[Sca-cooks] German feast in Meridies

[Lonnie D. Harvel]

Greetings all!

This past Saturday, Serena da Riva (temporarily known as"Brunhilde, die 
Köchin, Kuchenmeisterin") produced an absolutely incredible German feast.

She posted the menu earlier to this list, but here it is again:
http://www.serenadariva.com/SCACookingPages/MidWinter2005/index.htm

The whole first course was well received at our table. My particular 
favorites in this course were the radish salat and the cucummern. We 
devoured ours and swiped the remains from a nearby table. The green 
field salat (which also had pomegranate seeds) was also enjoyable. We 
had a vegetarian at the table, so we held on to that one for the whole 
evening. (but with all of the other great food coming, she did not have 
to resort to it often.)

The second course was also excellent. Just these two courses would have 
made a feast. The bratwurst (made by Brunhilde and company) was served 
on a platter which also held a large dish of the lamb knodel in almond 
sauce. The pie of indian hen (turkey) was served as a whole pie. It was 
a little dry, but not enough to be displeasing. (an issue with the 
convection oven, I think) The flavor was wonderful. We were trying to 
pace ourselves, but we were already getting stuffed!

The third course had some of the best blackeyed peas I have ever eaten; 
and I love blackeyed peas and have a lot of great southern cooks in the 
family. I really wouldn't classify this presentation as blackeyed peas, 
the flavor was so utterly different. These are already on the home menu 
for this coming weekend. The spinach tart was my least favorite of the 
multitude of dishes. It seemed to be a little dense. (This is one of 
those times in which I would be tempted to use completely non-period 
techniques to "improve" a dish, hey, I'm learning.)

The fourth course was our personal catapult into food Valhalla, wings of 
Valkyrie and all that. The chicken was perfect! Moist and full of 
flavor. The beef roast was so good that one of my guests (first feast 
ever) almost started crying. The noodles were so well cooked and 
seasoned that you could just eat them by themselves. I had some of our 
folks from Georgia Tech there and they were trying to figure out how to 
pack up the food in order to take it back to the dorms. I almost past up 
the beet and horseradish condiment because I don't like beets. Boy, that 
would have been a mistake. A truly wonderful and complex flavor. Eaten 
with the noodles and beef, it really took some good food and made it 
astounding.

The fifth course was truly a reason to weep. We were all full when this 
platter filled with a whole plum tart, a collection of smaller cinnamon 
tarts, the piscoten cookies, and hazelnut comfits came out. As full as 
we were, we just sat until we could eat some more. Talk some and eat 
some, eat some and talk some, we sent very little back. (half of the 
plum tart did get smuggled back to campus).

The service was also excellent. Hot food was hot, and cold food was 
cold. There were musical interludes, some German dance exhibited, even 
singing bread maidens delivering beautiful round loaves to the table 
(which was made on site).

I have been in the Society for 24 years, and this feast ranks in that 
top list that are all so wonderful that only a fool would try and judge 
between them. If I can just get close to this level of artistry, I will 
be delighted.

Thank you, oh great Brunhilde, for a wonderful feast!

Pax,
Aoghann