Normally, I look at the numbers behind my feasts before I start to plan them. How many people are likely to come? How many are likely to have food allergies? What is my budget? How many courses? How many dishes per course?

This project is a bit different. I am unsure of my guest numbers. We are 11 months out. Because of this, the list of diners is unclear. Numbers I know or speculate so far:

• 5 people (locals that include my head cooks)
• 2 people (members of our household from out of town – most likely will be there)
• 3 people (members of our household from international locations)
• 5+ people (who would like to come and are looking at costs)

At this point I will be using 15 to 20 as my guest numbers. I will adjust as needed.
I know some of the food allergies.

I will be serving 2 mains/2 sides/1 starch/1 dessert per night. 150-200g of meat per person per night. I will also investigate a vegan main for each meal (just in case).

I will be redacting 3 mains/3 sides/ 1 starch/1 dessert per night to help with selecting dishes that will meet the allergy needs of my party.
​
I will trying to precook as many dishes as possible. We have a member of our camping group who goes home each day to feed the household fur people. He picks up our frozen food and additional needs when he does his runs.

Of high importance to our household:

• Food that is tasty, nutritious, and documented.
• Very low or no food waste.
• Limited packaging (we use reusables that can be taken home rather than put in the bin whenever possible).
• Food that is deliverable by beginner cooks under the direction of a more advanced cook.

So, with these ground rules in place, I go into the next part of my research, redaction work.

Until next time, enjoy the good things in your life.
~ Natal’ia

Five feasts in five nights. Well, maybe mini-feasts is better terminology. I have four locations settled on. One more location is a difficulty (I will go into that a bit more in a minute). I have the following source books for the redactions:

Mongolia: A Soup for the Qan – Paul D. Buell (Yinshan Zhengyao – Hu Sihui) early 14th century
China: Ni Zan’s Dietary System of the Cloud Forest Studio – Alec Story (Yun lintang yinshi zhidu ji – Ni Zan) mid 14th century
Syria: Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook – Charles Perry (Greater Part of the Pleasure of this Life – Anonymous) late 13th century
Italy: Translation of Libro di Cucina/Libro per Cuoco – Louise Smithson (Libro di Cucina/Libro per Cuoco – Anonymous) 14th century
or
Italy: An Anonymous Tuscan Cookery Book – Renaissance Food (Anonimo Toscano, Libro della Cocina) Late 14th century
Byzantine: I currently do not have a text for this. If I cannot find a text, then I will have to look at moving this night to another area. We will see where the rabbits lead.
 
Now that I have some resources, I can start doing my redaction and research. I will blog about that next time.
​
Until then, ride free.
~Natal’ia

I look over at the calendar. It has been a long time since my last blog. What happened to my schedule? And why have I not updated?
I pulled myself out of my rabbit hole and blinked in the light of day. Oh, dear!
Hello everyone. Below is my very quick update. After which, I should be returning to my regularly scheduled blogging.
 
I fell down a rabbit hole of research. Have you ever had that happen? You begin a project and then find an interesting thread. You pull it and before long, you are lost in research. The days fly by and when you finally come back to the surface of the planet (primarily because one of your friends has called the police about a missing person – you), you realize that you have been away from your blogs for months.

Hello to my world.

Next Easter (2020), we have several people visiting from the US. They will be camping with us for 5 days. I am super excited. And there is so much to arrange for them. But the greatest honor is that my campmates have asked me to design the food for the camp. I have an idea. I like it. Better yet, the team likes it (so much so that they have asked me to make it a small feast after the camping event).
So, I am going to spend a year (well, just under) researching, redacting, and then cooking and feeding the 5 nights of food. I am going to blog about my progress (or lack thereof) here. It’s time to buckle up. This is going to be a bumpy ride for sure!
Each night is a different fare. Currently, I am looking at Mongolia (duh! It’s my favorite), China, Syria, Italy, and I would love to do Byzantine (this is proving to be a real rabbit hole).

I have started my feast book. I am in the process of picking my recipe books.
Now it’s time to move forward and to jump back down that rabbit hole.
​
Until my next blog, may the skies be clear, and the winds be light.
~Natal’ia

​I promised to discuss one of my failures. So, here we go.
 
