Samhain Shuffle

The Culinary Group is going to be busy in the next few months!

While we're on break for July and August to make room for summer camping events (and maintain the sanity of our members,) many of us are still in high gear!

Caterina's vigil and elevation to the Order of the Laurel will take place at Samhain this year, and many of our members had volunteered to help provide food and drinks for the vigil. As many of us are members of her household, we will also be participating in the elevation (some way or another.)

Where things get fun is the winning bid for Samhain was put forward by a team consisting almost entirely of other members of the Culinary Group. The current Bardic Champion is a member of the group, too. For one reason or another, the Culinary Group membership pool will be working on most everything at Samhain this year!

As we have quite a few folks doing double (or triple) duty, we're having a small-scale meeting on July 4th to discuss coordinating kitchen time, carefully orchestrating volunteer shifts, and picking menus which will keep everyone happy and fed with a minimum of stress.

Not yet booked: A group day at the spa after Samhain for the entire crew...

'Whatever' Night (June 13th, 2016)

Summer is really busy here in Avacal, so it was extra nice that we managed to get together in June this year. Although it was a smaller group than usual, there's nothing as nice as spending an evening together over some delicious dishes on a warm summer night!

One of our dear friends and occasional attendees, Caterina, was placed on vigil to be elevated to the Order of the Laurel on Saturday. We spent a lot of time talking about her plans for the vigil and elevation! It was also Arnaut's birthday, so Francis and Caiaphas baked him some brownies in lieu of a birthday cake. Audrey 'helped.'

Our theme was very loose - just whatever we could whip together on short notice. We had some leftover pretzels from Silverwolf, delicious lamb patties, strudel and florentine biscuits, spinach two ways, a cauliflower pottage, cheese biscuits, and a very period Chardonnay. Tim came a little late and brought some sausages and flatbread, which aren't pictured here but were very delicious!

Bottom row: strudel and florentines, next row: lamb patties and spinach two ways,
next row: cheese biscuits and chardonnay, next row: pretzels and cauliflower pottage

Cauliflower pottage by Master Thorvald. Recipe below.

Some leftover pretzels I made at Silverwolf, with mustard

Cheese biscuits by Audrey

Caiaphas' period chardonnay

Lamb and walnut cakes by Francis. Recipe below.

Spinach two ways by Ainè. Recipes below.

Master Thorvald explaining his pottage

Caterina and Jodi supervise carefully - I think they are making socks?

Everyone enjoys! All meetings are child-friendly.

Pottages of Cauliflowers - Provided by Master Thorvald

From Ouverture de Cuisine, Lancelot de Casteau, printed 1604. Translation James Prescott

[2.] Potages de choux floris.

Mettez dedans le potage des choux floris des saulsisses, quelque poulet ou pigeon, ou carbonade de mouton, & un peu de mente hachée.

2. Pottages of cauliflowers.

Put into the pottage some cauliflowers, some sausages, some chicken or pigeon, or mutton carbonado, and a bit of chopped mint.

Pottages of Cauliflowers redaction by Jeremy Fletcher [not by JP]

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 US cups (410 ml) chicken broth

• 1/2 US cup (120 ml) white wine

• 6 ounces (170 g) mortadella sausage, chopped coarsely

• 6 ounces (170 g) chicken or lamb, chopped

• 1 small head cauliflower (about 3/4 pound (340 g))

• several leaves of mint

Instructions

Bring broth and wine to a low boil. Add meats and simmer over medium heat, covered, for ten minutes or until meats are cooked. Chop cauliflower and mint. Add to pottage, simmer five minutes, and serve hot. See Note 1.

Note 1: I substitute chicken for pigeon and lamb for mutton due to availability. Other pottage recipes in this collection commonly call for good stock or wine, or both. Mortadella sausage from this collection works well but any mild pork sausage can be used.

[ JP: For the sausage, Spolumbo mild Italian sausage. Dried mint since fresh wasn't available today. ]

Arabian Lamb Cakes - Provided by Francis

Plenty Delit No 5

1lb ground lamb

1/4 c walnuts, chopped small

1/4 tsp coriander

1/8 tsp cumin, cinnamon, pepper

1 tsp dry or 2 tsp fresh mint

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

Oil for frying, we used olive

1/2 lemon, juiced 

Mix all together except oil and lemon

Fry in oil and sprinkle with lemon juice when taking off the grill

Polyphonia did this as part of the feast in 2009. They were a huge hit!

