[Sca-cooks] It's over ... and what I would do differently

[Christiane]

I have successfully cooked my first official "feast."

It was a relaxed event put on by my shire (Buckland Cross) called "Persephone Goes to the Underworld." The autocrat's vision was to have a fall-themed event with a bounteous dayboard with hot and cold dishes. We had an A&S display with fall-themed works, plus medieval board gaming and music. The autocrat left it up to me and my co-cook what we were serving, and we had a budget of $150-$200 to work with, which I realize is extremely generous considering there are folks who put on full-fledged feasts with the same amount of money. 

The first major challenge was we had no idea of how many people we were cooking for. Although listed in the Pikestaff, there were few pre-registrations. It was held on an offbeat day, a Sunday. We were sure folks would show up, though!

The second major challenge was, of course, what to serve? And the fact was, it was just me and Giuseppina preparing the food.

Being as the theme was Persephone's return to the underworld, and being that my persona is Florentine and my co-cook, Giuseppina, is Sicilian, I went with Italian dishes. Several folks helped inspire me, primarily Mistress Helewyse and Mistress Johnnae. I wanted dishes that were reasonably authentic, even though we were not having a proper feast with many removes, and we had limited kitchen access at the site.

The menu was:

cheeses
hardboiled eggs
homemade bread (Tuscan style, baked without salt)
herbed butter
raw vegetables with extra-virgin olive oil for dipping (but had forgotten the fennel, darn it)
fruit (apples, oranges, grapes, pears)
chicken baked in bread (based on the Emir of Catania's chicken dish)
herbed roast pork (which I forgot the mustard sauce)
chickpeas stewed with onions, parsley, pepper, salt, a touch of cinnamon, and olive oil
spinach and mint ravioli 
spinach pie
rice pudding with pistachios, almonds, and rosewater (based on the Turkish muhallebi) 
fave dolce (shortbread cookies shaped like fava beans)
poached spiced pears

to drink, pomegranate punch and water

The ravioli were made two weeks ago, frozen, and boiled in vegetable broth the day of the event and tossed with butter and parmesan. We made the chicken baked in bread and roasted the pork the day before the event. I baked cookies and bread after work all through the week. The chickpeas were stewed overnight in a crockpot. 

What I would do differently:

Make less chicken baked in bread. We made eight loaves, and had four left.
Smaller amount of stewed chickpeas, which had to be stuck on a table away from the main dayboard, along with the poached pears (the folks we were renting the place from prohibited liquids from being used on the dayboard tables, for some reason)
Get lots of help in peeling chestnuts. My plan to have braised chestnuts with the pork fell through spectacularly because as the chestnuts cooled rapidly after blanching, the buggers became impossible to peel. 
Don't panic while making rice pudding and pour in more rice. The pudding was tasty, but a bit dry.

But all in all, it was a success, and lots of compliments were rendered.

Gianotta