I was working with the Cloud Forest Hall manuscript and came to number 48. Roast Goose. The original recipe as translated by Alec Story is:
 
48. Roast Goose
 
Original:
Use the roast meat method [above], using salt, pepper [Sichuan, Zanthoxylum simulans], scallions [Allium fistulosum] and wine rubbed over the inside. On the outside, smear wine and honey. Add it to a wok. Follow the rest as the above recipe, but when you first add it to the wok, point the cavity upwards, and later turn it so that the cavity points down.
 
I was able to quickly redact the recipe as it is similar to other recipes I had already redacted from this work. My redaction reads as follows:
 
Natal’ia’s Redaction:
Ingredients:

• 1 Chicken (1.5 kilos)
• 2tsp Salt
• 2tsp Chinese Pepper
• 4 Spring Onion
• 1 1/2 cups Cooking Rice Wine
• 50g Honey
• 1 cup water

 
Method:

1. Clean bird and remove feathers.
2. Marinade bird: inside marinade: 2 spring onion, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1/4 c wine; outside marinade: cover bird in honey, rub on (2 spring onion, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper).
3. Place in a bowl and pour 1/4 cup cooking rice wine over the bird. Cover and place in a refrigerator for at least 2 hours (better if you can allow to sit for 24 hours).
4. In a wok, place bamboo skewers to form a lattice so that there is a gap between them and the bottom of the wok. The gap needs to be large enough to allow the bird to sit above the liquid that will be placed in the bottom of the wok.
5. Place bird on the bamboo lattice breast up. Try to keep the bird off the sides of the wok.
6. Add 1 cup of water and 1 cup of cooking rice wine to the bottom of the wok.
7. Put the lid on the wok and seal the seam with wet paper (keep this paper moist—very important).
8. Put the wok on a medium heat and allow the liquid to boil. Do not open the lid until it is time to turn the bird and then reseal with wet paper. Indicative times: 40 minutes from when the wok is put on the heat. Open, turn the bird, and reseal. Cook another 20 minutes and then allow to sit until the wok is cool.

 
I have a family of three. There is no way that we could eat an entire goose in a reasonable number of days. I decided to redact the recipe using a roasting chicken. This had the added benefit of fitting into the wok I already have at home. This would allow me to ‘trail’ the redaction and then scale it up at some point when I have more mouths to feed.

The redaction worked well until it was cooking time. Then the catastrophe began:
I was using indicative times for the redaction. I do this with each redaction as I work through it. Using previous experimentation and knowledge, I felt it was likely that these times would be about right. But to make sure, I put a meat thermometer in the breast of the chicken. I don’t like raw chicken. The meat thermometer connected with a side unit outside the wok so that I knew the meat temperature. Excellent, I thought. Oh, but it did make getting the seal on the wok difficult.

I started the cook and watched as the meat temperature skyrocketed. It was just not possible for the meat to heat this quickly. I removed the wok from the heat and waited for the temperature to fall inside so that I could open it without the possibility of hot liquid splashing on me.

What I saw inside was a tragedy. The chicken was too heavy for my lattice work of bamboo skewers and had fallen into the liquid below. The boiling liquid was resting against the thermometer. Hence the rapid temperature rise.

I rearranged the bamboo, strengthening the structure. I repositioned the thermometer and started again. The cook seemed to be going well.

On the second part of the cook, the thermomotor read that the chicken was cooked. I was thrilled because I had guessed nearly to the minute. Only….

I opened the wok to a grey chicken. It was utterly disgusting. When I pulled the meat thermometer, a gush of blood followed. The thermometer was resting against the rib bone and had read a false number.

Into the wok again. This time without the meat thermometer.

I cooked it for another 20 minutes. Certainly, it must be done now.

Opening the wok, I looked at the still grey bird. I pulled it out and cut into the meat. Once I cut through the rubbery, pale skin, the breast meat was hard and dry on the outside, pink and spongy on the inside.

I tipped the bird into the bin and we ordered takeaway. Sometimes, it’s better to know when you are beaten.
 
I have yet to try this recipe again. I will do in the cooler months. But I am giving my brain a few months off before I try.

I hope that this helps you in your redaction work.
​
Until next time, may the hunting be good and the rivers flow calmly.
~Natal’ia

I decided to start this year with the topic of failure as success. ‘Why?’ You may ask.

I was recently talking with one of my apprentice siblings. She mentioned that I always seem to have such success with my work. She bemoaned that she was constantly failing to succeed, failing to produce.

