I’m not a competitive person. So when I found out that part of the mushroom farm tour was a team cooking challenge, not unlike Masterchef, I was anxious!
We were randomly assigned to groups of 4 by picking a mushroom quote from an upturned pile, in our group was Gillian (My Square Frying Pan), Jamie (Gourmet Male) and Matt (Abstract Gourmet). We had an hour to prepare and present a hot and a cold dish using mushrooms as the main component, each must have 12 portions. We were allowed to used our smart phones to research. You must remember that just because we were all food bloggers, not all of us cook.
This was the list of ingredients that we were given. We decided that the girls would work on the hot course and the boys would do the cold. So Gillian and I put our heads together to come up with a fabulous, creative idea. We tossed around making a pie, a mushroom stroganoff, a stir fry, all those predictable mushroom ideas. And then we spotted dark chocolate on the list. 
We decided on chocolate mushroom spiced risotto empanadas. It was a busy hour. 8 groups of 4 running around the kitchen trying to get everything done in our time frame. In the end it wasn’t as scary as I’d thought it was going to be, it was fun and exhilarating. 
We worked well as a team of 4, and got our dishes on the plates in the nick of time. For our cold dish the boys created a mushroom carpaccio, using lemon juice and some of the coconut vinegar. It was delicious, oh-so-fresh and a just a little tart.
We ended up loosing the competition but 1/4 of a point, but I was so proud of our efforts!
What would you have made with the list of ingredients above?
No idea what I’d make, but that sounds like such fun! Lovely photography too Clare, what delicious dishes!
It was so tough to decide!
1/4 of a point? I don’t think you should be allowed 1/4 points so really you tied in my books. How very creative of you to combine chocolate and mushrooms!
It was a 1/4 point due to some tricky averaging. It’s ok, the prize was a bottle of wine, so I wasn’t too worried.
You lost by a quarter of a point? That’s a tough competition. I think for what you created you certainly excelled in this contest. I love mushrooms and would have loved to have been a part of this xx
It really was a wonderful experience! There was some tough competition.
What fun! I loved the selection of dishes that were created. Congratulations on the near win.
It really was great fun!