Stefan's Florilegium

picnic-feasts-msg

picnic-feasts-msg - 7/6/01

Ideas for light, picnic style feasts.

NOTE: See also the files: jalabs-msg, breakfast-msg, finger-foods-msg,
meat-pies-msg, ham-msg, pastries-msg, salads-msg, bread-msg, mustard-msg,
sausages-msg, fruits-msg, cookies-msg.

************************************************************************
NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that
I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some
messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium.
These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with
seperate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes
extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were
removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I
make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the
individual authors.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these
messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this
time. If information is published from these messages, please give
credit to the orignator(s).

Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
mark.s.harris@motorola.com stefan@florilegium.org
************************************************************************

Date: Tue, 30 Mar 1999 13:46:25 -0800
From: kat <kat@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@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@juno.com

Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2000 13:40:26 -0800
From: Kerri Canepa <kerric@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@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@lewistown.net>
To: <sca-cooks@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
:*>)

<the end>