This brought me to an interesting conclusion. First, my apprentice sibling was actually reading my blog. I never assumed that they would. Any of them. Second, I have a history of positive spin on the blog. Okay, I will not change that. This blog is about successes. But success can also come from failure. My next blog will be about a failure, what I learned from it, and how I can turn it into a success.

So, getting back to my apprentice sibling. She looked at me with big eyes as if she hoped that I could fix the failure roadblock in her work.

Honestly, I wish that I had a magic spell that could help, but to all those out there who do not succeed on the first take, remember that this is a process. Sometimes my redactions come out the first time I do them. The well-planned experiment is a success. The food is tasty and a plausible outcome from the original recipe.

This is, in the most part, because of my history with cooking. My grandmother and I did a lot together. She taught me the family recipes with amounts like ‘a pinch’ or ‘the size of a chicken egg…’ or my favourite: ‘just enough’. These times gave me the confidence and the food chemistry knowledge to play with things. And that is what redaction work is. It’s playing with food chemistry.

You must first understand the reasons behind why things happen. We all understand that yeast makes bread rise. But until you know how and why, redacting a yeast-rising bread recipe would be challenging.

Getting a good result is about designing that first experiment around research and cooking knowledge.

What happens when you try that and the results are less than perfect? You can do one of two things.

1. Stop working on that recipe. And you know what? There is nothing wrong with stopping. Sometimes the challenge is too much for us at that time. And it’s okay to say so. You might pick it up later when you know more. Notice I said you can try again later? Putting a recipe that is too complex aside is okay, but stopping all research and redaction work isn’t if you want to succeed. You need to push through and have discipline if you want to succeed.
   
2. Research more into the failure and redesign your experiment. Ask others for guidance, research similar recipes, have a look at modern takes or traditional cooking, look into the archeology of the time and place, run other experiments on how they cooked their food.

Ultimately, it’s important to realise that some of the best research has come from failure. It’s through failure we learn or find new paths to research.

Never be afraid of failure.

Until next time, may the blank page of your new year be written with success, happiness, and the occasional failure.

~ Natal’ia

The New Year is just around the corner. Over the last few months, I have updated Mongol Musings every week. I have enjoyed this and I hope that you have found it informative and useful. However, due to other commitments, I need to decrease the frequency of my blogging so that I have the time to research and extend my knowledge. To this end, beginning in January 2019, I will be publishing a new blog on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month. These will be the same sort of blogs as I have always published – information, redactions, research – whatever comes up at the time.

From time to time, I might post extra blogs if time allows. But I thought that it was better to cut my promised updates back rather than get to the point where I miss months of updates again. I hope you will understand.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Until the first week of January, I hope that you have a great New Year’s and that you ride swiftly.
​
~ Natal’ia

​Happy Holidays!

I have a gift for you. This is the cookbook for the Fields of Gold Mongolian Feast and the special lunch menu item on Sunday.

I hope that you enjoy it. Please let me know what you think in the comments below. If you attended the feast, did I forget your favourite dish?

Until next time, may your days be merry and bright.
​
~ Natal’ia

​

Lotus roots (known as Lotus Rhizomes) are something that many Australians and Americans have never heard of, let alone come across on their dessert plate. Let’s see what we can do about that.
In the Cloud Forest manuscript, Ni San has outlined a sweet, musky dish in 36. Cooked Filled Lotus Roots.

Original:
Take really good true flour, honey and a little musk [lit. musk deer Moschus moschiferus] and pour it inside lotus roots. Pour from the big head. Wrap in oiled paper, tie, and boil until cooked. Cut into slices and eat warm.
I have taken some liberties with this recipe. The primary reason for this is the lack of whole lotus rhizomes. Because of this, I can only access frozen rhizomes that have already been sliced. I hope to redact this recipe sometime with whole rhizomes when I can access them.

Changes I have made:

1. I used a patty of filling (which necessitated it being thicker than the probable type in the recipe that would be poured down the long tubes of the rhizome).
2. After having tried to boil the cut rhizomes to interesting effects, I decided to use a shallow fry method – this is the method suggested on the packaging.
3. Use of musk: I have made this recipe without musk for several tasters who do not like musk flavour. This returned a very nice, sweet honey flavoured dessert.

