains, two desserts and Greg's orange, lemon, and cinnamon vodka infusion. Laurel made one of the desserts, which was ricotta pancakes with an orange compote and dark chocolate sauce. It won Best Use of Ingredient.

Brevin and Sadie brought their two boys along, Jackson (4 yrs) and Orion (1 yr). Jackson wanted us to take some pictures of him. This is our favorite. Not sure if he was being a pillow monster or what, but it's pretty great.

It never seems like we have enough counter space, but everyone managed.

Laurel keeping an eye on little Orion. He was very excited about all the activity!

The Balfrey-Boyd family took the orange theme to a whole new level. We may have to offer an award for Best Costume next time, because this was awesome.

Adrian and Cristy, the reigning Iron Chefs, made prawn, vegetable, and orange pockets. Below is a picture of one right before it went in the oven. The pocket let everything bake together- quite good. It was funny, apparently oranges = prawns in Australia, because half the entries featured prawns. Not that anyone was complaining, because prawns are delicious.

Cooking action shot! So much going on in the kitchen island!

Here is the eventual winner, Nabil's prawn and fruit biryani. Several of us agreed that since he's Lebanese and middle eastern food is extra delicious, he had an unfair advantage. It does not matter, though, he is now Iron Chef and totally deserves it.

Now as normally happens at our parties, we're pretty good with the camera for the first hour, and then completely forget about it. So, we only have a picture of the first dish as it was served, but fortunately it was the winner for Best Presentation, a grilled prawn salad with sliced oranges and an orange sauce. Both beautiful and delicious!

We had a great time, and like always, the entries were amazing. We've had three of these parties now, and we can't wait for the next one. What our friends have learned is that if they are coming over to our house they will not be leaving hungry. All of our get togethers seem to heavily involve food. Because really, what else is there?