Ceci con Brio

This round's entry was much more difficult to create. It was more expensive, it was more time consuming and it demanded far finer culinary skills on my part all around. In the end everything tasted great but I feel like my presentation was either lacking in creativity or went really overboard. Either way, once I got around to actually cooking the individual dishes it was a rollickingly good old time.

I honestly dont remember in what order I made any of the dishes so I pretty much have to just post the pictures and comment on each individually. Sorry heheh.




My ingredient ensemble. This quickly degenerated as many things needed to be refrigerated heheh. Interestingly, I used 4 different brands of Chickpeas because that was what was in the pantry. I supplemented my pantry with some peppers and odds and ends that I needed from the store like Balkan style yogurt etc etc.



My herb trio, clockwise from top left: Dill, Cilantro and Mint.



Some onions and garlic sauteeing. Whoopee.



Getting ready to make the Honey Chickpea stuffing. A lot of stuff went into this dish, which resulted in a positively outstanding gustatory experience when eating it. The first taste was cool and sweet because of the mint and honey, then it got garlicky/oniony and then came some serious late heat from the chilies and pepper flakes that went into it.




Getting ready to stuff the pepper with the stuff I made earlier. Also, my dad's crotch.



I have finished cooking my Couscous and vegetable dish. Nothing plated yet... and its been like 2 hours worth of cooking at this point already. Thats all about to change however. Unfortunately for some reason once I plated the first dish even though most of the rest were not done I didn't take any more action shots so here come the courses.


Honey and Mint Hummus Stuffed Bell Pepper



Chickpea and Goji Berry Couscous with Feta Cheese



Crispy Chickpea Patties with Chunky Tzatziki Sauce



Cinnamon Falafel Cake



All together now:




[/center]

christ

remember how I said I hate chickpeas?? I'm pretty sure I would eat all of these and they would taste great.

I liked the presentation at first, and like I said, everything looks delicious. but at second glance I felt an odd level of radial symmetry going on throughout all the dishes, but especially with the stuffed pepper. maybe the bowl was a bit too much, idk

these are really good though, great job man.

edit: not that the presentation isn't great, that falafel looks gorgeous

These look pretty delicious. There's something I can't quite put my finger on though. Maybe they're all too round. ;)

Nevertheless, great job!

Yeah those mint leaves around the edge were a bit much. I would have to agree that I went a bit overboard with the garnishing on pretty much all 4 of the dishes, which was a huge mistake in my opinion... but I just got so caught up in it all lol. Also yeah I think it was a bit of a cop out on my part to arrange everything radially, but oh well.

Dude, you used Goji Berries?  That is fucking awesome!

I wanted to use raisins or black currants but we didnt have any. sorry lol

It looks awesome and delicious but theres to much going on with the presentation imho.

Try and use negative space some, I always found that more visually appealing when theres empty space, it sorta makes it feel bigger in an odd way.

I love the presentation on the stuffed pepper, looks very pro.  The crispy patties are probably my favourite looking of them, I think I might try making them some time. Awesome job!