[Sca-cooks] A wondrous feast

[ysabeau]

Now that I have a moment, I would like to tell ya'll about the 
best feast I never ate ~grin~. 

I wasn't responsible but I helped. It was the Bryn Gwlad Candlemas 
feast last weekend. Mistress Meabdbh (sp?) was in charge and it 
went wonderfully well. The majority of the feast was prepared on 
site with the exception of the soup and the sauce for the bread 
pudding. 

The soup was prepared as a concentrate about three weeks before. 
It was dried bean soup with ham. It was made with lima beans, 
onions, ham and beef stock. It was all puree'd together. On site, 
we added more beef stock and fresh chopped spinach. It was really 
good and many people sent their bowls back for more.

The second remove was roast beef with black pepper sauce, Roast 
chicken with green garlic sauce, frumenty, roasted root 
vegetables, and braised cabbage with bacon. The beef was rubbed 
with a seasoning mixture and then grilled over a large pit. The 
chicken was massaged with a garlic and herb mixture before being 
placed on the grill. The secret was getting the mixture under the 
skin of the chicken. The chickens were grilled as halves and then 
broken up into smaller pieces. The chicken went out first with the 
green garlic sauce. I'm not sure what was in the sauce but it had 
a definite lemon taste that set off the herbs in the chicken very 
well. The beef was served in slices on top of the frumenty with 
the black pepper sauce drizzled over all. The beef was great on 
it's own but the sauce was a fantastic touch. The beef came out 
perfect - some rare, some well done. The root vegetables were 
drizzled with olive oil, fresh herbs, and garlic before being 
roasted. There were parsnips, turnips, carrots, and onions. I 
don't do cabbage but it smelled good. We cut heads of cabbage into 
1/8s then braised it in bacon (just like it sounds). 

The dessert was a spiced bread pudding with sauteed apples and 
pears. The bread pudding was very different from any bread pudding 
I've ever had and was made with red wine (instead of milk, I 
think). It wasn't like bread, it was kind of flat and sticky but 
really really good. 

I was busy helping to cook, so technically I didn't get a chance 
to sit down and eat the feast but this was one of the best feasts 
I never ate ~grin~. I nibbled my way through it and couldn't 
believe how well it turned out. I was proud to have been a small 
part of it. 

Thanks for listening,
Lady Ysabeau 

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