A really fantastic battle everyone!  Those ingredients were tricky!

Before we get to the judging, I have a quick announcement to make.  Dan and I have decided to take a bit of a break from Foodie Fights battles.  We’ve gotten a lot of really good feedback from competitors and voters over the last 16 battles and we have some good ideas on how to really take the site to the next level.  So we are going to take some time and redesign the site with some enhanced features which will hopefully make each battle more enjoyable, fair, and fun for everyone!

So there will be a pause in battles only to resume in the hopefully near future.  If you want to have an easy way to stay in touch with us, fill out the quick form at the bottom of this post to be added to the Foodie Fights Email List.  We’ll use it to send out an announcement when the new site is almost ready and may need some beta test helpers!

OK. On to the battle!

Judging

Tina from Carrots ‘N’ Cake

Winner: Kitchen Butterfly (+300) – Kumquat & Chestnut Rice Pudding Pie

Amazing ingredients, assembly, delicious crust, creamy and risotto-y. It looks like heaven! The photos are so appetizing– I just want to take a bite!

Runner-up: Joylicious (+100) – Chestnut Brulee with Brandied Oranges

Such a unique idea for a recipe! Chestnut Brulee? There’s nothing better than the burnt sugar crunch mixed with the creaminess of the custard. I’m sure the flavor of brandied oranges in a chestnut brulee is outstanding.

Isabelle from Good Girl, Good Wine and a Bad Girl

I just want to start off by saying how amazed I was at the variety of delicious and creative dishes that people came up with.  I was awful thankful that my role for this round was to judge, and not to cook… I still have no idea what I’d have created, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have been nearly as yummy as any of these dishes. Also, a huge hats off to all the bloggers for hunting down such elusive ingredients (regardless of whether or not you met with success in the end).  I’m pretty sure this is the first challenge where the toughest part for most of the bloggers was just getting their hands on the secret ingredients! That said, I’m only allowed to pick one winner and one runner-up.  Them’s the rules.  So here’s the final verdict:

Winner: Kumquat & Chestnut Rice Pudding Pie from Kitchen Butterfly. (+300)

Runner-Up: Chestnut Brulee with Brandied Oranges from Joylicious. (+100)

A Food Coma – Warm Duck Salad with Chestnut, Orange and Pear:  The next person who tells me that salad is rabbit food is getting sent to your blog, because it’s proof that, when done right, a salad can also be a fabulous gourmet meal in its own right.  I love the inventiveness of using a marmalade with kumquats to get the citrus into the recipe, and I love how you did your own twist on classic duck a l’orange. That said, I felt like the duck breasts were the stars in this recipe rather than the kumquats or the chestnuts, which is why I didn’t rate this entry quite as high as I would have otherwise… still, a fabulous dish and one I’d definitely order if I saw it on a restaurant menu.

The Constant Craver – Crisp Seasonal Pork Dumplings with Kumquat Infused Dipping Sauce: Boy, the gyoza I had for lunch ain’t got nothing on this!  I love the fact that two different kinds of chestnuts went into the filling, and that the kumquat was used in both the dumplings and the dipping sauce.  Next time I’m at the Asian market, I’m totally hunting down some of those dried kumquats.  Yum. The only critique I have is on the photos… I know it’s tempting to use flash when it’s pitch-black by dinnertime, as is usually the case this time of year, but it usually makes for some not-so-delicious photos.  You’ve definitely got the cooking skills down pat based on what I see in your blog, so you just need to spend a little time working on getting your photo skills to that same level.  There are tons of great tutorial sites to teach you the tricks of the trade, and some fantastic food porn sites you can use for inspiration.  For someone who’s only been blogging for a few month, you’re off to a great start.

Cooking with Michelle – Chestnut Stuffing with Kumquat and Cranberry Relish: I love the idea of making a chestnut stuffing (which is a pretty traditional recipe), but then stuffing it into a chicken breast (which is definitely not traditional).  I also really liked the gorgeous photos in your step-by-step instructions, and how you even went through the trouble of buying chestnuts in the shell just so you could illustrate how to prepare them. The only downside is that these are very traditional dishes for both chestnuts and kumquats, and I would have liked to see you take a little bigger risk beyond the presentation, especially since originality is one of the criteria we have to judge by.  I think you definitely captured the spirit of the holiday, though… We already had Thanksgiving up here in Canada, but I just might pretend I’m American for a day so I have an excuse to make this.

Joylicious – Chestnut Brulee with Brandied Oranges:  Creme brulee has got to be my favorite dessert ever.  Genius idea to add chestnuts to the custard and to use brandied oranges as a topping… sounds like a fantastic combination.  The photos were absolutely breathtaking, too.  If the intent was to make me drool all over my keyboard, then mission accomplished. I did find the depth of field was a bit unnatural in some of the photos, particularly the one at the beginning of the post.  I think you’ve got a great eye and great composition… but I’d suggest being a bit more subtle when faking bokeh in post so that it can still look plausible (for example, my eye immediately went to the one where the ramekins are shot from above and even though both of them should be the same distance from the lens, one is nice and sharp while the other is very blurred).  I like the fact that you combined some shots into collages and left others to stand on their own, and I think your food styling is absolutely impeccable.

Kitchen Butterfly – Kumquat & Chestnut Rice Pudding Pie: What’s not to love about this entry?  Great photos, great writing, and great dish (as far as I can tell without having tasted it personally, that is).  It’s the kind of dish that I’d happily make for a dinner party if I wanted to impress my guests because it’s so unusual and impressive-looking… and really, who doesn’t love rice pudding? My only critique would be to keep working on your photos.  There are some absolutely beautiful shots in this post, but I think the “money shot” of the finished dish could have used a slightly less shallow depth of field so that I could better enjoy the beautiful texture of the fillling, and I also felt that some of the process shots (like the crust assembly photos) could have been a little more illustrative of what was being done in that step. Great job, everyone.  I’m so glad I got the chance to judge this round, and I’ll definitely be peeking into your blogs from time to time to see what other delicious things you’re cooking up!

———————————————————————————————–

Popular Vote

Results

Winner! Kitchen Butterfly – Kumquat & Chestnut Rice Pudding Pie (300+300+27 = 627)

Joylicious – Chestnut Brulee with Brandied Oranges (100+100+60 = 260)

A Food Coma – Warm Duck Salad with Chestnut, Orange and Pear (43)

The Constant Craver – Crisp Seasonal Pork Dumplings with Kumquat Infused Dipping Sauce (38)

Cooking with Michelle – Chestnut Stuffing with Kumquat and Cranberry Relish (10)

We hope that everyone has had fun with foodie fights and will still around while we go through some growing pains and make some improvements to the site!  You can use the quick form below to be added to an email list which we’ll use just to send out emails regarding the status of the new site. Thanks everyone!

Join The Foodie Fights List!