Iron Chef - Home Edition II Turning the classic question, "What's for dinner?" into a sport. Occasionally, we play a variation on the classic Japanese TV Cooking Show Iron Chef. In that program chefs compete to fix dishes based on a surprise ingredient. A celebrity panel tastes the food and votes for the resident chef or the challenger chef. The home edition has a Shopping Team and a Cooking Team. The Shopping Team goes to the market and brings home three ingredients. Then the Cooking Team makes dinner out of them. When dinner is ready both sides dine on whatever results. We recorded an Iron Chef Home Edition in December 2006 and it was so much fun, we decided to do it again in December 2007 ... The Shopping Team: Dan and Larry x The Shopping Team always begins at the butter case. Where else? The problem for the Shopping Team is to find three ingredients that challenge the Cooking Team enough to make them work. But they must be easy enough to produce an edible meal. We really liked these "finger lemons," but we were afraid what the Cooking Team might do with them. So, the Shopping Team chose three interesting -- if ordinary -- ingredients: crimini mushrooms, squid rings and red-skinned Anjou pears. Would the Cooking Team be reduced to skewering all three and barbecuing them? Could they marry a pear and a mushroom with a squid ring? Would the evening be filled with bad jokes? Because the Shopping Team knew that the Cooking Team would be totally stumped as to how to fix these three "unusual" ingredients, they also brought home Kumamoto Oysters to enjoy with Sauvignon Blanc during the planning part of the cooking. Oysters can be eaten raw, of course, so that guaranteed that the Shopping Team got something to eat! The Cooking Team: Julie, Tomoko and Dave The oysters and Sauvignon Blanc were not enough inspiration for the Cooking Team, so they had to make a batch of margaritas to help with the serious planning. xxx One advantage for the Cooking Team is that they can use anything from the cupboard, which introduces many more possibilities. Happily, they found anchovies in chili paste, and as we know anchovies in chili paste can solve almost any cooking problem. And what did the team decide??? They chose Mediterranean flavors and planned to create a sauce for homemade pasta using the squid and mushrooms; dessert would be poached pears. Let The Cooking Begin! As always chopping was a big part of the preparation! After the preparation, the cooking became intense! You don't have to light a fire under these chefs. x xx Extra! Extra! Here is an Iron Chef Home Edition exclusive news item: As these candid pictures reveal, an important Cooking Team secret is to use chop sticks when cooking. The pasta was tossed with sauce and garnished with the remaining bell peppers, scallions and separately sauteed squid rings. xxxx Things were going great until the Cooking Team announced that they were serving sushi for dessert! What happened to those beautiful pears?? The team poached the pears in red wine and placed them on rectangles of vanilla ice cream to look like sushi, complete with "ginger" of maraschino cherries. Chop sticks not required. Let's Eat! It was time to pour the wine and put the meal to the ultimate test -- dinner for people who hadn't eaten since appetizers. xx What did the judges decide? "Complex!" "Flavorful!" "A Winner!" ... "Bravo!" Worth becoming a new recipe. [Copies available upon request.] The Cooking Team celebrates another culinary triumph!