So, after winning my first round of the siege cooking contest, I went on to the finals. Thankfully, I had a day in between, as cooking for the first round had taken ALL day, and the final round was likely to be the same. After the first round, I was exhausted and sore, though happy.
I was told that authenticity would be especially important in the final round. This merchant gave ingredients expecting recipes from a specific place and time. More of my thoughts on that later...but while the first set she gave was supposed to be Anglo Saxon ingredients, the ingredients for the finals appeared to be mediteranean...NOT my area of expertise.
The ingredients for the final round were: Lupini beans, Smelt, honey, a lemon, green onions, garlic cloves, parsley root (with the greens attached), fresh basil, red grapes, salami, romano cheese, and olive oil.
I'd never heard of Lupini beans. Except for a brief conversation a couple days before. There was something about them being related to broad beans and/or peanuts. Now I had a whole bag of them, dried, to figure out something to do with them.
I'd never heard of Smelt, either. They're small, silver fish...similar to sardines. I did have someone tell me that they should be just cooked whole, and you eat the bones. That helped...but really...what do you do with fish? (Ok, I had olive oil, lemon, and parsley. That's a basic recipe for cooking fish. We'll go with that.)
I had a fair amount of oil, so I pealed the garlic cloves and cooked them in some of the oil to infuse the garlic flavor into the oil. I took another section of oil and put it in an empty honey bottle with a bunch of the basil leaves to infuse that flavor into oil. Not exactly sure what I was going to do with them, but it was a start.
The merchant had made a point of saying that drinks were important, so I made a grape drink with the grapes. I used a muddler and smashed them to bits, added some spices, and left them in the sun to set and stew.
Alright...Beans...what to do with beans...
They were dried, so the first step was to soak them overnight. Then, apparently, they needed to be boiled and drained repeatedly to get the bitterness out. After a couple boilings they didn't really taste too bad, no bitterness...kinda bland, actually. So, what to do with beans.
I didn't have a starch. I thought I remembered a fava bean paste from a few years before, so I figured I'd try making a paste of some of these and serve the fish over them. The beans refused to cook to a mush, no matter how long I boiled them. I'd even removed the skins, and tried smashing them with a mallet. (Yeah, that probably looked amusing...but I was also worried about breaking the ziploc bag I was squishing them in.) Remember the "related to peanuts" part? I didn't. Lupini beans, much like peanuts, do NOT form a good paste. I probably would have had to grind them while dry, or chop them...which didn't occur to me until it was too late. Oh well. I cooked them with some of the cheese, which I'd cut very fine, and it at least tasted good. (A little salt and pepper as well.) Oh, and the parsley root, cut very fine, and fried in some of the garlic-infused oil, and the cooked garlic cloves.
I still had a bunch of the beans to use, and my first thought was to do a salad. I remembered a conversation from several years ago about the complex mix of flavors in roman cooking. So, I mixed lemon juice, honey, and black pepper together, again sitting it in the sun to bake a bit. I cut the green parts of the spring onions along with the green parsley tops and mixed them into the beans I had left. After letting the dressing set for a bit, I tossed that in with the rest, adding some sea salt and a bit more pepper. It was surprisingly tasty!
The salami and the rest of the cheese were just sliced and set prettily on a platter with basil leaves, to be served with the grape juice, which I strained and squished through a cheesecloth (of sorts...it was extra linen fabric I had in my basket.)
By the end, what I took to the judges was:
I didn't win, but I didn't really expect to, either. The part that does bug me a bit, though, is that the deciding factor between me and the winner was that he could document his recipes. He looked them up online with his ipad.
That's ok...it wasn't my contest, and weren't my rules. It was a great experience, though, and I can compete again next year if I want to.
What's more likely, though, is that I'll teach a class in siege cooking, then run my own contest. THAT could be fun.
I was told that authenticity would be especially important in the final round. This merchant gave ingredients expecting recipes from a specific place and time. More of my thoughts on that later...but while the first set she gave was supposed to be Anglo Saxon ingredients, the ingredients for the finals appeared to be mediteranean...NOT my area of expertise.
The ingredients for the final round were: Lupini beans, Smelt, honey, a lemon, green onions, garlic cloves, parsley root (with the greens attached), fresh basil, red grapes, salami, romano cheese, and olive oil.
I'd never heard of Lupini beans. Except for a brief conversation a couple days before. There was something about them being related to broad beans and/or peanuts. Now I had a whole bag of them, dried, to figure out something to do with them.
I'd never heard of Smelt, either. They're small, silver fish...similar to sardines. I did have someone tell me that they should be just cooked whole, and you eat the bones. That helped...but really...what do you do with fish? (Ok, I had olive oil, lemon, and parsley. That's a basic recipe for cooking fish. We'll go with that.)
I had a fair amount of oil, so I pealed the garlic cloves and cooked them in some of the oil to infuse the garlic flavor into the oil. I took another section of oil and put it in an empty honey bottle with a bunch of the basil leaves to infuse that flavor into oil. Not exactly sure what I was going to do with them, but it was a start.
The merchant had made a point of saying that drinks were important, so I made a grape drink with the grapes. I used a muddler and smashed them to bits, added some spices, and left them in the sun to set and stew.
Alright...Beans...what to do with beans...
They were dried, so the first step was to soak them overnight. Then, apparently, they needed to be boiled and drained repeatedly to get the bitterness out. After a couple boilings they didn't really taste too bad, no bitterness...kinda bland, actually. So, what to do with beans.
I didn't have a starch. I thought I remembered a fava bean paste from a few years before, so I figured I'd try making a paste of some of these and serve the fish over them. The beans refused to cook to a mush, no matter how long I boiled them. I'd even removed the skins, and tried smashing them with a mallet. (Yeah, that probably looked amusing...but I was also worried about breaking the ziploc bag I was squishing them in.) Remember the "related to peanuts" part? I didn't. Lupini beans, much like peanuts, do NOT form a good paste. I probably would have had to grind them while dry, or chop them...which didn't occur to me until it was too late. Oh well. I cooked them with some of the cheese, which I'd cut very fine, and it at least tasted good. (A little salt and pepper as well.) Oh, and the parsley root, cut very fine, and fried in some of the garlic-infused oil, and the cooked garlic cloves.
I still had a bunch of the beans to use, and my first thought was to do a salad. I remembered a conversation from several years ago about the complex mix of flavors in roman cooking. So, I mixed lemon juice, honey, and black pepper together, again sitting it in the sun to bake a bit. I cut the green parts of the spring onions along with the green parsley tops and mixed them into the beans I had left. After letting the dressing set for a bit, I tossed that in with the rest, adding some sea salt and a bit more pepper. It was surprisingly tasty!
The salami and the rest of the cheese were just sliced and set prettily on a platter with basil leaves, to be served with the grape juice, which I strained and squished through a cheesecloth (of sorts...it was extra linen fabric I had in my basket.)
By the end, what I took to the judges was:
- Cold Basil/Lemon Water
- Lupini Bean Salad with a honey pepper dressing
- Fried Smelt served on a Lupini Romano Paste
- Spiced Grape Juice
- Meat & Cheese platter with Basil leaves
I didn't win, but I didn't really expect to, either. The part that does bug me a bit, though, is that the deciding factor between me and the winner was that he could document his recipes. He looked them up online with his ipad.
That's ok...it wasn't my contest, and weren't my rules. It was a great experience, though, and I can compete again next year if I want to.
What's more likely, though, is that I'll teach a class in siege cooking, then run my own contest. THAT could be fun.
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