Battle 7 - Pineapple and Basil

WOW! for this battle, our contestants have traveled all across the globe, from Mexico, to Southeast Asia, to good old southern USA. They have brought back dishes that range from soup, salad, main courses, and desserts. From Vegan, to Vegetarian, to Beef filled. Choose your votes wisely kids, this is going to be quite the battle.

Judging this week will be Last weeks winner, Cheryl from Cranky Cakes. As our Guest Celebrity Judge, We are pleased to introduce Jennifer English, Founder of the Food and Wine Radio Network and Flavorbank.com!

Make sure to Cast your vote below, but not before checking out all of the great creations! Come back Thursday to see who won! If YOU feel Daring enough to Enlist for battle 8, head on over to the signup page and join now!

Results

As expected, the Judges and voters were torn this week in the epic pineapple basil battle. The winner of the battle came down to a mere 12 points, and the two favorites amongst the judges were the least favorite amongst the voters! The judges have both written fairly long write ups, but be sure to read it all, they both make excellent points!

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Judging
Jennifer English

My winner is…… this was tough but as a frequent judge in things culinary including a televised stint at the National Pie Championships, I like to think I have learned a thing or two about the nature and process of culinary competition. One of the most tried and true rules of thumb in judging is that the “winner” always speaks loud and clear above the others. It is true for pies, chilis, burgers, you name it. It was not true today. Several of the foodie fighters had recipes that were most worthy, delicious and well done. So in the case of a “close call” I turned to my personal “tiebreaking rule of thumb.” Which is quite simple. If you could only have one more bite of any of the competitors which would you want to have? Not so easy when the top two sounded so good as to earn their way into my regular dining desires directory. So what is a judge to do when parity is perilously close at hand? The ultimate tie-breaker. Committing to a final decision because the time is up.

My top two choices are

Green Curry Beef with Pineapple

So what if this sounds like the #7 House Special at your favorite local asian take-out restaurant. This dish might be why it is your favorite asian take-out place. This is a bright, exciting, reliable classic sounding combination of flavors & ingredientsfeatures coconut rice. Who doesnt love coconut rice!? I no longer live in a big city. There are no good take-out asian restaurants nearby. (Yo kohama Rice Bowl sooooo doesn’t count) And I eat very little beef any more, but I still do especially good beef like the locally raised Wayguli. So I will cop to a bit of nostalgi for the idea of being able to phone up and have this yummy sounding food in 15 minutes. But I have to say I kept reading the recipe over and over and wanting it more and more. I can imagine flavors coming together and I read cookbooks and can taste the flavors. After all, I am a trained professional. But I kept imaging the combination of pineapple and coconut rice in a basil-y broth curry. Yum.

So it seems clear cut right? Then I imagine the Adventure Gourmet’s Pineapple Basil Sorbet on Flambed Rum Pineapples (with toasted crepes and Orange Caramel Sauce) Well knock-me-out. This would have been my clear winner had there been a really creamy note to pull it all together. But the strength of the basil pineapple sorbet and the pineapples foster made me swoon. I just got back from Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans and had my requisite Bananas Foster. When it is good it is good and this recipe sounds good, really good. The element of the crepe was inspired and a great “sopping” utensil. (How many times did you wish you had something to sop up the rummy sweet banana butter cream with in a last bananas foster bite? own it!)

So why is it not the clear cut winner? Well, the idea of orange in the caramel doesn’t work for me and the fact that our chef does not even like pineapple made me shudder. I also think the spiced rum was an interesting but not inspired choice.

So who is my winner? Let me just say that Hippo Flambe watermelon avocado feta idea left me cold. It seems kind of culinary “graspy.” But I loved the writing and am glad to find a new food blog that I will eagerly follow. I might be wrong about the avocado ( it is way to easy to get off-flavored ones, even in avocado country) and pineapple. But I don’t think so.

I also could not get excited about the Kitchen Life: Pineapple-Black Bean Enchiladas with Tomatillo-Basil Green Sauce. I think the basil is just too pretty for the gutsy tomatillo. This kept reminding me of West Side Story and two lovers from the wrong sides of the tracks. Pretty Basil and tough tomatillo. Keep up the good work though. There were a good moments and thought in your entry. I otherwise like your food thinking.

Green Phone Booth: Pineapple Butter Cookie with Basil Cinnamon Ice Cream had me with the use of the wonder spice cinnamon. I love the anti inflammatory properties of cinnamon and love that it helps to metabolize sugars. (In the spirit of full disclosure I am a partner in the Flavorbank.com Spice Market and we sell gorgeous 18″ cinnamon sticks , and colored sugar crystals.) But the idea of the cream and basil and cinnamon together with the sweet slightly licorice notes in the basil…..hmmmmm. I am left wondering how the balance, and after all it is all about balance, would be. Pineapple cookie sounds good but I am just not excited. I want to be. Very clever to go so unexpected and I love the blog/site and am a new devotee.

so back to the winner. I want the green curry beef right now with the pineapple and coconut rice. I hope it arrives in 15 minutes.

