My Iron Chef Competition.

Imagine 15 teams with 2 - 3 people on each team battling head to head all the time cooking their hearts out to win bragging rights. Now imagine all of these people using the same limited ingredients. That's what I participated in, and this is my story.
If you follow the Facebook or the twitter account, you already know the outcome. So please ladies and gentlemen, don't ruin it for the others :)
The secret ingredient is revealed, we have pork tenderloin to cook with. Now we didn't get an unlimited amount like you see in the show. No my friend, we got 2 little pieces and had to make do; we also had to think of a recipe right there on the spot. Luckily for my team and I, we had a battle plan.

LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!

Here's what our presentation plate looks like:

Here's what you'll need:

Wild long grain rice

2 lbs of pork tenderloin

(bottled) Teriyaki sauce

Sugar

Oranges

1 egg

Balsamic vinegar

3 Garlic cloves

Thyme

Salt and pepper

Lemon and lime

Oil

Ginger

 These were what our limitations were: 1 hour and only 1 burner to cook all this. How did we pull off such a feat? Well continue reading to find out how!!

The time starts and we scatter to grab what we think we might need for this. The first thing we do is start a pot of water to get it boiling for the rice. The next thing we do is grab the pork and cut 1 of the pieces in half, then marinade the other pieces. The marinade consists of Salt, Pepper, Oil, the Juice of 1 Orange, Lime, and Lemon along with the zest of 1 Orange. We also added Thyme and a minced clove of Garlic. We let this sit in this concoction while we prepare everything else.

The orange strip on the plate was the next thing we moved to. After we added the rice and brought it to a boil again we removed it from the heat and put it on a counter covered. (We weren't sure if this would work but we were pressed for time and needed to get everything finished).

In another pan we heated diced oranges and the zests from those oranges. We added roughly 4 Tbls of Sugar, a clove of Garlic, and some Thyme. Our original plan was to cook this down until it was a thick sauce. We look at the time and notice 30 minutes have already passed.. That wasn't going to happen. We reach into the bag of equipment we brought with us for something that we can use. We find a blender! The entire hot mixture went straight into the blender and added vegetable oil to make 'an almost' sauce. We found it to be a bit bitter at first so we continued to add sugar until it was perfected.

Once we were content with the taste we needed to cool this immediately. So we found 2 bowls, each smaller than the other. We filled the bigger bowl with ice and the smaller bowl with the sauce and stirred until the sauce was ice cold.

Lady luck apparently smiled down on us that day because the rice finished amazingly fast without having constant heat. We only had 15 minutes remaining and we hadn't even gotten to the main dishes yet. I grab the cut piece of pork we had saved for the rice and cut it down into small cubes. Then in a hurry I grabbed the rice and heated up 2 Tbls of oil, 1 inch of ginger and 2 gloves of garlic in a large sauté pan. The pork went right into a hot pan to quickly infuse the flavors together. Right after I was content with how the pork was cooked, I threw in an egg and scrambled it up. The next thing I added was roughly 2 cups of cooked rice and the juice of 1 orange and mixed quickly to evenly spread the egg out. I went to grab the soy sauce on the table and that's when tragedy struck. It wasn't on the table. I had my 1 sous chef run around looking for it until we realized we weren't provided with soy sauce. What was I going to do?? My sous chef quickly suggested bottle teriyaki sauce, unsure how it would taste, I went along with it just to finish. 10 minutes remaining and pork hadn't been cooked yet. I throw in about 3 Tlbs of the bottled teriyaki sauce in and mix it all together and start plating.

In another pan, balsamic vinegar was added to a hot pan along with sugar to counter act the bitterness. The remaining pork was then cut into equal pieces. 5 minutes remaining. Once the pan was searing hot, the pork was then added to the pan and cooked on both sides.

Meanwhile I was packing the rice into cups to give them that nice appearance and trying my hardest to figure out how to do the orange strip that you see above. 4 plates were waiting for the pork and 1 minute remained. The pork (thankfully it was cut thin enough) was fully cooked and platted. With seconds to spare, scallions were added for decoration.

