Although it's been months since I've updated this blog, I've actually been really, really busy, both with cooking and with "other stuff in my life that takes a lot of time," like starting a full time job (hooray!) and continuing my education (also HOORAY!) as a full time student.
SCA-wise, we've been busy as a group, as well. We did a medieval dinner for a local church's Father-Son banquet, and the best part of that experience, besides the delighted look on the guests' faces as they ate, was the incredible turn-out we got when I opened the kitchen to any members of the church who wanted to help us prepare the meal. We had almost two dozen people show up! That's more people than I have in my entire Shire, and it was an incredibly humbling and exciting experience, sharing our mutual love of cooking and family activities.
We also provided lunch for our neighboring Shire's event the day after the church dinner (ever prep for TWO meals in a single week? We did... and I'd just started my new job AND started the summer semester... that was a trial by fire, I tell you!), and that was also lots of fun. We always enjoy working with Shadowed Stars, and getting to feed people while visiting with good friends and family is an extra treat!
The pinnacle of our summer, however, was preparing the Royalty Lunch for Simple Day this July. It was quite challenging, as there are a number of food allergies (and those items are relatively common cooking ingredients), so we put a lot of planning into this meal. You can see the dishes we prepared for Their Royal Majesties and Their Royal Highnesses by clicking this link. I'm very pleased with how the dishes turned out, especially since our entire cooking area on site consisted of a small electric skillet and some chafing dishes!
I haven't given up on baking, however. I've been playing around with recipes to see what sort of interesting spins I can create. A few of my experiments included pan de anis (anise bread), rose bread (white bread with rose petals and rose water), and an herb bread made with za'atar, a Mediterranean blend of seasonings and salt which is often served with flat bread and olive oil, and is a frequent breakfast in my house.
The za'atar concept led me to think of a monkey bread, but not the one with the sugar and cinnamon (I usually make that with nutmeg and ginger, since I dislike cinnamon intensely). I don't have anything against sweet breads, but I really, really prefer savory dishes, and I decided to give it a shot!
I started off with a very basic white bread recipe. I don't think the bread recipe really matters, I recommend using whatever you like. However, when I made my sponge, I added a frillion (technical term) kinds of seasonings. Some of those include garlic, onion, chives and thyme. Again, I don't think it matters, you could use anything you wanted. I added the spices to the sponge before letting it rest.
Isn't she pretty? The garlic smelled heavenly, I have to say! So then you know the drill, eh? Mix sponge, let rest for a while, and work up into a dough, kneading til smooth, etc. etc. This dough had a lot of dried garlic/onion in it.... like.... probably 1/4 cup of each. Hey, we like garlic. So, the dough was a little more textured than usual, but not impossible to knead. I let ir rise, then punched it down, patted it into a sort of rectangle on a floured cutting board, and cut it into beignet-sized pieces, maybe 2 inches square (this is a very, very rough approximation!).
I melted some butter, and mixed in olive oil and some za'atar for flavour, and dipped the pieces into this mixture before loosely piling them into an oiled baking dish. I used some small fluted pans I have, although I think any dish would work (bundt pans are often used so ensure the dough in the center cooks completely, but my fluted pans are fairly small, so I wasn't worried.).
I covered the pans and let them rise until they were about doubled, and then popped them into a 350 oven for about 30 minutes or so. There's something absolutely divine about the smell of garlic bread baking. (Well, not if you're allergic to garlic, or are a vampire, I suppose.... since I'm neither, it's a delight!)
When the bread came out of the oven, while it was still hot I brushed the tops of each "loaf" with the remaining butter/za'atar mixture (no sense wasting good delicious herbed butter!).
So, this bread is delicious. I mean, drool-worthy delicious. The garlic and herbs are really lovely, and make a great flavour combination. The one "downside" is that unlike the sweet monkey bread, there's no sugar to cement the individual dough pieces together, so this does not lend itself to display on a platter, etc. I've seen recipes that called for egg to deal with this issue, and I might try that next time, but I have several wooden bowls for serving bread, so this is not a major crisis.
All in all, I call this a "win" in the bread experiment arena. I encourage people to experiment with herb mixtures of their own and see what you can come up with!
SCA-wise, we've been busy as a group, as well. We did a medieval dinner for a local church's Father-Son banquet, and the best part of that experience, besides the delighted look on the guests' faces as they ate, was the incredible turn-out we got when I opened the kitchen to any members of the church who wanted to help us prepare the meal. We had almost two dozen people show up! That's more people than I have in my entire Shire, and it was an incredibly humbling and exciting experience, sharing our mutual love of cooking and family activities.
We also provided lunch for our neighboring Shire's event the day after the church dinner (ever prep for TWO meals in a single week? We did... and I'd just started my new job AND started the summer semester... that was a trial by fire, I tell you!), and that was also lots of fun. We always enjoy working with Shadowed Stars, and getting to feed people while visiting with good friends and family is an extra treat!
The pinnacle of our summer, however, was preparing the Royalty Lunch for Simple Day this July. It was quite challenging, as there are a number of food allergies (and those items are relatively common cooking ingredients), so we put a lot of planning into this meal. You can see the dishes we prepared for Their Royal Majesties and Their Royal Highnesses by clicking this link. I'm very pleased with how the dishes turned out, especially since our entire cooking area on site consisted of a small electric skillet and some chafing dishes!
I haven't given up on baking, however. I've been playing around with recipes to see what sort of interesting spins I can create. A few of my experiments included pan de anis (anise bread), rose bread (white bread with rose petals and rose water), and an herb bread made with za'atar, a Mediterranean blend of seasonings and salt which is often served with flat bread and olive oil, and is a frequent breakfast in my house.
The za'atar concept led me to think of a monkey bread, but not the one with the sugar and cinnamon (I usually make that with nutmeg and ginger, since I dislike cinnamon intensely). I don't have anything against sweet breads, but I really, really prefer savory dishes, and I decided to give it a shot!
I started off with a very basic white bread recipe. I don't think the bread recipe really matters, I recommend using whatever you like. However, when I made my sponge, I added a frillion (technical term) kinds of seasonings. Some of those include garlic, onion, chives and thyme. Again, I don't think it matters, you could use anything you wanted. I added the spices to the sponge before letting it rest.
I melted some butter, and mixed in olive oil and some za'atar for flavour, and dipped the pieces into this mixture before loosely piling them into an oiled baking dish. I used some small fluted pans I have, although I think any dish would work (bundt pans are often used so ensure the dough in the center cooks completely, but my fluted pans are fairly small, so I wasn't worried.).
I covered the pans and let them rise until they were about doubled, and then popped them into a 350 oven for about 30 minutes or so. There's something absolutely divine about the smell of garlic bread baking. (Well, not if you're allergic to garlic, or are a vampire, I suppose.... since I'm neither, it's a delight!)
When the bread came out of the oven, while it was still hot I brushed the tops of each "loaf" with the remaining butter/za'atar mixture (no sense wasting good delicious herbed butter!).
So, this bread is delicious. I mean, drool-worthy delicious. The garlic and herbs are really lovely, and make a great flavour combination. The one "downside" is that unlike the sweet monkey bread, there's no sugar to cement the individual dough pieces together, so this does not lend itself to display on a platter, etc. I've seen recipes that called for egg to deal with this issue, and I might try that next time, but I have several wooden bowls for serving bread, so this is not a major crisis.
All in all, I call this a "win" in the bread experiment arena. I encourage people to experiment with herb mixtures of their own and see what you can come up with!
