Xavier's Dutch Oven Contest

My son entered the annual dutch oven contest for the second year this year (it's also the second year of the contest). Last year he did the one pot competition but this year he strove for the 3 pot division.
I promised I would share his recipes - I have shared the cornbread recipe before and it didn't quite work in the dutch oven (sadly costing him a ribbon) but the other two recipes were well received.
Low Country Boil
6 quart Dutch oven
Serves 6
Ingredients
• 8 teaspoons Bay Seasoning (or to taste)
• 12 red new potatoes
• 6 (4-inch) smoked link sausage (good high quality sausages will add better flavor)
• 6 ears corn
• 3 pounds fresh shrimp, peeled (I prefer peeled shrimp but you can use unpeeled for more flavor)
• 4 quarts water
Directions
Add water to Dutch Oven. Add Bay Seasoning and bring to a boil over hot coals. Add potatoes and sausage. Boil for 20 minutes. Add corn and cook for 10 more minutes. Add Shrimp and let cook for 1-2 minutes or until the shrimp is just done. Drain off water and serve.
*note – you can boil the sausages for 10 minutes prior to adding potatoes to give the water more flavor and then boil them 20 minutes.

*We used Andouille sausage which is slightly spicy but held up really well. Cheap sausages will lose their flavor so use a good quality sausage. Also be aware that shrimp shrinks so you want to use a larger size - we used Thai Shrimp which was a good size shrimp. We also ended up using only 2 pounds since it comes in 2 pound bags and it was plenty of shrimp.

Corn Bread
6 quart Dutch Oven
Serves 6
Ingredients
• ½ stick of butter
• 2 cups corn meal
• 2 teas baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups milk
Directions
Melt butter in Dutch Oven. In a bowl, combine corn meal and baking powder. Add eggs and milk. Mix together. Pour most of the melted butter into the batter, leaving a good film on the Dutch Oven. Pour batter into Dutch Oven. Cover with flat lid and top with coals (should have coals top and bottom, want to replicate a 350 – 400 degree oven). Bake 20 minutes or until Corn Bread is firm to the touch and browned.


Peach Caramel Cake
6 quart Dutch Oven
Serves 6
Ingredients
• 1 box White or Yellow Cake Mix
• 1 can of ginger ale
• 1 large can peaches with juice
• 1 cup brown sugar
• Oil
Directions
Lightly oil Dutch Oven. Sprinkle brown sugar around bottom of pot evenly. Top with peaches. Layer on cake mix but do not stir. Pour over ginger ale. You can press down on cake mix to moisten but do not stir. Cover with flat lid and coals. Set on additional coals (you want to replicate about a 400 degree oven). Bake 45 minutes or until cake is firm. Careful not to overcook the bottom.

*We experimented with this recipe in the oven with a regular cake mix and it worked fine. This past weekend I made a version of this with fresh apples instead of canned peaches and the Betty Crocker gluten-free white cake mix. It worked really well - I had to add a little more soda to compensate for the apples not being canned. It had good flavor and texture, even though the Betty Crocker mix is 1/2 a normal cake mix.