Children should cook!

Children should cook. 

There are lots of reasons children should cook.  For one, they should grow up and have options outside of "Which heart-stoppingly unhealthy fast food place do I want dinner from tonight?" or "Mmmmm.... boxed sodium insta-meal!"  And I *do* so very much want my children to grow up and move away and cook their own meals...

Three of my four children are not even in high school yet.  Cooking at this stage of the game is more of a socialization process, and that's a Very Good Thing.  They are part of the family, a contributing part of the family, and there is something very viscerally rewarding about providing the basic human needs.  They can't really provide shelter, or clothing, or things like that, but they can prepare (or help prepare) meals, and know that they were instrumental in feeding the group.  That's a valuable life lesson, and in today's world, where families all too often don't have a whole lot of "together time," I think meals provide a shining opportunity for that sense of interconnectedness to shine through.

I find when I cook for SCA events that many, many MANY people (adults, that is) are sorely lacking in even rudimentary cooking/kitchen skills.  This is true for all generations, not just the "Fresh Out of High School" crowd.  I know my own generation (I'm almost 38, for the record) tended to have mothers who shooed children out of the kitchen.  Meals magically appeared on the table at dinner time, and the kids perhaps loaded the dishwasher afterwards, but they really didn't know how food was prepared.  I remember classmates experiencing that flash of panic when they were finally on their own and had to muddle through things like cooking hot dogs without a safety net. (I know, it seems shocking... but I've seen a LOT of burnt hot dogs, and NOT because they were held too close to the fire while camping!).  After all, we were the generation born *after* TV dinners were invented.  All Hail Destruction Of Cooking Skills! 

So, what can be done about it?  Well, the Shire of Afonlyn likes to cook... a lot.  And we like kids... a lot.  (We have a goodly number of them running about. ;)  I think we have almost as many children as we do adult members!)   We're working on organizing an event for kids (Parents are obviously welcome too, and most of the classes will be designed to have the parents *and* the children working together, just like you would at home) which will include a cooking track for classes where kids will prepare the dishes for the evening's feast.  We're looking at doing this in the late spring of 2011, so stay tuned! :)

Siege Cookery!

My Pelican's Shire, Shadowed Stars (up in Fort Wayne, IN), hosted a lovely little event this past weekend which had, as part of the activities, a Siege Cooking competition. We got the rules a couple of weeks in advance, but the ingredients were delivered to us on-site and we had 3.5 hours to cook and plate our creations.

 

Here are the rules (in case anybody else wants to steal this idea! It's a brilliant version of an A&S competition!!)

 

The Mistress Isabel Moundoghter Siege Cookery Contest with a Viking Twist from Meistara Thorhalla

 

The Premise: The Vikings have sieged your castle for months now and you are beginning to despair that the castle will not be able to withstand another attack. Your liege comes to you, the humble castle cook, and asks for your help. He has decided to invite the Viking leaders into the castle to parlay for peace. He is counting on you to serve up a sumptuous dinner to impress the Vikings. You look in the cupboard and find the following ingredients:

Required Ingredients (you must use at least some of these) 

• ¼ loaf of stale wheat bread
• ¼ cup hulled barley
• ¼ cup salted butter
• ¼ of a head of cabbage (a Shadowed Stars favorite!)
• 1 onion
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 cup of wheat flour
• ½ cup rye flour
• 2 carrots
• 1 cup of whole milk
• 1 cup of dried plums

Optional Ingredients (you do not have to use these but it could be helpful)

• 2 eggs
• 5 pieces of uncooked bacon
• ½ cup of cream
• 2 small apples

One of you will be lucky enough to win the random drawing for the piece of mystery meat. This is a 3 – 5 ounce piece of pork, beef or chicken. But remember, there can be only one, so don’t count on this.

  

What you will need to bring:

• Up to ¼ cup of any fresh herb, if you choose
• Up to 2 Tablespoons of any dried herb or seasoning, if you choose.
• Pots
• Pans
• Utensils, including knives and cutting board
• Towels and a dish rag (you might need them)
• Serving dishes
• Serving utensils
• Anything to add flair to your presentation, candle are permitted.

