Tag: renaissance festivals

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Garam Masala and Traditional Curry Spice Mixes

Throughout the centuries, families along the Silk Road, would use the spices they had access to in order to create their own spice blends.  Each family could control the amount of heat or sweetness based on the different combinations of the spices.  Those that wanted heat, would have more peppers and those that wanted a sweeter blend, would have more cinnamon, etc.

Below are two recipes of two different spice blends popular among various cultures: Garam Masala and Curry.  The first set is Alice the Cook’s Recipes and the other is that of her assistant, Nicholas Childs, an accomplished cook in his own right. They are very easy to do and provide a different tast of those spice blends found pre-prepared in jars.  I hope you like them.

Alice’s Garam Masalaimg_2428-edit
1 tsp Cinnamon sticks, broken into smaller pieces
1 tsp Caradamom pods (green, black, or brown)
1 tsp Ginger, dried and cracked
1 tsp Coriander seeds
1 tsp Techillacherry black peppercorns
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp Dried chili peppers

Alice’s Curry
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
2 tsp coriander, ground
2 tsp garlic, minced
2 tsp ginger, dried and cracked (preferred) ground is also acceptable
2 tsp cumin seeds

Nicholas’ Curry
1/2 t chili powder
1 t black mustard seed
1 t tumeric
2 t ground cumin
2 t ground corriander
2 t minced garlic
2 t ground or grated ginger( fresh or not)
2 t ajwian/cumin/caraway

Nicholas’ Garam Masala:
cumin
coriander
black pepper
cardamom
chilies
cloves
cinnamon
nutmeg grated

Additional Equipment
Mortar and pestle
Spice grinder

Instructions for both
Heat up a cast iron skillet so that it is quite hot and add the spices in order to dry roast them together.  Once toasted, remove the spice mixture off of the heat and add them to the mortar and pestle to begin breaking the spices down for easier grinding.  Once broken down, you can continue grinding them in the mortar and pestle, or you may use a spice or coffee grinder to combine the spices into a finer blend.

Place the spice blend into an airtight jar, the spices will keep their flavor for six months.

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Italian Lamb with Risotto

This dish was performed in real time to an audience at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival on Sunday, August 21, 2011.  It ended up being the dinner for myself and my two assistants.  It’s taste was light and refreshing on a summer day and very easy to make.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

2 lbs of lamb cubed
1 whole lemon
1 tsp of orange zest
2 cups of lamb stock (veal or beef stock can be used instead)
2 cups Arborio rice (uncooked)
1 tsp of lemon basil, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
sea salt
black pepper

Before beginning, remove the zest from the lemon and cut the lemon in half.  Once done, add olive oil to a hot pan and once heated, add the lamb to brown slightly, adding a teaspoon of the lemon zest.  Remove from the heat and put aside.  Put the rice in the hot pan with the fat from lamb and the leftover olive oil.  Lightly brown the rice to prepare the risotto.  Once toasted, begin adding the stock on medium heat while constantly stirring.  Add the juice from the lemon to the risotto.  Continue until both the rice has puffed up and a lot of the stock has evaporated.  Add the lamb and add the lemon and orange zest along with the lemon basil.  Reserve a half a teaspoon for garnish.  Continue to finish cooking the lamb and add salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve family style on a single plate or bowl and sprinkle the remaining zest on top as a garnish.  For the photo, I garnished the dish with small orange slices for additional color and served it hot.   Make enough for 4 people.

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Curry Chicken with Seasoned Rice

Curry Chicken with Seasoned Rice and Carrots, Siouxland Renaissance Festival 2011

This past weekend, my assistant Nicholas Childs and I performed demonstrations at the Siouxland Renaissance Festival.  We prepared many things: Applejack Pork, Lamb Stew, Tandoori Lamb, Meatball Stew, Basque Herb Rubbed Turkey, and Curry Chicken with seasoned rice. I will post the other recipes here later.

Now, many of you may think, how hard can that be.  I have my own jar of curry and I can make this at home.  Well, that is true, but we didn’t have a jar of curry.  We made our own curry blend from our collection of spices. 

Fans from my facebook page have asked for the recipe and I am not about to deny them this wonderful recipe.  Now as a note, this makes quite a bit of curry, so it would be best to blend the spices in advance and preserve any remaining spice for another day.

Depending on the culture, curries can have a wide range of color – yellow, red, green, and brown. The color of curry is dependent upon the combination and amounts of spices.  This recipe features a brown curry.

Continue reading “Curry Chicken with Seasoned Rice”

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A Season at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival Comes to a Close

At the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, I perform various cooking demonstrations with my assistants.  In past years, we’ve created a lot of food that needed to fill empty bellies, but we didn’t have the means to do so.  A couple of years ago, we developed a way of performing the cooking demonstrations and feeding the cast.  Last year, we dubbed the concept as The Family Table.

