Six Finalists away from a Winner!

The 2011 Preliminary Legendary Lentil Cook-Off was a success. Our wonderful volunteers prepared 50 lentil dishes to be tasted and scored by a panel of 25 judges. The top 6 finalists are in no particular order:

• Mango Lentil Chili submitted by Cindie Hards of Jupiter, Florida
• Caramel Lentil Brownies Sprinkled with Sea Salt submitted by Joni Hilton of Rocklin, CA
• Bangali Dal submitted by Nipa Reza and Saeed Alam of Dielsdorf, Switzerland
• Mediterranean Summer Lentil Salad submitted by Elizabeth Koseyan of North Hills, CA
• Magical Mayan Salad submitted by Jane Bacher of Robertsdale, Alabama
• Easy Campfire "Can Do" Lentil Chili submitted by Mary Louise Lever of Rome, Georgia

The competition was fierce, the judges took it seriously. Even our "I Hate Lentils!" judge, Bill Weed, was convinced that lentil dishes could be palatable. His choice for disguising the little legume was Lentil Love Sticky Toffee Pudding submitted by Helen Fields of Springtown, Texas.
Although he admits with enough chocolate, any lentil can be effectively hidden!

400 tastings of the top six recipes will be prepared and served to festival goers on August 20th. A grand prize of $1000 will be given to the favorite. Best wishes to all!

And the winner is......

This Lentil Lady is psyched for the Legendary Lentil Cook-Off Prelim tomorrow! 118 great recipes were narrowed down to 50 by 3 of our local chefs. And thanks go out to our 50 wonderful volunteer cooks, some of whom I saw tonight at Dissmore's IGA, one of our Cook-Off sponsors, as they were picking up last minute ingredients. These top 50 recipes will be presented before 23 select judges for tasting tomorrow. These judges represent all things lentil including, Bill Weed, our official "I Hate Lentils!" judge. And I have to say the small pre-taste that we had today was fabulous! I can speak from experience that these judges will be hard pressed to make a decision tomorrow. May the best cook win!

A Record Breaking Cook-Off Year!

This Lentil Lady has a bushel of thanks to offer everyone who entered the 2011 Legendary Lentil Cook-Off! 118 luscious lentil recipes have come in from 32 different states, up from 20 states last year! (But not all 50 --we will try again next year. Get with it Alaska!) I was pleased to see an entry from Red Lion, Pennsylvania come in. The lovely women I spoke to personally on the phone decided on a lentil salad. She had never cooked lentils before. Way to go! And I am humbled by another first - we got an entry from Switzerland! This was a round about way to get an entry. Seems this cook gets visits regularly from a local resident and has cooked our local Palouse lentils many times. (They receive them as gifts!) After some encouragement they entered this year and through the miracle of computers, they got the entry here by the deadline. I am told a 'snail mail' copy is on the way, complete with Swiss postage, just to be official. I plan to frame that entry!
So my heartfelt thanks go out to all who entered and I wish you the best of luck. These 118 entries will be narrowed down to 50, and those will be cooked and tasted on July 21st to narrow it down to 6. A difficult job indeed! Then the 6 will be prepared and presented for tasting to our Festival Goers on August 20th and we will have a winner! Whew! A National Lentil Festival Cook Book, with a fresh new look, will be available soon. Stay tuned...