From local cheese, chicken and vegetables to Orkney buffalo, pheasant and fudge – tonight’s Orkney Amateur Master Chef competition, sponsored by Jewson and NorthLink Ferries, will really get the taste buds working overtime!
Four talented local amateur chefs will each be conjuring up a three course meal against the clock and in front of the capacity crowd at the Orkney Theatre tonight. Their dishes will be judged by a panel of experts as well as some audience members before the overall winner is announced.
Here’s a look at the menus you can expect from the culinary competitors…
Chef- Firdous Shaikh
Starter - Akbary Kebabs. Orkney chicken marinated with cream yogurt and spices, filled with cheese and saffron.
Main - Smoky Beef with Rogani Paratha. Orkney beef cooked in yogurt and spices with smokey aura, served with flat cotton soft bread seasoned with poppy seeds, sesame and herbs.
Sweet - Royal Delight. Bread cooked on a very slow flame in Orkney milk and cream flavoured with nuts.
Chef – Erica Clarkson
Starter - Post-reel Rumbledethumps, topped with Orkney cheddar cheese, served with slow-roasted red onions, Highland Park ketchup and a side of granny Margaret’s scotch broth.
Main - Pan fried fillet of Orkney Buffalo, topped with a ‘seafood and eat it’ scallop, served with a pea and spinach barley risotto, raw vegetable salad and a black-portent jus.
Sweet - Cranachan with a raspberry and Highland Park cream, decorated with spun sugar and sprinkled with crystallised rose petals.
Chef – Caroline Critchlow
Starter - Goose meat palmiers, dipped into Quoy grown celery and pea soup.
Main - Orkney pheasant ballentine, stuffed with Orkney portent soaked prunes wrapped in Shapinsay cured meat. Served with a game chip basket stuffed with Quoy vegetables and served with a Highland Park whisky gravy.
Sweet - Autumn cinnamon apples baked in an Orkney cheese short-crust pie, served with homemade custard, using eggs from the Quoy.
Chef - Kerry Leask
Starter - Surf ‘n’ Turf Fishcakes, stuffed with haddock, bacon and cheese, served with a tartare-style sauce.
Main - Raspberrylicious Duck. Pan roasted duck with a hint of cinnamon, served with an Orkney raspberry sauce.
Sweet - Orkney Fudge Pudding served with a toffee sauce and Orkney fudge ice cream.
Doors open at the Orkney Theatre at 6.15pm, with audience members to be seated by 7.15pm. The action gets underway at 7.30pm.