 You will be judged on:

•  Taste
•  Appearance (this includes table setting)
•  Apparent quantity of dishes (how much did you make?)
•  Number of different dishes

 All dishes must be prepared on site. You may not start any dish at home. You will receive your ingredients at the site.   You will have 3 hours and 30 minutes to prepare your entry.

 

 So... we diced for the meat, and I lost. Drat!! ;) Now, I don't really like recipes, as a rule. I've spent a good amount of time learning about spices and how food works and I prefer to cook by the seat of my... erm... kirtle, so I looked over the ingredient list a few weeks before the contest, and let the ideas sit in my head and percolate, and then I packed my spice chest.

 

The other competitor, Lady Cerridwynn, and I took very different approaches, and it was very interesting to see the variations we came up with, based on this relatively skimpy list of ingredients. You don't really realize how much we rely on oil and other fats in modern cooking! I spent quite a bit of time cooking the bacon very slowly to render as much fat out of it as possible! We DID have the luxury of almost an entire loaf of bread, though, and a HALF head of cabbage each, which completely set my preconceived plans on their head. ;)

 

My final presentation was:  

• Valkyries on Horseback (almond/breadcrumb spiced filling, stuffed in prunes, and wrapped in bacon) (recipe, as it were, to be posted in the comments)
• Cabbage soup.
• Savory barley porridge
• Stuffed cabbage rolls
• Cabbage/onion/apple cold compote
• Crispy spiced bread (like croutons? just nibbly bits)
• Apple/carrot tart with a rye streusel topping
• Bread pudding and a spiced custard sauce

 Now... cooking... and feasting... in the SCA should be fun! And to that end, in the interest of "Schtick!" I had gotten some "Swedish fish", you know? Gummy candy? Shaped like fish? And I arranged them on a HUGE platter, and I (because my persona is Norse, too, and I wasn't about to lose that opportunity for some fun and games!) mentioned that I recognized some of my kin in the forces arrayed outside and managed to get word to them, and they smuggled in a delicacy SO RARE it is hardly ever seen outside of our Homeland, and then only served to the most HONOURED guests...

 

 ...Whipped off the cover, and watched the judges almost fall off the bench with laughter.

 

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! (although obviously this could not be counted towards my "official" entry... more's the pity!)

 

When it came down to the end, between us we created about 18 unique dishes. The judges sat in discussion for what seemed like *forever* (it was actually almost 45 minutes...). I won, by a bare one-point-five points, and honestly, it was an honour and a privilege to compete with Lady Cerridwynn. She's *amazing* and I would happily take my family to ANY feast she has a hand in creating!

 

The moral of the story? Ingredients are less important than learning how to cook. I encourage people to get into the kitchen and experiment with flavour combinations and see what you can come up with! I think you'll be surprised!

 

 

Lady Solveig in kyrra Sveinsdottir, and her Pelican, Meistara Thorhalla Carlsdottir af Broberg (AKA Mama T of House Roaring Valknuts, bringing you the BEST in Creative Mayhem since AS. XXXI!!!)

 

 

Kitchen Safety - SCA style!

Within our Society, safety is a frequent discussion.  When it comes to combat, there are people who are specifically charged with ensuring that the rules are followed and safe practices are followed.  These individuals are called "Marshals", and they are easily recognizable on the field.  They will often wear a tabard with the badge of their office prominently displayed, and they carry a staff which has a black and yellow spiral pattern that is very distinctive, so they can be quickly spotted.  (Here's a quick look at Combat Marshals and their role in Society.)

So, this is a VERY GOOD THING.  Safety is important.  We want to keep playing with our friends, and if we break them, that tends to put a damper on things!  And, as part of their job, Marshals "Authorize" people to participate in combat.  Think of it as a "Fighter License".  They get a card that shows what things they're permitted to do, and it keeps everybody within safe parameters.  Huzzah!  We Like Safe!!

I would suggest, however, that there is as much, if not more, risk of actual harm in the *kitchen* as there is on the battle field.  We have sharp (or... sometimes... sadly... not so sharp) knives.  We have water and slick floors.  Flames... hot oil.... Salmonella... the risk factors in a kitchen are (as with any food prep space) real and present concerns.  However, just as Fighters wear protective gear and discuss safe combat methods, a responsible kitchen staff will use protective gear and discuss safe food handling methods.

