The battle comes to a close as we hear from this weeks judges.

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Judging

Caleb from Food Goes in Mouth

First of all, congrats to all of the fighters on giving us five great dishes.  I had to ruminate over the entries several times before coming to my final votes.  If this little system had more points, there wouldn’t be many separating our contestants.

Caleb’s Winner: Endless Simmer (+300)

This dish manages to put the flavors of our two secret ingredients out in front while giving us an original overall take on the spring roll.  And it completely fits the first criteria in the judging rules:  I would order the s#!+ out of this in a restaurant. The simple garam and yogurt mixture keeps the flavor all about the masala while taming what is a very strong spice mix alone.  Huge props on making the Garam Masala from scratch as well.

The use of zucchini in a spring roll is fitting, since the first two words that come to mind with zucchini for me are summer and fresh.  The chickpeas definitely aren’t going to overpower the flavor of these things and add some nice body.  The same goes for the scallion and parsley assuming they’re used sparingly (and the directions and pictures would lead me to believe they are).

I feel like I should say something negative… Um.  Canned chickpeas?  Eh, at least it isn’t one of the principal ingredients.  If you would have used canned zucchini (do they even make this?!) then you might not have received my vote.  Very nice recipe.

Caleb’s Runner Up: Cranky Cakes (+100)

Those pancakes look light and delicious.  They really won me over.  I wasn’t expecting to see any pancakes but here they are, so gold stars for originality.  I bet the tahini goes well with it and provides a little cultural bridge between the pancakes and the garam masala on the scapes.

Garam Masala simply seasoned atop anything in the alium family cannot go wrong.  I’m actually glad you made the two versions, slightly burnt and not.  I find the browned up ones more appealing.

NomNomNom Blog - Dear god a part of me wanted to put my vote in for this.  My drunk part.  First, the deep fried zucchini fingers looks delicious and I can clearly imagine the garam masala hitting and contrasting with the fresh interior.  Believe me, on flavor I have you right up there with the winners.  I had to let you slip on secondary criteria, originality.  I’ve had my fair share of deep fried zucchini in the past, and as awesome as the addition of the garam masala sounds, it couldn’t make up for it.  This is, however, probably the first of the recipes I will try cooking first hand for friends sometime.  Thanks for such a solid dish.

Downsized! – A dish like this makes me wish I had more years of tasting under my belt, a more refined palette.  To me this is by far the most foreign, interesting, original recipe of the bunch.  And again, huge thumbs up on a from-scratch garam masala.  I can see the garam masala getting lost in the chocolate, and I understand it is a substitute for other spices you normally use in this recipe.  Maybe what it boils down to: I can’t imagine what this would taste like.  That’s the only caveat about these fights, we don’t get to taste unless we make everything ourselves in two days.  I promise I’ll try to make this cake soon and give it a fair shake.  It may end up I love it to death.

Simple Living Revolution – Samosas!  Only one of the most delicious things ever.  And again, I can’t stress this enough, all of these entries sound great.  This lacked a little originality, as samosas and chutney would be a very traditional pairing.  This looks to be executed great, from what I can tell… The pictures are really small, can’t be clicked and made bigger, and make it tough to see what the food actually looks like.  Other than that, a fine post and set of recipes.

Ivonne from Cream Puffs in Venice and The Daring Kitchen

For me the clear winner was…

Cranky Cakes! (+300)

Zucchini Pancakes with Tahini-Yogurt Dressing and Oven-Roasted Garam. Masala Garlic Scapes. I mean when every word in a recipe title makes you drool … that’s pretty much a sign of things to come. I’m a zucchini fiend (my garden is often overgrown with them in summer) and I love the idea of zucchini pancakes. But I also loved the accompaniments of the cool tahini-yogurt dressing and the spicy garam masala garlic scapes. Very inventive!

As runner-up (it was a tough decision) I chose

Downsized! Chocolate Zucchini Spice Cake. (+100)

I have a few treasured zucchini cake recipes but I’m always happy to add another and I love the spice element to this cake. Well done!

RESULTS!

Winner: Cranky Cakes – Zucchini Pancakes with Tahini-Yogurt Dressing and Oven-Roasted Garam Masala Garlic Scapes 67 + 400 = 467

Endless Simmer – Zucchini and Chickpea Spring Rolls with Garam Masala Dipping Sauce 45 + 300 = 345

Downsized! – Chocolate Zucchini Spice Cake 40 + 100 = 140

NomNomNom Blog – East-Meets-West Fried Zucchini Masala with Mango Chutney and Garlic Cilantro Aioli 59

Simple Living Revolution – Zucchini Potato Samosas & Minty Zucchini Chutney 6

Thanks again to all voters, judges and participants!  This was truly one of the more mouthwatering battles.  Think you can do better?  Sign up for the forthcoming battle #7 here.  Remember to check out the current leaderboard over on the hall of fame page!