Cooking Camp Day 4
Thursday morning, Jessica and I gazed at the remaining ingredients. No day had gone as planned, and multiple recipes remained untouched. The teens wanted to make more pizza and eat more cheese. Our supplies were lopsided as a result.
“What should else should we make?” I wondered. “I want to use up the food.”
“Have you ever heard of this show Chopped?” Jessica asked.
The original theme for Day 4 was “School Lunch.” My workplace was an elementary school from 1935-1995 and I actually found two hot lunch menus from 1939. Originally we were going to make hot cocoa and peanut butter from scratch. But that all felt too daunting. Instead, Day 4 was a culinary mishmash, but it was a lot of fun.
California Rolls, 1970s
I had mentioned we’d be making california rolls and the teens flipped out. They were so excited. Myself, I’d never even had sushi until I was in my 20s and living in Nebraska. I love these Oregonian kids.
This recipe is technically called “cucumber rolls” and comes from a 1973 article, “Gourmets Go Chinese,” via Food Timeline. As with the other dishes we made this day, california rolls don’t have a clear invention date or inventor. Sometime in the 1970s, probably in California. Americans didn’t like or didn’t understand nori at first, so they’d pick it off; some chefs switched to cucumber, some switched to putting nori inside the roll. I went with this recipe because it’s similar but different, familiar but weird.
But.
I fucked up.
The recipe says “large cucumbers.” I got small cucumbers, because they were cheaper and I thought, “Well, we have to cut them in half, anyway.” Hubris.
Hubris!
I sliced a cucumber as a demo. It shredded into pieces. Impossible to get a nice, even slice. Pivot. “We’re going to have deconstructed california rolls!” The teens cheered. I guess they don’t know yet that “deconstructed” means “messy” or “hiding a mistake.”
They greatly enjoyed mixing up the filling, and ate the leftover hardboiled egg whites and imitation crab. Even though my #2 rule is “no saying food is gross,” both were pretty gross.
Final assessment: too salty, but would be interested in trying to make it again.
How did I spill soy sauce on this page? This recipe doesn’t even use soy sauce!
Horchata 2: Rice’s Revenge
The stockpot of water and rice remained in the fridge, so we decided to finish the horchata.
We set the pot on a hot plate to bowl. The teens were delighted to add cinnamon sticks to the pot. Besides camp, I’ve led several one-off historical cooking workshops. Kids are fascinated by cinnamon sticks. I think there’s something visceral about breaking a stick and throwing it in a pot, like one is a witch brewing a potion in a cauldron.
Once it was finished cooking, Jessica suggested blending some of the rice with the liquid, instead of just draining it. I grabbed some blenders from the supply shelves behind the Culinary Center. Neither of us considered the fact that the blenders were the most basic pieces of machinery one could buy. Was the rice blended? Well, it was smushed a little bit.
We wound up dumping most of the horchata.
Pancakes, 1588
Day 5 was supposed to be breakfast foods. For timing reasons, Jessica and I decided to make them on Day 4, instead.
Like the horchata, I debated about how far back in time to go. We have Roman pancake recipes, although they are generally eggier. Something from Amelia Simmons’s cookbook could be fun. But then I found this recipe from 1588, The good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin, and knew it was perfect:
It uses beer as a leavening agent.
I purchased two cans of non-alcoholic Guinness and the teens were thrilled. Of course they asked to try some, and I said they could have a little. And we talked about how alcohol is used in cooking and all that.
Bonus: A teen asked if we had syrup. Nope. When was syrup invented? So we also got to have a discussion about Old World and New World foods and indigenous food ways and all that.
This recipe calls for egg yolks, but by this point in the week, I couldn’t handle figuring out something to do with the whites. (Do you think I was capable of making meringue in this state?!) We used whole eggs, and I think the end result tasted just fine. I also really like this recipe because it’s spiced, so one doesn’t really miss having syrup.
The teens loved the pancakes, and some even took Solo cups of batter home with them.
Pancake batter
After the teens left for the day, Jessica and I discussed Day 5. At this point, my goal was to use up all of our perishable ingredients. Because Jessica is one of the most amazing human beings, she offered to come early and make tortillas. We could use leftover eggs and cheese and make breakfast tacos. We would make the remaining pizzas; I’d need to go to the store for more sauce ingredients, so I would also grab some onions for the tacos.
And, because the teens loved cheese so: I’d get more milk so we could make homemade cheese.
