A couple of weeks ago I competed in a competition at the Taste food festival in Dubai, in the Crate and Barrel Cook Off for BBC Good Food. I had entered my sticky chicken recipe online and I was shortlisted to one of 12 contestants.
The competition was not to cook my dish…. It was a cook off with a mystery box of ingredients. We had 5 minutes to develop a recipe and tell them what is was (so no changing it along the way) and then 25 minutes to cook and plate the dish for the panel of judges.
Round 1: Chicken breast, cous cous, kale (it was a healthy cooking competition). With a limited pantry of additional ingredients, I prepared a lemon garlic grilled chicken, herby cous cous cooked in chicken stock and a raw salad of kale, zucchini ribbons and tomato. I think the raw kale got me over the line and into the final round.
Final round: Beef tenderloin, butternut squash, swiss chard and rice noodles. Again with same limited pantry, I prepared grilled beef fillet with garlic, grilled slices of butternut, sautéed swiss chard with shallots and zucchini and served on a crispy rice noodle cake with a balsamic reduction.
The final round also required us to wear microphones and talk to the audience and judges as though we were presenting a cooking show and we were also judges on our ability to engage the audience – I should have practiced talking to myself more often when in the kitchen!
There were 6 finalists, a huge stage and the prizes were announced. I don’t think I can quite believe that I won and am so excited for my prize of a 10 day trip around Europe with my husband, with cooking classes and tours! Very excited, more details to come. No one ever judge me for the number of cooking shows I watch, it seemed to have paid off!!
I admit that the food I prepared for the competition was not something I would normally cook as a dish, but I guess that’s the nature of the competition! So I was thinking, as I prepared my weekday dinners, what would I cook in 25 minutes on a normal night. Surprisingly, a lot – but that is with thought and time to buy ingredient ahead of time. The one night of the week that is consistent is Sunday nights (start of our working week in Dubai). It is always salmon. It’s a good healthy, light way to start the week after a weekend of indulgence and I don’t need to think much about how to start the weeks meals.
My go to recipe actually takes less than 25 minutes and is just a baked salmon fillet, green veges and a sauce made of equal parts sweet soy (kecap manis) and sweet chilli sauce, sprinkled with freshly chopped coriander. Whilst delicious is not really blog worthy.
The competition got me thinking that there are some ingredients that I just don’t use and what would have I done if they were in there!! So this recipe started with trying out using Tarragon. I am very comfortable with a lot of herbs but I just haven’t used tarragon much if at all.
It has a really distinct anise flavour which I love so I plan on using it a lot more.
The really bold flavours in the herb topping are what make this dish and then a simple side of cooked beetroot, potatoes and green beans (which I roast in the same dish as the salmon during the last 10 minutes of cooking). Serve it with a great horseradish sauce and it’s actually a pretty decent meal, perhaps with a slight Scandinavian theme.
- 2 x 200g Salmon fillet, middle cut pieces are better
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- sea salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons tarragon, chopped
- 2 tablespoons dill, chopped
- 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
- 1 tablespoon lemon rind, finely grated
- 4 washed potatoes cut into chunks
- 4 baby beetroot cut into similar size chunks as potato
- 400g green beans, tops trimmed
- ¼ cup plain yoghurt
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon horseradish
- juice of the lemon
- Pre heat oven to 170 degrees
- Place the salmon on a baking tray and spread 1 tablespoon of mustard on each fillet and season with salt and pepper
- Mix the herbs and lemon rind in a small bowl to combine
- Dividing the herb mix in two, pat the herbs on top of the salmon in thick layer
- Place the salmon in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes depending on how thick your fish is. If you use tails, they will only take about 12 minutes
- Steam or boil the beetroot and potatoes in separate pans until tender, about 12 minutes
- Drizzle the beans with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, add them to the baking tray half way through cooking the fish.
- To make the sauce, combine the yoghurt, sour cream, horseradish, salt and pepper and a tablespoon of lemon juice.
- Drain the potatoes and toss with a little of the sauce.
- Arrange the fish, beans, beetroot and potatoes and enjoy!
Very impressive. Is there anything you can’t do?! What an incredible trip that will be. Congratulations.