Spinach Two Ways - Provided by Ainè

Dishes: 

http://www.fearlesskitchen.com/2008/08/recipe-medieval.html http://greneboke.com/recipes/choppedspinach.shtml

Homemade cheese: 

http://medievalcookery.com/recipes/cheese.html

Tartys in Applis (Alice's Saucy Tart) by Alice Percy

Within the Culinary Group, I'm known for my apple-based recipes. Sola (who was a beloved member of the group until she moved away) and her son call me "the apple lady." I'm not really sure when it became a thing, but for the first six months or so of our meetings, I pretty much just made variations on apple pie.

My favourite period recipe for apple pie is Tartys in Applis. This beautiful, simple and delicious recipe for a tart-like apple pie comes from Forme of Cury, which is also my favourite period cookbook:

"For To Make Tartys In Applis. Tak gode Applys and gode Spycis and Figys and reysons and Perys and wan they are wel ybrayed colourd wyth Safroun wel and do yt in a cofyn and do yt forth to bake wel."

I really like this one because has a nice mix of fruit - apples, figs, raisins, and pears - with spices, and because it's a recipe I interpret differently every single time I make it. It really shows the joys of the redaction process, and also that there's a whole lot of ways that you could plausibly make something "right." 

When I look at this recipe, I can feasibly see a sort of apple and tart sauce mixture spooned out of a thick pastry coffin as being correct. I can also see a sort of shallow tart filled with finely chopped fruit being correct. I can see many different ways you might take the information contained in this recipe and roll with it, and that's what I quite like about period recipes - they just let you get on with it. (Sometimes, at your peril!)

Play with this recipe and it will be kind to you. It's one of those great flavour combinations which always seem to work out just fine. I feel like all SCA cooks should have a go-to apple pie recipe, since it seems like somebody always wants one! 

Medieval Cookery has a really great redaction that you can use straight from page to pie, if you just want to make something tasty and don't want to think about it too much. 

This is my favourite tried-and-true way to put together this pie, though. The texture of the grated fruit is a little bit unusual, so if you don't like it, that's fine. Just chop your fruit up really small or in chunks or whatever makes your heart happy. Feel free to remove raisins or whatever you don't like; the ghosts of King Richard II's kitchen staff will not jump through your window in the night to punish you!

Tartys in Applis (Alice's Saucy Tart) 

4 tart baking apples (Granny Smith is good. If you absolutely HAVE to use a sweet apple, don't add any sugar and add a little more lemon juice.)

3 pears (Bartlett or Anjou) 

4 dried figs

1/2 cup raisins 

1 T apple pie spice or powder douce (if you have it)
2 T sugar

A few threads of saffron

1 egg yolk

1 tsp lemon juice
1 9" pie crust (I'm much too lazy to make my own, but any basic short pastry is fine) 

1. Peel your apples and pears. 

2. Using a box grater, grate the apples and pears into a large bowl. 

3. There will be a ridiculous amount of juice (trust me) so strain the grated fruit very well, pressing out excess moisture until it's no longer dripping. Get rid of the juice (or drink it, it's good for you!) 

4. Return the fruit to the large bowl and add the lemon juice. Chop your figs very small and add them to the bowl with the grated fruit, along with the sugar and spices and a couple of the saffron threads. Mix together.

5. In a pot, gently cook your fruits and spices together until they are translucent and the spices are fragrant. 

6. While the fruit is cooking, blind bake your pie crust based on your pastry's cooking instructions. 

7. Take your crust out of the oven, then spread the fruit mixture into the crust. Feel free to garnish with whatever makes you smile. 

8. In a small bowl, combine the egg yolk with a couple saffron threads. Brush all visible pie crust and the top of the pie with this mixture for a nice golden finish. 

9. Bake for a further 20 minutes or so (depends on your pastry) to set the mixture and finish off the crust. 

10. Serve warm or cool, preferably with a nice ice cream or dollop of 'snowe.' 

Until next time!

- Alice Percy