So, enough of the dry boring stuff. ;)  My Shire is small, but we make up for it with a sense of humour big enough to compete with any Barony!  As the head of my local cooking guild, I took the liberty of instituting "Kitchen Authorizations"!  But, to have Authorizations, you have to have a Marshal... So I took some more liberty (I am a Norsewoman!  Bold and True!) and styled myself "KITCHEN MARSHAL".  But lo... I needed a Staff Of Office!

Now, Fighter Marshals have options here.  Heavy Combat marshals often carry these long poles with yellow and black spiraled stripes.  Rapier Marshals are a little more varied, and I've seen everything from a telescope to a striped bullwhip to a Lady Marshal of my acquaintance (my foster-daughter, actually) who carries a Flag Fan with the requisite markings.

I cook.  And so, what better symbol than a wooden spoon!  Lo, the joke was born.  I found the largest *functional* wooden spoon I could find in my local Large MarketPlace... bought some acrylic paint... girded my creative loins (as it were...) and set to work.

I am not, frankly, the most skilled visual artist in the Middle Kingdom. HA!  But this was a labour of love, with a heavy undercurrent of amusement (which is usually the case, when it comes to love, I've found....) and so with some determination, and a lot of patience, I was able to create....  THE SPOON. :)

You'll note the distinctive stripes (in Blue and Gold, the colours of my Shire) and the Crossed Weapons (in this case a spoon and fork....) and I've personalized this one with my name and a seeblatt, which is that heart-shaped doodad (It's part of my Shire's official Arms and my non-official personal arms.).

In addition to the spoon, we have Authorization Cards (just like the fighters!!!).  The cards distinguish between four categories: Feast Serving, Wooden Spoons/Other Blunt, Knives/Other Sharp, and Flame/Fire/Heat.  These are given to the Kitchen Staff and each category is signed off as the person reaches basic competency levels in each category.

Now, I should probably pause here.  This is IN NO WAY intended to suggest that there is a rash of food poisoning or finger amputations going on in my Kingdom.  Quite the opposite, actually.  The Feast Kitchens I've worked in have been very, very well run.  And we're not creating some Bureaucratic Nightmare Process that sends people screaming in panic from the kitchen.   In ~practice~ this is more of an attempt to make Kitchen Staff feel like they MATTER to the PROCESS of "creating the Dream".  Being an Authorized ~whatever~ adds a sense of accomplishment.  And, honestly?  It's just darn FUN, and if that's not why we play this game, I don't know what is.  (The food/kitchen safety stuff is really just a little bit of a bonus!)

(Sidenote:  I have only had to whack one Peer on the knuckles with this spoon - he tried to enter my kitchen and had muddy boots on.  Unacceptable.  However, it was proven that this spoon is quite substantial and suitable for repelling invaders... if for no other reason than an Angry Norsewoman with a Wooden Spoon triggers a visceral level of fear that the East Kingdom would probably pay highly for!)

Involving kids in the kitchen

The SCA is a family affair, right?  We encourage people with children to participate in the Society!  We even have created offices and activities which specifically aim to get children involved in Society.  We have Youth Combat.... Youth Ministers.... Page School.... but rarely, RARELY, do I see kids in the kitchen or serving at feasts during SCA events.  I think this is skipping over an entire category of volunteers, and cheating the kids out of a really great experience!

Part of the issue, I think, is that a lot of people don't involve their kids in daily cooking.  (to be fair, I think a lot of people in general don't engage in daily cooking.... I have worked in a lot of feast kitchens where the ADULT help was unsure and unskilled.... I think it's just a factor of modern life, to some degree!)

And so, while it's a little scary/daunting to teach your child to use a knife properly in the confines of your kitchen at home, when you add the stress and chaos (and yeah, fess up, there's plenty of BOTH in feast kitchens!!!) of an event there's a tendency to ship the kids off to Youth Pointe and pray to whatever Kitchen Gods are handy that they're occupied long enough to let you get that last batch of ~whatever~ started with enough time before Court is done...