 
Natal’ia’s Redaction: Fried Sliced Rhizome Version:
 
Ingredients:
• 1 pack frozen Lotus Rhizomes
• 1 cup Flour
• ½ cup Honey
• Musk Essence, to taste*
• Olive oil, as required for frying
 
Method:
1. Defrost rhizomes
2. Mix flour, honey, and musk.
3. Take a small amount of mixture (about 1 teaspoon) and flatten onto on piece of rhizome. Cover with another piece of rhizome to create a sandwich.
4. Dip sandwich into flour to thinly coat both sides. (important step to avoid spitting oil).
5. Fry in shallow oil until rhizome is developing a golden colour (approximately 10 minutes).
6. Remove rhizome to drain plate with paper towel.
7. Serve warm.
 
[recipe makes about 20 rhizome sandwiches. This is limited by the number of rhizomes in the bag]
 
Note:
*Be careful with the amount of musk being added to this recipe. A drop too much makes the finished rhizomes unpleasant.

Until next we meet, may bitterness never touch your mouth.

~Natal'ia

We survived! I think I nearly killed my kitchen staff, but we feed the horde and the outcome was… good.

Thank you to those who helped in the kitchen and those who ate the food. For those who are checking for the recipes have a look back here on the 19th of December. You will find a Yule gift just for you.
What I learned:

• This feast would not have been possible if not for the skills and very hard work of my most amazing kitchen staff. I am not one hundred percent sure if this difficulty of the feast was due to the food items or if it was the sheer volume of food going through the kitchen. But, given I have made many of the dishes in the past for up to 50 with a much smaller crew and no issues, I will say 250 is a very large number for a feast. 300 for lunch is doable, but it will tire your team.
• Of course, everything takes longer to get done that you expect or have trialed.
• Mongolian food is about the differing flavours and textures - keeping it all balanced and juxtaposed while complementing flavours and textures so that one can experience the variances. It is challenging to the average, modern palate.
• It’s better to feed the ‘scary looking stuff’ in the dark of night.
• Not surprising, the dishes that looked, smelled, and sort of tasted like familiar foods were more readily received. However, with enough planning and good plating, other foods can become favourites.
• When you say, “Mongolian Feast” many people are looking forward to Mongolian Beef and Black Bean Sauce.
• Someone asked me, “Why are there no pies? I like pies.” So, maybe I need to manage expectations better?
• Always have a Dish Pig. I am very lucky to have a wonderful Dish Pig. This is the person on the team whose job is to keep the dishes clean. They wash during the entire cook and service portions of the feast. It is always a great idea to have a cleaning crew for the end of the feast so that the poor Dish Pig can rest. They need it.

​I guess that these are the main things. I am still trying to catch up on sleep. I also learned that I am not as young as I used to be!

If you have questions about the feast, please contact me. And don’t forget to come back on or after 19 December for a small treat.

Until the next time, remember that if you want to build high, you must dig deep.
~ Natal’ia

Several people have asked me to tell them what it would have been like to attend a feast with the Khan – as an invited and privileged guest, of course. Let’s leave those servants to their own devices.
 
We do have several accounts from the period where those visiting the Mongolian lands would attend feasts with the Khan and/or his court. Below is my take on just what I would expect if I received His invitation. I hope you enjoy it:
 
 
It was an adventure to ride with one of the Khan’s household from Khanbaliq to the summer palace in Šandu. His Serene Holiness, Mongo Chinua, Master of Tea Dreams had seen to my travels throughout the great Khan’s lands and in fair honesty, I am no less nomadic than the others of my kind. But, I had never been to Šandu.
 
Like the other palaces I had walked through, this was a display of wealth in excess. A city within a city and a palace as well. The imperial city and palace were made of quarried rocks and fine marble. Amazing paintings of bright colours and gold enveloped the walls and the floors and roofs were lacquered and shiny.
 
We had spent two weeks in the Imperial City; that is, we had our rooms in one of the greater buildings and were invited to wander the large gardens there. I was amazed at the variety of flora and fauna found within. The Khan was a fair falconer and he kept many of these flighted beasts within a great mew. But it was not just the birds that took my attention. As I would stroll quietly in the forested places of this park, I would often happen upon a large white stag. Birds flushed from the late summer bushes often showed the jewel-colour of exotic animals from far distant lands.
 
Alas, my days could not be spent wholly in this wondrous place. I was sequestered many hours daily in the imperial kitchens, learning the flavours and fare of this place. With such foods I had not much experience and I studied the ways of the kumiss as they related to this food. Any imbalance in the menu could cause imbalance in the Court. The cooks and physicians explained it all to me. I was fortunate to investigate the book of medicinal foods for the Khan. To spend even a few minutes in the presence of this tome was well worth the long journey to get to Šandu.
 