There, cast members could get some hand crafted meals, water, and a place for the community to connect.  We prepared a meat and vegan dish each day.  On a couple of the list serves, that I belong to, I posted some facts about the family kitchen.

  • Each day of the 2010 run of the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, The Family Table served between 85-125 people.
  • On Saturday, October 2, 2010, we broke a record by serving 122 cast members in 40 minutes (shortest time for service).  We believe it was due to the cold weather.  On Sunday, October 3, 2010, we prepared for the day and fed 185 cast members.
  • MRF provides a stipend for a food budget, but following it would allow us to feed the cast through 5th weekend.  The cast’s tips and donations help us stretch the budget to feed the cast throughout the entire season.
  • Each week, Cub, Rainbow, Kowalski’s, Lunds, Sam’s Club, and Costco are all shopped to get the best prices
  • Every bowl is washed and bleached so that they remain food safe.  At the end of the run, every bowl, cast iron pot, and wooden utensil is oiled and prepped for storage over the winter.
  • All of the equipment for The Family Kitchen weighs 1750 lbs and includes two tables, tent, fly, cast iron pots, travel stove, shelving, period kitchen, shelving, coolers, etc.
  • I kept a running tally through the season.  We went through a lot of food (roughly):
    Black Beans    14 lbs
    Chickpeas        22 lbs
    Lentils 8 lbs
    Zucchini           100 lbs
    Rice    100 lbs
    Bread     65 lbs
    pumpkins    23 lbs
    leeks    30 lbs
    onions    15 lbs
    potatoes    117 lbs
    carrots    130 lbs
    chicken    140 lbs
    beef    150 lbs
    pork    72 lbs
    meatballs    27 lbs
    kielbasa    30 lbs
    turkey    60 lbs
    mushrooms    16 lbs

    I hope that The Family Table can become a not-for-profit entity for next year.  I am looking for a lawyer who specializes in filing for not-for-profit status in Minnesota and is willing to work pro-bono.  If you have any referrals, please let me know.

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The Hearty Pasty

Pasties have always been one of my guilty pleasures.  It’s flaky crust and hearty insides can make any cold day bright and happy.  Whether the you follow the traditional Cornish (southern tip of England) recipe or the Americanized version made in the Upper Peninsula  (UP) of Michigan, this dish was the original sandwich and researchers in Devon, England have been able to trace references to this delightful dish to the 16th century.

The hearty pasty.
The hearty pasty.

The pasty was developed to help feed the Cornish tin miners who were unable to return to the surface to eat their lunch.  Covered head to toe in dirt, the miners, and later farmers, were able to eat their lunch and discard their now dirty crust “wrapper” to appease the mischievous fey in the mines including leprechauns and brownies.  Today, other variations can be found that include chicken, ham, pork and apples, and vegetables.

Cornish miners, who migrated to America, brought over their family recipes and influenced other cultures in creating their own version of the pasty including the Finnish copper miners of Michigan and the Mexican silver miners of Hidalgo.  Both ethnic groups created their own versions of the Cornish recipe and are available for purchase in various markets in their respected regions.

Cornish Pasties
Pastry Crust Ingredients:
4 cups of flour
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 sticks of butter (softened)  (do not use olive oil or margarine as the crust will be hard instead of flaky)
1 egg
a bit of water

Pasty Filling Ingredients:
1 lb. round or chuck steak (diced)
4 medium red potatoes (sliced thin)
1 large onion, sliced thin
1 medium turnip, peeled and sliced thin
3 medium carrots, sliced thin
1/2 stick of butter
pinch of rosemary
pinch of thyme
3 cloves minced garlic, minced
Salt
Pepper

For the Crust:
Sift together dry ingredients and blend with softened butter.  Combine egg with enough water to make 1 cup and add to mixture.  Mix lightly and divide into 4 parts.  Roll each part to a 10-inch dinner plate size, using a plate as a template, cut a circle out, and lightly flour the surface.  Any scrap crust can be used to make additional crusts or be added as decoration to the pasties being made.

For the filling:
Divide the filling ingredients into four parts.  Place one of the divided parts of the filling on the one half of the crust round.  Sprinkle the filling with herbs and spices and add one-tablespoon butter.  Fold the pastry in half and seal by brushing melted butter on edges before pressing together and brush top of pastry with butter and pierce top of pastry.  I like doing a braided twist on the crust, which adds a nice touch to the pasty.  Begin at one of the corners of the half circle, lift and fold over by 45 degrees, pick up the new crust point that has been formed and fold that over 45 degrees.  Continue until the pasties are completed.  The folding over process creates a braided appearance to the crust.  Using a knife, slice three small cuts in the top of the crust to let the steam out.

Bake at 350 degree for approx. 1 hour or until golden brown.
Serves 8

Variations:
By following the crust recipe, you can make a vegetarian version-using root vegetables:  potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips, and beets.   Which provides a very colorful presentation and dish.