[Sca-cooks] Red Tower Cooking contest

[Ariane Helou]

Fiddle heads are excellent!  I recently moved to New England and was really 
surprised to find them so readily available here -- I always thought of 
them as a Northern California, nouvelle-cuisine hippie food. :-)  But does 
anyone know if they were actually used for cooking in medieval or early 
modern Europe?  I don't recall seeing mention of them in recipes or even 
literary texts, but then again, I wasn't looking for them. ;-)

As for seasonal produce that we *do* know they ate "back then"...there are 
all kinds of interesting and delightful items one might not think to look 
for.  This is the season for fresh, green almonds, which I've always found 
(at home, not here) in middle eastern markets.  How about tender baby fava 
beans (I used to find them all the time at the farmers' market)?  Eaten 
fresh, with a bit of salt and pepper, and olive oil or fresh pecorino 
cheese, they will convert even the most determined bean-hater.  Tiny white 
turnips, with their greens still intact?  Wild strawberries?  Green 
garlic?  Fresh chickpeas?  Sweet fennel?  And I know this isn't "produce" 
exactly, but this is the time of year for an exquisite soft Tuscan cheese 
called "marzolino," which I've been able to find (even in New England!) at 
my local Italian deli.

There are also slightly more exotic, hard-to-find veggies that were common 
in earlier times, like cardoons or ramps (a type of wild onion or leek).

Happy hunting!  Let us know what you discover. :-)


Vittoria

At 01:19 PM 5/9/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>Here is an Ingredient: Fiddle heads, they should be in season for the event.
>But they might be expensive in your next for the woods! I'm a New Englander.
>
>Thanks,
>Terrain
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: sca-cooks-bounces+tavernkeeper=phoenixroost.com at ansteorra.org
>[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces+tavernkeeper=phoenixroost.com at ansteorra.org] On
>Behalf Of Susan Fox-Davis
>Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 11:51 AM
>To: Cooks within the SCA
>Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Red Tower Cooking contest
>
> > i am sponsoring one at grand outlandish memorial day weekend in the
> > barony of al-barran (albq, nm).  i am trying to find unusual
> > ingredients...  the entrants are gonna kill me. 8)
> >
> > cailte
> > current iron chef outlandish
>
>
>Go with the seasonally appropriate items.  It's a bit early in the year
>for some obvious go-to's like favorite grains and meats...  Early nuts
>and stone fruit are not out of the question.  We did "plums" once and it
>really brought out a lot of creativity.
>
>Selene
>iron chef altavia emeritus