[Sca-cooks] a small seige cooking experience

[Kathleen A. Roberts]

in the rain......  OY!  fires were going out, ingredients clumping.... what 
fun.

this past weekend, Clann Wars (Ruidoso, NM) had a seige cooking contest, 
host(ess)ed by Mistress Leah de Montgomerie, a strong advocate of the 'art'.

we were provided with 1 whole chicken, approx 1 lb. of sliced raw beef, two 
turnips, one leek, six eggs, a bag of mixed dried fruit (apple slices, 
peaches, pears, apricots, prunes), a small can of mushrooms and stems, 2 c. 
wheat flour, 2 c. sugar, 1 1/2 c. oatmeal and 1 1/2 c. barley (flakes... 
like oatmeal).    Salt, pepper, water and whiskey (gotta love her!) were 
'free' ingredients.   up to 5 other ingredients were allowed from your camp 
and we were warned we could bring anything we wanted..  if you had 
something from the list in you camp kit, you could use more.   there were 
no fats provided, the meat was lean and the chicken rendered no schmaltz to 
speak of.

the mission:  make yummy food in 6 hours for judging and to supplement the 
pot luck feast.  did i mention the chicken was frozen, as was the beef?

i am very pleased to say that a young lady i am encouraging and mentoring 
in seige cooking won the day with a stir fry (she brought rice as one of 
her ingredients).  there were chickens roasted on wee weber grills, breaded 
beef chunks, chicken soup, and a really nice fruited chicken that was 
roasted.   everyone was having a damp, good time, trying to figure out what 
to make.  no real espionage to speak of.

taking my cue from the rainy day itself, i concentrated on things that 
would easily reheat, and be hearty .   i made a leek/oatmeal soup with a 
light chicken (thyme) base; (rosemary) chicken and wheat dumplings; beef, 
turnip and mushroomn stew with a (dijon mustard) and black pepper sauce 
over barley cooked with dried apples; and a sweetened and (buttered) molded 
oatmeal pudding filled with dried fruit that was simmered in a whiskey 
(raspberry cider) sauce, with the sauce itself poured over the top.   NOTE: 
() indicate from the camp kit

tho i didn't win the competition, the signature oatmeal pudding was again a 
crowd favorite.

really interesting doing it in the rain, even with the tarps stretched over 
the cooking area.... well, most of the cooking area.   lots of fun, and 
really gratifying to see auria win her first.   she's getting really good 
at it.

cailte

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''Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy which
sustained him through temporary periods of joy.''
                                                        W.B. Yeats
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Kathleen Roberts
Administrative Asst. II
UNM Freshman Admissions
505-277-6249