Tampa Shrimp and Chorizo Loaf

by Scott Wurzel

Avg. Score: 8.37

I love to take food from other locations and "bring them home."  Food is a local phenomena.  You could call it dishonest for me to make an oyster loaf sandwich outside of New Orleans (even if I could find good french bread).  So, in the spirit of this philosophy, I bring that fine sandwich to Tampa with two tastes of my home: gulf tiger shrimp and chorizo.

1 big loaf of cuban bread

1/2 pound Tiger Shrimp: peeled, deveined, and tails removed.

5 chorizo sausages (See note)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil for drizzling.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Drizzle olive oil in a large skillet (about a turn and a half).  Turn pan up to medium-low heat.

Slice bread length-wise in half.  Rake out enough of the bread to make a cradle for the filling.  Brush or drizzle olive oil on the inside of the bread and place in oven.  Bake for about 10 minutes or just until the bread is crisp.

Make a shallow incision across the length of each sausage and remove the casing. Add sausage to pan and break it up as it browns.  Saute until the sausage begins to brown.

Add shrimp to pan and mix everything together.  Continue saute until the shrimp is done, though still crisp.  Remove pan from heat.

Fill the bread with the shrimp and chorizo and replace the top.  Brush the outside of the bread with olive oil and place back in the oven for another 5 minutes or until the outside is crisp.  Serve hot.

Note: This is raw, uncured chorizo. Like Kielbasa, chorizo comes in a variety of preparations.  You want the kind the butcher would make (and a good one will know what you are talking about).

Green Curry Shrimp and Pineapple Skewers

by Robert Cooksey, Master Chef

Avg. Score: 8.825

Tiger Tiger Green Curry Paste - 2 heaping tablespoons

Coconut Milk - one can

Shrimp - 1 lb. 16/20 shrimp (though larger might be better)

Pineapple - 1 fresh, very ripe

Put curry paste in pot on low heat for 5 minutes. Stir with wood spoon, flattening paste against skillet.

Add coconut milk, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile prep the other ingredients and get the charcoal ready.

Cut pineapple into 1 inch pieces. Alternately skewer shrimp and pineapple chunks to fill kebab.

When charcoal is ready (white coating of ash across all briquettes), grill kebabs on each side enough to get a quick, light char. This will depend on your grill, but should be no more than a couple minutes on each side.

Baste coconut/curry concoction across kebabs and rotate. Your goal is to get a nice char on pineapple and shrimp while basting with cococurrymilk before each rotation. I am sure to rotate at least twice in quick succession.

Pull from grill and serve. I like to serve them as a course at big BBQs that break up the orgy of sausages, burgers, steaks, and chicken with some light and acidic bites. They're also good over a nice pilaf.

Note: I didn't let the charcoal stay hot enough on this round and the char on the shrimp and pineapple suffered for it. I went light on the coals instead of adding enough to cover the entire bottom of the grill about 1.5 briquettes deep, which I should have done in retrospect since I was working on an unfamiliar grill whose heating behavior was not known.

Seared Scallops with Caper Sauce

by Erica Cooksey

Avg. Score: 8.8

1 3.5 oz jar capers in brine, drained with brine reserved

Enough golden raisins to equal the capers (1/4-1/3 cup)

A pound of very large (at least U-12) sea scallops

1 small head of cauliflower

Combine the drained capers and golden raisins in a small saucepan. Add

3/4 cup water to cover and simmer on low for about 15 minutes or until

raisins are plump and soft. Transfer to a blender, including the cooking water, and puree with about a tablespoon of the reserved brine. Set aside in a warming oven.

Meanwhile, break the cauliflower into florets. Using a mandoline or V-slicer, shave very thin slices. You will need twice as many slices as you have scallops.

Remove the crescent-shaped muscle from the scallops (if present) and halve the scallops across their equators.

Heat a nonstick pan on high, and sear both sides of each cauliflower slice until nicely browned. Set aside in warming oven.

Sear the scallops, one side only, in a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until a crust forms and some opacity is visible from the other side.

Spoon some sauce on the bottom of a plate. Top with scallops, seared side up, then top each scallop with a browned cauliflower slice. Sprinkle with salt and serve immediately.

Healthy Banana "Souffle" and Left Over Surprise!

by Kelly Campana

Avg. Score: 7.32

1 oz box - Jell-o no bake sugar free pudding mix

16 oz - lite or free Whipped topping ( I used the lite cool whip)

1 box - reduced fat nilla wafers

1/2 gallon - 2% milk (will have some unused milk left over)

muffin pans w/t muffin wrappers

1) Crush nilla wafers (fine crush, great for layers, thick crush chunky topping).

