[Sca-cooks] Grilled Tuna - recipe for my upcoming feast

[Euriol of Lothian]

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces+euriol=ptd.net at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces+euriol=ptd.net at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 7:18 PM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Grilled Tuna - recipe for my upcoming feast


On Mar 10, 2009, at 6:52 PM, Euriol of Lothian wrote:

>> Oh geez! I knew I forgot something in the sauce! LOL. It would  
>> probably give
>> an extra richness to it as well!

>And then, the recipe does call it a light sauce, so I suspect  
>thickening with a little oil beaten in is probably closer to the  
>original method of blending the ingredients than reducing them would  
>be. Just a hunch...

As I was looking at the two recipes, the one for the swordfish said
" Then make your light sauce which is orange juice, and pepper, and oil, 
and salt, and a little water; and you will put all this in a small pot"

So why does one recipe mention it being in a small pot and another doesn't? 

Since it was vague, at least in my opinion, and there are other boiled
sauces, 
why not treat it so? I did make a note of olive oil when I was outlining 
the recipe, but just simply forgot to add any to the sauce when I was
putting 
it together having focused using it to prepare the fish for grilling.


>I think there's a lot of what modern cooks would classify as "a la  
>minute" in the various medieval repertoires, stuff we rarely bother  
>with at feasts because it's hard to get 240 portions of them out all  
>at the same time, hot and fresh. When you do get the opportunity,  
>though, it's magnificent.

One of my goals when I started studying medieval cuisine was to show
that there were recipes that were easy to cook, and I do try to incorporate
these in my feasts. But I've learned through trial and error that there
are just some things much harder to do for 80 than it is for 8.
My plan for this, as Kiri had noted, was to get a larger piece to grill it, 
and then slice it up just before serving. I plan for only a small portion,
as if it were an appetizer, since it can be quite expensive. I also plan on
having another meat dish in the same course knowing that a good number of
people are unlikely to give it a try. My other challenge is this feast 
will be cooked in a field kitchen. But I will have grills and this is why
these two recipes caught my eye.

>I'm doing a dayboard (sort of) in a couple of weeks that'll include a  
>fair number of quickly-cooked dishes; I'll be knocking together 65-80  
>portions of things, just one or two dishes at a time, all day  
>(switching to sweets for the evening banquette table late in the day),  
>without too much of a timetable to meet. I'm expecting to have an  
>absolute blast, and there'll probably be a certain amount of food  
>flying around the kitchen.

Sounds like loads of fun.

>I'm going to see if I can get the Evil Spawn to come and get some of  
>it on video...

>But huzzah on the tuna! All our groups should be eating more seafood,  
>I feel, and it sounds like you treated it with the reverence it  
>deserves.

>Adamantius


Thank you so much... seafood was such a huge part of the cuisine and it
is unfortunate that it is often overlooked. When I was living out in West
Kingdom apparently I got a bit of a reputation for including seafood in my
feasts (especially salmon and shrimp). Yet, the irony of it is, I'm really
a steak & chicken kind of gal!

Euriol

P.S. As to the "Rachel Ray" comment, it was really about how I felt in the
kitchen
tonight. I was actually giggling while I was cooking and that was such a
good
feeling. And with that feeling so prominent tonight I said to myself "This
is why
I do this!"