The CookingBites Recipe Challenge: Peppers

The Late Night Gourmet said:
Yes...I remember this trick from previous challenges. I'm impressed that, after a slow start, there were 18 entries to this challenge! Surely part of the reason for the tremendous volume is the extra 10 days we added to the deadline (due to a combination of holidays and technical issues). But, this just meant that we had 10 more days of great recipes! I'm now thinking it will be a bit later in the day than 2 pm EST, but I will post a winner on the 15th.
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No problem. I think in future we will extend the challenge to 3 weeks rather than the normal 2 to allow more entries.
 
morning glory said:
No problem. I think in future we will extend the challenge to 3 weeks rather than the normal 2 to allow more entries.
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To be honest, I always thought this was a monthly challenge anyway. I'm not saying it should move to 4 weeks, but I totally agree that more time = more entries, and that's always a good thing.
 
Well now. This has been quite the epic battle, which I choose to think of as the World Cup of Peppers. As with the more famous namesake, I enjoyed seeing every entry, and there were some truly surprising performances. No, I will not break the competitors into groups and show progression through stages to a final winner. Due to the massive scope of this competition, this post will only be a walk of the entries, and won’t include the winner. That will happen later today (I promise!)

I judged these on the following basis:
  • · Taste – The most important criteria. This what I figure the taste to be it to be based on how I see the ingredients working together.
  • · Creativity – Also important, within reason. No one made a ghost pepper milkshake, and for that I’m thankful.
  • · Presentation – the least important one, but useful for breaking the deadlock in some cases
Here are the entries; those in bold are ones that particularly caught my attention. But please understand that a lack of a bold doesn’t mean I didn’t like the dish: I will definitely be trying to make some form of ALL of these. But, I had to draw the line somewhere.

Elawin
  • · Pepper and French Bean Jalfrezi (Paneer Jalfrezi)
  • · Aubergine and Pepper Bake
epicuric
  • · Shoots & Leaves Curry
Francesca
  • · Stuffed Bells with Wild Mushroom Risotto
jennyb
  • · Stir Fry Black Pepper Chicken
Lynne Guinne
  • · Italian Sausage with Bell Peppers and Onions
morning glory
  • · Salt Cod Fishcakes with Pepper and Tomato Sauce
  • · Escalivada with Anchovies and Scented Onion Petals
  • · Marinated Roasted Sweet Peppers
  • · Tofu Tikka
  • · Spicy Pepper and Tomato Pasta Sauce (2 ways)
  • · Sweet Potato Balls with Ginger and Chilli
MypinchofItaly
  • · Spaghetti with garlic, Evoo oil and chili peppers
Yorky
  • · Quesadilla
  • · Black Pepper Sauce
  • · Thai Ratatouille
  • · Pork Kebabs
  • · Cambodian Black Pepper Chicken
 
As I mentioned above, this was a difficult task. I have tried to leave comments on all entries, so please know that I did take time to understand the full picture. Before I announce the winner, I'd like to comment on the top contenders.

Elawin
  • Pepper and French Bean Jalfrezi - If only India and China got along as well as the ingredients in this dish.

epicuric
  • Shoots & Leaves Curry - really nice preparation - done two different ways that both work.

Lynne Guinne

  • Italian Sausage with Bell Peppers and Onions - a hearty dish with or without a bun.

morning glory

  • Tofu Tikka - anyone who can make tofu an ingredient I want in a dish has worked some real sorcery.
  • Sweet Potato Balls with Ginger and Chilli - I can see eating these as an appetizer, and not having room for the main course
MypinchofItaly
  • Spaghetti with garlic, Evoo oil and chili peppers - such a smart treatment of a classic preparation.

Yorky
  • Quesadilla - you showed me a better way to make a quesadilla.
  • Thai Ratatouille - this was last by alphabetical order, but something kept drawing me back to this. While it's true that I'm collecting ingredients to make Tom Yam, this is the one that will haunt my dreams until I make it.
So, @Yorky, congratulations for your inspired melding of Thai and French cuisines with your ratatouille. You are the challenge winner!
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
So, @Yorky, congratulations for your inspired melding of Thai and French cuisines with your ratatouille. You are the challenge winner!
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Thank you for that. I have no idea why I made it originally (or cannot remember). It's obviously vegetarian which I am not.

OK, I'll need to have a think.

Do I post the ingredient here for mods to start a new thread or do I start a new thread?
 
Yorky said:
Thank you for that. I have no idea why I made it originally (or cannot remember). It's obviously vegetarian which I am not.

OK, I'll need to have a think.

Do I post the ingredient here for mods to start a new thread or do I start a new thread?
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Just post it here and we will start a new thread. :okay:
 
...it will be tomorrow (as in the UK tomorrow) before the new thread will be up and running ad I need to go to bed now. :sleep:
 
I've been through the list of previously chosen ingredients to try and propose something new and have come up with "mint". I've also done a quick internet search and discovered that there are quite a number of recipes that include mint.

mint s.jpg


[Three weeks would give a closing date of 7th October 2017 to my reckoning.]
 
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Mint is an interesting choice. I confess I don't use it all that much except in the obvious 'mint sauce' so it will be interesting.
 
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