I was sitting reviewing my notes from my latest venture to the kitchens when the room servants brought in the ornate scroll and handed it to Mongo Chinua. He, and thus I, had been invited to the last banquet of the season.
 
Mongo Chinua sat at the low table below the dais and I beside him. My cushion was a riot of gold and green, causing me to think it better for show than for actual function. The low table was set with gold cups and bowls with handles forged as imperial dragons. The ceramic plates were in hues of pale blues and browns; my own plate was light olive with two carp swimming along the surface.
 
A servant carrying an ornate gold pouring vessel sidled to our table and began to fill our gold goblets with the thick white liquid. I placed the cup to my lips and allowed the trickle of kumiss to run down my throat. I had long before this become accustomed to the flavour and intoxication.
 
Soon, a silver basin was brought before the Khan. He took a fair share of what was within and spoke quickly to the server. From here, the man went to several of the guests and family members and discharged the cuts required by the Khan to those he had selected. After this, all in attendance receive a small taste of the roasted lamb within. My bite was succulent and cooling.
 
The first of the food settings were then produced upon platters of artful design. Here were the delicate flavours and light dishes. I was surprised to see that both fish and fowl courses – for certainly we were far from the large waters of the seas on the coast. But these were fish of the river and lake waters and Mongo Chinua explained unto me that the Khan had servants who tended to the breeding of these fish for the occasion of want to feed those at His table.
The fowl was plentiful and lightly seasoned as to bring out the nutrition and goodness of the meat. Here too were vegetables and milk cakes and all things light and tasty.
 
Upon completion of this course, and goblets recharged, we set about our next level of food. All that was of greater or heavier flavour was served here – meats from cow, horse, wolf, bear, badger, and, of course, lamb or sheep – and all as good as the last except for the badger which was bitter. We ate until we were full. And all was washed down with kumiss, wine, and tea.
 
When all in attendance were satisfied and ready to fast, the tables were secreted away and a space in the room before the plinth the Khan sat upon was transformed for performance. Hereafter, the kumiss and wine were offered freely and those in the party did sing and dance before the Khan. There was poetry and feats of magic, offerings to the gods.

This account is from the Red Jade House’s Guide of Feasting for Their Serene Majesties. Although the manual is purely a fictitious work in so far as its narrative, it still portrays my current understanding of feasting in the Khan’s court.
 
When planning a Mongol Feast, please keep in mind the following points:
 

• It is believed that Yüan Mongolian feasts would have been elaborate events with great riches and spectacular sights; however, the subtleties found in Western feasts would not have been common because everyone at the feast ate the same food. Some of the items found in Yüan cookbooks are fairly amazing in themselves and their beauty alone make them ‘subtleties’.
• The head table was elevated above the other tables and there was a hierarchy of who sat where. The high table would seat the Khan and his favoured wife and children. Below them, his other family in order of precedence. Amongst these tables would sit special guests and envoys; each foreigner would be flanked by trusted members of the household who would see to the needs of the guest and help them through the etiquette of the evening. Those who did not hold high enough place in the court, would be seated on the floor behind the tables or outside if the feast was too large to fit in the feasting hall.
• In China, like in the Western lands, there was a well-developed and sophisticated system of the value of foods. Many cooks may be familiar with the ‘humours’ of foods and the Chinese and Mongols used a system of the cosmos and how things interrelate. A good, basic breakdown of this system is outlined in The Food of China by Anderson.
• In A Soup for the Qan, Paul Buell outlines how the manuscript, Yin-shan cheng-yao, suggests that dishes would be served together based on the system of Five Smells and Five Flavours. Certain foods would be served together and others would not. In general, lighter dishes would be served earlier in the meal moving towards more substantial dishes later in the evening.
• Palace courts from the Steppes and pastoral lands would have more meat dishes and dairy dishes provided from the herds and the wildlife in the area. Palace courts located close to the larger rivers or coastline, would serve more fish dishes and vegetable dishes. This is due to the ease of acquisition of food items. It is still important to remember that aquaculture was practiced during the Yüan period and lakes by palaces would have been stocked with fish for supplementary dining.
• ​Most, if not all, of the Yüan period travel journals suggest that once the eating was finished, the tables were cleared away and singing, dancing, feats of amazement and magic, and poetry readings were common.

Until next we meet, may the hulk sore high above you.

​~Natal'ia