[Sca-cooks] Andalusian feast

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

From: Stefan li Rous <stefan at texas.net>

>>  Fried fish ["samak maqlu" B11], or fish cooked with fennel
>>  ["basbasiyya" A52]
>
>Yes! There's not enough fish at SCA feasts.

But apparently tricky to get folks to eat it... I like fish, i'll eat it.

>  Two eggplant dishes? :-(
>
>Although I guess the lamb meatballs can be eaten without the eggplant.
>
>Okay, so I don't like eggplant.

Yeah i warned her. But are you at least willing to taste it?

When i served eggplant for the Iron Chef i had people raving about
the eggplant, all of whom insisted they *hated* eggplant. It's rather
a staple Near Eastern vegetable and the way they're both prepared is
quite different.

>>  I'd also like to have a little pamphlet available with all the recipes,
>>  their historical background, redactions, etc.  (There will likely be a
>>  sizeable contingent of non-SCA people from the campus, many of
>>  whom may not know anything about historical cooking...)  Is that
>>  often done at feasts?
>
>A good idea, especially with guests coming from outside the SCA. No,
>I don't think it is done enough. Unless the redactions are done by
>you, or you have permission, be careful of copyright infringement
>when publishing other's redactions.

Well, i know the young lady personally, and, yes, she'll be redacting
her own. The copyright issue is more likely to be around the
translations of the originals, but i suspect that with proper
attributions it will essentially be like a research paper and will be
included in the feast for no extra charge, so neither she nor the
Kates will be making money off it, so it may fall under "fair use".

>I would recommend a list of ingredients for each dish. Not necessrily
>in this booklet, but available for those who have allergies to be
>able to check.
>
>  I also like to have the menu available, preferable on
>the table or in the booklet if it is available during dinner. This allows
>folks to pace themselves. I like to think that this also helps to keep
>folks from stuffing themselves on the first course since they know
>there will be more.

Yes, indeed, excellent suggestions.

>Is the bread that you mention being on the tables, a flat bread? It
>appears that such bread is often used in the Middle East to scoop up
>many of these dishes. Or is this only done in some areas of the Middle
>East? Anywsy, flat bread seems to be much more useful for this than
>a raised bread.

My experience with Near Eastern raised bread is that it isn't raised
much, and it has a dense texture and coarse crumb, so it isn't like
spongy white bread nor like "French" bread. And it is also used to
soak up sauces and wipe the plate with and dip into pureed stuff and
such.

We have such a varied community around here (Vittoria and i live in
the same Province - heck, i'm an honorary member of the College of
Ste. Kates) that we can get Armenian lavosh, Lebanese pita, Persian
sangak, and Afghan nan (not like Indian nan - nan is a word from
Persian that means "bread") and i bet there are others around as
well. And there are some Egyptian markets near me i should poke my
head into, too, to see what they have. I'm thinking of a field trip
to The City (what we around the Bay call San Francisco) to see what
some of the Near Eastern markets have there. I hope i can find some
Moroccan bread...

Anahita
not greatly experienced but trying to help