[Sca-cooks] Andalusian feast

[Mark Calderwood]

Hello Vittoria, Giles here,
Just de-lurking for a moment to throw my tuppence worth in on this
discussion, as I've recently done a bit of research in this area for the
Andalusian feast I was going to do for Twelfth Night (which was cancelled
due to the bushfire crisis).

>I've got a first-draft menu, and I was hoping I could show it to you all
>and get some feedback on it.  I planned three courses plus sweets at the
>end.  Each course will have a substantial main dish and three "side"
>dishes - I hope that's enough to keep everyone from going hungry

The menu overall looks very good, although I agree with Anahita, perhaps a
touch heavy on the meats. There's also a lot of food, you might want to
trim it down a bit. One meat per course should be enough, so with three you
can still get in all your meats (fish, lamb, chicken) and probably save a
bit of money on food costs.

>Each table is going to be set before the feast is served with little
>plates of olives, nuts, pickled vegetables, bread, and labneh ("yogurt
>cheese") with herbs ["shiraz bi-buqul" B12].  Possibly fresh herbs and
>veggies, if I can find that such a thing is appropriate.

A good idea, although as Anahita pointed out, people can be tempted to fill
up on the nibblies so don't put out too much. A small plate of things like
perfumed olives, nuts, dried figs and apricots etc, and another small plate
of various dip things like shiraz bi-buqul and qar bi-laban. I was planning
on using loaves of Turkish bread cut into small strips for dipping; lavash
would also be good.

>First course:
>Garlic chicken ["thumiyya" A8], or chicken with garbanzo beans
>["safarjaliyya" A30]
>Lamb meatballs with eggplant-yogurt dip ["buran" B8]
>Yogurt and cucumber salad ["qar bi-laban" B12]
>Fava beans with vinaigrette ["baqili b-khall" B13]

You've got two yogurt dishes in the same course, perhaps the lamb cabobs
could be moved or dropped. Personally I think the garlic chicken is the
nicer of the two, although for my taste nothing can beat chicken in
pomegranate! Major yumbo. Actually, I'd swap the courses around, with fish
first, red meat second and chicken third. This means people will be much
more likely to eat the fish (can't believe you guys won't eat fish over
there...!) and eat less lamb than they otherwise might. This also seems to
be a more period order of service.

>Second course:
>Couscous ["kuskusu fityani" A55] with lamb and chicken [one of the
>"tharidas,"not sure which] and  vegetable stew ["jannaniyya" A52]
>Fried fish ["samak maqlu" B11], or fish cooked with fennel ["basbasiyya" A52]
>Sauteed spinach ["isfanakh mutajjan" B12]

Also consider samuk makhdur (?) that Mari was talking about a while ago,
that sounds really easy to do, and dead tasty. There was also a good
Mediterranean dish Drake was telling me about a while ago with a
vinaigrette sauce, perhaps he might post it here because I've forgotten
most of the details. I'd consider ditching the jananiyya, the couscous
makes a good starch and can be used as a base for serving the fish.

>Third course:
>Lamb with turnips ["tharda of meat with turnips and walnuts" A31]
>Lentils ["muzawarra" A52]
>A spiced eggplant dish ["arnabi" A52, or "a dish of eggplants" A24]
>A cheese pie ["mujabbana" A22]

Personally, I'd lose the lentils as they are bit heavy, especially this
late in the menu. The eggplant and mujabbana are plenty (Btw it's worth
using a nice tasty cheese in the mujabbana, and make tiny little pies).

>Dessert:
>undecided - most likely something that involves sugar and almonds...
>Fresh and dried fruits

Hais, lauzinaj, khabisa (with pomegranate) etc are all winners. People are
going to be stuffed by this stage, so perhaps one sweet and some fresh
fruit like orange slices, grapes, and plums would be sufficient.

My main suggestion would be to slightly rejig the menu- my suggestion would be:
On table
perfumed olives
nuts
dried figs
dried apricots
bread
shiraz bi-buqul
qar bi-laban
badhinjan bi-laban
tahina
(all in small quantities)

First course
Samak mukhdur/ Samak maqlu/ Maqluba al-Tirrikh etc (fish)
couscous
Fava beans with vinaigrette (baqili bi-khall)
(Gives you the meat, a starch/base, and a contrasting substantial vegetable)

Second course
Tharda of lamb with turnips and walnuts
Spiced eggplant dish
Qar bi-laban (yogurt & cucumber salad)
(Substantial, slightly bland dish, balanced with a spicy and "cooler" light
vegetables)

Third course
Thumiyya (garlic chicken)
Mujabbana
Isfanakh Mutajjan (sauteed spinach)
(Light meat, balanced with small savoury and slightly more substantial
vegetable)

Dessert
Lauzinaj
fresh grapes, oranges, plums, pears etc

Of course, this is only my suggestion, please feel free to ignore it or
tell me to bag my head. :o)

>I think the three courses will probably take 3-3 1/2 hours to serve, but
>there will be lots of entertainment and stuff, so I hope people won't get
>bored.

I think this sounds reasonable. I usually work on around 35-45 minutes
between courses. I assume of course, being a feast in the Islamic style,
people will be seated on carpets and cushions etc, rather than
tables-and-chairs. Of course, people can wander around, chat, socialise etc
in the meantime. Or get them involved in the entertainment- give people
appropriate period poems to recite and jokes to tell (my favourite
Andalusian joke: Q: What's the difference between God and a doumbek player?
A: God doesn't *think* he can play the doumbek!) Breaks me up every time :o)

Have you given much thought to the decoration/ambience of the feasting
hall? Things like wall hangings, tiraz curtains, music?

>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?

I think it's a great idea, especially for something that's a bit out of the
ordinary, it educates people at the same time it feeds them (novel
concept). I had prepared a similiar pamphlet for my
Twelfth-Night-that-wasn't on what I was trying to achieve, I'll post it
privately. (On second thoughts, I'll post it here, as it may be of interest
to others.)

I hope all this has been of some help: if I can be of any further
assistance please don't hesitate to contact me!
al-salam alayqum 'Llah,
Giles