[Sca-cooks] Re: Home From Great Western War

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Huette von Ahrens wrote:
>And what Anahita neglected to mention is that
>her team won!  They presented 13 of the most
>delicious, exquisitely presented, well-prepared
>apple based dishs that I have ever tasted.  It
>was a great joy to be a judge for this
>competition.

We had help. Countess Berengaria was the team leader and she 
recruited: (1) Baroness Mistress Mistress Eilis, who ground the 
almonds by hand for the almond milk (getting a blister on her hand), 
among other things; (2) Vigdis, our current Kingdom Chronicler who, 
besides chopping and washing, loaned us all of cooking or prep 
equipment, since neither Bera nor i had any; and (3) a very large 
friendly man, whose name i have forgotten, who managed our charcoal 
grill. They then helped with the presentation and staging of the 
dishes. All of them made our presentation possible, and without any 
of whom it would have been an utter failure.

>I hope that you will be supplying us with your
>wonderful recipes?

Well, not to go back to that divisive discussion of redacting, but i 
only used the English translations of the Medieval recipes. I cooked 
it all on the fly (oops, was that a pun? i meant "free range 
raisins") and it was done rather rapidly, so i didn't write down any 
quantities or processes other than what was in the original recipe. 
All i had done was flag some recipes in my books while my friends 
drove us down. I figured Bera had planned things out and i was just 
going to supplement her work with a few additional recipes.

But i can provide a list of recipes. Let me mention here that the 
very first presentation was me charming an apple with the English 
translation of a Byzantine love spell. Naturally i made sure that no 
one present ate the darn thing - i don't think any were "my type" and 
besides, one was way too young, and several were already "taken" :-)

At this point i can't remember the order in which the dishes were 
presented, but here's the list - we made them all in about 4 hours. I 
had only ever made two of them before - the Italian Cabbage and the 
Chicken with Quinces/Apples.

-- An apple on a reproduction Iranian plate charmed with a Byzantine 
Love Spell from a scholarly conference on Byzantium which focused on 
food

-- A Dish of Chicken or Partridge with Quinces or Apples - includes 
chopped fennel bulb and is topped with a tharid (13th c. Anonymous 
Andalusian Cookbook)

-- Tuffahiyya - lamb with apples and spices (in several books in 
"Medieval Arab Cookery" - i think i used the recipe from The Book of 
the Description of Familiar Foods)

-- a pie shell filled with "A Good Filling" - apples cooked with 
honey - the pie was baked in a Dutch oven on the wood and charcoal 
fire (12. in Das Buch von Guter Spiese)

-- Agraz - a sauce of juice from freshly pounded grapes, apple juice, 
and wine (32. in Das Buch von Guter Spiese) served with chicken 
roasted on the grill.

-- A Good Food or Hens of Greece - layers of apples, armeritler 
("French toast"), and shredded chicken (wrapped in bacon and cooked 
over the wood and charcoal fire), all spiced between each layer, 
topped with "a leaf of egg", and seasoned with "a condiment" of 
honey, wine, and spices, then cooked on the fire in a Dutch oven (51. 
in Das Buch von Guter Spiese)

-- Emplumeus de Pomes - apple sauce (Maitre Chiqart, du Fait de Cuisine)

-- Fava Puree - Fava Beans with chopped apples, onions, fresh sage, 
and spices (Feve Frese en Potaige from Le Viandier...Taillevent, in 
Medieval Kitchen (Sabban Serventi et al), and Fava Menata from Libro 
de Arte Coquinaria, in Santich) NOTE: since we couldn't find favas, i 
made a substitute by mixing lima beans and fresh soy beans, cooked 
and pureed. It was close in color and texture and not too far off in 
flavor...

-- Cabbage with Fennel and Apples (from Libro della Cocina, in Santich)

-- Fritelle de Pome - Fritters of apple slices dipped in a batter 
containing currants (from Libro per Cuoco, in Santich)

-- Rique-Manger - chopped apples with eggs scrambled in, served on 
bread (Le Menagier de Paris)

-- Rissoles - pastry filled with chopped apples, figs, currants, and 
walnuts (le Menagier de Paris)

I seem to be forgetting one dish...

Susan Fox-Davis wrote:
>My honey is The Honourable Lord Jared Alexandre Blaydeaux.

Thanks. I knew that. Sure i did...

>Oh by the
>way, everyone else, the West Kingdom team won.  Countess Berengaria de
>Montfort had a crisis situation;  shortly after she got on the freeway,
>the back of her pickup truck opened up and apparently the basket with
>her cookery books and spices escaped.  Anahita to the rescue!  She had
>many of the same volumes or their equivalent or better.

I only brought about 4 books, but i did bring my spice box (most of 
which spices i have labeled in Arabic)... Let me note that volume two 
of the compilations of cook books by Duke Cariadoc was very handy.

>I'll be wanting
>to get Bera new copies of Thousand Eggs for Twelfthnight though [shhh
>don't tell her!]

I won't say anything, but i believe she's lurking on this very list...

Anahita
still catching up