[Sca-cooks] spanish feast?

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

So, I've been asked to do the feast for the second Conviviencia event, a 
high-authenticity Iberian/Spanish event, on Labor Day weekend. But I was 
feeling rather clueless about how to start this time (I did the previous 
one: http://gallowglass.org/jadwiga/SCA/cooking/conviviencia/menu.html ) 
I feel terrible about having let the menu slide, even though the event 
was originally scheduled for November.

These were my initial thoughts: It should include
- an eggplant dish
- something with lentils
- something with gourds
- a green pie?
- Perhaps a reappearance of the carrot-cheese pie: 
http://gallowglass.org/jadwiga/SCA/cooking/LandsknechtBid.htm#carrotpie
- clarea de agua
- Angel's food (sweetened curd cheese with rosewater or orangewater)

I had tried Eggplant morisco because you need to do SOMETHING with 
Eggplant if you are cooking in the fall, I think, and of course if you 
are cooking out of de Nola, you must de Nola a vegetable, and I figured 
something different from my usual Chopped Spinach a la de Nola would be 
good.  

[de Nola appears to have never met a vegetable that he couldn't blanch, 
squeeze between 2 cutting boards, chop, saute in bacon grease, and add 
liquid and cheese to. This is why de Nola is a verb/adjective in our 
house. What's not to like?]

So, this is how the Eggplant Morisco came out:

The recipe, from de Nola


    52. MOORISH EGGPLANT
    BERENJENAS A LA MORISCA
    Peel the eggplants and quarter them, and their skins having been 
peeled, set them to cook; and when they are well-cooked, remove them 
from the fire, and then squeeze them between two wooden chopping blocks, 
so they do not retain water. And then chop them with a knife. And let 
them go to the pot and let them be gently fried, very well, with good 
bacon or with sweet oil, because the Moors do not eat bacon. And when 
they are gently fried, set them to cook in a pot and cast in good fatty 
broth, and the fat of meat, and grated cheese which is fine, and above 
all, ground coriander; and then stir it with a haravillo like gourds; 
and when they are nearly cooked, put in egg yolks beaten with verjuice, 
as if they were gourds.



Typical de Nola features: boil, then fry, then cook in broth with 
cheese...

My procedure:

7-9 small eggplants (each 4-6" long), peeled & chopped into quarters.
Combine with an equal volume of water in a heavy bottomed pot and bring 
to a boil.
When brown and limp, dump into a colander to drain.
When somewhat cool, take a cupful at a time and squish between two 
sturdy cutting boards to remove liquid.
Chop up (half inch to one inch dice).
Cover the bottom of a heavy skillet with oil and heat.
Fry chopped eggplant. about 5 minutes
In a pot, combine fried eggplant, 2 cups vegetable broth, 1/4 cup 
parmesan cheese, cook together. *At this point one should add the ground 
coriander but I forgot.
combine 1 egg with about 1/4 c. lime juice (sub. for verjuice)
Add 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella to pot. Stir until melted.
Add egg and stir in carefully so the egg doesn't immediately cook.
Cook about 3-4 minutes, stirring.
Add 2-3 tsp ground coriander.
Serve warm.

It was quite good. Not bitter at all, very rich and filling. Ok, that 
goes on the menu.
....
But I still had a significant menu to fill up.

So, after flailing for a while, I sent a plea to Brighid ni Chairain...
who met me after work and helped by suggesting recipes. We hammered out
some suggestions for my feast menu, subject to confusion, indecision, 
and testing;

Starters:
Lombardy Sops (Melted/cheese bread strata cooked with broth, like the 
top of a french onion soup-- I will probably make a vegetarian version 
separately)
Sausage?
Olives?

Main course(s)  dishes:
- Eggplant Morisco out of de Nola
- Rice in the Oven
- grilled fish with orange juice (something out of de Nola)
- a stewed lamb dish, perhaps Adobado de Carnero 
(http://breadbaker.tripod.com/meat.html?)
- Roast pork
- Carrot-cheese pie 
http://gallowglass.org/jadwiga/SCA/cooking/LandsknechtBid.htm#carrotpie
- a lentil or chickpea dish (probably lentils, for the color balance)
- Jota, a cooked greens dish or similar dish
- Millet Polenta (fried millet slices) or a blancmage of barley
- Armored capon (chicken with a parsley-egg crust)
- Limonada, a raisin-lemon-almond pudding, and/or a parsley pudding
- mirrauste of apples (apples with almond milk?)

Dessert:
Peach pie from granado
pears
Candied orange peel?
quince paste
anise biscuits
'food for angels' (the cheese curds with sugar & rosewater recipe)

More experiments in the next mail.

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"History doesn't always repeat itself. Sometimes it screams
'Why don't you ever listen to me?' and lets fly with a club."