Men Who Cook Wrap Up 2010

The testosterone set has spoken and the results are delicious! I'm going to warn you. There are lots of pictures, because I love pictures and I really loved these pictures!!

In no particular order I bring you the boyz of September! Well I guess there is a particular order. It is the order in which I received the entries.

First we have Jim. Jim really embodied the spirit of Men Who Cook by attacking this challenge with gusto and creativity. Plus look how much fun he had. Jim is the partner in crime of Tami Noyes (famed author of American Vegan Kitchen and Vegan Appetite Blog). I had the pleasure of meeting Jim in Chicago this summer. He is a food lover after my own heart and a hell of a lot of fun as you can see by the pictures!

Here is Jim's creation - Smoked Mexican Tofu with Tomato Stuff and Grilled Apple and Jalapeno Relish Chutney Topping Check out this post at Vegan Appetite for more details and descriptions.

The grillin' magician 

Voila success

Bobby Flay - eat your heart out.

Next up is ppknut's honey. He went all rogue in the pantry. He created a soup from what he had on hand. This is awesome. How many of us do this on a regular basis? I bring you I need to go shopping Lentil Noodle Soup! (1)

Here we have Wes's entries. As many of us, he is one busy guy. While he didn't have time to cook up anything this week, he shot me a link to some of the fantastic things he's been making. Check out his flickr set! Holy cow! This Man CAN cook! Seriously folks DONUTS!!! (2)

The next Man Who Can Cook (and also have a lot of fun doing it, I might add) is Quinn. Quinn not only made several things, he got all musical while waiting for his delicious creations to be done. From Quinn: "OH, and I forgot to mention that I made up my own recipe! That's rather important, isn't it? It's a chickpea, pigeon pea and black eyed pea salad with mango dressing." (3)

He made the Banana Rabanada from Vegan Brunch...and this is what he did to keep himself occupied while it was cooking! It was all he could do to wait for the sweet yumminess to hit his lips. OK his description was much more amusing than mine, but somehow I deleted his e-mail before I could quote his awesomeness. Sorry Quinn!

He also got down with this yummy tofu salad sammy and a refreshing cucumber drink.

Was it all delicious? Why yes, yes it was.

Next up is my honey Phat Freddy. Fred is an excellent cook, but he sometimes has a hard time letting go and going for it. He seemed to get over this last night! I woke up at 2am to the most wonderful smells filling the house. It tastes as good as it smells!

I'll share the recipe here with you. I'm going to post it as he wrote it with some little notes of my own. Sorry honey, I am a food control freak.

Freddy's Tomatoey Manly Meatless Chili

12 oz vegan chorizo
2 tbsp canola oil

28 oz. fire roasted whole tomatoes.

28 oz. fire roasted diced tomatoes.

15 oz. black beans

15 oz. kidney beans

15 oz. pinto beans

3 cups V-8

1 tbsp  vegan Worcestershire sauce

1 stalk celery

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp fresh med. chopped oregano

2 tbsp regular chili powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp cumin

4 pasilla peppers, seeded and deviened and finely chopped(for a little more heat leave seeds and veins in one)

9 medium jalapenos, leave 'em whole

4 medium yukon gold potatoes, diced in 1 inch chunks

1/2 cup tequila

Start browning the chorizo in a cast iron skillet with the canola oil and set aside when done. The chorizo will fall apart but it is more for taste, not texture. Put everything else in a big pot in the order stated as the sauce can be warming while you are measuring spices, ( unless you are a mis en place fanatic like I am). I like all of the taste of the onions by not sauteing them ahead of time, it helps offset the sweetness of all of the tomato products. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 min. Add chorizo,whole jalapenos, potatoes, and tequila, simmer another 20 min approximately. The guide here is you want your potatoes a little under cooked as it is going to set another 20, min. cooling before you serve and they will cook a little more then. If you want a little more heat, when dishing up just scoop up one of the jalapenos and break it up in your bowl*. If the heat is good for you leave them in the pot. This is a great chili for the day after a hard night with the veggies and capsicum present. It is man friendly as we like to hear "just through it in the pot and cook it" with only 3 steps of cooking and adding. It is chunky with a few tomatoes and jalapenos to cut, another man thing. I guess I should call it testosterone chili.

* I found this a little stroke of genius, plus the whole jalapenos look pretty cool in the pot. Apparently chunky/rustic = manly. I did not know this.

Here we see a bowl with Mr. Jalapeno sticking out. 

Freddy really loves his hot peppers.

I want to thank all of those who participated in the contest. It was so much fun to see what you created! 

Now for the big moment. Those who submitted food entries were included in the drawing. There were two exceptions: The two fine gents who are related to the originator of the contest and the author of the prize are not eligible but very loved! I used a random number generator from random.com, using the numbers assigned above the winner of the fabulous American Vegan Kitchen cookbook is...........

#3 Quinn! Congratulations!!!