EDF Cooking Contest
 

I've been waiting patiently for this to appear and have heard nothing, so I decided to take the initiative. Let's have an EDF cooking contest! The contest will run for the month of August. Anyone can participate. The only constraint for participation is that your entry feature the following ingredient: tomatoes.

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/im...es-Posters.jpg

I don't know about you, but I have tomatoes coming out of my ears from my garden. Let's see what we can do with them.

For the preliminary discussion that lead up to this post see SamIAM's IronChef thread here.
If you are unfamiliar with the OOT Iron Chef competitions you may want to check it out: Cabbage, Sweet Potato, Bacon, Rice, Beef, Avocado, Ricotta, Garlic, Catfish, Radish, Duck, asparagus, & chili peppers.
Hopefully, the EDF cooking contest will bring out what was best about those challenges and fix what brought on its eventual demise. I know there has been great food talk in What's cooking EDF?; a contest will hopefully build on that while getting people to think about the same ingredient or theme. Of course, there is also the fun of competition. At the end of the month we can put up a poll to vote for the best contribution. People should be encouraged to submit multiple dishes. Let's go! Bon appetit!

Re: EDF Cooking Contest
 

Great, thanks for getting this started. I'll try to come up with something over the next two weeks. I've never really cooked in tomato season before, so I'm looking forward to thinking about dishes and reading other people's ideas.

Re: EDF Cooking Contest
 

All,

Just make some cool stuff. We will create a judging scale for the poll when it's all said and done. Feel free to put all sorts of tomato-themed or tomato-related dishes in this thread. Then, when we lay out the rules, you can select your contributions that work best for that.

Take good pics, but I'm going to try and minimize the impact of that a little in the judging. I'll also probably do a little scaling in terms of experience levels and such.

I yesterday made an heirloom tomato and feta salad. YUM! Will have to take pics of my next one!

Re: EDF Cooking Contest
 

I might give this one a go; the main thing likely to hang me up is the photography, but I can probably figure something out there. Sun-dried tomatoes allowed or not? I have an idea that I remember from a restaurant meal from like 10 years ago, but thinking back on it it probably used sun-dried tomatoes.

Re: EDF Cooking Contest
 

[ QUOTE ]
Take good pics, but I'm going to try and minimize the impact of that a little in the judging. I'll also probably do a little scaling in terms of experience levels and such.

[/ QUOTE ]
I just wanted to emphasize, if you're good at food photos, please do make a pretty picture. I like seeing the good shots, and it's helped me (gradually [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]) improve my own photography. ElD's ideas about fixing the judging will be important for the "who wins" side, but I really don't want a rule saying Only CameraPhones.

What's the verdict on Tomatillos? Are they tomatoes? I could go either way; I think they're a different family entirely, but with looser definitions we get more variety of dishes. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: EDF Cooking Contest
 

What are the names of the tomatoes that look like [censored] on the outside, mixture of red/green/rotting looking skin, but they taste amazing. They are huge too, not your normal sized tomato. My mom bought some of these at a farmer's market and I haven't tasted better tomatoes...

Re: EDF Cooking Contest
 

This thread has given me the itch to come out of my internet forum cooking contest retirement.

I love tomatoes, and I think it's a perfect ingredient for this kind of thing. My favorite snack is heirloom tomato, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, s+p and evoo. Try it.


Sam,

I vote yes on tomatillo.

Re: EDF Cooking Contest
 

[ QUOTE ]
What are the names of the tomatoes that look like [censored] on the outside, mixture of red/green/rotting looking skin, but they taste amazing. They are huge too, not your normal sized tomato. My mom bought some of these at a farmer's market and I haven't tasted better tomatoes...

[/ QUOTE ]

heirlooms

Re: EDF Cooking Contest
 

Made pizza tonight. It's amazing how easy it is to make, and to make well - especially when you consider the million dollar industry (billion?) that exists around really bad pizza made by a few big companies.

The crust is about 1/3 whole wheat flour. Lots of garlic and olive oil. Fresh basil from a friend's garden. Fresh mozzarella. And of course, tomatos, to offer that hint of acid and to cut through it all.

I don't really like tomatoes, so I don't know how many dishes I'll post here....

http://www.teamwetdog.com/OOTIC/pizza.jpg

Re: EDF Cooking Contest
 

Sapo,

Have you tried heirlooms?