Seafood Cookoff

What a wonderful time of year it is, one of my favorite things about the summer is all the seafood delights that come with the summer months. It makes the summer months that much more fun with all kinds of great meals to have at family gatherings. I recently came across a web site at www.greatamericanseafoodcookoff.com that hi-lites the best seafood chefs in America as they bring their creations head to head in a cook off to decide who will be the crowned the "King of Seafood". The finals came down to 5 fantastic chefs and what a collection of seafood delights they had to display. Colorado Striped Bass Panzanella, Pan Roasted Glazed Rockfish with Peas and Carrots, Mississippi Redfish Courtboullion with Seafood Dirty Rice, Texas Gulf Shrimp and finally Louisiana Shrimp and Andouille Cassoulet. I would have to say by the presentation and ingredient list my favorite would be the Pan Roasted Glazed Rockfish from Chef Tafari Campbell of Maryland. You can have your chance to vote and also win a trip for 2 to New Orleans so you can check out all the taste bud treats for yourself. It's great to see chef's using sustainable recipes that taste great and use locally produced products in their creations. Of course to keep it interesting the chefs were thrown a curve ball when getting ready to create their dishes for the judges, they were instructed to use 1 of 2 mystery ingredients that they were not aware of until the competition. Their choices Southwest Airline Peanuts or select brews from Michelob Brewing Company so their original recipe would have to be altered to include one of these items. Also in keeping with the healthy eating and keeping things simple anyone could create the healthy dishes the ingredients had to contain all five of the major food groups.