Quite some time ago, someone challenged me to a competition. Not writing competition, mind you, but a cooking competition. In public, no less. Now, I’m a competitive person and I like competing healthily with others. Win or lose, it still gives me quite a satisfaction. But cooking in public? That’s a different story altogether. I’m not really a people person and I hate to be in the crowd, but I said ‘Bring it on!’ nevertheless.

And so the briefing came for the competition. It was organized by Philips in Empire Subang Shopping Gallery and you are supposed to use their star product, Philips Airfryer along with other Philips products to cook. Sounds easy? No. It’s not as straight forward as that. During the competition, bloggers will be paired up with a Fitness First Instructor finalists and will have to draw out the theme ingredients for the competition.

Oh boy. I had no idea what I have put myself in to. That only means that you can’t prepare or practice to cook your recipe beforehand and everything had to be impromptu. I was quite nervous, to be honest. What more I have never owned an airfryer before what more cook using one.

Here’s sharing with you the experience that day. 😉

My husband and son was there to give me moral support, so thank God for that. I would have drop dead if they did not. :'(

Ingredients were prepared and us participants were given a glimpse of our ingredients.

The basic ingredients are there. Cooking oil, herb and spices, salt, pepper etc

Fresh vegetables and fruits are provided too, much to my relief.

All things Philips for contestants to use during the competition.  I won’t be blogging much about the products here. 🙂 But if you’d like more information on Philips products and ongoing promotion, please hop over to  https://www.facebook.com/PhilipsHomeLiving.my.

What we’re to really use to cook our main dish is this; Philips Airfryer and Philips Induction Cooker.

I took a look at the Airfyer for a few minutes and nearly cried. I had no idea how this works! But luckily for me, the judge of the day. Chef Zam had a quick demo on how to use it and I managed to learn how to use it in no time.

I was paired up with a nice lady known as Sherryl, and drew out the ingredient. We got ‘Salmon’ as our main and I nearly died on the spot. I was quite jinxed. Of all the things! Fish! Yours truly do not eat fish, what more cook one regularly at home. But luckily for me, my lovely partner is familiar with the ingredient and we managed to cook up an edible dish out of it. 😉

This is what Sherryl and I managed to dish out. Airfried Mediterranean Salmon on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes with a side of refreshing citrus salad. We decided to go all healthy and only use salt and pepper to bring out the natural goodness of the salmon fillet. The salad was constructed by tossing diced zucchini, diced capsicums, sliced cherry tomatoes and orange slices. It was then drizzled with lemon juice and olive oil dressings. We did not win, but bagged a consolation prize for it though. So at the end of the day, I was still a happy girl.

Below is what other participants managed to dish out;

Prawn with Pumpkin Paste by Ruth of Perut Besi and partner.

Airfried Quiche

Airfried Salmon

Tiramisu cake

Butter cake

Airfried Chicken with Salad

Sweet Sour Chicken on Potato Basket

Garden Fried Chicken

And last but not least, the winner, two kinds of Airfried Chicken. 🙂

Participating in a cooking competition is really new experience for me. I’m so grateful that it turned out okay and even managed to bag a consolation prize of Kitchen Machine worth Rm1.5k.

I’ll give it a spin soon and will tell you what I manage to cook with my new toy, buy in the meantime, please allow me to thank you everyone who made this possible…especially hubby who took all the trouble to be there for me tho already nearly KO from work the night before, friends for their well wishes and prayers, my partner for being adventurous, friends who gave me tips on handling fish in the worst case scenario that I got jinxed and draw fish(which I did. Lol) Ruth for all her ‘gambatte’ gestures throughout the competition and last but not least, Sidney Kan for having enough faith in me to not poison everyone present.

Picture Credit to Blogger Ayu Rafikah.