'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

Anything Goes/TUA Feast Practice Night (May 9th, 2016)

May 9th's Culinary Night was a little smaller than we've been used to in recent months - the season really starts to kick off in May in Avacal, and stretches right through to September. Most of our members were either gearing up for camping or trying to catch up with mundane life!

We had an absolutely heaving table, though! Ása and I had our recipes to test for the Grand TUA feast, and Lianora had put on (almost completely by herself - a huge feat!) a non-SCA Medieval feast for something like forty people that week, so she brought tons of her leftovers to share with everyone.

Caiaphas and Francis do frequent experiments with frozen period treats - surprisingly enough, the technology existed in period! Apparently, they used a chemical reaction with saltpeter to reduce the temperature quickly enough for things to freeze. They decided to make orange sherbet today, using regular navel oranges and sugar. Delicious!

Audrey brought a family recipe for stroganoff; she didn't have much time, but always brings something to share anyway! It was delicious. She also baked some sourdough bread to go with our butters.

Master Thorvald often brings fish dishes, which I always enjoy a lot because it's not something often served in the SCA. (At least, not where we are!) This night's offering was steelhead trout in daube sauce, which was pleasingly tart.

Drífa came with some pickled carrots; it's always so nice when people bring preserves, since I think they were such an important part of our collective diets up until the 20th century! Her carrots had plenty of anise in them. Super delicious!

Lianora's offerings were amazing. First, there was cormarye - a marinated pork dish which is always very popular with us. She made chard in butter, roasted potatoes, boiled quail eggs, a soup of mixed greens (not dissimilar to the one Borealis brought for TUA - very delicious!) a "sour cherry sauce" (a really unique flavor - like a savory pudding,) and some venison, which is a special treat for those of us without a regular supply of game meat.

Ása brought her delicious peeres in confyt and herb butter, and I brought a salad (they're period! I promise to do a post about this) with vinaigrette, honey butter, applemoyse, and my 'snowe.'

We had a great conversation about the future of the Culinary Group - some months, we're so big that we don't all fit comfortably in Caiaphas and Francis' house anymore! We all feel strongly that we never charge anyone money to attend Culinary Night, so that's something we'll have to figure out in the future.

Here's what was brought!

Near row: chard in butter, cormarye
Next: pickled carrot; potato; quail egg; apple moyse
Next: mixed greens soup; orange sherbet; honey butter;
Next: sour cherry sauce; venison; stroganoff
Next: steelhead trout in daube sauce; herb butter; bread
Next: salad; whipped cream snow; reduced pear syrup (almost entirely hidden); pears

Until next time!

- Alice Percy

Pie Night

On March 14th, we held pie night. (It was Pi Day, so we thought it was appropriate. Everybody brought a redacted pie recipe - offerings ranged from a (quite horrible) rice tart to delicious, honey-drizzled sweets in thin pastry.

Pygge Night

The theme of February's culinary night was the noble pygge - everything had to either be made from pork, look like pork, or go well with pork. We got a huge variety of dishes, from authentically cured bacon (very different than our modern fatty streaky bacon!) to a marzipan pig's head subtlety, to oranges in syrup (to protect us from scurvy.) Other offerings included delicious pork-stuffed apples, roasted pork loin, and hearty soups.