[Sca-cooks] Mid-East Feast for West Royals @ Pennsic

[V A]

This feast, by the way, was amaaaaazingly delicious!  I didn't taste quite
every dish, but I definitely enjoyed having access to the kitchen scraps.
;-)  Urtatim, I may start bugging you for copies of these recipes...  (The
manti were my favorite -- can't wait to try making them with lamb instead of
beef.)


Vittoria

On 9/3/07, Lilinah <lilinah at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Well, i guess i will report on the small feast i cooked at Pennsic
> for Jade and Kaaren, King and Queen of The West.
>
> I would never have put myself forward to the Royalty, but at the Boar
> Hunt Feast in December last, a Laurel with whom i'm acquainted told
> me i should offer to cook for Royalty. I hemmed and hawed, but
> finally said it was a good suggestion. Then Jade (our "once and
> future king" - i think he has been a king just about every year since
> he won his first Crown - we have three crown tourneys per year) won
> at March Crown and Queen Kaaren said she wanted a Persian reign. I've
> met Kaaren outside of SCA events and she is a nice person, so i
> offered to cook for her and she accepted. She gave me free rein - i
> didn't need to have my menu approved.
>
> I brought nearly all the spices and seasonings with me, and even some
> of the fresh herbs, from California, and that turned out to be a good
> thing. Unfortunately the only lamb i could find were tiny lamb chops
> (at ?Eagle?) or huge haunches (at Restaurant Depot), so i used ground
> beef in the manti and stew beef in the bustaniyya. Of course i
> apologized to the assembly for the inappropriateness of the meat.
>
> I was hoping to cook on a real fire, but the set-up my friends had
> ordered did not arrive in time. So i used my 24-year-old 2-burner
> Coleman propane stove
>
> The Feast for 12 or 13 diners was surprisingly well received by their
> guests, all royal peers - but i confess i don't know who any of them
> were. One gave me his token - he says he never eats vegetables and he
> had 3 helpings of the carrots. Also, he was lactose intolerant, and i
> happened to have a small container of soy yogurt with me, just in
> case, so he got his own bowl of sauce for the manti.
>
> Here is the menu:
>
> 1st COURSE - COLD DISHES
> -- Bazmaawurd - 9th C. - chicken, fresh herbs, and citron pulp (i
> used lemon) rolled up in flat bread
> -- Zaitun Mubakhkhar - 14th C. Description of Familiar Food - smoked
> spiced olives
> -- Jazr - 13th C. al-Baghdadi - carrots with garlic, caraway seeds, &
> vinegar
> -- Stuffed Eggs - 13th C. Andalusian
> -- Shiraz bi-Buqal - al-Baghdadi - a soured dairy produce (i mixed
> yogurt and cottage cheese) with fresh herbs
> -- Sals Abyad - Description of Familiar Food - puree of walnuts,
> tahini, spices, and lemon juice
> -- Lavash (purchased and brought from California)
>
> 2nd COURSE - HOT DISHES
> -- Manti - Shirvani's 15th C. Ottoman cookbook - meat "wonton" with
> yogurt sauce
> -- Bustaniyya - 9th C. - meat and chicken with dried fruit and spices
> -- 'Adas/'Adasiyya - 9th C. - Lentils with vegetables
> -- Saffron Rice (my version - long grain white rice cooked in water
> with saffron)
> -- Lavash
>
> 3rd COURSE - DESSERT
> -- Peeled orange segments with cinnamon, rosewater, and orange flower
> water
> -- Cubed watermelon with fresh mint and lime juice
> (I originally thought of doing two or three period desserts, but it
> was so hot and so humid, when not downright rainy, that i figured a
> light dessert was best. At least the ingredients were "period" even
> if the recipes are not.)
>
> Many dishes were entirely consumed, and very little was left of the
> others, although i made too many lentils. Apparently some of the
> diners were gambling to see who would get that last of the
> Bazmaawurd, and they requested what little was left of the Sals Abyad
> be brought back during the Second Course.
>
> I'm trying to reconstruct what i cooked. My recipe pages got soaked
> at Pennsic (surprise, surprise) and i'm not quite sure where they
> are. Fortunately i used indelible ink, so when they surface i'll have
> a better idea of the quantities of ingredients i used, in case anyone
> is interested.
> --
> Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
> the persona formerly known as Anahita
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