Chopped

I watch the food network way too often. I leave it on in the background while I'm writing sometimes or other times I just out right watch it.
I watch for recipe ideas and just general entertainment. Let's face it Guy Fieri is hilarious.. and has some fantastic restaurant suggestions!
There are shows that are simply instructional. They are amusing how tos. I love watching Paula Dean and her butter. Rachel Ray is great for a quick meal idea. There are countless other shows dedicated to recipes, to cakes, to cookies, to the semi homemade.

And then, there are the competitions. I have watched most of the episodes of the original Iron Chef and many of the American Iron Chef. There are countless shows dedicated to the battles within a kitchen but my current favorite is Chopped.

3 judges. 4 contestants. 4 secret items that must be utilized per round. 3 courses.

I love it because it's high pressure and super creative. As I watch I try to imagine what I would cook if I were faced with the same basket of secret ingredients. Often enough there are items that I've never even heard of. To be able to come up with a palatable dish, under the duress of time is impressive, to say the least.

Presentation, Taste and Creativity are the three main criteria the judges are looking at. To me it's utterly fascinating.
And sometimes the ingredients just stick in my head.
On Tuesday night, I watched a great episode and the dessert basket really stuck out in my mind.

The 4 ingredients were:

1. Chickpea flour 
2. Fresh Raspberries 
3. Rose water syrup
4. Salted Ricotta

The dishes that the chefs made looked amazing. The winner had a puddinglike dessert with specks of the ricotta hidden in bites and a fruit compote sauce. He tried to make ice cream as well, but that didn't come out as well as he wanted so he had to improvise. 

The runner up also had a fantastic looking dessert that included a raspberry and rose water sorbet and a sweet chickpea pancake with a marscapone and ricotta cream on top. It honestly looked delightful. 

I have seriously been thinking about what I would have made with those ingredients. 

In my head I have come up with a dish that I would really like to try.  And I will try it, granted I can find the rose water syrup.  

I would love to make a semi-sweet Falafel stuffed with salted ricotta and marscapone mixture and served with a raspberry and rose water sauce. 

All I can say is 

                                                            Challenge Accepted... 

--Raspberry Truffle


P.S. I'm going to Whole Foods for missing ingredients tomorrow... I'll post my finished results and pictures as soon as my sweet falafels are done....