So here's our line up from the Surf N Turf first annual Sand Chef competition:
Team Tapablo consisted of Kevin Saul, Joanna and Paul Murphy all from Ventura Ca.
We arrived Friday morning at 10 am and set up camp south east of the fire pit.
Ran into town, grabbed a bunch of fixins and came back to finish camp set up.
Since we found out the night before that rice was the special ingredient, even after the multiple proof readings and initial posting, we desperately started looking for recipies since none of us cook rice often, or ever while camping.
Our first savory dish was an Ode to the event title, Surf n Turf.
We made two sushi rolls in soy paper, the SURF roll had Pepper seared Ahi tuna and a spicy sauce with Avocado, and cucumber, the other was the TURF roll which had top sirloin, green pepper, carrot and a drizzled Honey BBQ sauce over the top.
(We had to hijack a local sushi bar for the soy paper, they weren't even open technically, but Umi Sushi is getting our business next time were in town!)
Our second dish was Risi e Bisi, or a risotto like cheesy rice and organic peas.
We started with sauteed Shallots and Cheddar-Wurst sausages, then added a bunch of rice, peas and then tons of cheese(five different kinds) and chicken broth and a few spices.
Micky Rubicon called it the "Bears Defense of the 70's for your liver" we made so much we fed a group of onlookers from Tahoe and a few others as well.
We had an extra savory dish, which wasn't judged that was a Tomato and brown rice dish that was to be served cold. It got better the colder it got.
Our dessert was Sake infused organic Melon and Plum slices with a poundcake wedge.
We also had a second dessert which was a take on an egg roll. ( sticking with the Japanese theme of the origin of our trucks)
It started with Phyllo dough and had a coconut milk arborio rice spread thin, then chunks of Mango then Kevin rolled it. That got fryed in oil and when it puffed up and got all golden brown he took it out and sprinkled it with sugar and topped that off with a Grand Marnier reduction sauce. It was outstanding.
Too bad we didn't have time to actually taste it before we turned in the Sake cup though, we had people waiting a half hour for a taste of that, we kept churning them out until we were all done with the ingredients.
We had a blast. We came in with our tools, lights and generator, and the tent and tables and coolers. Then right before the competiton we busted out with our own logo'd aprons that Joanna made with Iron on Transfers. I think we got more attention to those than our cooking, but we were laughing so hard the whole time none of it mattered.
Thank you Alvaro for suggesting the event and heading it in a great direction!
Next year we will be going for first place in our SnT Apron (2.0)
I'll add pics in a bit.