The Judging

The judging was announced at a dinner ceremony (go figure and not with our food) roughly half an hour later. There we are sitting at a table. The 3rd place winners were announced - wasn't us. We look at each other thinking 'okay maybe we got second'... 2nd place was announced - wasn't us..... Again we look at each other with a little defeat in our eyes. Surely we wouldn't win first place.

The place goes silent. You can actually hear a pin fall in a room filled with people.

"The First Place Winner of Iron Chef is......................"

US! We had won!! Cheers erupt from our table of friends and high fives all around. We were ecstatic, elated, and most of all... WINNERS!

So my foodie friends, I share to you my winning recipe. If this all could be done within 1 hour and using only 1 burner. Then yes my friends... You can do this too!!!

Freakin' Bacon Fried Rice!

You might be thinking...

 But I'm thinking...

This isn't really a 'man food' per se. Mostly because that's not my section and I'm incapable of writing like that nor do I care / want to try. However; the time has come for me to make something absolutely amazing.. Whats better than food itself? BACON. Whats better than white rice? Fried Rice. What happens when you put them together? Something that should be deemed illegal in seven states - Bacon Fried Rice. You say Disgusting? NAY! I say grow a pair! You say unhealthy? I say we all die sooner or later. You say fattening??? NAY!!! I say hit the gym Nancy!
Now listen up get into the freakin' kitchen and grab this crap:

• 2 cups of rice
• 3 THICK cuts of bacon
• A Carrot
• 4 Green Onions
• 1 sm Onion minced
• 1/4 tsp Ginger
• 2 Cloves minced Garlic
• 1 egg
• Soy Sauce
• Sugar

  Anything else you think would be awesome in this concoction.

Get the that rice on the stove and let it cook!

First things first, grab fire and place metal thing over fire. I prefer something meat won't stick to. Next grab them slabs of pig's gift and cut them into chunks of bite sized godliness. Sear those suckers up and let them cook. Once they're to your perfection; take out the bacon. BUT WAIT; use that liquid gold grease to pan sear those healthy things I call vegetables. Once those vegetables are seared and soft, crack an egg and began scrambling that up! Once the egg is FULLY cooked (don't need to die here). Throw in the freshly cooked rice and mix around to get that great bacon grease fully coating everything. Next throw in that soy sauce and continue to add to you see fit! Mix that all around until fully coated. Next? Whats healthier than bacon?? SUGAR! Add that stuff, mix around and serve that to those who think they can handle this.

Now when you're finished with this and about to eat it.. Just enjoy and say: 

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH

cooking, beef, bacon, eating, recipe, blog meat, chicken, rice, soy sauce, stir fry, man food meal food eating awesome

Vegetable Fried Rice

Want to put a spin on the same rice that you always have? Well This recipe is really easy, and I'll let you know how to do it.

Heres what you'll need:

• 4 c cold white rice
• 1 carrot
• 3 green onions
• 2 tbls oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 egg (OPTIONAL)
• 2 tbls soy sauce

First lets slice the green onions, and slice the carrots. Then in a large pan or wok heat up 2 tablespoons of oil. Once the oil is hot, throw in the carrots and allow them to cook until they are soft. Once the carrots are done, throw in the green onions next. After a minute or so, crack in egg and scramble it. This is a good time to break apart the egg into tiny pieces. Once the egg is fully cooked, throw in the rice and break that down if it is in clumps. Allow the rice to get hot, then add 1 teaspoon of sugar, and continue mixing. To finish off the rice throw in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and mix through.

Once the soy sauce is completely mixed through and the rice is hot again, remove from heat, plate and enjoy!!

MY Awesome White Rice

This is a REALLY simple recipe, I love it and you will love it too! Not many people know how to cook rice properly, and after this you will NEVER use that disgusting quick rice again! Here's the deal, I made white rice for my friends a few times, and now EVERY time I'm over their houses, they ask me to make it again, and again. Apparently "they just can't make the rice the same way I do.." So people of the internet, I'll let you in on my little secret!

