Dishes from the Iberian Peninsula SCA culinary night in the barony of Montengarde
In the SCA barony I am a part of we have a culinary group. It’s an unofficial group, but the people who unofficial lead it try really hard to do a themed potluck dinner nearly every month. In April the theme was the Iberian Peninsula, and a luckily it was in a location I can relatively easily get to, so I was able to attend.
(They’re rotating the locations now which is great – both for me to be able to attend a little more, but also for those with kids who would like to attend but have childcare concerns.)
I had actually gotten a little confused about the theme, and am not great with culinary research, but wanted to participate all the same. I made muhammara using blood orange olive oil from Eau Claire Oil & Vinegar Bar. I couldn’t find much about the dish, only that it was “really old” which since it was what I WANTED to make.. was good enough. (It’s more about eating interesting food with good people and learning more from them about medieval dishes for me, than treating it like an Arts & Sciences project.)
Dishes from the Iberian Peninsula SCA culinary night in the barony of Montengarde
The dishes presented included (roughly top to bottom, left to right in the photo to the side):
- A potato ‘cookie’. I liked hearing about this – it was supposed to be fried but the cook decided to bake it instead, turning it from a potato dumpling kind of thing into a potato cookie. I actually ended up not liking the taste of it – but it was still neat to try.
- A soft-style of rosewater-flavoured marzipan-like sweet. The recipe suggested rosewater to counter the oils in freshly ground almonds, but the chef opted to use pre-ground almond flour, so the dish ended up softer than anticipated. I really, really liked this one – but I love the flavour of rosewater.
- Onion soup, I did have a little of this, since frequently heavily cooked onions don’t bother me like raw and near-raw ones do. I thought the broth was nice, but of course couldn’t really enjoy it like those who like onions do.
- A second attempt at the marzipan-like sweet. The chef used far less rosewater on this one, recognizing the almond oil issue with flour vs. freshly ground. This one ended up quite hard and crumbly, and of course a lot less flavoured with rosewater. I liked this one as well… but still prefer the softer, rosier one.
- Watermelon juice. Literally a juiced watermelon. This was cool and refreshing. I think it would be super yummy mixed with lime juice or served with mint!
- A pomegranate sauce served with roasted chicken. The original medieval recipe would have had the chicken served in the sauce, but the chef opted to serve them seperate so folks could control the amount of sauce.
- My red pepper dip served with store-bought pita bread. The consistency ended up similar to hummus – (maybe a little less firm) and I really liked it. I used a recipe my friend sent me, but instead of using a jar of roasted peppers I roasted my own fresh, and toasted the walnuts in it. I also used twice the walnuts and half the bread from her recipe, since I really loved the nutty flavor and thought they’d have a near-similar impact on the consistency.
- A Spanish style cheese, served with store-bought bread and preserves.
Making my dip
I took a few photos while making the dip and loaded them to Instagram. If you click the link you can go through the three photos, or use the arrows on the sides of the photos if your browser shows them.
SCA
If you’re in the SCA or any other historical reenactment group, do you have a group that tries different historical recipes? Do you participate? Have any favourite recipes? Share some links with me in the comments below!
Happy Sushi Belly 