So! You want to give a feast......

The recipe in my previous post is for a feast I am going to help prepare March 20th. Yes I did say feast not dinner. I belong to a group called The Society for Creative Anachronism or SCA for short. It is a group the recreates mostly European history between oh....roughly.....600 to 1600. Some of us do range outside of Europe to the Middle East, Japan and Russia just to name a few places and some before 600 as well. We have groups all over the world which are divided in to Kingdoms with names like Atenveldt, which happens to be all of Arizona, Lochac is Australia, New Zealand and parts of Antarctica or The Kingdom of Colontir which is Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Northern Arkansas and of course there are many, many more.We like to dress, eat, fight, hold court and make all manner of things as they did. From Romans to Vikings, from Elizabethan England and France to the flowing robes of the Middle East all can be found within our group. We are further broken down into Baronial groups which are lead by an elected Baron and Baroness our King is chosen by combat in a tournament called a Crown tournament, his Lady or Consort becomes the new Queen. I live in the Barony of Tir Ysgithr in the Kingdom of Atenveldt or Tucson, Arizona. This is my local group. Our local group has a weekly fighter practice where you will find men and women practicing their skills in hard suit, rapier, dance, drumming and any number of crafts. Once a month we have an evening for classes where those who know teach those who don't! LOL We also have each month a weekend event. This month is Great Helm for us. This is a series of tournaments to determine who the Captain of the Guard and his Guardsmen will be for the next year, they also find a Rapier Captain and a Youth Champion. My daughter, Mary, has had the honor of being the Youth Champion for the last year! On Saturday evening, after a day of tournaments and court and such we will be having a feast. This is the feast I will be helping to prepare.
This Sunday I spent all day with the feast steward organizing. Made my brain hurt it did! LOL
We start serving food at 6 pm and dessert is put out........three hours later!! We have six courses with two to three dishes in each course. You want a list? Of course you do! I'll use the modern names for the dishes ok?

First Course - Appetizers

Cheese Tarts
Cheese Tarts with Blueberries
Florintines
Salmon Quiesce
Crab Quiesce

Second Course

Boiled Salad
Sausage and Pears
Breads and Assorted Butters

Third Course

Herb and Fresh Lettuce Salad
Orange Chicken with Sops (This is the dish in the last post)
Lemon Chicken

Fourth Course

Braised Beef
Humus and Pita Bread

Fifth Course

Pork with Root Vegetables (turnips,parsnips, etc )
Hodgepodge ( onions,bread marigold petals)
Green Beans with Almonds
Oatmeal with Raisins

Sixth Course

Almond and Pear Pie
Blueberry, Cherry and Quince Tarts
Assorted Cheeses, Marmalade and Fruit
Apples Flambe' for the Head Table



I am stuffed just reading all of this...LOL So my fellow cook and I had to decide when these would be cooked or reheated, what kind of dishes these will go into, with what garnish, at what time they will be served and how etc. Took us seven hours with a half hour break for lunch, which was the orange chicken. MMMMMMM Oh! I forgot us folks working in the kitchen and serving the feast? We don't get to eat it!! Only if there are left overs...now that part is lame don't you think? We get 12 bean soup, bread and ham if and when we have time to grab some. Aaaany way.......We start cooking this Saturday with the tarts and Sunday with 120 pieces of chicken.
I'll let you know how it goes......

Last like the first....

Today is the last day of February and it is just like the first day of this month, cold and wet. Just the day for the hot stew I made for lunch...mmmmmm. Ken just headed for work and Mary is over at her brother Levi's until later today so I am here all by myself trying to decide what to watch on the 'ol boob tube....LOL.
Last night I made a great dish for diner. Here it is: The first is a 15th century recipe and then a redation for it.

Capon with Orenges.
Take your Capon and boyle him tender and take a little of the broth when it is boyled and put it into a pipkin with Mace and Sugar a good deale, and pare three Orenges and pil them and put them in your pipkin, and boile them a little among your broth, and thicken it with wine and yolkes of egges, and Sugar a good deale, and salt but a little, and set your broth no more on the fire for quailing, and serve it without sippets.

Orange Chicken with sops

5 lb skin-on chicken thighs

2 tbsp butter

1 c red wine

1 1/2 c water

Zest and juice of 3 organic oranges

2 tsp mace

2 tbsp sugar

salt

4 hard-boiled egg yolks

4 tsp wine vinegar

Brown the chicken thighs in butter. Pour water and wine over the chicken. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer chicken for 30 minute or until it registers 165º on a meat thermometer. Set the chicken aside on a warm platter. Strain the broth and drippings into a saucepan. Dip out1 cup of the broth for the sops. Add the orange juice and zest to the saucepan. Boil until reduced by half. Add mace and sugar and a little salt to taste. Mash the egg yolks with vinegar and stir into the broth to thicken. Pour over the chicken. Serve with sops. Makes 5 servings.

2. Sops for a capon.
Take Tostes of Bread, Butter, Claret wine and slices of Orenges, and lay them upon the Tostes and Sinamon Sugar and Ginger.

Sops (dressing) for Orange Chicken

8 c dry bread cubes

1 stick butter, melted

1 cup red wine

1 cup chicken broth

1 orange, thinly sliced

Cinnamon

Sugar

Powdered ginger

Toss bread cubes, butter, wine and just enough broth to make a damp stuffing. Place in a casserole dish or oven-proof platter and cover the top with a layer of thin sliced oranges. Dust with sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. Arrange the chicken on top of the dressing, pour the sause over the chicken. Bake for 30 minutes at 350º then serve.

This is a wonderful dish the dressing is almost like a bread pudding! YUMMY!!!

Hugs,
Mish