2 and 1

I know you've all been waiting with bated breath to find out how we fared in Battle Egg. The 'we' being Sachiko and I, Sachiko subbing in for my original partner Cybele who couldn't participate due to family illness. Battle Egg being our first defense of the Iron Chef Brooklyn title we earned by winning Battle Pork. Well I won't torture you anymore, because for one, I don't approve of torture, and secondly, if I go on and on and on without getting to the point, how many of you will even be around to find out that WE WON!!!!

In an unprecedented moment in Iron Chef Brooklyn history, the judges scored the battle a tie but with neither team particularly interested in a 'scramble off' or a rematch, we decided to let the battle be decided on the strength of each team's best dish; the highest scoring dish of the day would decide the winner. And the winner was our cilantro infused egg, chorizo, and cheese empanada. Our competitors, Sam and Beth served up some tasty fare and we felt fortunate to win, especially considering that our ambition on a couple of dishes was not matched by execution.

We started with a spicy egg salad (featuring Japanese mayo and mustard, chives, and pecans), topped by a homemade mango chutney with macadamia nuts, which was served on a cocktail cracker that we covered with a piece of Canadian bacon. I'm not an egg salad fan but I thought this tasted pretty good, the judges, however, were not all that impressed.

Our second dish was the most challenging, Ponzu ginger steak with poached eggs. The steak was marinated in ponzu, ginger, and honey, and was topped by a green salad of asparagus, green beans, and chives that had been dressed with a citrus vinaigrette. The key to this dish was the poached egg which was to rest on top, unfortunately, cooking six poached eggs at once proved tricky and our eggs were over cooked. What should have been a home run for us turned out to be a scoring also ran.

Thankfully we hit all the right notes with our empanadas. They were accompanied by a spicy pico de gallo, and a cool and creamy avocado sauce. The recipe for these has been posted on the Iron Chef Brooklyn Website.

Our desert was another dish where ambition and execution clashed. We made orange and mixed berry Sabayon, with amaretto cookies. These came out wonderful in trial runs at home but under the pressure of battle we let our eggs overcook slightly resulting in a less pleasing dish.

Despite the hiccups, we pulled out the victory. Our reward? Besides fame amongst the foodie community of Brooklyn, we get to defend our title later this month in Battle Onion. Stay tuned!