Round 1, challenge 7 Bill Hicks
I was pretty comfortable with my ingredients. Prosciutto, pistachios, and sweet potatoes are things I'm familiar with for cooking. But with the 100 proof Blumer's Moonshine, well obviously, the first thing to do was create a cocktail. Everthin' got eeeasier after that. While sipping away on the second one, I considered throwing all four ingredients into a blender and serving it on ice, but couldn't think of what to call it. This is a wonderful time of year for seasonal ingredients, but when attempting to incorporate things like green beans, tomatoes, and beets, the recipes had too many flavor components that clashed with the required ingredients. However, I was able to use apples, white peaches and fresh apple cider in my dishes. The recipe experiments had mixed outcomes, one mediocre, one educational and another a complete disaster. My testers made some interesting "observations" along the way; some were helpful, others downright annoying. The testers shall remain anonymous. I finally settled on a prosciutto and pistachio stuffed chicken breast with an orange Dijon mustard sauce, served with moonshine and cider flavored sweet potatoes. For balance, I prepared a coleslaw using Napa cabbage, Granny Smith apples and pistachios. For fun, I threw in a moonshine martini recipe with Blumer's Moonshine, Cointreau and a fresh white peach. Pretty tasty. Overall, it was a great experience, but stressful.
- Mary J. Insprucker