Sunday Challenge - part 6
May 30, 2010

It has been a while since we did our last Sunday challenge. But this week we have a special guest at home, our niece from Albuquerque. My husband and I thought it would be fun to let her choose the theme for a Sunday Challenge. And our 14-year old niece picked the following theme.

The challenge : Chocolate, cantalope and beef

What I Made : 1) Chocolate marinated skirt steak with cantaloupe salsa; 2) white chocolate souffle with cantalope and raspberry sauce and candied beef jerky

My thought: I am glad for the ingredients she picked. As soon as she revealed the theme, many ideas came to mind and I decided to make two dishes which use all three ingredients. The part that I had to think a bit about was how I can incorporate the beef into the dessert. And with the hint of candied bacon that I read about somewhere, I decided to make candied beef jerky. Beef jerky has already some sweetness and I thought it would be very interesting. Overall, I think I did a good job on both dishes. I was disappointed that, with the cantalope salsa, you don't taste much of the chocolate from the meat. But when I ate the meat alone without salsa, I could taste the chocolate. Otherwise, they both turned out to be very flavourful dishes.

Judge's verdict: The beef was perfectly cooked and tender, and the salsa full of texture and flavor. I agree, however, that the chocolate hints were a bit too subtle. When I heard the concept I was expecting a more prominent mole sauce of some kind. Desert was stellar and I found myself snacking on the candied beef jerky the next day.