As for all the competitors congratulations. I am so impressed. I want to give each of you fabulously talented cooks a $25 gift certificate to the flavorbank.com spice shop.

Call me for a tour of the offerings and happy cooking.

Cheers

Jennifer English

Cheryl from Cranky Cakes

First, competitors: you all rock! Creative, funny, great food styling and photography and obvious love of fresh ingredients and good times. I am hardly worthy of serving as a judge of your lovely work.

As a mom, I do feel compelled to arch my eyebrows over my virtual glasses at one of you. Trash-talking (or maybe that’s trash-tweeting) the competition on your Twitter page? Tsk tsk! But hey – it’s a competition and we should all be so passionate about our creations.

The Nutritional Yeast Bandwagon:

Do I want this? Oh yes I do. I share your love of pho, and my gosh are your pictures gorgeous. I really appreciate how deeply you went into southeast Asian cuisine – including kaffir and galangal and fresh lemongrass would provide the right flavor brightness and complexities. While your combination may not be the most original entry, it sounds great and is certainly a terrific new twist on the multi-faceted phenomenon of pho. Well done.

Adventure Gourmet:

I love this post, and felt like a friend by the time I was done reading it. I can picture the luscious pineapple perfectly and would like some now, even if curtains were burning across the room. With extra crepes, if you please. Conceptually, I love the basil sorbet idea, but don’t really think I’d like to eat it. But points to you for creativity, for energetic writing, and for originality.

The Green Phone Booth:

The cookies sound divine, and I applaud both your locavore (here in VT we iconoclastically say “localvore”) and anti-eco-nazi ways. I really want one of those cookies. The ice cream is gorgeous, though, like the sorbet, I’d probably give it a pass if it were offered on a menu. But nicely done. (And you have no idea the self-restraint I’m using in not repeating the stock phrase from your post.)

Healthy Delicious:

I adore green curry anything, and think this sounds great. Believe me, if you invited me for dinner I’d be pretty excited for this to show up. Still, there’s some fierce competition in the originality arena here. I also think I don’t want two sweet flavors together in my main course (both in the curry and in the rice), but that’s my own quirk. I think the rice is a great idea, and one I might borrow for a fruit dessert.

Hippo Flambe:

This salad sounds like something I’d like to eat all summer long. I love the idea of the interplay of the sharp, creamy, melting, and sweet flavors. Really beautiful and inventive too. Nice.

Kitchen Life:

I love enchiladas, and adore green salsa. If VT’s tomatillos ever get ripe, I really want to try a salsa verde with basil added in. Definite points to you for that creative addition, though for me the overall dish doesn’t rise to the levels of creativity of the other entrants. But I would be glad to eat some.

All of you created great posts, shared your enthusiasm and respect for fresh good food, and took beautiful pictures. But when I picture all of your entries on a buffet table and wonder which I’m grabbing first, I have to pick Hippo Flambe in first place, with Nutritional Yeast Bandwagon as runner up.

Thanks for the virtual tastes!

Thanks for sharing these great things, and that knock at the door you hear is me with a fork and a plate … wherever you are.

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Results!

Whew, told you that was a lot to read! But wow! Thanks so much to Jennifer for her generous donation to the competitors! If you got lost somewhere along the way, so far Hippo Flambe and Healthy Delicious have 300 points each, and Adventure Gourmet and Nutritional Yeast Bandwagon have 100 each. Now lets add in the popular vote and find out the overall winner!

Winner: Hippo Flambe -Pineapple Watermelon Avocado and Feta Salad with Basil 40 + 300 = 340

Second: Healthy Delicious – Green Curry Beef with Pineapple, Coconut Rice 28 + 300 = 328

Adventure Gourmet – Pineapple Basil Sorbet on Flambed Rum Pineapple s 140 + 100 = 240

Nutritional Yeast Bandwagon – Sweet, Hot, and Sour Pineapple Basil Soup 71 + 100 = 171

Kitchen Life – Pineapple-Black Bean Enchiladas with Tomatillo-Basil Green Sauc e 62

The Green Phone Booth – Pineapple Butter Cookie with Basil Cinnamon Ice Cream 48

Congrats everyone! Remember to see where you stand in the Hall of Fame, and everyone else who wants to get in on the action, sign up here. 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.

Who Won Battle Pineapple Basil?(poll)

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Battle 7 - Pineapple and Basil