picnic-feasts-msg

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picnic-feasts-msg - 7/16/09

Ideas for light, picnic style feasts. Recipes.

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Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 13:46:25 -0800

From: kat <kat at kagan.com>

Subject: Basket Lunch (long)

Renata asks:

> Soooooo, my clever friends -- any ideas on what would look impressive,

> sound (and eventually taste) mouth-watering, pack well, stand up to

> minamal refrigeration, feed 4-8 people, and (maybe) not be a huge

> undertaking? Period or close would be nice, too.

Renata:

Funny you should ask; my lord and I just did this last month at a local

Canton basket lunch auction. It was extremely peri-oid but not *quite*

period... ;-)

Our menu, with only one hot dish:

Sallet

Blaunche Porrey (served hot)

Tartes de Bry

Saffron Rice

Cold chicken in Sawge

Shortbread (OK, I cheated; it was late and I was tired)

2 bottles of sparkling cider (OK, I *really* cheated)

The sallet was my version of a combination of the period recipes we have

for salad: a leaf lettuce and baby spinach leaves, tossed with a

combination of chopped scallions, chives and other savory herbs, olive oil

and a nice wine vinegar, and garnished with edible flowers. Definitely

peri-oid.

The blaunche porrey was my redaction of a recipe that appears in Pleyn

Delit. I redacted it as leek soup; the PD recipe comes out as more of a

pottage, but I wanted a hot soup in case it was *really* cold out.

Tartes de Bry also came from PD. I garnished the top with a few threads of

saffron for that "conspicuous consumption" look.

The saffron rice appears as "Potage of Rys" in "1000 Eggs, Vol. 1." It

makes a superlative side dish and I use it a lot.

The recipe for Sawge I think was discussed recently on this list; I was

skimming posts but thought I saw it. The version I used was in Pleyn

Delit. I interpreted the dish as a sauce, to go on cold meat. We simply

sliced cold chicken breast and spread the sauce over it.

The only thing that required refrigeration (it was a nippy day in any case)

was the chicken; everything else did fine in adequate shade. One very

small cooler held the chicken and the sauce adequately. The brie tarts can

be made up to 2 days ahead; refrigerate them until you leave for the event

and then just keep them in shade and cool.

- kat

Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 14:16:17 EST

From: allilyn at juno.com

Subject: SC - Re: [mk-cooks] Picnic Feast Ideas

Basins for washing hands, throw a few flower petals in for 'ambiance'.

Cover electric lights--got outdoor Xmas lights?--with chinese lantern

types. Extra lighting with tall tiki torches (tall helps keep flame from

hair and veils) I know you said 'picnic' but a sheer veil is good

mosqito protection for the back of your neck. Canvas painter's cloths to

throw on ground for reclining and keeping one's pillows clean. Didn't

see mention of a porta potty or canvas wall shrouded pit and bench

facility. (More hand washing basins, or a large size of the pop up

sanitary hand towels--like for babies?)

Dining flys for sun or rain.

Allison, allilyn at juno.com

Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2000 13:40:26 -0800

From: Kerri Canepa <kerric at pobox.alaska.net>

Subject: SC - An Andalusian lunch

The Canton up the road from here holds a Summer Hunt every year which features a

picnic basket auction to help raise money for any number of reasons (postage,

printing of newsletter, offset event costs, etc). Since I've been perusing both

al-Baghdadi and the anonymous Andalusian cookbook, I decided to put together an

Andalusian lunch. I'm unsure as to whether picnic baskets were used for such a

thing, so I offered the lunch on a large brass tray. As an added incentive, I

also danced for the folks who purchased the lunch (dinner AND a show!).

The menu:

Meat roasted over coals

Stuffed eggs

Soft flatbread

Olives

Dates

Melon

Grapes

Pistachios

Honeyed bread

The flatbread was purchased (a bread marketed as Greek pita bread) and the

olives, dates, melon, grapes and pistachios were put out on lettuce leaves in

little bowls. The meat, eggs, and honeyed bread were made in advance.

