Battle 1 – Lemon And Potato
The six blogs that are competing in the first ever foodie fights competition have had almost a week to dream up and cook up their most original creations involving lemons and potatoes. Two seemingly humble ingredients, but I assure you that our competitors all really took these ingredients to the next level.
Below are the entries in no particular order. Please check out the sites before you vote. Oh. And be sure to actually vote for your favorite at the end. The winner will be announced on Thursday!
The submissions:
Savory Reviews – Chicken Limone with Gnocchi
Good ‘N Planty – Nicoise Salad with Grilled New Potatoes and Lemon Vinaigrette
Janie’s Creations – Gnocchi e carciofi al limone
Cupcake Muffin – Gnocchetti with Meyer Lemon Cream Sauce and Crispy Sage
Pete Bakes – Potato Wrapped Cod with Lemon Aioli & Grilled Asparagus and Zucc Salad
Food So Fine - Lemon Potato Risotto with Side Shrimp Ceviche
Results
Whoa! The first Foodie Fights competition was an awesome one. There was gnocchi, ghocchetti, risotto, potato wrapped cod, a salad (healthy!), and yes. More gnocchi. In total, 332 people (plus two guest judges) voted for their favorite lemon and potato inspired dish.
A WORD ON JUDGING. We asked two very awesome people to be guest judges for this battle. In fact, every battle here on Food Fights will have two awesome guest judges. We asked these judges to provide us with their pick for winner and also runner-up in the battle. Also, they were kind enough to provide lively commentary on the battle.
Simply put, this is how the posts are scored. For each popular vote a post receives, that post receives one point. If a guest judge picks a post as the winner, that post gets 300 points. A runner-up vote by a guest judge gets the post 100 points.
Before I announce the overall results, these are the guest judge verdicts.
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GUEST JUDGE NICOLE (From Pinch My Salt):
First of all, let me congratulate all the competitors for doing such an awesome job with two of my all-time favorite ingredients! There wasn’t one dish out of the six that I wouldn’t have enthusiastically gobbled up if it were set in front of me. But since I was forced to choose a winner, let me get to that!
For the overall winner, I chose Good N’ Planty’s Spring Salad Nicoise with Grilled New Potatoes and Lemon Vinaigrette. At first glance, this recipe might not seem to be the most creative out of the bunch, but Abby won me over with her focus on fresh, seasonal produce and sheer simplicity. For me, the simplest preparation of fresh ingredients always yields a great meal! Perhaps it’s because of the recent heat wave we just suffered in Southern California, but that beautiful salad is the first thing I would have reached for out of the group!
For the runner-up, I chose Pete Bakes’ Potato-Wrapped Cod. I thought the potato-wrapped fish was creative and very well executed. And the simple asparagus and zucchini salad was perfect. I do wish that Pete had made his aioli completely from scratch, but I’m sure it was delicious nonetheless.
GUEST JUDGE STEFANIE (From Endless Simmer):
Winner: Pete Bakes: potato wrapped cod with lemon aioli and grilled asparagus and zucchini salad.
Runner-up: And from the gnocchi category, Cupcake Muffin: Gnocchetti with Meyer Lemon Cream Sauce and Crispy Sage
Stefanie also had some general comments on all the posts which I’ve copied below:
Savory Reviews – Chicken Limone with Gnocchi
Good f—ing lord – 100 gnocchi and all you win is fame. I’m impressed with your dedication. And I appreciate your cheese-adding reflections. Always add cheese!
Good ‘N Planty – Nicoise Salad with Grilled New Potatoes and Lemon Vinaigrette
Great idea to swap seasonal veggies. Nothing worse than winter tomatoes.
Janie’s Creations – Gnocchi e carciofi al limone
Yes to cream sauce. And I’m totally with you on using jarred artichokes in a dish like this.
Cupcake Muffin – Gnocchetti with Meyer Lemon Cream Sauce and Crispy Sage
Tiny gnocchi means I can eat double, right? Meyer lemon is a classy touch. Fried sage is a flavor and texture sensation, awesome addition.
Pete Bakes – Potato Wrapped Cod with Lemon Aioli & Grilled Asparagus and Zucc Salad
Awesome (and healthy-ish?) spin on fish and chips, especially with the mayo-lemon dipping sauce. Great imagery with the potatoes-as-scales. And the grilled veggies make me really excited it’s almost summer.
Food So Fine - Lemon Potato Risotto with Side Shrimp Ceviche
Lots of intense cooking going on here. Although I never imagined pairing gooey cheese and fried potatoes with raw fish. I’m intrigued. Extra points for avocado usage.
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OVERALL RESULTS:
Winner: Pete Bakes! (556 points) With a guest judge win and runner-up vote, he locked in a solid lead. Pete also had 47% of the popular vote. Congrats sir!
Runner-up: Good ‘N Planty (327 points) With a guest judge win, Abby clinched the runner-up slot. Now that’s a good lookin’ salad!
3rd Place: Cupcake Muffin (120 points) With Stefanie’s runner-up vote, Sara shot into 3rd place!
4th Place: Food so Fine (56 points) Phil did well in the popular vote. The instant potato lemon fried creation was freakin’ crazy. Definite points for originality.
5th Place: Savory Reviews (46 points) Good grill marks and tons of gnocchi. I’m a sucker for a grilled anything.
6th Place: Janie’s Creations (27 points) I thought Janie made some fantastic gnocchi. This battle almost turned out to just be battle gnocchi.
SO WHAT HAPPENS NOW? Well, if you are Pete you can bask in the glow of victory. Also, as the winner of this battle, Pete will be invited to guest judge the next Foodie Fights battle! (I hope he accepts!). This wasn’t announced in the rules, but yes. If you win a battle, you will be invited to judge the next battle.
I’ve pasted the original poll at the end of this post so you can check out the results of the popular vote if that interests you at all.
Most importantly though, you should go sign-up for the next Foodie Fights battle! If you competed in this battle, we may delay your sign-up for one battle just to give other people a chance, but feel free to sign-up again if you had fun!
