Posted by Courier Post, NJ on June 29, 2008 at 11:18:35:
C-P recipe contest crowns winners
By WILFORD S. SHAMLIN • Courier-Post Staff • June 25, 2008
The results of the 2008 Courier-Post Reader Recipe Contest are in, and the first-place winner is an elementary school computer teacher from Princeton Township.
Devon Delaney, 49, dazzled the judges with her original recipe, Smoky Spice-Rubbed Salmon with Artichoke-Radish Salsa and Sweet Heat Guacamole.
She wins a grill and dinner for two at a SJ Hot Chefs restaurant.
Delaney added color and zesty flavor to the entree with a salsa sauce garnished with radishes, red onion and artichoke hearts.
She considered a traditional tomato-based salsa sauce but decided against it because it was rather ordinary.
"I wanted to spice it up with the radish, artichoke heart, red onion, and make it a little bit special. I think you have to get noticed and I love radishes. The Jersey tomato is the star of the salsa but in order to get noticed I really wanted to put it over the top.
"I swapped out cilantro for basil, which I grow in my garden every year," she said.
Judges this year are members of the South Jersey Independent Restaurant Association, more popularly known as the SJ Hot Chefs, and South Jersey farmers. Contestants were required to use Jersey Fresh produce or seafood harvested in the area as ingredients in their recipes.
The SJ Hot Chefs is gearing up for its annual week of Farm to Fork dinners, which take place July 27-Aug. 1.
The judges were wowed by Delaney's creative use of ingredients. Judge Robert Minniti, president of the SJ Hot Chefs, said, "The recipe was just a really creative blend of flavors and textures and Jersey Fresh. And it was creative and unique."
Minniti owns Bacio Italian Cuisine in Cinnaminson.
The other two winners also impressed the judges. Second place winner is Bill Brown, 75, of Haddonfield, whose Sweet Potato and Corn Bisque won him a saute pan from Sur La Table and dinner for two to a SJ Hot Chefs restaurant. In addition, his recipe will be featured at Minniti's restaurant Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday during Farm to Fork week.
Third place went to Helene M. Cooper, 52, of Cherry Hill, an amateur photographer and genealogy researcher. She won dinner for two to a SJ Hot Chefs restaurant for her recipe for Helene's Garden State Cake.
Dozens of recipes were submitted for the newspaper's annual contest.
All three finalists mentioned that they enjoy experimenting in the kitchen and their cooking is heavily influenced by family members who often serve as guinea pigs, make special requests and inspire confidence.
Brown, who works in real estate and adores food, has entered the contest every year for more than a decade. Delaney and Cooper were inspired to submit their recipes because the contest required the use of Jersey-grown produce.
"That was my inspiration," Delaney said. "I thought it was a great idea. We have great farms around here. Once I started thinking about it, we actually have a lot of great produce in New Jersey. We visit produce farms a lot."
Cooper, who was raised in Philadelphia, also supported the idea because it "gives business to local farms. I try to find produce brought from local farms. I figured farms are the most important thing in New Jersey and we're losing them too quickly."
Delaney's husband, Chris, favors avocado and inspired her to use guacamole in her recipe.
"I thought I would work that in with a slightly Mexican theme centered around Jersey produce," Delaney said. "I love to use my spices, but I didn't overwhelm the fresh produce. I decided to spice up the salmon and use the produce and the salsa made with that as the color and the freshness.
"Once I made the artichoke salsa, I decided I needed to throw in a little guacamole and round it out."
She said she can't wait to put her new grill to use and already has a place picked out for it. And the gift certificates to restaurants will be a real treat.
"I'm always cooking and I'm really thrilled to go out and be served for once," she said.
The Delaneys have three children, Christopher, 21, Patrick, 19, and Jessica, 16.
Brown developed his bisque recipe after sampling a similar dish while on vacation in the Canadian Rockies with his wife, Joan, who is his official taster.
"If my wife likes it it must be OK. She's tough to please at times," Brown explained.
"We went to a restaurant and had sweet potato and corn soup and it was delicious. I asked the waitress if the chef ever gave out the recipe," he recalled.
The waitress returned to the table and told him the chef's recipe required 22 pounds of sweet potato.
"That's not the recipe I was looking for," he replied.
So he experimented over the next several months with his own recipe until his wife gave him the nod of approval.
Brown finished in third place in the recipe contest last year, in addition to receiving honorable mentions on at least five times in previous years.
"I just like to try new things. I like to be creative. I like food. I like to eat. I like to try different things. It's nice to be in the top three. Surely, you'd like to be number one, but to be in the top three is good."
Minniti praised Brown's dish for its simplicity.
"And he utilized Jersey corn in it and the recipe was well-written and well-executed. And sometimes, the simpler things, when they are properly executed, are every bit elegant as the fancy ones," Minniti said.
Cooper named her recipe after herself with a reference to New Jersey as an attention-grabber. It has locally grown ingredients such as zucchini, carrots and apple and is a hybrid of carrot cake and zucchini bread.
"If you like carrot cake and you like zucchini bread, this is where the two of them meet and come out together. If I wanted to make something that would be the best of both recipes, it would be combining the carrots and the zucchini. The apple is there for sweetness and moisture," Cooper said.
"I did it as an experiment. It's very good though. It's not too sweet. It's dense. It's like there's flavor in every bite. It has raisins, carrots, apples, zucchini and chopped walnuts, lemon cream cheese frosting on it."
This is Cooper's first time entering a recipe contest. She is married to Neil and has three children, Shanna, 28, Brad, 25, and Jessica, 24.
"I love to cook. I love to bake. And I love to make up different dishes. I thought it was something I could try my hand at. I was surprised that I won. And I was very happy. It was a real surprise," Cooper said.
"I thought it was just something that takes two classic recipes and combines them in a creative way and was Jersey Fresh," Minniti says. "It can be a very nice recipe when properly executed."
The Hot Chefs and the farmers are again teaming up for the week of dinners. Fifty-one area restaurants and the Valley Shop Rite of Medford are taking part. Participating restaurants will offer four-course dinners for $35. The meals feature local produce.
Reach Wilford S. Shamlin at (856) 486-2475 or wshamlin@courierpostonline.com