Author Topic: The Iron Camp Cook Halloween Challenge!  (Read 46587 times)

Offline Sason

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Re: The Iron Camp Cook Halloween Challenge!
« Reply #10 on: October 28, 2011, 02:47:45 pm »
I agree, and am looking forward to making this...you won't be surprised to find out that I have all the ingredients!

I was looking for canned pumpkin in the grocery store today and couldn't find it anywhere. Looked up and down the canned vegetable aisle. I was beginning to think maybe I had been teleported to Europe! Anyway, I finally found it with the pie fillings in the baking aisle. Monroe has very little imagination!!

I've never heard of canned pumpkin.

Fresh pumpkins are sold here now on a regular basis at this time of year, but it's only maybe 10 years ago they started showing up in the stores. Before that they were practically unheard of.

But canned....? Nope. Not yet, anyway.

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Offline Sason

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Re: The Iron Camp Cook Halloween Challenge!
« Reply #11 on: October 28, 2011, 02:55:54 pm »
I'm planning to go to the farmer's market tomorrow. Will look out for sweet potatoes and walnuts.....   ;)

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Offline southendmd

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Re: The Iron Camp Cook Halloween Challenge!
« Reply #12 on: October 28, 2011, 06:09:46 pm »
Anybody got a recipe for fried brussel sprouts? Paul and Lynne and I had some at the bar on Tremont Street in Boston where we had dinner, and they were scrump-diddly-umptious!  :D

Yes, Jeff, they were scrummy.  I think they used a deep fryer, but you can approximate the taste.  After rinsing them, slice them very thinly, then saute them in canola oil on very high heat.  I add just a little cumin.  Yum. 

Offline Sason

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Re: The Iron Camp Cook Halloween Challenge!
« Reply #13 on: October 28, 2011, 06:13:19 pm »
Btw, what is an iron camp anyway?

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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: The Iron Camp Cook Halloween Challenge!
« Reply #14 on: October 28, 2011, 07:39:50 pm »
Yes, the name of the challenge is a little obtuse. I named it after the Iron Chef series on TV but I thought the word chef was not Brokieish enough, so I changed it to Iron Camp Cook in honor of Ennis, his iron skillet and his salt shaker.

I was just reading a restaurant review of a new place in Denver and they raved about the fried brussels sprouts. Lynne, your recipe sounds great. I usually prepare them steamed in a sweet/sour sauce, and I'm getting a little tired of that.
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Offline southendmd

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Re: The Iron Camp Cook Halloween Challenge!
« Reply #15 on: October 28, 2011, 08:11:46 pm »
I was just reading a restaurant review of a new place in Denver and they raved about the fried brussels sprouts. Lynne, your recipe sounds great. I usually prepare them steamed in a sweet/sour sauce, and I'm getting a little tired of that.

It's Paul, actually.   :)

When they're steamed, they're more like cabbages  :P, so I prefer the high-heat saute til they're blackened.  No need for a sauce. 

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: The Iron Camp Cook Halloween Challenge!
« Reply #16 on: October 29, 2011, 10:33:21 am »
The iron skillet award for our very first challenge goes to (drum roll please) Ellemeno, our BetterMost administrator, for her excellent Sweet Potato Splendor! This recipe is simple, delicious, and easy to make. I can just hear Ennis clanging on his coffeepot with a stick in appreciation! And Jack is sharpening up his potato peeling knife! 

The only thing missing is a photo, so I found one that will do on the Kraft Foods site. They have a similar recipe using Planters Walnuts, but I recommend you use Ellemeno's, which is much better!




Sweet Potato Splendor

Take fresh sweet potatoes, wash them and cut them into bite size chunks.  
Rub them lightly with olive oil, and spread them in a baking dish.  
Put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  

Pull the pan out of the oven, and with a spatula, loosen the sweet potato chunks from the pan, and flip them around.  
Pour some apple juice in the pan.  Not much, just enough to mostly have a thin layer of it on the bottom of the pan.  
Chop up some walnuts, not finely, just enough to not have really big chunks.  And not too many, just enough to add a little sumpsumpn to the roasted sweet potatoes.  
Also sprinkle in a small amount of salt, and a light amount of either powdered ginger, or if you gots it, chopped candied ginger.  
With the spatula, blend all this, and spread it around the pan.  
As you are blending, add more apple juice, if necessary, to coat all of it.  

Put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes, pulling it out halfway through to flip and check.  
Keep baking until the sweet potato is cooked through.  

Depending on the amount of liquid, the heat of the oven, the age of the sweet potatoes, and other factors, this will either turn out with a delightful roasted and glazed quality, with every sweet potato jewel and every walnut crumb glazed in rich apple goodness, or it will turn into a mush, also very delicious, or somewhere in between.  
Wherever it ends up on the consistency spectrum, it will be delicious and have lots of vitamin A.  
If it's mushy, you can eat it in a bowl with a little half and half poured on.  
Yum.
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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: The Iron Camp Cook Halloween Challenge!
« Reply #17 on: October 29, 2011, 10:38:17 am »
Are you ready for the final Halloween Challenge? This one will run until next weekend:

A few rules/guidelines are listed in the first post.

Here are the secret ingredients:

* grapes (may be either red, green or black, but must be seedless)

* candy or chocolate of any kind


Now, let's allez cuisine!!!
[/quote]
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Offline Sason

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Re: The Iron Camp Cook Halloween Challenge!
« Reply #18 on: October 29, 2011, 10:41:36 am »
Congrats to the glorious victory, Clarissa!!    ;D

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Offline Sason

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Re: The Iron Camp Cook Halloween Challenge!
« Reply #19 on: October 29, 2011, 10:44:02 am »
I don't need no grapes. I'll just have my chocolate plain, thank you very much!   8)

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