2) Add 2 cups whipped topping, 3 cups milk, and 8 oz pudding mix to blender, blend until mixed creamy, place in mixing bowl.

3) Add about 1 cup whip and fold in using spoon to thicken to near pudding consistency.

4) Line muffin pan with muffin cups.

5) Place layer of cookie crumbles in bottom (the tighter you push them together then firmer a base it will create).

6) Using spoon scoop filling into cups.

7) Place in freezer till frozen.

Notes: you can switch the flavors of the cookies and pudding for different styles.  the only other time I did this was about 1.5 years ago with a 5-type chocolate (it had layers of Oreo, white, milk, dark, shaved flavored chocolate.  Also the actually idea is taking paper cups and layering the cookie and pudding.  place in freezer for about 5 hours and it freezes to a ice cream-ish thing. once frozen you flip it upside down like a toward and  peel away the cup. 

Left Over Surprise:

Depending on the number of cups you fill you will be left with a large amount of excess filling mix and cookies (about 1/2 a bag of cookies).

1) Make filling as above.

2) Pour filling mix and cookie crumbles into blender bowl. 

3) Add about another cup or so of milk to allow for blending.

4) Blend till cookies are more like granulated sugar then cookie pieces.

5) Pour into muffin cups.

6) Freeze 45 minutes till chilled and set firm but not frozen.

Bacon Filet Mignon Kabobs

by Andy Spetz

Avg. Score: 8.3

3 - 4 oz Filet minion  cut into 1inch by 1 inch cubes

Thick sliced hickory bacon, cut into half

1 sweet Vidalia onion, julienned

Pepper Garlic Meat rub

Grill Note: For this recipe I used both charcoal for heat and  hickory wood chips. I soaked the wood chips in a mixture of rum and water for about an hour. After your charcoal is hot enough, you will put the wood chip directly on the coals. The desired flames when you cook will be relatively low when you start out. The drippings from the bacon will cause excessive flames though so I would limit how many skewers you are doing at one time or else your flame will be hard to manage.

1) Cut Filet into 1 in by 1 in cubes, thickness can vary though based on personal preference( I.E.: thicker for more rare filets and thinner for more done). This will help ensure that you bacon can still crisp without over cooking your steak.

2) Julienne your onions. After that take 3/4 of the onion and wrap them into a tin foil.  After  wrapped they are ready to be put into the hot embers of the charcoal

3) Take your thick sliced bacon and cut it into half. You will want to cut them so you are left with two short and fat slices of bacon.  Dredge your filet chunks in the pepper garlic spice rub. The desired  outside texture should be like a light encrusting. Now its time to wrap your filets in the half bacon strips. Skewer them but make sure to leave  a half inch to an inch of space between each piece of meat. This is to ensure that the sides get cooked as evenly as possible.

4) In a frying pan cook 6 slices of bacon, as the bacon starts to cook the fat will be rendered, take the 1/4th onion that was left over and dice it. Put the diced onion in your frying pan and add a small pinch of salt. Turn the heat down to a slow simmer and let it cook for 8 minutes. After which you will discard the bacon slices (feed them to krystal) and put the liquid into a small bowl.

5)  Throw the kabobs on the grill. It should be noted that it would be well advised to keep water near (possibly a spray bottle of it) so that you can douse the flames when the bacon fat hits the  embers. You  will want a small fire but not a lot, so as you do not over  char the kabobs. It is also well advised not to cook all of your kabobs at once because with large amounts of fat hitting the flames it is quite easy to become over whelmed with the fire.

6) By the time the bacon is crisp, the steak should be cooked to a good medium - mid well.  Pull the kabobs off the grill and carefully  pull your tinfoil full of onions from the embers.

7) Pull the Kabobs off the skewer and open your tinfoil. The onions should be slightly  translucent and be somewhat soft. Let the onions rest on top of the  kabob and drizzle lightly the bacon and onion glaze you made earlier on top of the steak and onions.

8) Next, enjoy with friends and think of how much this simple recipe would have cost at a nice restaurant. Man, those guys are suckers.

A Legend Revived -- Master Chef Returns to the Earth

After a 1,000 year hiatus, the sport of the Great Kitchen Gods again graces the fine city of Tampa.

Arising from the smoke, curry, and oil I present to you the Venerable Robert Cooksey, Master Chef.

It now falls to him to "cook up" and preside over the next competition.  There, he shall gracefully abdicate his title and the Hollowed Golden Whisk.  He has six months to do so.

As I receive recipes, I'll post them.  Gratz to everyone!  Everything was delicious.