Section VIII - International Cuisine

International Cuisine Sometimes in the SCA, "different" is equal to "period". I don't often subscribe to this point of view, and in the past I have thought the folks that do those feast are just being lazy. But lately I have had a softer view of this type of feast, a great many traditional recipes have evolved from period cooking. So if you don't have a period recipe you might want to try a ethnic one. Matter of course once you have your ethnic recipe, look in that areas period cookery books, there are many now to choose from, and see if there is a similar recipe from period and location. You might be pleasantly surprised. This is backward research, but it sometimes works.

   Garlic Soup - Austrian
   Oatcakes - Scottish
   Carrots with Yogurt - Turkish
   Brie and Pear Soup
   Easy Almond Milk
   A note about Sauces
   Salts
   Annyse's Shortbread

Garlic Soup - Austrian

5 cloves of garlic
4 tablespoons of flour
1/2 tablespoon of olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup of milk
3 cups of beef stock
1/2 cup sweet cream
croutons
chives

Brown flour in oil. Mince garlic and add to flour. Allow to cook for about 1 minute. Add stock, pepper and salt. Bring to a boil. Take off heat allow to cool to lukewarm. Add milk. Simmer for 20 minutes on low heat. Add cream. Garnish with croutons and chive.

Oatcakes - Scottish

Oatcakes or breed, as it is traditionally called in the Northeast part of Scotland (bread is called loaf), is cooked on a griddle and look a bit like biscuits. You might know them as scones. They are 1/4 inch thick and can either be triangular or circular shaped. Lately people have been experimenting with adding flavors to the cakes such as mixed herbs, black pepper and even cheese.

4 oz medium oatmeal
1 tablespoon melted beef dripping, bacon fat, or vegetable oil
pinch of salt
2-3 tablespoons boiling water

Sprinkle some oatmeal onto a pastry board. Mix together the ingredients and form into a ball. Place ball onto the board and roll out to form a round about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into triangles or rounds. Work quickly as the mixture starts to being difficult if it gets cold, by breaking and cracking. Put the oatcakes on a hot griddle and cook on one side only. Then they are placed in a warm (90 degree oven) and allowed to dry. This should take about 20 minutes.

Carrots with Yogurt - Turkish

1 lb carrots
2 cups plain yogurt
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
1 pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
salt to taste

Wash and peel carrots. Grate into a bowl. Mash garlic with salt. Add this mixture and the yogurt to the carrots. Mix well and place into your serving dish. Decorate with parsley and red pepper flakes. Refrigerate.

Okay so this is a collection of of various recipes that did not originally make it into any of my previous cookbooks, I didn't know where to put them on the web site, and finally decided to stick them at the end of this section.

Brie and Pear Soup

This recipe combines two of the ingredients that people in late period dearly loved. I hope you enjoy it, as it is one of my experiments.

2 large ripe pears which is about 1 pound
2 cups chicken broth, use freshly made or canned. Do not use bouillon
8 oz. Brie cheese.

Peel, core and seed pears. Quarter them, add to the broth and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the pears are soft. In period they would have put the broth and pears through a sieve, its more time consuming then a food processor and the results are very similar, just make sure that it is very smooth. Return to the pot and simmer. Trim the rind from the brie and cut the cheese into small pieces. Add the cheese slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon, until cheese is completely melted. This is a dish that I only serve to head table because of the cost and because it is very rich. I generally garnish with slivered nuts such as almonds or hazelnuts.

Easy Almond Milk

Almond Milk is very easy to make. For this you need to grind raw almonds in a food processor or even a coffee mill, add water and strain. The liquid should be white and delicious. By raw almonds I mean that they have not been roasted or blanched.

As you have probably guessed from looking through period recipes, almond milk was used a great deal. This had to do with fresh milk availability. A good substitute was found and used, like we use powdered milk. There is now an almond milk on the market under the brand name Breeze which is very good. It is used as a milk substitute for people who can not have dairy products, it can be found in a health food store. It has been fortified to look like real milk.

A Note about Sauces

Sauces are very period, they served everything under a sauce, gravy, or juice. Possibly to hide the fact that the meat was unappetizing to look at after it had been buried or hung for a week. Or that dried meat looks frightful after it has been reconstituted. Spices also tend to give move flavor within a sauce, the meat does not absorb the flavor so readily. At any rate they sauced everything. Modern taste do not always care for sauces, in fact by period standards we eat everything rather plainly. So to that end try to serve your sauces and gravies separate from your dishes, which of course will not always be possible. Also, because sauces tend to have extra fat in them from the meat drippings, butter bases, etc. you may want to rethink your sauces. You may wish to start with broth rather then meat drippings, etc.

Salts

Sometimes its the little touches that set off a feast. One of the better things that we did (several times) was to mold salt into flower shapes. Basically you wet the salt until it clumps together. About 1/4 cup water to a box of salt. Then using mint molds (I used roses and leaves) we pressed the salt into the mold and then turned them out on to waxed paper. They do not hold together like candy, if you touch them at this point they will fall apart. But if you allow them to dry they become very hard. When placed on the tables you might like to have your servers tell them that its salt, otherwise whole piece might be bite or swallowed as folks think they are eating a candy.

Tripe is not a common ingredient and I have found that working with unusual ingredients is sometimes the hardest, because being unfamiliar with them you may not know how much of anything to use, since most period recipes do not come with amounts. With recipes that have familiar ingredients you are less likely to be lost as to how much to use. You have to do the recipe several times and adjust as you go along. Here is one recipe that I liked well enough, its from Italy.

Annyse's Shortbread

I am always tinkering with recipes, its an old habit. I added cinnamon to the sugar that you sprinkle on top, if you like you can also add slivered almonds. I replaced the vanilla in the original recipe with almond flavoring, its a very good mix. This is very soft and should be baked in a single pan and then cut into wedges just before serving.

2 cups flour
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring
sugar mixed with cinnamon to sprinkle on top

Mix all ingredients, press into a 9 inch round cake pan. Prick with a fork (I like to make designs in mine) and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. You will need to serve from the baking pan as this is a very soft dough.