[Sca-cooks] Midrealm Crown Tourney Feast-Long

[Elise Fleming]

Greetings!  Iasmin said she'd send in a report on the scrumptious feast,
but here's mine.  As she noted, the presentation was wonderful.  Every dish
had something to decorate it, and several of the platters served to the
"common folk" were on fake silver which was much nicer than plastic.  All
the tables were decorated with white tablecloths, tea lights, flowers, and
tiny ready-to-plant pots of an herb, wrapped in a bit of white cloth, which
were gifts to the folk at the table.  At each place setting there also was
a tiny, shaped piece of soap.  Mine was hemp oil and mint, shaped like an
oak leaf.  Also on the table was a jar of sekanjabin syrup.  And, not just
a plain jar, but one with live flowers decorating the rim.  They'd also
included a bent spoon to serve as a ladle plus a small (plate? spoon
holder?) to place it on when used.  The servers gave us all water and we
could make our own mixture of sekanjabin if we wanted.  This was said to be
only the second feast that the cooks - Lady Kadlin Oddsdottir and Lady
Sigrid Grimmsdottir - had produced.

On the table was a decorated platter of strawberries, cheese and bread. 
There were tiny sugarpaste helms and shields for decoration.  The shields
were painted with various SCA symbols such as a laurel wreath, a knight's
belt, the red pale, and a full Midrealm device complete with dragon.  The
shields were about 1.5 inches wide.  The bread was a lovely round, chewy
bread.

First course consisted of a sop of onions, spring "salat" and a tarte out
of Lent.  The lady next to me didn't like onions, but we raved about the
taste of the creamy broth so much (butter, sour cream, nutmeg) that she had
a bowl of the broth with no onions!  The salad was a mixture of interesting
greens including radiccio, spinach, romain, chard, arugula, etc.  It was
decorated with flower petals.  The "tart owte of Lent" was delicately
flavored and well-balanced in flavorings.  The recipe is from James
Matterer's "Boke of Gode Cookery".  The tart was decorated with colored
sugar paste cut into tiny shapes.

The second course consisted of "fillets of beef", "carotia" and mushrooms
with spices.  Again, the presentation was one of the best in the many
feasts I have ever attended.  Fresh leaf lettuce formed the base on which
the beef was carefully laid in the center, with the carrots flanking it on
both sides.  Lemon wedges provided a colorful garnish.  The "cariota" was
taken from Pleyn Delit and again was well-balanced in flavorings with 
wine, parsley and dill.  My tablemate across the table didn't like carrots.
"Look," she said to me.  "See?  I'm eating carrots!"  And she ate two
helpings!  The mushrooms were spiced with pepper, ginger, nutmeg and
coriander and taken from "The Medieval Kitchen" by Redon, Sabban and
Serventi.

Course the third had "cormary", green peas and cheese gnocchi.  The cormary
was **tender** slices of roast pork with a red wine sauce that was perhaps
too runny (it was as liquid as the wine) but certainly tasted good.  In
every feast there seems to be one dish that just isn't up to the standard
of the others.  That dish was the peas.  It was decorated with a sprig of
herbs standing in the middle, but just didn't have a good flavor and may
have been slightly burnt in the kitchen.  However... the gnocchi!  Oh, the
gnocci!  (Can we sing to the tune of "There's no business like show
business"... There's no gnocchi like this gnocchi!  It's tasty and so
good!)  Cream cheese, parmesan cheese and egg yolks raised pedestrian flour
to new heights!  (Recipe from The Medieval Kitchen)

For dessert, the head table got a sugar paste church with tiny icing
flowers, and even headstones!  We got gingerbread, sugar paste and orengat
(candied orange peels) all arranged artistically on a pretty platter (not
plastic!)  At the end of the feast, the King and Queen called out all the
servers and kitchen help.  There were so many that they ringed half of the
room.  The Canton of Brackendelve had helped the Barony of Roaring Wastes,
the hosting group, put on one of the best feasts I've been to.  This has
been a good year for excellent feasts in the Midrealm!

Alys Katharine

Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com