There are a lot of tasks that don't require Advanced Kitchen Authorization skills, however.  Peeling vegetables, washing fruit/vegetables, grating cheese, mixing honey into butter, filling salt cellars, arranging food on plates/platters, carrying pitchers of water, and so on. And there are lots of non-basic tasks which can easily be done by children, if you take a few minutes to explain what it is you want done.  (I do like to pair up adult and youth kitchen staff, just to observe the due diligence of safety concerns.)

My kids like to cook.  My kids like to cook so much that 9 times out of 10 if they're watching television it's Food TV and they're discussing the merits of plating dishes in various ways, and I frequently come home from running errands to find that my 9 and 11 yr old daughters have created (yet another) dessert recipe by combining ingredients and techniques from already-tried faves into a new (and usually quite edible, and even tasty!) dish, and my 13 year old son is known for creating entirely new recipes altogether!  (This is the boy who two years ago served tomato slices which he put under the broiler with bleu cheese and salt and pepper and olive oil... I personally believe tomatoes are poison, but his younger sisters said they were delicious!  So peer review by sibs being the stringent and vicious thing it is, I believe them... lol)

When I'm doing a feast, I like to get my kids involved.  For one, I simply trust them as capable assistants.  They know to wash their hands (a lot....) and how to use a knife safely...(most of the time...)  and not to nibble out of the bowl of chopped veggies... ;)  For another, I believe whole-heartedly that there is something very valuable in the concept of "learning by doing", and what is more "historically accurate" than children in the kitchen?  In addition, there is a definite charm added to a feast when you have children in their garb carrying food and drinks to the Good People Of The Realm who have gathered there.  They add a certain "Awwwwww...." factor which is useful for ambiance... and, in return, it is almost guaranteed that toasts will be made to the cooks and serving crew at the end of the feast, a prime opportunity to teach children that service is a valued part of What It Is That We Do in the SCA. 

Engage the youth, and you'll have kids who have a reason to play in the SCA, rather than complain that they are bored, and flop in a corner with their video game or cell phone while you attempt to recreate your chosen era of history.  Combat is not for everybody, nor is it The Only Avenue Worth Exploring, for youth OR adults.  I believe in making as many opportunities as possible available to *everybody* in the Society, no matter what their age... the kitchen *is* my battleground.... I fight against boring food!  Kids help add a fresh perspective!  (and, pssssssst.  Kids who help COOK vegetables are often more likely to try EATING them, too... but you didn't hear that from me!)

Beef Brisket... Viking style

My Shire hosts an annual event called Winter Nights.  Winter Nights is a Norse-themed event (which I adore to no end, since my persona is Norse, afterall... ).  We are fortunate enough to have as one of our members the owner of a local bar called the Heorot.  The upstairs is decorated like a Norse long hall, and it's *ideal* for this setting! So Winter nights is an evening of really great food, really great beverage options (If you like beer, you'll LOVE the Heorot.  I *don't* like beer, but I DO love Framboise... and they have root beer on tap that's phenomenal!!) and generally a whole lot of merriment.

We normally expect between 45-75 people to attend this event, and it's primarily a FEAST (which is somewhat of an anomaly, but it works well for us!) with dancing and gaming and socializing afterward.  We've done this event two ways.  Buffet style is way less work for the cooks and servers, but you tend to run out of meat before everybody eats (and meat is normally hands down the most expensive part of a feast menu).  Serving it in defined courses works well but you need to make sure you have enough serving staff to pull it off.  (I'm lucky.  I have a fully authorized staff in my Cook's Guild!).  


My goal with this feast is to offer foods which could conceivably have been present at a large celebration such as Winter Nights.  This is the end of the harvest season, and the preparation for the winter.  Extra livestock would have been butchered, stores laid in, etc.  We don't have extant cookbooks from the Norse period. We have references in the sagas, we have grave finds, and we have information from trash pits to base our knowledge on what would have been available.  I don't look at this feast as "This is what the average Norse family would have for dinner" but "This would have been a HUGE celebration... what ingredients do I have to work with?" and go from there! (I do try to serve one "edgy" or unfamiliar dish each year, just to offer people a chance to broaden their horizons!)

