Today’s Throwdown - Bring
something you have always wanted to make and haven’t dared…
The winter weather here in Minnesota has certainly made
national news this year and instead of getting overwhelmed with the weather –
Mama Caruso invited foodie friends to warm it up and have some fun. There’s
nothing better to warm a spirit than friends, food and fun. Today’s post
features a Throwdown!
The Throwdown Theme – Bring
something you have always wanted to make and haven’t dared…
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These were the ingredients for my dish - something I have always
wanted to make but haven't dared - what did I make? |
Planning for this event began several weeks in advance so
that the challengers could have enough time to choose their dish, prepare it
and then deliver the goods and what an incredible event it turned out to be. Perhaps the most interesting part of the evening was when everyone shared why
they choose what they did, and why they hadn’t dared until now – it was great.
Hosting this event
was one of the easiest Throwdowns I’ve hosted because everyone came
self-contained, so the only hosting prep that was needed was checking in with
everyone about fridge and oven space, any utensils or special serving
requirements (that would have been a good time to have been told about the need
for a fire-extinguisher…)
 |
These ingredients were for my
youngest daughter's dish...
what did she make? |
The most difficult part of hosting this event was me being a
challenger as well which took all of my focus and so it was lucky that the
hosting prep was minimal. I would not change both hosting and participating
because of the minimal requirements for the hosting prep (plus I was cooking up
to the last minute on my third attempt at my dish and would not have been able
to get something on the plate were it not for being held at my house). Note to
others – host it yourself so you have those few extra precious minutes.
Because we choose not
to tell what we were making with any of the participants, it was interesting to
have to sit back and wonder if there would be a good cross-section of food that
would be edible, and so I did have a platter of cheese and fruit ready to pull
out if necessary (which it was not).
Perhaps the greatest lesson that we all learned was that
there is a reason we had not yet previously dared…many of the dishes took far
longer than we had calculated, with one challenger rising at 4:00 am on the
morning of the Throwdown to get his dish done by the 5:00 pm “hands-up” Throwdown
start time.
As my dish was crashing and burning (almost literally) and I
was starting again for the 3rd time fifteen minutes
 |
My husband crafted a
masterpeice with these
ingredients - What did he dare? |
before everyone
was supposed to arrive, the phone began ringing and ringing and then ringing
again. Every challenger was running late and the final entry arrived an hour
after our intended start time – note to others – set a time and be flexible.
When we do this again, I will encourage the challengers to do a practice run,
or encourage them to begin earlier than they originally intended.
But I am getting ahead of myself - let’s back up and start
with – what’s a Throwdown, how do I host a Throwdown and finally, what food did
my foodie friends dare to bring to this fabulous Throwdown?
What is a Throwdown? A Throwdown is a food related challenge
– it can be related to an ingredient, a specific dish, any themed challenge
that involves food. The host of the event sets up the rules, criteria and theme
and sometimes the prizes. A Throwdown can be as complex as you want to make it
with judges, scoring, and prizes or as simple as this Throwdown which involved
bringing a dish that you have always wanted to make and never dared – those were
the only rules, bring a dish that you have always wanted to make and never
dared.
We have had more complex Throwdowns such as the chocolate
mousse night which had an overinvolved scoring system that took 2 scientists (albeit
10th graders) several hours to calculate – but since we had all been
judges and had each sampled (devoured) five different chocolate mousses, we
weren’t planning on sleeping anytime soon and we waited for the results – it was
a fun Throwdown and I have had recent requests to reprise it.
One of the more simple Throwdowns I hosted was for everyone
to bring a potluck dish that described their personality, while simple for the
judging (all participants had to guess who brought what and there were prizes
for the most correct vote getters and vote placers), the trickiest thing about
this Throwdown was coordinating the dishes as they came in so that no one could
see who brought what – but it was super fun.
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| My oldest daughter has always wanted to make this...what is it? |
One element that Throwdowns have in common besides being a
challenge related to food, is that they are very interactive and lots and lots
of fun. The challenge pushes everyone out of their everyday food experience and
gives us something new to laugh and bond over. And making the rules flexible
enough gives people permission to get really creative – at the last Throwdown,
one of the kids involved brought a boxed cake that he made and when he was
describing why he had never dared before he said that who in the world would dare
to bring a boxed cake to a foodie festivity! Of course, great dare and it was
then that my husband admitted that he had considered making hamburger helper –
because that would be a pretty daring move!