The recipes:

Meat roasted over coals (anonymous Andalusian cookbook)

Cut meat however you wish and throw on a spoon of oil and another of murri,

salt, coriander seed, pepper, thyme; leave for a while until it has absorbed the

spices, prepare without smoke and roast on a spit and watch it.

1/2 lb beef (a lean cut), cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

1/4 tsp thyme, dried and minced

1/4 tsp pepper, ground

1/2 tsp coriander seed, ground

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp balsalmic vinegar **

Mix all ingredients together and place in ziplock bag. Marinate for 30 minutes.

Thread meat onto skewers and place under broiler. Cook 5 minutes, turn, cook 3

more minutes. Remove from skewers and serve.

** I don't have murri and I'm not even sure what might be used instead. I chose

balsalmic vinegar because of it piquancy without being too bitey.

Notes: This has a very pleasant flavor and smells wonderfully of thyme.

Stuffed eggs (anonymous Andalusian cookbook)

Take as many eggs as you like, and boil them whole in hot water; put them in

cold water and split them in half with a thread. Take the yolks aside and pound

cilantro and put in onion juice, pepper and coriander, and beat all this

together with murri, oil and salt and knead the yolks with this until it forms a

dough. Then stuff the whites with this and fasten it together, insert a small

stick into each egg, and sprinkle them with pepper, God willing.

Ras' recipe reduced:

4 eggs, hard boiled and peeled

2 tsp cilantro leaf, ground in a mortar to a paste

1/2 tsp onion juice

1/4 tsp pepper, ground

3/8 tsp coriander seed, ground

murri (not included)

2 tsp olive oil

salt to taste

Cut eggs in half with a thread (dental floss works great too). Push yolks

through a sieve and add rest of ingredients. Mix together, adding oil if

necessary, until it forms a smooth paste. Fill each white with yolk mixture and

pin two halves together with a toothpick. Sprinkle with ground pepper.

Notes: I've found that the halves hold together better if the yolk mixture is

even with the cut surface.

Recipe of the Necessities of Bread and Confection (anonymous Andalusian

cookbook)

Take a ratl of wheat flour and knead it with twenty egg yolks, a little water

and oil. Then make small, very thin round flatbreads of it, and as soon as they

are made, fry them in plenty of oil until they are close to browning. Put them

in a dish, boil honey a little and clean it of its foam and cut almonds and

walnuts into the honey, put it into the dish, sprinkle with sugar, set whole

pine-nuts about and present it.

Honeyed bread, reduced recipe:

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/8 - 1/4 tsp salt

4 egg yolks, lightly stirred up

1 - 2 tsp water

1/2 tsp olive oil

2/3 cup honey

1/4 cup almonds, chopped

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

pine nuts

oil for frying

granulated sugar

Put flour in a bowl and make a well in the center. Put yolks in the well with

olive oil and water and stir gently into flour. Add water if necessary to hold

dough together. Knead dough for 5 to 7 minutes, form into a ball and place under

a bowl to rest for 30 minutes.

Put honey in a small pot and heat to boiling, removing foam as it rises. Reduce

heat and add almonds and walnuts. Simmer while preparing breads.

Cut dough into 8 pieces. Put 1/2 inch of olive oil into a pan and set heat to

medium. Take one piece at a time to roll out, leaving the rest under the bowl.

Roll out each piece into a 3 inch very thin disk. When oil sputters when a drop

of water is put into it, put disk into oil. Turn disk when just turning brown

and remove when both sides are lightly brown. Drain on paper towels briefly and

transfer to a plate. Pour honey nut mixture over disks, sprinkle with granulated

sugar and pine nuts and serve.

