[Sca-cooks] Bring Your Own Cook

[Daniel & Elizabeth Phelps]

I recall one event many years back in another kingdom where I, after reading 
who was doing the feast, had mine prepared and cooking in a crock pot.  Did 
the prep mostly prior and just loaded the pot up in Saturday morning.

Daniel

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim and Andi Houston" <jimandandi at cox.net>
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 7:34 AM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Fish success! Thank you all and recipe


>I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who shared their success stories
> serving fish at feasts. I may never do a feast without fish again!
>
> I wanted to do the "whole fish swimming on a bed of decorated rice" thing.
> It worked! People ate it! It was relatively easy, not too expensive, and
> really impressive.
>
> Whole Poached Fish Swimming on a Bed of Decorated Rice with Sorrel Verjus
> Fed 75 people as part of a large feast
>
> 7 lb whole fish, cleaned and gutted, smile and tail intact (I found whole
> fresh Mahi-mahi for $2.99/lb)
> Stems of parsley, tops of celery, whole peppercorns
> 1/2 bottle of verjus or white wine
>
> 5 lb basmati rice
> 1/4 lb butter
> 1/2 cup oil
> 3 tbl salt
> 20 c water
> 1/2 lb butter
> Teaspoon of saffron threads
> 1 lb slivered almonds
>
> 1/2 bottle of verjus
> 2 bunches fresh sorrel
> 1 bunch parsley
> Salt and sugar
>
> In a very large pot, melt butter and oil together. Add rice and toss
> continuously until at least half of the rice is opaque. Add water and salt
> and bring to a full rolling boil. Immediately cover tightly and pile cans 
> on
> top of the lid to that no steam escapes. Put in a warm place like on top 
> of
> the convection oven. Leave it alone for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes check
> the rice for done-ness, it should be perfectly steamed and separate. Melt
> butter, crush saffron thread with a mortar and pestle, add to hot butter,
> add slivered almonds. Pour butter over rice and stir through, carefully so
> as not to break up the rice grains too much. Put cover back on rice.
>
> Coarsely chop sorrel and parsley. Throw in food processor. Process slowly
> while pouring in enough verjuice to make a thin sauce. Taste and add salt
> and sugar until sharpness is just barely blunted. (This sauce was AMAZING)
>
> Find a shallow pan large enough for fish. Put any herbs or stock veggies 
> on
> the bottom, then lay fish on top, then pour on wine or verjus, then pour
> water on just to barely cover fish. Bring fish up to a simmer and simmer
> until cooked through.
>
> To assemble: Find tray long enough for fish. Pile with rice and make a 
> ditch
> in the middle. Using 4 people with 2 spatulas each, lift fish out of
> poaching liquid. Lay on rice. Using plates as stabilizers, turn fish so 
> it's
> on its belly in the "ditch" of the rice. Fluff the rice. Take IMMEDIATELY
> out to the hall, parade around, bring it back to the kitchen. Quickly take
> the fish off the rice using plates. Do NOT break the fish! Using forks,
> start lifting the flesh off one side of the fish. If you move fast and the
> fish is still hot, it will lift right off the bones. Once most of the 
> flesh
> is taken off, lift out the tail, spine and head in one piece. Don't forget
> the eat the cheeks! That's the best part of the fish! Then the rest of the
> flesh is left. Split fish and rice into platters for service, and serve.
> This must happen very fast as the fish cools quickly, I think we did it in
> less than 5 minutes using 4 people.
>
>
>
>
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