Ok, so this is purely conjectural on my part, but the etymology of the word "Brisket" is at least possibly linked to the Old Norse word "brjosk"  (from "brjost" or "breast").  So, it's a start. Now, when I lived in Texas (that's Ansteorra, to my SCAdian friends!) they frequently made brisket... and  not just in the SCA... Brisket is a staple dish!  In fact, it's sort of the "go-to" dish for most family functions.  And it has to be one of the easiest dishes known to mankind. It's also a fairly easy way to feed a large number of people, and if you shop around, you can get a large brisket for a decent price!  We've done this feast for two years in a row, and the brisket has been on the menu both years, and disappeared faster than you can say "Valhallah!"

Here is my Norse-inspired version of this favourite.  It's easiest if you put it in the oven before you go to bed, because it has to cool low and slow for at least 10 hours.  (You ~CAN~ do this in a crockpot on the low setting, too, if you have a large enough crockpot to hold your brisket... I do not.)

1 10-12 pound untrimmed brisket
1 can of beer *OR* 1 1/2 cups of mead
1 thinly sliced onion (optional)
6-8 cloves of peeled, crushed garlic (optional)
1 Tbsp salt (I like to use sea salt)
1-2 tsp cracked black pepper
1-2 bay leaves (optional)

Line a large baking dish with heavy duty foil.  (Yes, I know they did not have heavy duty aluminum foil back in Jorvik or Iceland....).  You're going to need to create sort of an  airtight (relatively...) "envelope" around the meat with the foil.  I normally lay two long pieces of foil on top of each other, fold over one of the long edges a couple of times and crimp it well (sort of like you're sewing the foil along that long edge), then unfold and lay that in the dish. You want enough foil that you can bring it back ~over~ the brisket and seal it inside the little foil package when you're ready to cook it.  Place the brisket, fatty side up, in the baking dish on top of the foil.  Layer the onions on top of the meat.  Mix the remaining ingredients and pour over the brisket.  Seal the foil tightly around the brisket.  Put the brisket in the oven and turn it to 225 degrees F.  Bake for 10-12 hours.  Remove from the oven and let sit for an hour.  Unwrap the foil (carefully.. you're going to have meat juices spilling everywhere if you're not careful!).  Cut the brisket against the grain and serve.

When we do this, I prep the brisket the night before the feast. The day of the feast, while I'm baking the last of the bread and prepping vegetables, etc., I will slice this and put it in foil pans.  I have several portable "party warmer" racks that sit over gel fuel cans.  The ONE downfall of the site we use is there's no kitchen available to us.  SO I have all my food in rectangular foil pans and we reheat over the gel fuel.  This lends itself beautifully to this.  Just layer the slices in the pan, pour 1/4 cup of the juices over the meat and seal tightly with foil, and you're ready to go.

A couple of other observations:  Dark beer is absolutely delightful in this recipe.  I used Guinness last year and I've never had better brisket (and I've had a LOT of brisket....).  I have heard of people using onion soup mix rather than fresh onions and seasonings.  I tend to find that too salty, but I am not a salt fan, so feel free to give it a try.  Mead makes a really, really great brisket, as well.  Some people freak out when they get a brisket and see that this thick layer of fat.  I say, "Hooray!  It was a good year for the cattle!" and move on with prepping it.  You can get a trimmed brisket at the butcher, but I find it tends to dry out more.  (Also.... if you happen to have leftovers, brisket makes a really really *great* sandwich!  We have not had leftovers at Winter Nights yet....)

Putting the "Creative" in SCA food....

I am a huge fan of authentic recreation.  Truly, I am.  I love the sights and sounds and (most of) the smells of an encampment, or a large event. 

Sometimes we get a little bogged down, though.  I mean, let's be honest.  We do not have time machines to go back and see for sure how things were done.  My persona (that's "the person I pretend to be when I'm dressed up", for any non-SCAdians reading) is 9th century Norse.  We don't even have ~cookbooks~.  We have the contents of trash pits and burial finds to track backwards from.  That's a little challenging.  And even for the later period stuff (say the 1500's and on) we still don't have 100% certainty on every single recipe and every single *method* of cooking.

So, we do our best.  And in the meanwhile, we can even have fun with it. ;)  At a recent event that my group attended we presented some "effigy breads" to the Baron and Baroness of the host group... a Dragon and a Tiger.

(We live in the Middle Kingdom, and the Dragon is symbolic of our kingdom.... the Tiger is the symbolic representation of our neighbors to the East.... with whom we sometimes have.. disagreements... hehe).

