Best Trial By Fire Performance Ever

On Saturday, I competed in Trial By Fire, which is a cooking competition, where you compete to cook authentic medieval dishes (650-1650 CE in this case)in 4 categories (Meat, Grain, Vegetable, Dessert) in 4 hours in camping conditions (no electricity, but bottled gas/coleman is OK).

I competed with two dishes, Toad in the Hole (Yorkshire Pudding with sausage in it), and Fried Kubba Kari (rice dumplings stuffed with the same), and I also made a thoroughly not-in-the-historical-period sausage gravy, because I had just cooked 2 lbs of lamb sausage, and because I had always wanted to make some.

Both the Toad in the Hole and the sausage gravy turned out well, though the dumplings did not.  They were made with broken rice, which was thoroughly cooked, but we could not get it to stick together, so it ended up fried rice with sausage.

Note on Recipes:
The following recipes are airy free.  I will replaced milk with almond milk, and butter with rendered chicken fat (schmaltz) so that they were kosher (fleishig) dishes.


Additionally, because of poor planning on my part, I picked up flour in the last minute, and could not find white flour without malted barley flour (Sharon^* is allergic to malt and barley), so I used "white wheat" flour, which is not as suitable.


Recipes:

Toad in the Hole:

• Roll Sausage in olive small balls, and brown in a skillet.
• Mix with Yorkshire Pudding batter (see below).
• Place cast iron dutch oven in a fire pit with the lid off. (I used the bottom of my charcoal smoker)
• Place Dutch oven lid in fire as well.
• Add ¼ cup of fat. (Drippings from a roast is traditional, you can also use olive oil, I used Schmaltz)
• When the oil is just screaming hot (shimmering) pour the batter and sausage mixture in the dutch oven, and place the lid on, and pile coals on the lid. (See pic) This serves to create an oven effect on top of a fire.
• Cook 20-30 minutes until puffy and brown on top.

Yorkshire Pudding Batter

Ingredients:

• 6 large eggs
• 1¼ Cup of Milk (I am using Almond Milk)
• 1¼ Cup of flour
• Pinch of salt
• 3 tbsp of sweet butter (I am using Schmaltz)

Preparation:

• Beat eggs and milk and melted schmaltz together until foamy.
• Place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and make a well in and add the wet ingredients.
• Beat until completely smooth (it should have the consistency of heavy cream).
• Let the batter rest for 30-60 minutes before putting in pan for cooking.

Sausage Gravy

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons butter (I am using chicken fat, not butter)
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups whole milk (will be using almond milk)
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

• Place sausage in a large, deep skillet.
• Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown.
• Remove sausage with a slotted spoon, leaving the drippings in the pan.
• Add butter, and stir until melted.
• Add flour, turn heat to medium and stir until smooth and slightly brown.
• Add milk slowly, stirring constantly.
• Add back the crumbled sausage remaining after stuffing the Kubba Kari continuing to stir.
• When the mixture has thickened, salt and pepper to taste.
• If gravy becomes too thick, stir in a little more milk.

The sausage recipe I posted on the blog in 2007.

I did not win anything, but this is the first time that I've had a recipe actually go from the page to the table as intended at Trial by Fire. 

I have had things which became successful additions to my culinary repertoire, like my Indian spice rub, but this is the first time that my recipe turned out as initially intended.

There were no fire management issues, the batter came together well.

Considering the fact that I came up with the recipes about a week ahead of time, I got to cooking an hour late, that I didn't do a trial run, and that this was my first time working with a roux (the sausage gravy), I am pleased with my results.


^*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.