The CookingBites Recipe Challenge: Wine

TastyReuben said:
This just goes to show that being a judge isn't all champagne and caviar - there's real work involved!
Click to expand...

And, it's also not advisable to count the entries after consuming a lot of the ingredient.

I suppose that's more of an issue for wine than it would be for potatoes, but you get my point.
 
Before I announce the winner, I have a few preliminary awards to announce:

The Picasso Award - awarded to the most prolific "food artist". And the winner is:
  • flyinglentris - for sharing a staggering 15 recipes in the 4 weeks since the challenge started. This wasn't even close, but TastyReuben did put up a solid challenge with 7 recipes. Congratulations! As a reward for your accomplishment, you are invited to take a break from cooking things.

The Beyoncé Award - awarded to the most beautiful dish. There are quite a few that were in the running, and honestly this was really difficult to narrow down to a single selection. We have quite talented home cooks here. And the winner is:
  • Hemulen - for the gorgeous Pea sprout & feta soup. Your reward for winning is to look at the picture you posted of your soup (and, of course, to eat more of your soup, too).

The Usain Bolt Award - awarded to the first one to post a recipe. And the winner is:
 
As I mentioned previously, I expect to include making some of the recipes in the challenge if I win a challenge again, and I am hoping others will do the same when they are contest judges. Besides getting to try some terrific uses of the ingredient, there's always something interesting to me about following someone else's process. I learned more by actually making the 4 recipes that I made than I would have by just reading the recipe.

Part of the reason I posted the entries with their links is so I can go back to this thread and easily look up other recipes I want to make. I have at least 2 more in mind that I will definitely make, and I will probably make others. All of the recipes inspired me, and really opened my eyes about the many different ways (at least 44 different ways, Morning Glory :laugh:) to use wine in a recipe.

I also hope future winners will have fun with the process, which I definitely did this time. I understand how stressful it can be trying to decide between many excellent recipes, but you can still have fun with it. Making some of the recipes helped with that. I also wanted to recognize people for what they accomplished in this challenge. Yes: I will use the Awards I bestowed above in future challenges, and I hope future judges will do something similar. I really didn't want this to be a strictly all-or-nothing proposition, especially with so many great recipes.

I will announce the winner in the next reply to this thread.
 
There were a lot of things I consider when deciding a winner:
  • The recipe needs to result in a tasty dish. I don't need to make it to figure that out, but it did open my eyes about those specific recipes.
  • The recipe needs to make the main ingredient The Star. If you bury the ingredient in a delicious recipe, I might make the recipe, but I can't pick it as the winner.
  • Plating is important. I won't judge too harshly if the picture isn't pretty...I understand that some dishes aren't photogenic, and not everyone has a knack for plating. But, a pretty plate does help your cause.
  • Innovation is important. Sometimes an idea is just crazy enough to work; other times, it's just crazy. But, I do appreciate the effort if what you present is an unusual (or even unique) combination.
With all that said, I narrowed the field down to three entries:
  • flyinglentris - Berbere Beef Barley Wine Soup - I loved how the berbere worked with the wine. Extra credit for making your own berbere: I could have used the store-bought jar that I had, but yours is clearly better.
  • Windigo - Recipe - Tzimmes, Jewish lamb stew with prunes - This one was an eye-opener for me. It reminded me a bit of a tagine, with the use of dates and lamb. I loved how the lamb turned out, and how the wine presents itself throughout. Also, points for the pretty plating.
  • medtran49 - Recipe - Orecchiette in a soubise sauce with bacon - I had already narrowed things down to the above two when I saw this recipe. I went through it more than once - more times than any other recipe in the challenge - and each time I went through, the idea grew on me more and more. I almost made it last night, but I don't know if ditali is the best vehicle for the fantastic combo of wine and onion. I will make it, though.
And the winner is:

flyinglentris

I wasn't sure if I just liked it for the berbere, but I realized over time that it was the combination with the wine that really worked for me. Even though any old berbere could have been used, as I said, yours is better than the store-bought one, and that should rightfully play into the evaluation of the recipe. Your soup is hearty and warming, and a terrific use of the wine.

Congratulations!
 
Whoa! What have I become. That's three now.

If you are a CB member and no more than an amateur cook like me, take note. You can do it.

The Late Night Gourmet,

Thank you for your demonstrated appreciation of my cooking prowess. I have taken note of how you like to do the judge role. I may try to go that way, but I have only a small fridge and it is not easy for me to keep all the things that may be needed to do other member recipes. We'll see.
 
Congratulations flyinglentris! You certainly gave this challenge a run for its money. Well done!

Its now over to you to choose the next ingredient and become the judge. Simply post your choice of ingredient in this thread and w will set up a new challenge.

As always its important to choose an ingredient which is reasonably accessible in our various countries (not always easy!). A list of ingredients which have already been chosen can be found here in alphabetical order and here in date order. It doesn't matter if you choose something which has gone before so long as it isn't too recently.
 
Morning Glory

I have had a few ingredients in mind, should I wind up as judge. This time, I wanted an easy ingredient that all members can work with and that is reasonably priced.

Therefore, I will propose snow peas or as an alternative snap peas.
 
A special thanks to The Late Night Gourmet who has been a fantastic and attentive judge. Its not easy when we now have so many entries. The Late Night Gourmet I'm sure you remember the time when we barely had 10 entries for the challenge.

I really appreciated your detailed comments and its absolutely fantastic that you took the trouble to make some of the recipes. Kudos!
 
Morning Glory said:
OK. In the UK they are known as 'Mangetout' meaning 'eat all'
Click to expand...

I had to look that up and see a photo. Yes. Mangetout peas and snow peas are the same. Snap peas are rounder and not flat. I prefer snow peas to snap peas for myself, but as I stated, it's ok for this challenge to use snap peas.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom