Food Network fascinates me. Personally, I prefer the straight up cooking shows to the competitions, but every now and then I’ll find myself flipping channels and find a competition that pulls me in.
A few days ago, I happened upon a Thanksgiving Dinner competition that featured several families, each with its on unique approach to Thanksgiving Dinner. One family. the de Picciottos, was cooking a Middle Eastern style Thanksgiving feast. That totally caught my eye. Here’s a list of their recipes:
Deep fried turkey
A rice-based stuffing.
Braised lamb shanks with baby okra
Cranberry and pomegranate relish
Artichokes with a lemon and mint sauce
Potatoes sofrito
Tabouli salad
Dessert: Marbled mango mousse with phyllo fans.
As you might have guessed, I totally started rooting for them. I caught the show towards the end, and the deep fried turkey was quite ugly. It almost looked burned. But the judges loved the taste of the turkey and the other dishes and really seemed to appreciate the creativity of their menu. Hey, someone has to say it–sometimes ugly food tastes beautiful!
There were some tense moments. But they WON! They got to take home $10,000 (Insert booming Dr. Evil voice here.)
Congratulations!
I would have never thought that they would give an all-American award to a middle-eastern-inspired dish! I hope they did not steer too much away from the real tabbouleh! Anyway, it is a great thing! Thanks for letting us know!
I know, I thought that was pretty cool that they won, too! Not sure of the exact recipe they used for the tabbouleh…but if I find it, I’ll post a link.
Now that you’ve won the $10,000 why not share your recipes with everybody else? Or are you going to sell them to a magazine and make more money?