In more recent news, I decided that since KITCHEN work is actually more potentially dangerous than FIGHTING (I mean.. they use rattan sticks.  And wear armour.  We use real knives.  And wear aprons.) that I was going to start "authorizing" people to work in my kitchen.  So, I made myself a Marshal Spoon (personalized...) and we handed out "authorization cards" to folks who had shown themselves as safe and knowledgable in various kitchen tasks.  There's no rule that says cooking in the SCA can't be fun... and really?  I don't mind working, and working HARD, for my fun.  But there should be fun mixed in there, somewhere! 

Mini Meat pies!

We had an event this past weekend which presented us with a bit of a logistical challenge.

The site we normally use was unavailable to us, and the site we were able to get instead had a lovely large industrial kitchen..... and we didn't have access to the industrial range.  We're a small shire, with limited resources, and we couldn't risk paying the additional fee for the stove usage.  The site DID have, though, a small "efficiency" kitchen down the hall, with a four burner electric stove, oven, and microwave.

So, really, this isn't so bad.  It just meant that very little actual cooking could be done on site... it was more of a "bring and reheat" sort of menu, which is actually quite fine, because it means most of the "labor intensive" cooking can be done ahead of time, which is nice.

For one of our courses we chose to make miniature meat pies.  These little pastry nibblets are not only tasty, they're super cute!  And they lend themselves to so many interesting decorating concepts.... We chose predominantly clovers (as it was "The Feast of Saint Patrick"....) and seeblatts (one of the elements of our Shire arms) as our primary themes for this batch.


The recipe was a combination of various "meat pie" recipes I've used in the past.  We wanted something that was modern enough not to freak people out, but was medieval enough to give that special feel to this dinner course.   Finger foods are always fun, too!  (Plus, the kids can help with the decorating!  Bonus!)

To make these little gems:


Filling:

• 1 lb ground meat (we used beef)
• 1/2 cup minced onions (optional - we left them out)
• 1-2 cloves finely minced garlic (optional - we left them out due to allergy concerns in a few of our attendees)
• 1/2 c wine (use a wine that you'd normally drink with whatever meat you're using - we used a red wine)
• 1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional - we used almonds)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Other spices to taste (optional - go crazy!  I like nutmeg on meat, but experiment!)

In a skillet over medium heat cook your ground meat until it's no longer pink.  Drain any accumulated grease.  Add the nuts (and the onions/garlic if you're using them) and cook them with the meat a few minutes, then add the wine and reduce the heat, allowing your mixture to simmer and reduce for about 15-20 minutes. stirring frequently.  Your filling should be fairly moist, but not sitting in a puddle of liquid in the pan.  Season to taste and set aside to cool.

Pastry:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 tsp salt
• 1 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup shredded cheese (we used cheddar)
• 3/4 c evaporated milk
• 1 Tbsp vinegar (we used rice wine)

In a bowl combine the flour and salt, whisking until blended.  Cut in the shortening and cheese until mixture resembles crumbs.  Combine the evaporated milk and vinegar, then gradually mix into the dry ingredients and mix *JUST* until it forms a ball.  Divide in half, and on a well-floured surface  roll out to approx 1/8" thickness.  place half the circles 2" apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Top each with about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of the meat mixture.

At this point if you want to get fancy with your "lids" carve designs into the center of the remaining circles, leaving enough space around the outer edge to allow for crimping.   My kids helped on several of the lids with simply a wooden skewer (think punched tin art....).  Otherwise you can just vent them by poking them with a fork in the center or cutting a slit in the center with a paring knife after you've sealed them.

Place your lids on top of the filled bottoms.  Moisten edges with water and press with a fork to seal.  Bake at 425 degrees F for 12-16 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve immediately, or cool, wrap and freeze for up to 2 months (we reheated by putting them in a steam table tray and warming them, but you could also pop them into the oven at 350 until they're hot and serve!)

This recipe makes about 18 mini pies.  We figured 2 pies per person as a serving, as they were not the "main event" of the course they were in.  You can really play with the recipe (I am thinking about doing a chicken taco filling, honestly!), and you could even go vegetarian if you wanted!