Battle 11 Results
Every week I am impressed with the quality of food put out by the foodie fighters and this week is no exception. This week there is a first though, because this week I am super impressed by one of the judges! She went ABOVE AND BEYOND the call of duty by actually cooking foodie fight entries! On with the judging.
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Madeline Louise
Holy crap! Cheese and spicy peppers are two of my absolute favorite ingredients. I would eat cheese every meal of the day if I could (some days I do, actually). That being said, this was a really difficult challenge to judge, because I will eat cheese in, on, or from anything.
My Winner: Chili Cheese Fries: Manchego Goat Cheese Ravioli Chipotle Cream Sauce (+300)
I haven’t stopped thinking about this dish since I first laid eyes on it. I want it. Now.
I love spicy pasta dishes, not to mention spicy HOMEMADE pasta dishes (did you get that? This guy made his own pasta…and gave us instructions to do so ourselves). Sometimes it’s hard to cook with either goat cheese or chipotles because they require a balancing of flavors; this dish seems to do it well. The creamy, tangy goat and manchengo cheeses seem like a perfect counterpoint to the spicy chipotle sauce (I want to bathe in it). I can’t get enough of this.
Runner Up: Wallflower Wonderland: Chipotle Chocolate Bites with Goat Cheese (+100) I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting any desserts in this challenge, and I wasn’t into this one at first at all. I’m not a big fan of dessert, and goat cheese and chocolate didn’t seem to do it for me. However, the picture is beautiful, and the unusual nature of this dish really made me consider it again. The tangy goat cheese+ sweet chocolate + smoky chipotle seemed to make a very interesting flavor profile, something I could probably eat a lot of and not get that sugary rush I often do when eating chocolate.
Felice in the kitchen
Judging a recipe and a picture can be a bit tough so i decided to give the recipes a shot.
My main criteria in judging is whether the recipes made full use of the ingredients – and not just used them as an accompaniment – that would be too easy! The cooking/tasting was just an extra and did not effect the way i judged the recipes – just helped me further comment.
The only submission that, I felt, REALLY used the goats cheese and chipotle as main ingredients was Haochi DC: Goat Cheese Chipotle Ice Cream with Chipotle Infused Honey Drizzle and Basil. Ice cream made with the cheese and a sauce with the chipotle. Now if that isn’t using the battle ingredients i don’t know what is!! The ice cream is my choice because the items used are the ingredients requested simple as that. If the chatter on the blog could be cut by three quarters, (and this applies to the other long winded ones too,) it would have been easier to concentrate on the substance and not be side tracked by the frivolities. Cooking is fun but it is also serious business!
Chili Cheese Fries: Manchego Goat Cheese Ravioli Chipotle Cream Sauce: Very good idea but the Manchego was over the top. Goat cheese is supposed to dominate and the manchego steals some of its thunder. I would have spiced up the Goat cheese with an addition of some herbs just to balance the more powerful effect of the chipotles.
Wallflower Wonderland: Chipotle Chocolate Bites with Goat Cheese – At first glance i thought this could be a winner, but on reading further I realized that the fluffy topping on the brownie was icing. What should have been done was to bake the brownies without topping then top with the goat cheese honey mix. That way you get more cheese to balance the chocolate and chipotle. Chocolate is very dominant so lots of goat cheese would be needed
My Boyfriend Likes it, so it MUST be Good: Chicken Adobo Lettuce Wraps W/ Chipotle Tomatillo Salsa & Goat Cheese Queso – Super recipe and a great explanation – if chicken had been a battle ingredient. Chicken adobo takes too much prominence and I felt that the battle ingredients were just used as an accompaniment to the dish and not as the featured items. Pity, cos the taste was superb.(i didn’t use the lettuce wraps though)
Om Nom Nomnivore:Rib-eye Rolls with Chipotle Macaroni & Goat cheese - erm…what was the main dish??? again – mac and cheese as an accompaniment to rib eye? not too sure about that. However, this was the most fun to read even though i thought that only ONE dish had to be presented. That being said, the main reason i did not consider this dish further was that the battle ingredients were just an accompaniment and not the featured items. I also thought that the mac and cheese was a rather predictable way of using the goats cheese.
Difficult to decide. Wish I could say the ravioli as winners as I am sure they are delicious but the mixture of cheeses put me off.I think the ice cream – Haochi DC (+300) – (without the chatter )should be the winner as proper use was made of the battle ingredients – with the ravioli – Chili Cheese Fries(+100) – a close second.