Here's what you'll need

• Dry long grain rice (none of that quick rice stuff.)
• A pot WITH a lid
• Water
• Salt

That's it!

The directions of the rice always state that it's a 2 - 1 ratio. 2 parts water, 1 part rice. Now heat your water till its boiling, once it is throw your rice in and return to a boil. Don't forget to stir. I always add just a little bit more water to the rice. This makes helps make the rice sticky and softer! Once it starts boiling again with the rice, stir and lower to the lowest flame and cover. This is where people will disagree with me.. I stir my rice often, others swear by just letting it sit all by itself. Well if you keep doing it the same way, you'll keep getting the same results. So stir every 5 minutes or so and cover again. This helps release the starch the rice holds onto, thus making it sticky! Once there's no more water and the rice is soft I stir the pot getting all the rice to stick together and comes out mostly in 1 lump.

That's how I make my rice, which is constantly asked for every time I'm with my friends!
On second thought.... I should start a rice fund..

1 Stir fry of Many!!

Here's the deal. I absolutely love making stir fry's, I mean I make them at least once a week.. But I swear, I'm not addicted!! I can stop whenever I want, I just don't feel like it right now.

Here's what you'll need for this stir fry:

• Ginger (No more than 2 tbls)
• Garlic (Word of the wise, you can never have too much garlic!!)
• 1 can Baby Corn
• 1 Can Water Chestnuts
• Broccoli
• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Carrots
• Few pieces of Chicken
• 1 c Rice! 
• 2 c Water
•  Pineapple!! (Cubes, optional)
• If you have it, oyster sauce, or a sauce along the lines of that..

Rice / Broccoli
First thing is first, bring a medium pot with 2 cups of water to a boil. Once its boiling throw a cut up crown or 2 of broccoli into the water for 3 minutes allow to get bright green. Once it it bright green remove from water (but don't drain the water!) and shock it in cold water to stop the cooking process. The broccoli should be nice and soft now. Once all the broccoli is removed, return to a boil and throw the cup of rice in and allow to boil again. Once it boils again put as low as possible COVERED! and check it every-now-and-then to stir. You rice should be finished roughly 10-15 minutes (when no longer hard and all water is gone).

Everything Else
For the chicken, first start by cleaning the chicken (and not using the same knife/cutting board for everything.. if you do wash it before you touch veggies..) Cut the chicken into relatively same sized pieces and throw into the oil and allow to cook through. Once fully cooked, remove chicken from the oil. Once you have everything peeled start of by cutting the carrots into relatively same sized pieces and place in a LARGE pan with oil and allow to get tender (nobody likes a crunchy hot carrot :-( ..) This will turn your oil slightly orange, don't worry I see that as extra flavor! While the carrots are softening, get your numb of ginger and mince that as much as possible, along with roughly 2 cloves of garlic. Before you throw this into the pan, cut up the onions and mushrooms as well, it tends to go fast  Once the carrots are soft add the ginger, and garlic and allow mix around for maybe 30 secs. Then add the onions, and mushrooms and let them get soft too. Once those are soft get the drained can of baby carrots and cut them in half and throw those in along with water chestnuts. Heat through and then add the broccoli. Add the cooked chicken and allow to get hot again (if its cold) Finish off the stir fry by turning the heat all the way up and throwing as much soy sauce in as desired.

Once the stir fry is finished, put the vegetables over a bed of fluffy white rice along with the chicken and enjoy!!!

Extra Goodies!
If you like spicy, maybe add some crushed red pepper flakes.
Here's where that optional pineapple comes in. Once you top off the veggies with the soy sauce, throw the pineapple in and allow to get hot. The pineapple adds a sweet element to a salty food. If you don't want warm pineapple in the food, try throwing a bit of the pineapple water in. (It's good, trust me!)