A culinary challenge

In honour of the season finale of Masterchef Australia last night, A and I decided to host our own Masterchef challenge.

We decided each of us should cook a recipe featured on the show for dinner. We flipped a coin, which decided I'd do the main, and A would do dessert. Then we promptly swapped, since my ever-present sweet tooth demands I "specialise" in dessert and he is all about exotic mains.

True to form, A cooked up a storm, deciding to do and entree AND a main.



For entree, he made Natural Oysters with Thai Dressing. Simple and delicious. Makes me wonder why we don't have oysters more often at home, especially in summer.



Talk about presentation!!

I scored this dish 7/10. It was light, tangy and delicious but lacked the chilli I demand in pretty much every dish to make it complete.

Between the entree and the main, A sat a while and enjoyed the fruits of his labour.



The main was Baked Lilydale Chicken Breast with Moroccan Spiced Vegetable Stew.



I adored this dish. The stew was perfectly spiced: flavoursome, warming and nourishing, but still light and fresh. The chicken soaked up the yummy flavours of the stew. The chickpeas and all the veggies made it a really healthy dish. 10/10!!

To counteract the healthiness of the dinner, I had to go all out with dessert: Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce & Almond Praline.



Both the pudding and the sauce were simple to make and tasted divine. The praline didn't set properly because I was scared of overcooking it and took it off the heat too early. Freezing made it look presentable for about 1 minute, but the heat of the pudding and sauce soon melted it into a gooopy mess. A delicious, goopy mess, but still a mess. Overall score 8/10.

The most exciting thing: experimenting with some new dishes. Each of these was delicious, not too difficult and tasted amazing.

I'm dead keen to try some more Masterchef pieces now. What a shame the show is over. I miss it already!!!