If you haven’t heard about the Royal Foodie Joust over at The Leftover Queen forum, maybe you have been living under a rock for the past year. Or maybe you are just new to the glorious world of food blogging, in which case you are forgiven 
The RJF is a monthly event where we are challenged to cook something with 3 ingredients chosen by the previous winner. There have been so many great ingredient combination over the months that it is difficult not to be amazed by the participant’s ingenuity every month. This month’s ingredients were chosen by Angela of Spinach Tiger and were a real challenge for me. They were inspired by the coming of spring and were as follows: edible flowers, shallots and sasutma (or any other orange citrus).
It is the middle of the winter here in Ohio and first I thought I wasn’t going to be able to find edible flowers, but after thinking hard I realized I hadn’t used pumpkin blossoms in a long time. So I drove to my closest Mexican market and bought a can of them. With some shallots and a couple of pounds of blood orange I came up with this recipe. I don’t know what to call it so I will just refer to it as March 09 Joust:
March 09 Joust
Makes 2 servingsThe ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts, flattened and grilled
- 1 TBSP olive oil
- 2 shallots, diced
- 1 16oz can pumpkin blossoms
- the zest of one blood orange
- the juice of 4 or 5 blood oranges
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
The how-to:
- In a large skillet heat up olive oil. Add shallots and cook until caramelized. Add jalapeno, zest and pumpkin blossoms. Mix well and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add orange juice and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and cook for about 8 minutes.
- Uncover and season if necessary (I didn’t need any salt of pepper since the ingredients have a lot of flavors on their own)
- Slice grilled chicken and serve over the pumpkin blossom mixture. Garnish with green onions and cheese, serve with rice and enjoy!
The afterthoughts:
Print this recipe
- Even though I liked this dinner, I think it still needs a little bit of refinement. Next time I will add some mushrooms or cook the chicken with the rest of the ingredients. However, the pumpkin blossoms were the highlight of this dish. I had forgotten how flavorful they are. I will get another can soon to make quesadillas de flor de calabaza, they are very popular in Mexico.
¡Buen provecho!
25 Replies
Great dish! These were some challenging ingredients for sure! I should have my dish for the joust up by the end of the week.
Posted on February 24th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Wow, you really outdid yourself with this one. Talk about creative! It’s gorgeous too. Good luck
Posted on February 24th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Beautiful Ben. Blood orange always gives that extra special touch.
Posted on February 24th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Ben, it’s so beautiful! I was really challenged by the ingredients this month–I was drawing a blank. Great job!
Posted on February 24th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Gorgeous! Bon Courage though I haven’t ever heard of canned pumpkin blossom before…!
Posted on February 24th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
This dish is beautiful! You did a great job!
Posted on February 24th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Awesome jousting! Now all we need is a name for this creative dish…Cinderella’s Carriage? Orange Pallette Chicken? Spring Bouquet Chicken? Hmmm. Maybe March 09 Joust it should stay.
Posted on February 24th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I agree…very creative Ben! Good luck in the joust. Beautiful images of the blood oranges!
Posted on February 24th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
You let the creative juices flow this time. Nice dish!
Posted on February 24th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
How to compete with this????? Beautiful work, Ben!!!
Posted on February 24th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Great submission Ben. This month was a hard Joust!
Posted on February 25th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Hola Ben. In all honesty, I’d never heard of pumpkin blossoms before. What a fascinatng idea. And the blood oranges!!, Well, being part vampire I’m sure I’d love to try this recipe. :p
Posted on February 25th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Wow, Ben! This looks amazing and SO creative. What a wonderful use of the ingredients. And aren’t blood oranges just magnificent?
Posted on February 25th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Great job Ben! I guess i have been living under a rock. Actually i have heard of the joust but i’m wayyy too lazy.
One day maybe, when i grow-up to be a pro-blogger. hehe. Nice use of the creative juices here!
Posted on February 26th, 2009 at 12:46 am
What a great job Ben! I’m feeling lazy these days and don’t know if I will participate in the Joust. You made a fantastic use of the ingredients!!! Your blog and pictures have improved sooooooo much!!!! It looks maravilloso amigo
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Posted on February 26th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Phenomenal photo of the blood orange. Question: Is there another name for pumpkin blossoms? I’d love to try to find them in my area.
Good luck with the RFJ. I’ve been too busy with the Culinary Tour to participate recently, but it is a lot of fun.
Posted on February 26th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Your recipe sounds delicious Ben. I also wanted to make a dish with courgette flowers but didn’t find any. Unfortunately we cannot find any canned pumpkin flowers in Greece.
Posted on February 26th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
This is a fantastic entry Ben! I have never had pumpkin blossoms before – I would love to try them sometime – as well as your dish!
Posted on February 26th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Your plate is a work of art! Looks wonderful.
Posted on February 26th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
What a superb dish!!! MMMMMM…
Posted on February 27th, 2009 at 5:07 am
Ben, what a stunning salad. Love the challenge, I’ll have to check it out!
Posted on February 27th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Wow, this was such a creative recipe and great submission for the joust! Great job. The pictures are beautiful too.
Posted on February 28th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
That would be a great challenge for me. You did an awesome meal Ben.
Posted on March 2nd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
What a great recipe! Excellent idea to use blood orange with chicken. I’m definitely going to try this.
Posted on March 7th, 2009 at 4:52 am
That’s one heck of a recipe!! It’s been a while i had pumpkin blossom, back in India, its coated with chickpea flour & deep fried as a crunchy side dish. Great combination here…
& i did hear about the joust only a few weeks back:-) being new..
Posted on March 17th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
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