Monday, 30 June 2008

it's getting closer....



Thank you all for your ingredient suggestions! Now the list reads as follows:

kiwi, paprika, lentils, rabbit, rosemary, Cornish hens, spring onion, beetroots, raspberries, palm sugar, artichokes, green garlic, lettuce, onion, parsley, yoghurt, honey, turkey, dry beans, fresh oregano, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, thyme, shallot, asparagus, mango, strawberries, cabbage, sage, anaheim peppers, cherries, chickpeas (or chickpea flour) and walnuts.

Now we just have to wait until Wednesday when we will get the 4 ingredients....

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Friday, 27 June 2008

Paper Chef 31 preparations!

Next weekend it's time for another Paper Chef edition, the 31st to be exact so now it's time to add to the ingredient list, right now we have:

kiwi, paprika, lentils, rabbit, rosemary, Cornish hens, spring onion, beetroots, raspberries, palm sugar, artichokes, green garlic, lettuce, onion, parsley, yoghurt, honey, turkey, dry beans, fresh oregano, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, thyme, shallot, asparagus, mango, strawberries, cabbage and sage.

Add an ingredient to the list and start excericising your grey cooking cells in that brain of yours, unbook trips, guests and restaurants and prepare to participate! This month Hank of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook will be the Judge after his well deserved win last month!

Wednesday, 11 June 2008

PAPER CHEF 30 - The Roundup


Just take a look here! We've got a beautiful PaperChef event logo that has been graciously created by Toontz of Okara Mountain who heard my cry for help and stretched out a helping hand! Thanks a lot for this, I really appreciate it, yet another proof of what great community the food blogging community is! I will post two sizes of it every month when I announce the event and feel free to lift it and use it when you blog about your entries!
Good news, this month we have seven entries and I hope this is just the beginning! I am specially happy as all the entries are very good so The Judge will have a real hard time deciding he he!


First to send me her entry was Maybelle's Mom from Feeding Maybelle who despite no electricity and an impressive coming and going of cousins and aunts managed to make a wonderful Orange Curried Lamb with Toasted Buckwheat in Tangerine Vinegrette. That's dedication!



Natasha of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies made Greek Style Lamb Pot Pies, small but beautiful pot pies full of taste that would satisfy even the most difficult of guests!



Buckwheat galettes filled with ground lamb & peas and served with a leek soubise. That is the impressive creation by my friend Mike from Eat Me! who was inspired by his grandma's meat filled crepes.



Another good friend of mine has sent me an entry for the Paper Chef, Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups, she made Kefta Varnishkas, an intriguing mix of Moroccan and Russian cooking that shows how good it can be to mix cultures!



This was Melissa's of Alosha's Kitchen first food blogging event and it seems to me that she got the Paper Chef spirit straight away, it's all about challenging yourself to be creative within a relative restricted frame, i.e. 4 ingredients, and to use new ingredients or at least use them in new ways, not so much about winning the event. Well that is how I feel about it anyway and that is why I love the PC. Melissa made appetizing Lamb and Buckwheat meatballs with Pea and Leek Purée, check out her excellent serving suggestion at the end of the post!



Hank of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook came up with a Spring lamb sugo where he got to make buckwheat pasta and a tasty lamb sugo to go with it, he says it was time consuming (as all sugo making is) but I'm sure it was worth it!



And to finish the roundup, I made Pea and Leek Broth with Lamb Fricadellen and Buckwheat Dumplings over at Lucullian Delights

A big Thank You to all participants, you saved the Paper Chef this month and I am deeply impressed by your creativity!

Now you have to VOTEVOTEVOTE for the People's Choice of June!

People's Choice for June
Maybelle's Mom's Orange Curried Lamb with Toasted Buckwheat in Tangerine Vinegrette
Natasha's Greek Style Lamb Pot Pies
Mike'sBuckwheat galettes filled with ground lamb & peas and served with a leek soubise
Tanna's Kefta Varnishkas
Melissa's Lamb and Buckwheat meatballs with Pea and Leek Purée
Hank's Spring lamb sugo
Ilva's Pea and Leek Broth with Lamb Fricadellen and Buckwheat Dumplings
Free polls from Pollhost.com
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Thursday, 5 June 2008

PAPER CHEF 30 HAS STARTED!

The Judge has banged the ladle on the kitchen table and announced the 4 ingredients for this month's Paper Chef:

English peas (I have to check up on the English here as I have to confess that I don't really know how English peas differ from Italian ones)
leeks
buckwheat
(local) lamb

Please head over to FOOD ON THE FOOD to hear what the Judge has to say!

