[Sca-cooks] Iron Chef at Highland War

[Elaine Koogler]

Susan Fox wrote:

>This was my first camping trip as a single traveler, make possible by the
>kind folks of the Shire of Al-Sahid, the hosting group. Lady Alix, in charge
>of this contest, invited me with an offer I could not refuse, an Iron Chef
>contest; Lady Valdis and Lord Martin Monteyro made it possible for me to
>stay onsite with my own little dome tent and Martin's strength and
>persistance, carrying my copious boxes of kitchen stuff around. My heartfelt
>gratitude to all of them.
>
>LONG Frickin' Drive, which would not have been so bad if not for Holiday
>Weekend Traffic. I did try to get out of town earlier but you know my last
>minute flurrying. At least I made it before dark.
>I went into this at a few disadvantages and really needed to have done more
>confidence building beforehand. No assistant, all my "evil minions" were at
>other events or had moved away. No books except for CARIADOC'S MISCELLANY
>that I could download and print out, since my SCA cookbooks are still hidden
>in storage. Very poor sleep the night before; sleeping on the ground is no
>longer an option for me. Frickin' OWCH. Curiously, my problematical spine
>gave me less aggrevation than usual the next day, thank goodness for small
>mercies. Well, I didn't sit down much and that must have helped.
>
>The Iron Chef Contest was loads of fun, even despite the stress. The
>defending champion was Lady Muririath MacLabhrainn, pronounce that as
>Ma-RYE-ah Mac Laren. A high-end realtor from Lancaster/Palmdale area [YES,
>smarty, there are such!], good mom, excellent fencer and baronial officer
>type who's going places. Her hubby is a multi-baronial champion of fence,
>which just shows to go you that the family that slays together, stays
>together. She had as assistant Lady Meala, the perky fencer who always wears
>bright pink. I never knew how much of a foody she was, we must hang out and
>bond more some time! We put our kitchen areas together at adjacent picnic
>tables, each bringing a two-burner propane camp stove, sharing a "larder" of
>standard ingredients as well as the spices and stuff we had each brought. A
>friend of hers was shooting video for their family website. I suggested that
>the completed version be sent to Food Network for their "How Do You Iron
>Chef?" promotion; they seemed interested.
>
>Unlike the TV version, we were each presented with a basket of ingredients.
>Each of these had to be used within the whole meal; every dish presented had
>to include at least one of them.
>1. A whole chicken. A true luxury item before the era of poultry factory
>farming! It was still a bit frosty on the inside but we coped.
>2. A head of curly kale, purple at the ribs and heart shading to dark green.
>Beautiful to look at and delicious.
>3. Fresh Rosemary, the promised Fresh Herb.
>4. Pears, dull green-brown on the outside, juicy-sweet.
>5. Brown lentils, a good choice for a legume for their quick-cooking
>qualities.
>6. Walnuts, harvested locally.
>
>The shared larder included such items as sea salt, red wine vinegar, olive
>oil, "stale" rolls which actually hadn't hardened all that much in two days
>on the counter, cone sugar, honey and some eggs fresh from the hens
>belonging to one of the local shire folk. I so love fresh eggs from birds
>with names and these were brown and green and rich.
>
>The judges were TRM Dietrich and Adriana, she is a "foody" and they both
>value good documentation in artistic endeavors; and Baron Jamal of
>Lyondemere, one of the few cookery Laurels in Caid. He is blunt-spoken but
>will tell you what he honestly thinks so I was satisfied.
>
>I made:
>
>1. Fresh cheese infused with rosemary. Put rosemary sprigs into the pot with
>1 quart raw milk, scalded it, dropped in 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar,
>stirred the mixture and watched it curdle as I stirred a bit. Strained the
>mixture and let it hang for a bit. This turned out a bit too chewy according
>to Judge Jamal, he recommended less vinegar. All liked how the rosemary was
>present but not overwhelming, I will make this on other occasions!
>
>2. Pear Oxymel. A drink syrup, related to Sekanjabin, of vinegar, sugar or
>honey and fruit, documented from Al-Andalus. I needed more sugar but there
>wasn't enough, which Jamal noticed. The pear flavor could have been more
>pronounced, alas for time limits. Still tasty and refreshing, I would have
>brought more home if the wasps had not invaded the pitcher before I could
>find a bottle.
>
>3. "Cresses In Lent" from Two 15th Century Cookbooks. Greens sauteed in
>olive oil and cooked a bit more with almond milk. They all seemed to liked
>it except Jamal thought it too salty. His Majesty commented then and later
>that I had made a Kale Believer out of him. [beam!]
>
>4. Moorish Chicken, a Portuguese dish of fried-then-stewed chicken pieces in
>onions and spices, egg-yolk stirred into the dish and then served over
>sippets of toast . Used rosemary, saffron, ginger and long pepper instead of
>the spices specified in the recipe. This was OK by the guidelines of the
>contest, the scenario said we had to use what we had, right? Good flavor
>balance, Jamal thought there was too much saffron. Sigh. It's a royal table,
>sumptuousness is the rule, right? Um, not quite. Well I tried.
>
>5. Rishta, from Al-Baghdadi. This is the earliest pasta recipe I've ever
>found, dated 1228. Rishta means "thread" and mine looked much like my
>drop-spindled yarn, lumpy but friendly. Usually made with lamb but I did it
>with chicken giblets, which really worked nicely. Cooked them in water, the
>resultant broth with a bunch of cinnamon is used to cook lentils until just
>done and then home-made noodles cooked therein. Her Majesty liked it
>particularly, appreciated the home-style quality. Jamal said the noodles
>were under-done. I don't think they were, the ones I tried were not, but
>they were pretty thickly cut and a lot of people don't care for that.
>
>I will update with Muiriath's dishes when she writes them down. Her whole
>menu highlighted the fine Cabernet wine that is produced in her home barony,
>good theme! I do recall we did similar things with the Kale. She did a thing
>with braised onions and red wine over sippits of toast that I liked very
>well but Jamal didn't, saying that un-toasted bread was "horrible." Eeep,
>that is not a word I would have used so frankly for a junior artisan. Pear
>wardens in wine, the obvious Medieval go-to which I deliberately avoided,
>but she did execute them well, with a hard-crack honey candy with walnuts. I
>forget the exact chicken dish but I could have sat by the leftovers and
>sucked up all the broth with dry bread sops, lovely. Lentils were done with
>onions but underdone and a little too crunchy.
>
>I was pooped and washed up my dishes languidly and a bit clumsily, allowing
>a lot of water to slosh on my dress to cool me evaporatively. I did decide
>to go home after Court, I was NOT going to endure another night on the
>ground. Wanna know how tired I was? I didn't even buy anything on Merchants
>Row, not a frippery. Nothing looked worth taking home even at merchants I
>liked.
>
>We got to wait until Closing Court for the results: Muiriath was the victor
>by one single point. Whew! I do not begrudge it of her, not a single bit,
>but I want to ask for the point breakdown after everybody is home. I thought
>my notes and comments from the judges sounded more promising than hers...
>not being a bad sport, just wondering where =I= fell short.
>
>I have volunteered to help judge the contest next year, which will feature
>an awesome cooking herald, Lady Illuminada, facing off Lady Muiriath for the
>title. I'm taking a hotel room in town this time however. The war will still
>be Labor Day Weekend but WorldCon will be the week earlier, if memory
>serves. 
>
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>
Sounds like a lot of fun...but Master Jamal sounds like someone who is 
never satisfied...and, dare I say it, one who is somewhat responsible 
for the bad press we Laurels get...

Kiri