This was a really tight battle.  In fact, I had to force one of the judges to break a three way tie for runner up!  It’s kind of long, but worth the read.

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Judging

Marc from No Recipes

All the entries look great and I knew it was going to be tough choosing a winner, so I decided to score the entries on 3 factors.  Presentation, creativity, and Nom Factor. Since I haven’t actually tasted any of the entries, I based the Nom Factor on how much the photos and description makes me want to eat the dish.

As I suspected the scores came in really close with 3 entries nearly tying for second place. Nick told me I couldn’t have a tie though so the “Deconstructed” Eggplant Parm edged ahead by half a point to take second.  My pick for first, by one whole point is the Double Fried Eggplant Cakes with White Wine “Icing”. My pick could have easily gone a different way, so congrats for squeaking in just ahead of the competition.

You should all be proud of yourselves for your fantastic efforts and whatever the final outcome of this Foodie Fight, I look forward to seeing all of your future posts:-)

My Boyfriend Likes it so it Must be Good: Double Fried Eggplant Cakes with White Wine “Icing” (+300)
Presentation: 4
Creativity: 4
Nom Factor: 5
Score: 13

I hear a lot of people say “it’s hard to go wrong with anything deep fried”, but there’s actually a lot that can go wrong. Get the oil temperature too low and you end up with a greasy mess, too high and it’s like eating charcoal. This is an example of a deep fried dish that got it right. The lattice of light tempura batter and golden caramelized color tell me these were fried perfectly, and man do they look delicious! Corn is full of glutamates which is a great way of
adding some umami to the eggplant.

Prix Fixe: “Deconstructed” Eggplant Parm (+100)
Presentation: 3
Creativity: 5
Nom Factor: 4.5
Score: 12.5

Looking at the ingredients this sounds like the best balanced of all the entries. The deconstructed take on eggplant parm is ingenious and after reading the recipe I really wanted to eat it. Unfortunately, the photo just doesn’t do the dish justice, which took away points from both the Presentation and Nom Factor.

Cookin’ Canuck:  Eggplant and White Wine Polenta Stacks with Fresh Basil Sauce
Presentation: 4
Creativity: 4
Nom Factor: 3
Score: 11

The presentation is well constructed, and the individual ingredients sound interesting. If I were judging this on the thoroughness of the post, Cookin’ Canuck would be the hands down winner with their play by play photos.

Healthy Green Kitchen: Quinoa and Veggie Stuffed Eggplant
Presentation: 4
Creativity: 4
Nom Factor: 4
Score: 12

I love the way this looks like the eggplant exploded with flavorful ingredients. The addition of the browned mushrooms really makes this dish for me. Eggplant doesn’t have a ton of flavor on their own and I feel like it needs any extra help it can get. In this case, the garlic, onion, mushrooms, red pepper, and parmesan all add umami, proving that you don’t need to add meat to make something taste great.

Om-Nom-Nomnivore (Lazy Sumo):  Mediterranean Lamb Kebobs with Eggplant and Spicy White Wine and Cilantro Dressing
Presentation: 4
Creativity: 3
Nom Factor: 5
Score: 12

As the only meat containing entry, I was immediately lured to this entry. I was also super impressed that he makes the Gyro flatbread from scratch. The combination of textures and flavours sounds fantastic and it just looks like something I’d want to pick up and eat.

Peanut Butter and Jenny:  Eggplant Babaghanoush
Presentation: 5
Creativity: 2
Nom Factor: 3
Score 10

An updated classic. It’s hard to go wrong with the flavours of caramelized eggplant, onion, garlic and tomatoes. Babaghanoush is a tough one to photograph, but Peanut Butter and Jenny has done a great job with the presentation, photographing it with a nice depth of field, a warm white balance and framing it on top of a blue book to make the earthy hues pop.

Robin from Hippo Flambe

To begin with I am going to say I may be a tough judge.  I know my husband thinks so whenever he cooks for me.  As someone who loves to cook and play with flavors I knew what I was looking for in the winner of Foodie Fights battle Eggplant and White Wine.