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Final Results
Winner: Chili Cheese Fries: Manchego Goat Cheese Ravioli Chipotle Cream Sauce (300+100+53=453)
Runner Up: Haochi DC : Goat Cheese Chipotle Ice Cream with Chipotle Infused Honey Drizzle and Basil (300+14 = 314)
Wallflower Wonderland : Chipotle Chocolate Bites with Goat Cheese (100+35 = 135)
My Boyfriend likes it, so it must be good : Chicken Adobo Lettuce Wraps W/ Chipotle Tomatillo Salsa & Goat Cheese Queso (16)
Gecko from Om-nom-nomnivore: Rib-eye Rolls with Chipotle Macaroni & Goat cheese (5)
Congrats to everyone! you all made some awesome stuff! Remember to sign up for the next battle if you think you can take the heat! The Hall of Fame wont be updated till this afternoon cause I’m a busy guy!
felice in the kitchen on 10 Sep 2009 at 10:59 am #
well done to all!! I now have some great recipes to add to my repertoire!
Joyce Handley on 10 Sep 2009 at 11:07 am #
Ha, the chatter is the point! Its not about the food alone – heck, there are millions of amazing sites out there with great recipes and food, I’m nothing special. Its about what it means to love food, and how we relate to it….. Thats why we even care!
Hehe, that said, thanks for pickin’ me anyway Felice! It was a blast!
I’m super excited to try the Ravioli now!
Will on 10 Sep 2009 at 12:31 pm #
So I guess the way to win each challenge is to vaguely add the mystery ingredient to a dish a judge already likes.
Gecko (Nommy) on 10 Sep 2009 at 12:34 pm #
That Pasta looked so good I almost voted for it myself but considered that cheating … on myself.
For Future reference in the F.F. Rules “3: Cook! Make something showcasing the two featured ingredients. It can be an entree, appetizer, dessert, taste, feast, or anything you want it to be! Just keep your entry to one course please.”
I double checked that before I made my entree.
Thank you for the criticism … it helps. Maybe if I had of used Penne or Farfalle instead of Macaroni it would have been better? At least it wouldn’t have been down graded to “Mac n Cheese” (Mac n Cheese comes in a little blue box w/ a little sauce packet btw).
Gecko (Nommy) on 10 Sep 2009 at 12:53 pm #
Whoa whoa whoa Will … I’m the resident Ass around here … if you want though I could make you my sidekick … maybe you can take the name ‘Butthead Boy”
Each judge is different … why in my first battle I lost a vote because I had a ‘Blurry Photo” (Yes I brought it up again
) Let’s assume that I were the judge this round. The Ice Cream and the Chocolate Bites would not have made it at all. You don’t put goat cheese or Chipotle ( there is goes again with the Chippendale … maybe I should just let it replace it and see how it turns out) in a dessert. Desserts are Sweet and Goat Cheese or Chipotle are Savory and in my book you do not mix them. Regardless of how creative you are at getting Goat Cheese or Chipotle into Ice Cream I would not give you my vote because it just sound like a bad horror flick to my taste buds. However Felice obviously liked it.
Everyone is going to be different. If you’ve just eaten steak 4 days in a row and you come across my dish to judge, chances are you are pretty tired of steak and it will get a negative feeling in your mind. You don’t know why but it just doesn’t look right for some reason. Lot’s of different factors come into play with judging. My gripes come from what I view are improper ways of judging something ( like the case of “The Mysteriously Disappear Peach Tart” )
Gecko (Nommy) on 10 Sep 2009 at 1:52 pm #
While I am dominating the comment section (again) I want to make clear that the Tart ordeal is over and behind I was just using it as an example. Apparently I do not come across how I want sometimes.
Joyce Handley on 10 Sep 2009 at 3:09 pm #
Gecko….aww..mixing sweet and savory is one of my favorite things! I was pretty unsure about the ice cream when I started out (this the backup flat bread), but man, that stuff was good. Ive been dishing it out to people all week.
To be honest, it tastes mostly like a cheesecake ice cream- a little sour, but much like cream cheese. I think if you use too strong of a goat cheese, it would be way too much and kinda gross, but if you stick with something mild, tangy and sweet, it works really really well. The Chipotle in the honey just made it a smokier richer honey- something like adding coffee to things does.
Anyway, I assure you, although I don’t share your dislike of mixing sweet and savory, in this case, there was primarily just sweet, albeit tangy. You really should give it a try.
I am certainly going to give goat cheese macaroni a go- that sounds delicious!
Chili on 10 Sep 2009 at 7:22 pm #
Thanks for the nod judges! Foodie Fights is a great idea and tons of fun. We need to get even more foodies involved. If Dan and Nick have the time of course. Hell who knows, with enough traffic they may even be able to find sponsors to offer up prizes! Good job everyone.
Wallflower on 10 Sep 2009 at 11:25 pm #
This was a lot of fun. Thanks so much for all the advice. . . with time I can improve and really be that chef I always wished I had gone to school to become! Being involved with this was my equivalent to being on Top Chef.