Forums » Art & Creativity » OFFICIAL CONTEST: Epic Cooking 2016

What’s a birthday without a special meal and a cake? Treat the RPR to a special something for its sixth birthday!

To enter:
In this contest, you must bake or cook something. Post pictures or the recipe -- bonus points for both! Please explain in your post why you chose the meal, and how it relates to the theme.

Your entry must somehow be themed to fit one of these categories:

• The RP Repository
• Fantasy
• Science Fiction
• Science, Gaming or other Nerdly Pursuits

A cake with an RPR slogan in icing? Yes please. Your recreation of the “coney stew” that Samwise Gamgee prepared for Frodo while they were on the long path to Moria? Absolutely. Rock candy you somehow crafted into perfect d20s? Genius!

You cannot enter pictures of food other people created, nor post copyrighted recipes; ie something you got out of a cookbook or magazine. Make sure it’s truly your culinary creation.

You may use molds and other special tools, so long as they are in support of a larger effort, not just something you purchased and submitted. For example, if you were to simply submit a picture of a chocolate millennium falcon you made by pouring white chocolate into a purchased mold, you would be disqualified. If on the other hand you used the resultant chocolate spaceship as part of an asteroid-field battle themed scene cake, that would be okay.

Prizes:

• A real life RPR tote bag full of toys and treats
• Greater Wand of Epicness
• Wand of Epicness
• Dragon's tooth
• 3 Enchanted Silk Cloaks

The first place winner will get to pick any one of these prizes. Then second place picks from the remaining prizes, then third, etc.

Deadline:
Get all your entries in by May 17th.

This contest is being managed by Loki. Please direct all questions to her.

/rubs hands together
i am SO ready for this!

Yes! I can't wait to see what you make! 8D

I'll be cooking up a storm tomorrow.

Hmm. There are new seals this year.

*grins*

Would totally try this if it was two weeks from now I'm excited to see what people make!

PRESENTING.............

SKYRIM LEEK TOMATO SOUP



Leeks. Leeks are everywhere. You can even fight with them, make your enemies bleed leeks AND EAT THE LEEKS. Skyrim is all about leeks! Last Epic Cooking contest I made a leek omelet. This Epic Cooking contest I made a leek tomato soup as seen in Skyrim (slowcooker edition).



This food requires only four ingredients to make. If you play the game on hardcore, you can follow my recipe and omit the spices that are not listed here and just cook it with four ingredients. If you're the kind of person who likes flavor and stuff, follow my recipe!

This soup does not use a broth base so it may be a hit or miss for some folks. You can blend the end result if you don't like chunky soup, but I decided to stick as much to a traditional style as I could without sacrificing flavor. (And really, chunks of tomato are just kind of necessary in tomato soup in my opinion, AND WHY WOULD YOU BLEND DELICIOUS LEEKS YOU HEATHEN?!?!) This soup can be made completely vegan if you substitute the butter with a vegan margarine or vegetable oil.

So, what do we need to create this delicious recipe?


(I forgot the tomato puree here lol.)

TOOLS:

• 4 quart slowcooker
• Large saucepan
• Cutting board
• Kitchen knife
• Spatula
• Colander

INGREDIENTS (4 servings):

• 3 cans of diced tomatoes (400gr / 14oz each)
• 2 tablespoons of concentrated tomato puree
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 large leek with the dark greens intact
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ teaspoon pepper
• 1 ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 ½ teaspoon onion powder

Optional:

• Cornstarch
• Water

Now to the fun part of prepping AND COOKING!

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut the stem off the leek and cut about ½ inch off the top of the dark greens. Chop the leek to your preference, either diced or in larger bites (I cut them into medium rings). Rinse very well in a colander and set aside to drip.
2. Finely chop the garlic cloves. Heat up the 2 tablespoons of butter on medium low heat and add the minced garlic. Cook until it becomes fragrant, stirring frequently, just before it browns.
3. Take the pan off the heat and add the 3 cans of diced tomatoes, juices included, and add the tomato puree. Mix well.
4. Season with the salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and onion powder. Stir well. You can safely taste your tomato soup base and season more strongly if desired. Remember, we’re not using a broth base so if we want our soup to taste good, we have to season properly!
5. Cover the bottom of the slowcooker with the chopped leek and cover the leek with the tomato soup base. Don’t worry if the tomato base seems too thick, the leek contains a lot of water and cooking the tomatoes will make it more watery.
   
