Ok kids! It’s time for the first Crasstalk Recipe Contest where we give you a challenge and you have to throw down like the Iron Chefs that you are and show us some of your most creative work. We know that there are some exceptionally talented culinary wizards out there and we are looking forward to seeing what you all can come up with.
For our first challenge, we’ve decided to tailor it to Launie K.’s famous post on cooking on a budget. Most of us are already sick and tired of trying to come up with new and different ways to be creative with the same goddamn three ingredients that have been in our pantries over a week because we don’t get paid until next Friday. Hopefully seeing what others do on the same budget will inspire us and keep us in the kitchen and off the MacDonald’s drive-thru.
So the rules. We are going to set a budget of $10.00 to make a meal for two. That means if you go to the store, your bill will be $10.00. Not $20.00 divided by two. Use anything you like. We’re going to shy away from specifying ingredients for this challenge because we want to keep things as flexible as possible. The meal should include an entrée and either an appetizer or a dessert plus drink.
Contestants must provide a written recipe and picture of your awesome creation. Contest ends Sunday at midnight PST. Judging will be done by our extremely talented food divas, Launie and GT Cosita, who will be looking for things such as:
Taste appeal
Creative use of ingredients
Freshness of ingredients
Continuity and pairing of dishes
Budget-consciousness
Ease / simplicity of preparation
Clarity of recipe and cooking techniques
So, although it’s tempting to go out and get some curry sauce and dump it over chicken and serve it on rice, we’d rather you try to figure out how to make that curry from scratch and dump it over chicken and serve it on rice.
The winner and his / her recipe will be featured in an upcoming post. For inspiration, GT and Launie have graciously lent pictures of their mouth-watering recipes to help spur your creativity.
Ok! Let’s get to it! You know what to do! GO!
