SC - Late Fall/Early Winter Vegetables

[Kerri Canepa]

>I know i have to do research and turn up some recipes myself, but i 
>thought i'd ask experienced feast planners what late fall/early 
>winter vegetables you've served and people have actually eaten :-) 
>I'm not exactly asking for recipes (although if you want to share 
>any, they will be appreciated), but rather, pointers to what SCA 
>folks seem to actually *like to eat*.

Well, we haven't had the feast yet, but the taste tests so far have been
positive. And yes, we're using winter vegetables.

I highly recommend some version of Compost. It is a pickled mix of cabbage,
parsnips (we're using carrots since we have over 30 lbs of them), parsley root
(which we're not using since we can't find it), turnips, pears, currants, and
radishes. It's flavored with a sweet wine, honey, and lombard mustard (we're
using Plochmans), vinegar and a variety of spices. And the wonderful thing about
it is that once its made, it lasts for a very long time without refrigeration.
We're serving it as a compliment to ham.

The beet recipe we're using is "perioid" since I haven't had any luck finding
any 14th c beetroot recipes and we have over 30 lbs of beets as well. Roasted or
boiled beets are peeled, cubed, and mixed with a dressing of olive oil and
basalmic vinegar. Even folks not fond of beets found it pleasant. Beet lovers
snarfed it down and went for more.

The turnip recipes we plan to use are (you guessed it) armored turnips and
another "perioid" dish I call a Disshe of Rape. Peel and julienne turnips, boil
for 10-15 minutes in water, pitch the cooking water, then cook in beef broth
until considerably reduced. Add ground black pepper. This recipe is very much
like Rapes in Pottage from _Forme of Curye_ - thanks Henry! This dish was a hit
at the taste test.

We haven't actually made armored turnips yet but we're lucky; it's not a dish
that's served in these parts at feasts. Having discovered the trick to bite-free
turnips (choose the smallest turnips you can, peel, cut up, cover with water and
boil until just tender and, here's the trick, pitch the cooking water then do
whatever is necessary to complete the dish), I think armored turnips will go
over well.

Interestingly enough, we will not be serving any leafy green dishes. The event
is 12th Night and while parsley and some sort of cole plants could survive the
winter weather, the more usual stuff of turnip/beet greens, spinach, and
lettuces were not generally available.

We're going to do a carrot dish as well. Again, there's not much in the 14th c
corpus for carrot dishes, so far we've found a soup. I'm not sure what we'll do;
maybe the soup, maybe another "perioid" recipe yet to be determined.

Good luck!

Kerri
Cedrin Etainnighean, OL

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