Image courtesy of Brooklyn Food Experiment via Flickr
On Sunday I competed in my third Austin Food Experiment. The first year, when the theme was "pork" I made tiny sesame encrusted wonton cups filled with ginger pork and goji berry salsa. I had a great time, but went home empty-handed in the prize department. The following year I entered again. This time the theme for the contest was "tacos". I took a sweet route, and made a tomatillo buttermilk ice cream for the base of my dish. After playing with quite a few different taco shell options, I wound up sandwiching the ice cream between two sweet corn tortillas. The sandwiches were each topped with a candied jalapeno. Being the one and only dessert of the day, our bite was quite popular. Before voting even ended we ran out of the five hundred samples we'd brought. Though my team didn't place in the crowd or judges prizes, I was awarded with a special "Most Experimented" award. I went home with some sweet prizes, a huge grin, and a taste for glory. Next year, I decided, I'm getting the crowd or judge vote.
This year's theme was "smoke", not a theme that a cooking method that I'm particularly familiar with. We bought a smoker box for our grill when we moved in to our house, and even though my hubby, Scott, has made a couple of killer briskets, we're far from being smoke experts. I knew that my fellow Texans would bring the heat when it came to smoked meats, so I decided, once again, to head in a sweeter direction. My dish this year took a whole lot of experimentation. I had a basic idea for a smoked cherry and chocolate s'more, but the components for the dish were reincarnated over and over until it was just right. Semi-sweet chocolate gave way to milk chocolate. Pecan and applewood chips were switched to hickory. Sauces and flambe methods were tried and re-tried. After a very busy (and very smoky) month, we walked into the Austin Smoke Experiment with a dish that I was sure could be a winner.
Our Bourbon Cherry S'mores start out with a bed of honey graham soil, a crunchy gravel made from graham crackers, honey powder, raw cashews, coconut oil, butter, and salt. On top of the soil is a little scoop of smoked chocolate ice cream. It's hard to imagine what that tastes like, so think of an extra-rich chocolate ice cream, your favorite hot cocoa, and the smell of a campfire all at once. We squirted a little smoked cherry sauce over the ice cream, along with a plump little dried, smoked cherry. To top it all off, we made bourbon cherry marshmallows, soaked them in more bourbon, and lit them on fire over one hundred fifty proof alcohol. After toasting for a minute or so, they were blown out, and served over the ice cream sundaes. (Recipes are coming soon for both the ice cream and the marshmallows, by the way. Hang tight!)
Image courtesy of Brooklyn Food Experiment via Flickr
People were going nuts for it. As a result, we were busting our butts to get bites out for the entire competition. While we spent a good portion of the prior years drinking beer and shooting the shit with eaters, this year went by in a whirlwind of burning bourbon and sticky fingers. Before we knew it, the show was over, and winners were being announced. Theo, co-founder of the Food Experiments competitions, had teased me earlier in the week about this year's special prize for "Most Experimented", a giant Cookie Monster pinata filled with one thousand and one China Town fortune cookies. As soon as I saw him I thought, "He must be mine". And wouldn't you know it? For the second year in a row I took home "Most Experimented". While I would have loved to nab the crowd vote or judges pick, I kind of love being Queen of the weirdos. The only question is what will I have to do to hang on to my title next year?
Image courtesy of Brooklyn Food Experiment via Flickr
Brooklyn Brewery and The Food Experiments have shared a ton of great photos from The Austin Smoke Experiment on Flickr. Here's a slideshow for you to check out, if you are so inclined. You'll be glad to know that there is no shortage of photos featuring me in all of my wackadoo glory.