Re- SC - Redaction class on

[Tyrca@aol.com]

Hi There!

I wanted to share the OTHER big result of our Endless Hills Cooks Guild
meeting, which was a new table soteltie.

The Bread Swans, re-emerging in my life as they have the past few years,
reminded me that there are other things that can be done with food. We have
(debatably) established that carved vegetables and fruits are period. I
vaguely remeber seeing an independant reference (in Taillevant, perhaps?) of
a radish carved in the manner of a rose. So, here is my version of a
peacock, which we determined yesterday does indeed work well as an
individual table-pretty:

Tip five short skewers with gum paste (sugar paste) colored either green or
blue, to look like a hat-pin. Splay out the gum paste to resemble the tip of
a peacock's feather (drop-shaped, thin and flat). Let dry.

Carve a large red apple to resemble a swan, minus the tail: Stand the apple
on it's side and slice off an inch thick slice of the side of the apple. Sit
the apple down with the sliced side down, giving you a stable object to
carve. Make a small wedge shaped slit in the stem end, vertically, to put
the neck into. Carve the head/neck from the one-inch slice. Use  a piece of
the stem to poke through the head for eyes. Reserve in a bowl of lemon-juice
and water. 

On each side make the wings:

Cut off center to the left straight down to form a vertical cut on the outer
left edge of the apple, cutting only halfway. Make a perpendicular cut so
that you have a small neat horizontal wedge.Dip the wedge in the
lemon-water. Replace the wedge. Right next to, but closer to the center,
make ANOTHER horizontal cut and vertical cut to make another wedge, which
contains the first, smaller wedge. Repeat this until you feel you have as
many wedges as you need (you don't want any core--3 to 4 wedges max.). Do
the same operation to the right side of the apple. Put the whole thing into
the lemon water (Note: To make a swan, you repeat the wedge process in the
tail area).

When ready to present, put three or four grapes of various colors, and
cranberries at the end for stability (yes, we know they didn't eat them in
period, but they knew what they were), on to the skewers to make the tail
feathers. I assume berries (blue-, small straw-, boysen-) would work well,
too, or small melon balls. Insert the neck into the neckhole with the aid of
a toothpick. Fan out the wings towards the back (the wedges make a
three-dimensional feather effect). Insert one Skewer with fruit in the
center back. Fan out the remaining four skewers on each side to make a
"Displayed" tail. Or, if desired, insert the skewers so that the tail is
dragging behind (not displayed). There you have it. A peacock. Serve
immediately.

If you have very large apples, you could use more skewers.

Enjoy!

Aoife      

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