Ooops! I've been a bad blogger! Update on subtelties at last.

The glorious feast at Three Saints and a Ruby has come and gone and I am FINALLY posting pics of the subtleties course which lead off the feast

Mice (made of hard-boiled eggs, radish slices and roots, and parsley stems), Carrots( made of cheese and parsley) , cheese (made of marzipan), and bread! I had hoped the bread would give the impression of rocks, but...not so much. Still, I think they turned out well. They were certainly well received!

We placed two platters for four on each table.

Simple Subtelties for a spring event - Carrots!

I have been pondering the opportunity the first course which is often "on the table" at an SCA feast gives one for not only taking the edge of the hunger of restless diners, but to set a appropriately festive and medieval tone for the meal ahead. Our Barony is beginning to prepare for our annual Spring event "Three Saints and a ____" and I have been seized with the notion of making our first course an homage to spring. Perhaps a combination of the first Spring fruits of the garden and the last remains of the Winters staples...in illusion food!

My first idea is baby vegetables.

Baby carrots!

Medieval/Renaissance Geek...Runs in the Family

My Grandmother died a few years back and among other things I inherited a cookbook focused on medieval cooking and feasting. Now her sister, my Great Aunt, died just before Easter and as momentos from her estate I picked three brass rubbings that she and Grandma made from Medieval English burial monuments and this absolutely humongous cookie mold. I think the Ren. Geek blood skipped a generation with my Mom, but I look forward to keeping the family tradition alive. :)

And I'll be using this mold at our next Feast!

Turnip Tart

We've been looking to medieval France for recipes for our Barony's upcoming feast and so I've been experimenting:

To make tarts of turnips.

Take turnips, & put them to roast over the fire, when well cooked cut into long, small slices like one chops tripe, then take four ounces of soft, fat cheese, three raw eggs mixed with the cheese, a quarter ounce of cinnamon, two ounces of sugar, a little pepper, four ounces of melted butter, a little rose water, & make tarts like the others, & serve so.

The above is a rough translation of "Ouverture de Cuisine" based on this transcription by Thomas Gloning et. al. And is used with permission, to wit:

© 2006, 2011, 2012 Daniel Myers - This electronic document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes as long as the copyright and this notice are included.

(The entire document may be found by clicking on the recipe, above, or typing the address into your browser.:  http://www.medievalcookery.com/notes/ouverture.html)


The first time I made this tart I bought the biggest turnips I could find. It turned out that just one of them filled two pie shells so this time I went for turnips of a more average size so, of course, it turned out I needed two of them for one pie! I'd say bake a couple more than you think you'll need.

My measured version:

Two small turnips, 3 ounces grated Parmesan cheese, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup half and half, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp sugar, sprinkle with pepper, dot with butter (about 2 tsp) bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

As you can see I drastically changed the proportions of some of the ingredients, and moved much of the fat content from butter to half and half. I omitted the rose water only because I had none. I'll try adding it as soon as I have some in-house.

I find this tart to be a wonderful, slightly sweet savory tart with a subtle hint of cinnamon that really works. Very tasty!





Step One: Peel the turnips





Step Two: Bake In a closed damp environment

I wrapped them together in tin-foil and added a little bit of water to keep them from drying out, closed it up and into the oven they went!




Bake until soft. In this case they baked at 350 for an hour. Cool.


Step Three: "Cut into long thin slices like one cuts tripe"

I have never eaten or handled tripe (that adventure is still in my future) so this instruction was a bit of a stumper. I decided that intestines are tubes so it wouldn't be very thick, and they are probably something that needs to be cut into smallish pieces. This is all guess-work, but I decided to cut them in a sort of super-super-super-sized julienne, slices of the entire turnip about 3/8th inches wide, then crosscut into strips about twice that size.





Step Four: Arrange turnip in prepared pie crust

I swirled them into an even layer filling the unbaked pie crust. I gave the crust a nifty crenelated edge too.





Step Five: mix together eggs, cheese, half and half, cinnamon, and sugar, pour into filled pie shell. Sprinkle with pepper, dot with butter and bake at 350 for approximately 45 minutes





And voila!

Whew! That's over!

I've been madly working on many fronts, one of which being feast preparations for our local SCA Barony. We finally finished that project yesterday, it was fabulous, and while I am busy in my head with plans for an even better event next year my hands are back at work on my IRCC3 camicia. I've only got about 18" of plain hem stitching left to do and than I'm moving on to the blackwork!

Holiday yummies!

Tonight is the annual Yule party for our local barony and Boen and I have been up for hours working on our contribution to the potluck feast. We are making an absolutely enormous meat pie with beef, almonds, raisins, apricots, apples, bread crumbs, eggs, milk, coriander, cumin, tumerick, onions, garlic, lemon zest and juice, bay leaves, salt and pepper...all baked up in pastry with a topping of egg custard.

It smells as yummy as it sounds!

For those of you who don't recognize this dish from the list of ingredients (which I wouldn't have until earlier this week) this filling is one of the many variations of a South African classic: Bobotie. We used this recipe for the ingredients but changed the technique a bit. Basically we precooked the meat (as did several other recipes) and added a crust.

I love that it is completely possible/plausible/believable in the context of a medieval kitchen, yet I've had Bobotie pie at a restaurant and found the recipe in a gazillion places on-line.

I hope it tastes as good as it looks(and smells)...