Notes: Salt was not included in the original recipe but the bread is bland

without it. The trick to frying the bread is to keep the heat rather low as you

want the dough to cook all the way through without getting burned. The disks

were less than 1/4 inch thick and when cooked had a soft texture. I suspect that

if the disks were rolled out even thinner, they'd be crispier. I let the honey

nut mixture cook until all the bread disks were fried. It was a lovely carmelly,

nutty mixture which sticks to everything. Note to self: use waxed paper instead

of aluminum foil when pouring the honey nut mixture on bread. Well, I was out of

waxed paper.

Cedrin Etainnighean, OL

Date: Tue, 01 May 2001 18:26:32 -0400

From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler at chesapeake.net>

Subject: Re: SC - What would you do? or 2 months to freak out

Along the lines of cold chicken, we put out cold chicken at Amalric & Caia's

Coronation, along with a Green Sage Sauce that I got from Scully's Early French

cookbook. We got rave reviews on the sauce...if you're interested, let me know

and I'll send it to you. It's one of those sauces that improves with age, so

making it up ahead of time is a good thing!

Kiri

From: "KarenO" <kareno at lewistown.net>

To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 08:03:10 -0600

Subject: [Sca-cooks] picnic baskets

Lars commented:

> we are having a picnic affair later this month to celebrate the end of June

in the barony. No refrigeration or ways to provide refigeration (including

ice chests) due to the fact that the picnic baskets brought will be on

display for auction and set out to be looked at. So, I'm wondering <

A Trick I used was to print out the menu on nice paper and displayed

that with some of the non-perishable items, while keeping the cold stuff

cold in coolers hidden away til time to eat/ dispense with the basket.

Caointiarn (whose 2 offered lunches made quite a good sum of money

:*>)

Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 10:56:35 -0400

From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Picnic foods...

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Lessee.... many of the cheese/herb/vegetable tarts are quite tasty

served cold. Raw carrot and parsnip sticks are period. as are various

fruits. Continuing along a Spanish/Mediterranean theme, there are

olives (for those who like them), cheeses, and nuts.

Brighid ni Chiarain

Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 09:49:14 -0700

From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Picnic foods...

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Greetings, cousins. I'll be day-tripping to a

local event in a few weeks, and I'd like to

provide a picnic lunch for (probably) 4 of us to

enjoy that day. I haven't had a chance, yet, to

check the flori-thingy, but I thought I'd also

fling the idea out to the lot of you, and see

what you'd serve for a picnic, since it'd make

an interesting discussion if nothing else. 4

people. No refrigeration, and preferably no

heating/reheating. Period food. No allergies

or major food issues that I'm aware of.

--Maire

One of my standards is Barmakiya:

(from the Miscellany)

Recipe for the Barmakiyya

Andalusian p. A-9 (Good)

It is made with hens, pigeons, ring doves, small

birds, or lamb. Take what you have of it, then

clean it and cut it and put it in a pot with salt

and onion, pepper, coriander and lavender or

cinnamon, some murri naqi, and oil. Put it over a

gentle fire until it is nearly done and the sauce

is dried. Take it out and fry it with mild oil

without overdoing it, and leave it aside. Then

take fine flour and semolina, make a well-made

dough with yeast, and if it has some oil it will

be more flavorful. Then stretch this out into a

thin loaf and inside this put the fried and

cooked meat of these birds, cover it with another

thin loaf, press the ends together and place it

in the oven, and when the bread is done, take it

out. It is very good for journeying; make it with

fish and that can be used for journeying too.

Note: The Barmecides were a family of Persian

viziers who served some of the early Abbasid

Caliphs, in particular Haroun al-Rashid, and were

famed for their generosity.

1/2 c sourdough 3 T olive oil for dough 1 1/2 t (lavender or) cinnamon

3/4 c water 1 lb boned chicken or lamb 1 t salt

1 1/2 c white flour 10 oz chopped onion 1 T murri (see p. 5-6)

1 1/2 c semolina 1/2 t pepper 3 T olive oil

(1 t salt in dough) 1 t coriander 3 T more olive oil for frying

Cut the meat fairly fine (approximately 1/4"

slices, then cut them up), combine in a 3 quart

pot with chopped onion, 1 t salt, spices, murri,

and 3 T oil. Cook over a medium low to medium

heat about an hour. Cover it at the beginning so

it all gets hot, at which point the onion and

meat release their juices; remove the cover and

cook until the liquid is gone, about 30 minutes.

