We participated in the inaugural “Inuvik Chopped” competition.
An hour beforehand, we were given our mystery ingredients:
We then had one hour to prepare our meals. The rules didn’t specify that we needed to make multiple courses, but we did anyways.
Beverage: Inuvik Sunrise
A sparkling peach lemonade made with peach puree, fresh squeezed lemon juice, and carbonated water.
Appetizer: Peach Caviar
Mix peach syrup with agar agar powder and bring to a boil in a saucepan. Simmer until agar dissolves. Let cool briefly, then drip the solution into a chilled glass of vegetable oil. Strain out the caviar pearls and rinse with water. This can be done with any fruit juice.
Main Course: Klik Bombs
From the inside out:
- Seasoned Klik and green onion puree.
- Dough made from Yorkshire pudding mix, supplemented with flour, yeast, oil, water, and egg. The filling was wrapped in dough and then steamed.
- The steamed buns were dipped in an egg wash and then encrusted in saltine cracker crumbs.
- The last step was to deep fry them in oil.
Due to the time constraints, we had very little rise time for the dough. We made the buns small for faster cooking.
Dessert: Peach Pingo
It’s jello, with a peach slice in it that may of may not be contributing to the structural integrity of the dish. Jello normally takes 4 hour to set, so to meet the competition timeline, we tried the quick-set method, which involves using ice cubes instead of cold water. This makes the jello a bit lumpy, so I recommend doing the normal method if you’re not in a timed competition.
You can watch “Inuvik Chopped” on the Town of Inuvik facebook page.
And of course there’s an Inuvik Drum article.