It does not take a lot to host a Throwdown, just some
willingness to create an environment where people can have fun – that’s what it
is all about and so here’s how I hosted this Throwdown
Throwdown – Bring Something That You Have Always Wanted
to Make and Haven’t Dared
- The title determined the direction – when asked
if something would fit or would be okay, I reiterated the title
- I selected a date and called a bunch of friends
to invite them to participate
- Participating as a challenger was an option and
I left it really open – I wanted to see what would happen and as it turned out
leaving it open gave some people an opportunity to decide at the last minute to
get involved – several entries were decided upon the morning of the Throwdown
- The only instruction I gave them was to prepare
for at least 20 people
- I planned to begin eating at 5:00 and people
didn’t finish arriving until 6:00, in the future I would still invite everyone
to gather at 5:00 and then tell them we would begin eating at 6:00
- Telling people what time you will eat is
important to some of the timing of the dish, so that is critical in the
invitation
- Hold your event on a Saturday so that people can
take the time they need to cook their dishes
- Start early because this kind of event, from
getting the various food on the table, in the appropriate courses takes a lot
longer than a regular dinner party
- Food allergies – each challenger needs to bring
an ingredient list that gets posted by the dish and people with food allergies
need to be alert to those ingredient lists
- I had several people with food intolerances or
allergies and encouraged them to make something that they could eat so that
there would be something for them (I struggled with this because I usually
uber-cater to people with food-specific issues, but in this case I was asking
my foodie friends to cook their dreams and their dares)
- Knowing that there would be some dished that
participants couldn’t taste (different than wouldn’t taste) the prizes were
related to best dare story and things like most ingredients, most time to
prepare, best worst and worst best – in the future I would add a category that
would include, most number of times having to remake the dish and dish that
required most physical sacrifice!
- I provided large platters (to eat off of),
plastic utensils and bowls – we had so much food that it was fun to continue to
go back for more and then more and then more again – I usually like to serve
off of fun plates with real silverware – but I just wanted to have fun. We did
use real wine glasses.
This was really simple, really fun and will certainly be
back again on the Throwdown list. We do have a few more planned and I will
write about those in another post. I wanted to get you going on your plans for
a Throwdown – pick up the phone, plan a Throwdown and let the fun begin!
The food that we ate was some of the best food I have ever
had and there were scant leftovers. Come back again for the entire menu for our
Throwdown…and get the answer to why I needed a fire extinguisher, or what could
someone possibly have made that put themselves in physical peril…and finally…how
many eggs did I go through on my three attempts to remake my dish…and went
through how many eggs??? The answers to these and more next time on Mama Caruso
Cooks – until then, enjoy this recipe from the Throwdown – a Cuban Beef recipe
for Ropa Vieja – it won the most number of ingredients prize and was enjoyed by
all. Until then, from my table to yours...Mama Caruso.
Ropa
Vieja – Cuban Beef Recipe
Mike Farrand - foodie
Below is my variation
on the Cuban Beef dish. It can be served over rice, or on tortillas with sour
cream, cheese, and fresh cilantro on the side. This recipe uses 4 pounds of
flank steak, but you can cut it in half to serve 8 or so.
4 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 pounds beef flank steak
1 cup beef broth
4 oranges (juiced) - or tangerines, or tangelos
2 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 small onion, sliced
2 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon onion salt
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoon white vinegar
Directions
Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the flank
steak on each side, about 4 minutes per side.
Transfer beef to a slow cooker. Pour in the beef broth and tomato sauce,
then add the onion, bell pepper, garlic, tomato paste, cumin, onion salt,
cayenne pepper, salt, cilantro, orange juice, olive oil and vinegar. Stir
until well blended. Cover, and cook on High for 6 hours, or on Low for 10
hours. In the last hour add spice to taste and test beef to make sure it is
breaking apart.
When ready to serve, shred meat and serve with tortillas or rice. Garnish
with sour cream, cheese, and fresh cilantro.