Then heat 3 T oil in a large frying pan on a

medium high burner, add the contents of the pot,

fry over medium high heat about five minutes.

Stir together flour, semolina, 1 t salt.

Gradually stir in 3 T oil. Combine 3/4 c water,

1/2 c sourdough. Stir this into the flour mixture

and knead to a smooth dough (which should only

take a few minutes). If you do not have

sourdough, omit it; since the recipes does not

give the dough much time to rise, the sourdough

probably does not have a large effect on the

consistency of the dough.

Divide the dough in four equal parts. Take two

parts, turn them out on a floured board, squeeze

and stretch each (or use a rolling pin) until it

is at least 12" by 5". Put half the filling on

one, put the other on top, squeeze the edges

together to seal. Repeat with the other two parts

of the dough and the rest of the filling. Bake on

a cookie sheet at 350? for 40 minutes.

For the fish version, start with 1 1/4 lb of fish

(we used salmon). If it is boneless, proceed as

above, shortening the cooking time to about 35

minutes; it is not necessary to cut up the fish

fine, since it will crumble easily once it is

cooked. If your fish has bones, put it on top of

the oil, onions, spices etc., in the largest

pieces that will fit in the pot, cover the pot,

and cook for about 10-15 minutes, until the fish

is almost ready to fall apart; in effect, it is

being steamed by the liquid produced from the

onions and by its own liquid. Take out the fish,

bone it, return to the pot, and cook uncovered

about 30 minutes until the liquid is mostly gone.

Continue as above.

Gingerbrede is also good, easy to make, keeps.

Gingerbrede

Curye on Inglysch p. 154 (Goud Kokery no. 18) (GOOD)

To make gingerbrede. Take goode honey & clarifie

it on ?e fere, & take fayre paynemayn or wastel

brede & grate it, & caste it into ?e boylenge

hony, & stere it well togyder faste with a sklyse

?at it bren not to ?e vessell. & ?anne take it

doun and put ?erin ginger, longe pepper &

saundres, & tempere it vp with ?in handes; & than

put hem to a flatt boyste & strawe ?eron suger, &

pick ?erin clowes rounde aboute by ?e egge and in

?e mydes, yf it plece you, &c.

1 c honey 1/4 t long pepper 30-40 whole cloves (~ 1 t)

1 3/4 c breadcrumbs 1/4 t saunders (or 5 t sugar, pinch powdered cloves)

1 t ginger 1 T sugar

Bring honey to a boil, simmer two or three

minute, stir in breadcrumbs with a spatula until

uniformly mixed. Remove from heat, stir in

ginger, pepper, and saunders. (If you can't get

long pepper, substitute ordinary black pepper.)

When it is cool enough to handle, knead it to get

spices thoroughly mixed. Put it in a box, cookie

tin, or the like, squish it flat and thin,

sprinkle with sugar and put cloves ornamentally

around the edge. Leave it to let the clove flavor

sink in; do not eat the cloves.

An alternative way of doing it is to roll into

small balls, roll in sugar mixed with a pinch of

cloves, then flatten them a little to avoid

confusion with hais. This is suitable if you are

making them today and eating them tomorrow.

David/Cariadoc

www.daviddfriedman.com

Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 19:51:05 -0500

From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Portable Lunch Foods

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

<<< Kingstaste: What I'm looking for now is suggestions for other period

prepared foods that would do well in our bento lunch boxes while at

the war. >>>

I'd suggest trying some of these things at home before the war.

Less period ideas: sushi or summer rolls in rice paper can be filled with anything you want. Last time I made sushi for a group, one kind was "red neck sushi" filled with cold chicken, sweet potato and green beans.

