ISO advice for garnish for not so ordinary chicken wing platter

[Mock_Talks]

I have been chosen to compete in an amateur creative buffalo wing sauce competition. My sauce involves cranberries, pomegranate molasses, sanaam chilies, etc. The sauce is mostly sweet with a little heat at the end. The sauce has a very deep flavor...I'm torn as to what to do for a garnish. My latest thought is a toss of greens with feta or some other cheese with a pom. balsamic vinagrette. It seems kind of boring to me though so wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

 

[4meandthem]

I would stick with a finger food.
How about sweet potatoe fries or cubes and a chimichurri sauce or a cilantro cream sauce to dip in.

If you want greens what about an herb sald.

Jalapeno corn bread sticks might work too.

 

[Mock_Talks]

I did try sweet potato fries for one of my test runs...they didn't turn out. I'm not quite sure what I did wrong there. I recently found out that I only have 20 minutes to prepare the sauce and plate everything so I definitley need to keep it simple. I like the idea of the cilantro cream dipping sauce! I wish I knew if the competitors are going to have such a sauce on the side of their main sauce. This is my first shot at competitive cooking so not quite sure what to expect besides what I've seen on Food Network and Travel Channel. I thought about gutting out a zucchini and filling it with couscous or some sort of slaw, but I think that might be going overboard.

 

[ChefJune]

If you have to prepare the whole thing on site, keep it VERY simple. If you can bring your garnish already prepared with you, that allows you some leeway. But I would not go with anything that does not specifically GO WITH the wings. The extra, cilantro dip sounds like a goodie, as it could also be used as a dipper for the wings.

 

[mollyanne]

I like color and this would do it. I couldn't find the recipe for this but it said something about blue cheese in the title (but that even got cut off)...

So I'm guessing a baked potato wedge "boat" (easy to eat with fingers) with real bacon pieces, tomato, shredded cheddar, blue-cheese-sourcream sauce, and topped with a tiny bit of shredded lettuce and green onions or fresh chives.

The potato looks to be roasted. Coat with olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake at 450 for about 25 minutes (whole potatoes cook for 45 min) Put the shredded cheddar on as soon as you take it out of the oven so it will melt...then add the cold ingredients.

 

[Constance]

For some reason, watermelon comes to my mind. Or perhaps mixed melon balls? It wouldn't compete with the intense flavors of the wings and sauce, and would have a cooling effect on the heat from the peppers.

If you want cheese, I think I remember a TV chef using feta cheese with watermelon in a salad. He put pepper on it, too. Don't know about that.