   
6. Put the lid on the slowcooker and cook for 2-3 hours on high, or 4-5 hours on low.
   
7. Optional: If by the end of the cooking time your soup is too thin, mix one teaspoon cornstarch with one tablespoon of water in a cup, then stir into the soup and let it simmer on high for 10 minutes. Stir and repeat if necessary to get the soup to the right consistency.
8. Optional: If by the end of the cooking time your soup is too thick, add 1 tablespoon water at a time, stir and repeat to the right consistency.

THE FINAL RESULT:





This soup goes extremely well with a hunk of fresh bread and a nice Elsewyr fondue*.
* Due to lack of Elsewyr fondue, a slice of aged gouda cheese was used.

Optional for people without a slowcooker:
Follow the same recipe but use a big soup pot instead of a saucepan and simmer the soup on low heat for 30-60 minutes, adding water as needed to get the right consistency. Stir frequently so it doesn’t burn.

Wow! I love the thorough documentation and clear rationale for everything. It's like the Sanne cooking show!

@Sanne

I DON'T EVEN LIKE THAT KIND OF SOUP BUT NOW I WANT SOME NOW!
That video though

Another one! So glad you guys liked my soup.

Presentingggggggggggggg...........

DICE ONIGIRI

If there's one thing I love to make, it's bentos - Japanese lunch boxes - with some traditional onigiri right in there. At the very basic levels, onigiri are simply salted rice balls made with sushi rice. Go more complex, and they are stuffed with salty fillings and wrapped in seaweed.

Because onigiri are a little more exotic to the average person, I kept this recipe simple - plain rice with nori (seaweed) and some salt. We're not going to make a ton of stuffing, and these are really snack-bite sized. The hardest part is probably cutting out dice eyes from the nori!

Here is a regular die for comparison to the onigiri:

TOOLS:

• A medium sized pot
• Scissors
• Wooden spoon
• Cling foil/wrap

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup sushi rice (note: make sure it's a non-glutinous rice, but it has to be a short to medium grain, otherwise it will not be sticky. Make sure it's labeled as sushi rice!)
• 1 sheet nori (toastes seaweed)
• Salt
• Water
• Roasted sesame seeds (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Measure out 1 cup of rice and rinse it thoroughly under running cold water until the water clears. This is an absolute MUST because it gets rid of excess starch, and excess starch prevents the rice from sticking properly.
2. Put the rice in the pot and add 1.5 to 2 cups of water. Check your packaging, it will tell you how much you need! Cook the rice according to its instructions.
3. Once the rice is finished cooking, let it sit with the lid on for 15 minutes to finish steaming if you haven't already. Give it a chance to cool down a bit so you won't burn yourself handling the rice.
4. Take a piece of cling foil about twice the size of your hand. Cover the palm of your hand with the foil, and use a wooden spoon to put a heaping of cooked rice into it. Sprinkle with a little bit of salt and use the cling foil to press the rice together and shape it into a cube.
   • This step may need a couple of tries to accomplish - making cubes with rice is really hard! If you find the cling foil clumsy, fill a small bowl with lukewarm water and dissolve about 3/4 tablespoon of salt in it. Wet your hands with the salty water and shape the cube in your bare hands. The water will prevent the rice from sticking to your hands, and the salt in the water will flavor the rice for you.
5. Thoroughly dry your hands and start cutting out little eyes for the die. (Tip: fold a strip of nori over several times so you're cutting out multiple eyes at once!) You can moisten a fingertip very lightly, or use a toothpick to place the eyes on the die. The wetness of the rice should make them stick without additional help.
6. Optionally, you can carefully pick up each cube and dip the bottom in some sesame seeds that you sprinkled on a plate for extra flavor without ruining the cube look.

While these onigiri take some time and practice to make, it's ultimately a very simple and tasty snack that fits will during your favorite DnD campaigns.

Awesome entries! Ah...I so miss tomato soup with a grilled cheese great documentation!

neat! as for cutting out the dots from the seaweed, i reckon you could just be cheeky and use a holepunch, so long as it's clean.

@Sanne Ate, you make me really hungry now! *Q*

These look good! Especially the soup. I never tried leeks though

Thanks everyone!

Leeks have an onion-type vegetable flavor. They're pretty good. They're especially nice for soups and stews.

There are nori punches for this! But if your dice are on the small side those holepunches may be too large. I have a nori punch and the dots were too big for mine

Oh I am sooo making another derpy cake this year. Or maybe something new? It will be a surpriiise.

Question!
Does anything have to actually be 'cooked'? Or can it also be a no-bake creation?

(Lack of dorm stoves is problematic )

I don't see a problem with something that is no bake, as long as it's something you actually made and not just pulled out of a box or something

Is Sherlock Holmes and/or Greek Mythology considered a "nerdly pursuit?"

One year someone won the cooking contest with a series of special mixed drinks, so heat is less important so long as the final result can be ingested.