Remember to include all the ingredients in all the dishes you make but feel free to add others. You obviously are allowed to substitute ingredient(s) that you can't eat for health reasons, ethical reasons or religious reasons and if you cannot find an ingredient where you live (I know how difficult that can be sometimes) I would say that you can substitute it with something very similar that you can find!
And listen up those of you who would like to participate but don't have your own blog, please contact me and I can arrange for you to publish a post here on the PC blog! So there are no more excuses not to participate! Cook, create, blog about it and remember to mention the Paper Chef (link to this blog) so that we spread the word about this event and then send me the permalink to your blog post at paperchef AT gmail DOT com before midnight (yours) on Tuesday the 10th of June. Everything clear?

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Tuesday, 3 June 2008

Logo

Anyone who is willing to make a nice logo for the Paper Chef? Please?

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Sunday, 1 June 2008

PAPER CHEF NO 30

Finally Paper Chef has got its own blog and this will hopefully make it easier for me to keep it going but as I said in a prior post, it is up to you if the Paper Chef event continues or not, if there are too few participants it obviously means that there is not enough interest and I will therefore stop. That being said, I hope that this will not be the case and that all of you who have expressed the wish to see the Paper Chef live a long and prosperous life will get creative in your kitchens and come up with interesting and tempting entries for this and coming months! I will add little bits and pieces to the blog, like prior roundups and winners etc when I have more time, for now this will have to suffice.

This months judge is Tammy of FOOD ON THE FOOD who ripped the victory from me last month. I am sure she is going to be a great judge!

But right now we need more ingredients on the list so that she has something to put into the random choice generator so please come with suggestions! This is what we have got for the moment:
leek, kiwi, paprika, lentils, rabbit, rosemary, Cornish hens, spring onion, buck wheat, beetroots, raspberries, palm sugar, Lamb shanks, artichokes, green garlic and English peas.
Updated with:
lettuce, onion, parsley, yoghurt, honey, turkey, dry beans, fresh oregano, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, thyme, shallot, asparagus, mango, strawberries, cabbage and sage

Spread the word! And prepare yourself for cooking this coming weekend!


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Rules and regulations

So what is this Paper Chef about really?  Owen of Tomatilla, created Paper Chef back in 2004, basing it on the TV show Iron Chef and its British equivalent Ready, Steady, Cook: a set number of ingredients, a restricted amount of time and one person cooking and creating something out of it. And that is what it is all about here, a creativity challenge that pushes you to hopefully think in new ways about food and cooking!

The first whole week of every month will be dedicated to Paper Chef so you can note that down. In addition to the judge's/judges' choice, we also have People's Choice were readers can vote for their favourite. The winner of the Paper Chef (the one crowned by the judge or judges) will be the judge the following roundup the month after so be prepared to do that when you enter the competition. Yet again, Paper Chef is about being creative and discovering your non-limits in the kitchen, I promise that you will surprise yourself once you get going!

So the 4 ingredients chosen by the PC host of the month (at least 3 randomly chosen from the list and if the host of the month feels like it, a theme) will be announced on the first Wednesday of the month on the Paper Chef blog and then you have until Tuesday noon (where you live) to send it to paperchef AT gmail DOT com. The roundup will be posted here and the winners will be announced first on the judges blog and then here.

When you create your entries you have to use all four of the ingredients but you are obviously allowed to add other ingredients as well. You can make more than one dish but only if they all contain the 4 ingredients. If you are a vegetarian, vegan or suffer from food allergy or intolerance or cannot eat certain food for religious reasons you are allowed to substitute whatever it is you cannot eat with something similar that you can eat. If you can't find an ingredient because of wrong season or because it is impossible to find them where you live, you can substitute it with something similar. 

Photos are not necessary and I would like to point out that it's the recipes that are being judged, not the visual result. If there is a particular photo of your entry that you would like to be posted in the roundup please include it (or a link to it) in your entry email.

This is a one entry event, i.e. don't use it for other events because Paper Chef deserves to be the one and only one. Include the recipe of your entry dish in the blog post, link back here, send us the link to your blog post to paperchef AT gmail DOT com end above all, enjoy yourself! If you dont have a blog, send us the text/recipe and photos if you have any and we will post it here on the PC blog for you!

Do you have a question? Read this carefully again and if it is still there, fire away!

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