Reader Recipe Contest

What do you get when a fishing magazine publisher loves to cook? Why, the Fish Alaska Recipe Contest, that’s what. Loving to cook, loving to fish, and loving to eat fish makes cooking fish a common thread among many of us. That includes Teri Robl from Fritz Creek, Alaska, outside of Homer, who won our First Annual Recipe Contest for the best Alaskan Seafood Recipe. Her recipe for Moroccan Style Wild Alaskan Salmon gained the attention of the judges right from the start when she was selected as our May finalist for 2005.

If you want to be one of our finalists and maybe even our grand prize-winner for 2006, then get your recipes in because the Fish Alaska Reader Recipe Second Annual Contest starts now!

The way the contest works is Fish Alaska accepts original recipes for four months. Each month a finalist is selected by our judges, Chef Al Levinsohn, owner of Kincaid Grill, Chef Kellie Thompson from the Allen & Petersen Cooking & Appliance Center, myself, Melissa Norris, publisher of Fish Alaska, football legend and North to Alaska host Larry Csonka and anchor Jackie Purcell from Channel 2 News. At the end of the four-month contest we have a cook-off at the Kincaid Grill with the four finalists competing to be our Grand-Prize winner.

We received a great response for the first event with more than 100 entries from all over the country. There were some very creative dishes submitted, many that made my mouth water and my shopping list grow, but four entries over the summer really stood out. Last year, the contest ran from May through August with the cook-off held in September. As I mentioned, Teri’s Moroccan Style Wild Alaska Salmon was our May finalist. June’s impressive recipe was Louie’s Seafood Etouffé prepared by Louis Cusack of Anchorage. July’s finalist was Denise Denison-Erkeneff from California with her recipe for Halibut Bagna Cauda, and the August finalist was Wasilla’s Andrea McGuire for her Halibut Burgers with Summer Roasted Sauce. Without knowing these people previously, we couldn’t have picked a better bunch. Everyone seemed really pleased to be there and they should all be proud of the wonderful effort they put forward.

Each of the four finalists won a prize package totaling over $400. It included a wonderful basket of goodies from Allen & Petersen Cooking & Appliance Center, a night for two with tram passes from Alyeska Resort, a $50 gift certificate to Mountain View Sports, line from Tuf Line, an Alaska variety pack from www.troutbeads.com, a fleece vest from 6 Robblees, and a cookbook by Cecilia Nibeck.

The Grand Prize package was pretty exciting with a value of over $5000. It included a trip to the Nushagak with HRM, Inc. for 6 days and 6 nights at their tent camp fishing for kings, roundtrip airfare for two from Anchorage provided by PenAir, a Bradley stainless steel smoker, a large gift basket from our high-end cooking store, Allen & Petersen Cooking & Appliance Center, a Gamesaver Turbo vacuum packer by Foodsaver, an Original Bug Shirt, raft rental from Alaska Raft & Kayak, and a $50 gift certificate to Mountain View Sports.

As our finalists started to show up the morning of the cook-off, I was able to tell who each of my finalists was because I had talked to them on the phone. They were each allowed to bring a guest or two to share in the excitement with them. After giving everyone a brief introduction we set them up to work in Al’s kitchen at one of four stations. I walked through the kitchen to see how everyone had prepared their stations and even then I could tell that our winner had something special going on. She was wearing an apron with a fish design and her recipe was in a fish frame which she read from. You could tell Teri had put some real effort into the preparation for this contest.

We’re changing a few details for the 2006 contest that kicks off this month. For starters, we’re making it a lot earlier with finalists being chosen for February, March, April and May. Then we’re having the cook-off at Kincaid Grill in July when we’ll have an abundance of fresh fish and a drastic increase in our tourist population. This year will also bring an increase in prizes for the finalists and winner. We have some very satisfied sponsors from last year and we’ve received a strong interest from them to return with new prizes and a bunch of new sponsors have joined in. See our sidebars for an exact list of all the goodies the winners took home for the 2005 contest and for all the prizes that will be won by one great amateur chef this summer.

And your prize, my dear readers, is that Chef Teri is willing to share her recipe with you. See hers and the other finalists’ recipes included in this article. Good luck in the contest this year! I’ll be rooting for you. I’m sure we will receive some equally exciting recipes for 2006. My extensive gratitude goes out to our sponsors, judges, finalists and to all the people who entered and supported the contest. This is an event I can see becoming a tradition for our readers for years to come.