SC - Feast Stories from 11th Night Investiture (LONG)

[James F. Johnson]

Okay, the _kitchen_ side of the story...:)

Menu:

On table:
	bread
	butter
	olives
	radishes
	almonds

First course:
	Onions soups with toasted sops
	Brie tarts (actually, deep 9" pies)

Second course:
	Goat roasted with garlic, rosemary, apples
	barley frumenty
	losyns

Third course:
	Chicken on sops with spice wine sauce (Head table got a whole chicken)
	Armoured turnips
	Salat (greenleaf, spinach, parsley, mint, dill, chives, sage, oil,
vinegar)

Fourth course:
	Gingerbread
	Rice pudding

Laura really liked the bread, which was Four Grain Peasant Sourdough in
round loaves and Rustic Sourdough in batards from Village Baker here in
town. She said they looked right. And at 1.89 - 1.39 per 1.2 lb loaf, I
was happy with the price, too. 

Brie tarts were well recieved, but I thought some were a little runny.
I'll probably increase the amount of brie next time, and pair them with
a dish that uses only egg whites, so I can use only the yolks for the
brie.

I was surprised how well the onion soup went over. Personally, I add
rosemary, garlic and pepper to my own, but this was just onions, almond
milk, and white wine/water. I did add a little tarragon, because it
seemed to fit and sweeten the onions. I might cut the onions smaller
next time. 

We were concerned with the potential gameiness of Donovan, the rather
big goat, so he was soaked in salt water the day before, and packed in
apples when we roasted him. Actually, he was wrapped in foil with the
intent to keep him from drying out, and to keep the apples close to the
meat. If we had a real spit, I might consider rotissiering another goat
or kid some time. I heard no complaints on how he tasted. He was in nine
chunks o' goat and we served one joint to the HT, and cut off meat from
the others to make ten platters of meat and frumenty. I wasn't sure we
would, but in hindsight, we would have had the time to carve all the
meat off and evenly portion it. As it was, some went out on the bone
still. We could've used the skill of someone used to carving entire
animals. The sauce was yummy, nice and garlicky and peppery. Seemed to
get too thick as the day went on and I should probably have thinned it
before it was served. 

Not wanting to occupy the stove top to cook the frumently in a pot, I
resorted to the commercial practice of baking it in a hotel pan. I
simmered the stock on the stove, then poured it over the barley in two
2" pans, covered in foil and baked in a 425 oven, occasionaly removing
to stir. Same oven was being used to bake some extra goat pieces. When
it came out, it was perfect, but it sat in the steam table too long, or
it was set too high.

I used dry lasagne pasta for the losyns, for convienence sake.
Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention and it was all put still hot
from the water into a large bowl in the walk-in, where it slowly kept
cooking into a large lump. We soaked it in water and salvaged most of
the larger strips. We layered them into two hotel pans with cheese and
didn't cut them into shape until we served them. I didn't see any come
back...

The chicken was all thigh fillets, sprinkled with pepper and salt before
baking. Placed each on a white bread toast slice and topped with the
spiced wine sauce. The sauce 'felt' too thin to me. I might try cooking
it down more, or adding something to thicken next time. The high table
got a whole chicken, just for the carving effect, and the server placed
the meat on a slice of toast and sauced them at the table. The thigh
meat was cheap, boned, and nicely portioned. For a small group, say 20
or less, I might use a chicken or capon, but for this 80 sized group, it
seemed to work well, aside from trying to get all the thighs unfrozen.

The turnips came out like thin turnip lasagne, and we were cutting them
into small platter sized hunks to send out. I want to try dredging them
in a finely grated hard cheese some time. 

Salat was simple and I got a few compliments on it, like what was the
yummy dressing (olive oil, pepper, red wine vinegar, salt....) and
people were getting full by this time.

Gingerbread needed more breadcrumbs and came out like marzipan. Nicely
spicy, though.

The rice pudding I got the proportion of milk and rice off. It never did
absorb all the liquid I added, and I had about a third of a gallon left
to add. It cooked long enough to start to caramelize the sugars in it,
to a nice beige colour. And it was served warm, as it never had time to
cool before it was time to serve. 

I love the kitchen. There was the standard serving counter separating
the kitchen proper from the serving line. It made for great storage
space during the day for serving dishes, and allowed us to stage every
course in one spot, saving the prep tables in the kitchen for dishing up
the food. The steam tables at one end (we didn't use the other end) were
good for holding the soup and sauces hot and nearby. Three stainless
prep tables, a cutting table, three convection ovens with four shelves
each, a warming oven (a pair of steam ovens, 30ga steam kettle, and 2ga
steam kettle that were off-line.....), holding cabinets, two sizes of
Hobart mixers, a triple sink in the back with a sprayer for prep washing
or pot washing. There was a sheltered entry way to the back door that
was big enough for two Coleman stoves side by side with plenty of extra
room. Walk in cooler with racks for large baking sheets.

I think the item of most advantage was my quite non-period meat
thermometer. Aside from making sure meat was fully cooked, it let me
cook the meat to that point, and not over cook it. I was concerned with
drying out the lean meat of the goat by overcooking it, and I really
didn't time the chicken meat, but cooked it to temp, then stopped. 

It was a slight challenge to cook at a remote site rather than one
nearby, and all by crew were from a branch three hours away from me. I
premade the sauces and the soup, bought my bread, and used dried lasagne
pasta for the losyns, and frozen pie shells (found a good price) to ease
the needed work done before or at the site. Most of the prep work was
cleaning and chopping veggies, then assembling the dishes.

I'd love to try it again, for a smaller group. My shire is now gearing
up for a feast in April....I was actually thinking about that days
before this feast. When does the panic and burn-out set in?

Seumas
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