First I was looking for originality, not just your ordinary eggplant dish that you find in every diner and blog.  Secondly I was looking for both ingredients to be used as a central part of the recipe, not just added in to satisfy the battles requirements.  Lastly I was looking for the “wow” factor of the dish.  The dish I most want served to me that is not an everyday dinner preparation.

Those items were all satisfied for me in Om-nom-nomnivore’s Mediterranean Lamb Kebobs with Eggplant and Spicy White Wine Dressing (+300).  The description of the kebobs had me wishing we got to taste the entries.  I really feel the white wine was integral to the marinade and the sauce. I was very happy you only specified white wine in the recipe and then mentioned what you chose without saying it was “the” wine for the recipe.  Personally I am not a huge fan of Chardonnay.  As a final note on your blog post, the Germans did not bomb Pearl Harbor, that was the Japanese

I had a lot more trouble picking my runner up.  I would happily eat all the dishes prepared, I love eggplant (which does not appear to be the case for most of this weeks chefs) and all these dishes sounded like excellent uses for it.  In the end I chose my runner up for its creativity and blending of flavors. I loved the use of both roasted red peppers and parmesan in Cookin’ Canuck’ Eggplant and White Wine Polenta Stacks with Fresh Basil Sauce (+100).  The dish is visually beautiful and I would love the chance to taste it, as the only polenta lover in my house that is unlikely.  However I did not feel the white wine was very important to the final dish, it could have been stock or water and the dish would still have been excellent.  That is part of the reason this dish was not my winner and instead is my runner up.

I would love to try the Double Fried Eggplant Cakes with White Wine Icing from My Boyfriend Likes it so it Has to be Good. I loved the sound of the white wine icing as a dipping sauce.  The only reason tis was not the runner up for me was it just seemed a little every day to fry eggplant.
Peanut Butter and Jenny’s Babaghanoush looks really tasty.  I would have called it caponata instead of babaghanoush as the eggplant is chopped instead of mashed.  It seems like the kind of dish that you could prepare quickly for unexpected guests and based on your blog commentary thats what this competition was for you.  So while it was not up to the creative level of some of the other entries, I realize that you were not planning for days as you were caught unaware and busy.

Prix Fixes Deconstructed Eggplant Parmesan has some really delicious elements to it, however I am not as excited to try it as I was by some of the other dishes.

Healthy Green Kitchen’s Quinoa and Veggie Stuffed Eggplant looks like something I would enjoy having someone serve to me.  Personally I love quinoa and what could be bad about mushrooms and cheese?  However it was missing some of the over the top deliciousness, sometimes accompanied by decadence that I expect from Foodie Fights.  Healthy is fine, however sometimes you need to go all out.

-Robin

p.s. My hats off to all of you.  I have to admit I am glad that I did not take part in the eggplant battle.  I personally love eggplant but it still seems like a challenging ingredient for this battle.  Maybe that is because the rest of my family does not share my love for all things eggplant.  As my eggplants in my garden are doing very nicely I may soon have a personal eggplant foodie fight at the dining room table.

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Results!

Thanks judges for the awesome write ups.  Be sure to check out their sites as they are great writers/photographers/cooks.  But enough words, let’s talk results!

Winner: My Boyfriend Likes It So It Must Be Good – Double Fried Eggplant Cakes 300 + 47 = 347

Second: Om-Nom-Nomnivore (Lazy Sumo) -  Mediterranean Lamb Kebobs 300 + 17 = 317

Cookin’ Canuck – Eggplant and White Wine Polenta Stacks 100 + 61 = 161

Prix Fixe – “Deconstructed” Eggplant Parm 100 + 8 = 108

Healthy Green Kitchen – Quinoa and Veggie Stuffed Eggplant 62

Peanut Butter and Jenny – Eggplant Babaghanoush 1

Nice job everyone.  This was a tricky battle.  Eggplant isn’t exactly a glamorous ingredient so nice work!  The Hall of Fame will be updated later today so check that out later to see everyone’s overall standings! If this looked like fun, you should sign up for Battle 9! We are almost into double digits!

Side note to current foodie fighters, we would love to see you all in another battle, but we do not allow people to enter two in a row.