[Sca-cooks] Outlandish Seige contest

[Kathleen A Roberts]

On Tue, 30 May 2006 11:57:31 -0700
  "Bj Jane Tremaine" <vikinglord at cox.net> wrote:
> This years Siege cooking contest at Petrero really 
>stretched my House Holds'
> (House of the Blackened Pot) cooking expertise and 
>speed. 
WOW!  you had more ingredients than ours did this weekend.
10 teams of 3 people.  (note:  my othere two people
forgot about me; kept expecting them later, but...)
we had:

3 large onions
4 carrots
1 parsnip
2 leeks
1/2 cabbage
6 large mushrooms
cube of salt pork
bunch of spinach
4 eggs
milk
red wine
oil
white vinegar
raw sugar
honey
salt
parsley (fresh)
sage (fresh)
rosemary (fresh)
thyme (fresh)
   ...i feel a song coming on...
galangal
long pepper
saffron
black pepper
whole cloves
dried figs
cinnamon stick
dried apricots
2 apples
walnuts
almonds
dried currants
1 lemon
1 orange
brown rice (!!!)
steel cut oats (!!!!!!!)
one whole chicken

and....

1/2 goose (and i mean freshly butchered the day
before...ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!)
   apologies for the commentary, but please note i have
never prepped, cooked or eaten
   goose in all my 54 yrs.

we could bring three items from home, so i brought

dry mustard
red wine vinegar
blue cheese (which as we all know, makes everything
better)

well i surely was at a loss without helpers, tho i have
done this alone before, but i braved the judges with:

a plate of summer salads:  wilted spinach and herbs with
hot bacon dressing and chopped eggs; marinated mushrooms;
marinated carrots w/ currants; stuffed eggs; and compost
(sorta)

leeks and oatmeal porridge (man, was that good... my first 
try)

chicken w/ citrus sauce (including galangal, garlic and 
cloves) on top of brown rice with dates and almonds

the goose... ah, the goose... heck, i don't know... i 
skinned and fileted it, marinated it in red wine, red wine 
vinegar and black pepper, drained it, floured it, fried it 
in a mix of salt pork fat and oil, and crumbled walnuts on 
top (crumbled due to lack of time, other wise i would have 
made a sauce.  but the judges said that would have been 
wrong, the crumbling was fantastic.)

dessert was a british type bread and butter pudding with 
the dried fruits simmered in red wine w/ cinnamon

i didn't win anything, and other folks plating was better, 
but they did something weird... all the side dishes were 
judged against each other, all the main courses and all 
the desserts.  odd... but i must say that was the most 
ingredients i have ever had to deal with at one time.

next year we are talking about a real iron chef, with all 
the stoves together and having the main ingredient given 
to each, and a table of 'schtuff' to choose from rather 
than everyone gets the same thing.  could be fun.

just hope there is no goose.....  actually, i don't think 
anyone was lauded for their goose...

cailte
  






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy which
sustained him through temporary periods of joy."
W. B. Yeats
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kathleen Roberts
University of New Mexico
Office of Freshman Admissions
Administrative Asst. III
505-277-6249