[Sca-cooks] Andalusian feast

[Stefan li Rous]

Vittoria said:
> >I believe that middle eastern sesame oil is the kind done from
> >untoasted sesame seeds, not the highly flavored chinese condiment fro
> >toasted sesame seeds. I mention this because when I originally did
> >that recipe I didn't know that and used the chinese version. It was
> >good, but I 'm reasonably sure it was wrong.
>
> Yeah, I used the toasted kind too.  Anahita also warned me about that (she =
> tried some of the test recipes), so I'm all set to buy the untoasted kind f=
> or the feast.

Good luck. I've been trying to remember to look for nontoasted sesame oil
when I've been in various ethnic markets. Tried again, after seeing the
comments on this list recently, on Saturday, but all World Foods had was
the toasted stuff. I think I was looking for this several years ago when
I made the wafers from the Polish recipe book, but couldn't find it then
either and substituted another oil.

> >I was planning
> >on using loaves of Turkish bread cut into small strips for dipping; lavash
> >would also be good.
>
> Um, I'm not quite certain what you mean by Turkish bread.  (I'm guessing it=
> 's something I know by a different name...pita bread, maybe??)

There have been several other flat bread possiblities given on this
list in the last few days.  You might also want to look at this file
in the FOOD-BREAD section of the Florilegium:
brd-mk-flat-msg   (66K) 10/ 3/01    Period flat or unleavened bread recipes.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BREADS/brd-mk-flat-msg.html

It sounds like you want to buy this bread, but perhaps the desciptions
in this file might be useful.

> >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.
>
> Might watermelon be a possibilty?  I don't know how available it will be in=
>  early March, but I bet it would go over well with the diners - very light =
> and refreshing, and quantity is hardly a problem ;)  (Assuming watermelons =
> were eaten in the Mediterranean around the 13th century...)

We have talked a little bit about watermelons on this list. You might
check this file:
fruit-melons-msg  (23K)  2/ 9/01    Period melons. References. Recipes.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-FRUITS/fruit-melons-msg.html

> >Have you given much thought to the decoration/ambience of the feasting
> >hall? Things like wall hangings, tiraz curtains, music?
>
> Yes, but we don't know how much they'll let us do.  Apparently the site pro=
> hibits wall hangings :(  We'll negotiate with them, but basically we have t=
> o work around their rules.  (We're doing the event on campus, so we have a =
> lot of red tape to deal with.)

One thing we've done when we've been unable to pin wall hangings directly
to the walls is to string a rope along the wall and hang the wall hangings
from that. At our recent event, they had a very mundane, but very
fragile painted tapestry on the wall behind the stage. We had planned to
use some lattice work the barony has to put in front of this and then
hang the wall hangings from that. However, the site had a pair of
volley ball poles, the metal posts stuck into a rubber tire and tire
rim. So we simply moved those to each side of the stage, strung rope
between them and hung the banners and wall hangings from that.

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****