Blanch cabbage leaves use them instead of bread for "pies". Cabbage might hold up better than lettuce, which wilts pretty quickly in the heat. Or pack things to be wrapped, and pack the lettuce on its own.

You could make an bento-like assortment of bits of period things. A piece of chicken cubed or sliced, some cold smoked meat, or roasted then night before, sauce or mustard to dip them into, a piece of sausage, some fresh fruit (grapes, oranges, cherries, peaches, plums, etc), a bit of good cheese, some cooked or raw veggies, some cabbage salad, some pickled veggies, a bit of cold omelet or hard boiled egg, some rice or mancho blanco, a piece of dried fruit, a sweet cake or a piece of marzipan or a little sweet preserves.

Rumpolt has kn?dels or meatballs of various meats and poultry that could work cold, a lot of salad ideas, "Zugeh?rung" or relishes, as well as many pies meant to be served cold, and krapfen or filled ravioli.

Hammel 39. Take the flesh from the hind leg/ and cut it out/ and take fresh unsalted bacon/ and a little onion/ chop it together until it becomes small/ do ground pepper and no eggs in it/ and make longish dumplings (or meatballs)/ lay them on a grill/ and steam it with onions or with juniper berries/ be it sour or not/ like it is in both manners good. You can also make such dumplings/ like one makes from veal meat/ with beef or with white weck bread/ like this it is all the more mild/ still that one can make them with all that belongs with it/ be it white or yellow.

Spensaw 23. Smoked or salted pig is not also bad/ serve it cold or warm/ It is good in both manners or cook under green cabbage/ with sour herb or with spinach/or Bisenkraut which one otherwise calls Roman cabbage.

Spensaw 25. Steamed dumplings/ white in their own stock/or make yellow/ cut the leg from the hind quarter/ chop the meat small/ wind it over the leg/ set it to and let simmer/ make it with parsley Root or sour with lemon/ be it yellow or white/ with Groselbeer or Agrastbeer/ when it has simmered / then lay on a grill/ and brown/ and make a stock under it.

Indianischen Henn 7. Take a half breast/ that is raw/ and make dumplings from it/ be they yellow or white.

Indianischen Henn 9. You might also well make a mince from it/ if it white/ then take a clear chicken stock/ if it is instead roasted/ then take a brown stock/ that you have poured off from a Roast/ with a hen stock/ that is very lightly salted. When one will serve it on a table/ then one squeezes sour Seville orange juice into it/ like this it will be good and lovely.

Lachs 1. Simmered salmon you can give warm or cold

Some cold menu items:

A veal roast cold/ sprinkled with oranges.

A hare/ sprinkled with sour lemon.

An Indian hen (turkey) cold/ with red beets.

A pheasant cold/ with cherry sauce poured over/ and sugarcoated confits thrown over.

Grouse cold/ chopped citron put over/ and with pomegranate kernels thrown over.

Zerbenade sausage cold.

Bleeding? partridge/ with toasted slices (of bread)/ softened in Malvasier wine/ and small confits thrown over

A white boiled hen cold/ with its broth/ grated almonds strained/ that the broth becomes well thick/ and let cool/ and poured over the hen/also of various colors/ confits thrown over.

A pressed pigs head cold.

A venison roast cold.

Endive salad.

Head (cabbage?) salad.

Chicory root salad.

Sugar root salad.

Chicory that is poached/ in water/ also a salad.

Head salad white/ that is poached and made sweet.

A cardoon salad/ given raw on the table/ and made with pepper and salt.

A poached cardoon salad.

From various green herbs a salad/ and borage flowers sprinkled over.

Citron chopped small/ prepared with sugar/ and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds.

A pie from a wild pig cold.

A snipe pie.

Cold boiled deer feet and a sweet mustard poured over.

Cold roasted turkey

Cold capon sprinkled with oranges

A smoked tongue

Cold boiled beef in salt

A cold wild roast from a deer

A cold roast goose/ a cold pork roast/ and a calf breast that is filled/ all arranged in a dish

Cold peas with vinegar

Ranvaig