Thursday, September 5, 2019

Summer's End and Shoot in the Wildwood/Seven Pearls

The past two weekends have been quite eventful. At Summer's End I was able to help out with my friend Abigail's (Gail Kellogg) vigil, guarding the food from cross-contamination.  I made a fantastic marzipan with her recipe:
  • 2 cups almond flour 
  • 1 cup granulated sugar 
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water 
  • 1 egg white, lightly beaten (frothy) 
  • 1/2 teaspoon orange blossom or rose water 
  • Confectioner’s sugar, as needed (about 1.5 cups) 
Bring the sugar & water to a rolling boil, add the almond flour, stirring quickly on low heat, turn egg whites into the pan while hot. Keep stirring 1-2 minutes, add rose water (or other flavoring), stir to combine and turn hot marzipan out onto sugar dusted surface. Knead with a spatula to start, then your hands, adding more confectioner's sugar as necessary until smooth like play dough. Shape by hand or cut into cubes. It will keep in the fridge 2 weeks.


On top of this, I retained a few shifts, I got Peer pressured into soliciting a Pelican (I was going to do it at dinner, anyway), and I helped serve feast.  For as much as I love cooking and eating, serving is by far my favorite role at feast, since it lets me bounce from table to table and socialize with everybody.  And get them drunk.

This past weekend at Seven Pearls/Wildwood I also had a blast retaining and serving feast.  The kitchen left some amenities to be desired, which made the feast appearing to go off without a hitch even more impressive! 

Sunday was a fantastic experience.  I was allowed to attach myself to a team from the Hael for Cast Iron Chef and loved the challenge.  We were given three and a half hours to cook a five course feast for 6-8 judges.  Our great archer Simmonetta got us a 6" cube of venison roast and two 1" thick boneless porkchops. Dagonall the Fool, the team leader, got us the rest of the ingredients from the pantry at the beginning of the challenge.  After that, I spent three hours buried in a 10x15 foot fire pit running a three ring stove.


1) Ricotta with honey, lavender, and fresh figs.

  • Mix together, serve with flatbread.


2) Breaded pork chops with chopped apples, onion, and celery.

  • Bread the chops and sear with vegetable oil on a hot pan.
  • Mix chopped plants and steam as long as possible to achieve an "apple sauce" substitute.


3) Venison stew with pears and root vegetables

  • Sear roast, stick with garlic slivers.
  • Stew with chopped pears and multicolored carrots.
  • Add 2 long pepper cones, 6 cubeb beads, and salt as needed.


4) Armored turnips

  • Slice and steam one large turnip as long as possible to get soft.
  • Incorporate 4 oz cheddar, garnish with another 4 oz.


5) Indian rice pudding

  • Boil 1lb of rice until cooked.
  • Add 1 qt butter milk, 2c sugar, 1tbsp lavender, 1 tbsp cinnamon, and clove.



The competition was well fought!  We scored 42/60 points, with first and second place getting 43.6 and 43.  One of the other two tables got a score in the 20s and I don't remember the fifth table, but I'm very happy with how competitive it was.  Everything I tasted was delicious!

Later in court, Barron Ixac of Delftwood designated our venison as the Barron's Choice.  This made me very happy because a) he "doesn't eat red meat" and it still won him over, and 2) I've never cooked venison and I didn't fuck it up!


The last great thing to happen to me was that Elska gave me her Bead Of Inspiration.  I have thoroughly enjoyed this past half year in the SCA and I really hope I can keep going with the same strength once the semester kicks in.


Oh, and I got a proto-ge friendship bracelet that I singed in the fire >.> At least it was cotton?

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