Sabbats Almanac: Samhain to Mabon - Kristoffer Hughes 2018
Feasts and Treats by Blake Octavian Blair
Beltane
THE ARRIVAL OF BELTANE usually brings with it the variable weather of late spring, where the weather can range from cool and breezy to hot and sunny. It brings the challenge of preparing a menu that can stand up to either case. The dishes in this line up should satisfy the appetite of either occasion. With lovely Mediterranean flavors, fresh vegetables, and both bright and decadently rich flavors, this menu brings a hearty but not heavy feast to the table. Dress up your Beltane feast table with beautiful seasonal flowers and garlands that remind us of the maypole and that spring is indeed in full swing!
Fresh Springtime Strawberry and Spinach Salad
This salad brings a lot of classic fresh spring and early summertime ingredients together in a combination that creates a bright and refreshing dish. It has enough body to serve as a light meal perfect for warmer days when served in larger portions, or makes a wonderful starter to a full feast menu when served in smaller portions. You can serve it with or without the tempeh, however, it adds a nutty flavor and a nice dose of protein that I feel really round out the dish when served as an entrée. Kick off your Beltane with the bright sweetness of strawberries!
Prep time: 20 minutes
Serves: 2—4
For the dressing:
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt (to taste)
Cracked black pepper (to taste)
½ cup olive oil
For the salad:
3 tbsp sunflower seeds
2 tbsp olive oil
8 ounces tempeh, sliced into strips
10 ounces spinach
3 tbsp blue cheese
5 ounces strawberries, sliced
¼ red onion, chopped
Begin by preparing the balsamic vinaigrette dressing. First add the balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt, and cracked black pepper into a large medium sized bowl. Mix ingredients until well combined. Next, while whisking, drizzle the olive oil into the bowl until well combined with ingredients. Set aside.
Next, add the sunflower seeds to a cold dry skillet and turn on to medium heat, stir frequently until aromatic and a slight golden brown color and glistening appearance is achieved. Remove from heat.
To cook the tempeh, add the olive oil to a medium sized skillet and preheat over medium heat. Add the tempeh strips into preheated skillet. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, turn strips over, and cook second side for another 5 minutes or until golden brown color is achieved.
Now, into a large salad or serving bowl, add the spinach, blue cheese, strawberries, red onion, sunflower seeds, and tempeh. Pour dressing over top and toss until thoroughly coating all ingredients. Serve and enjoy!
Steamed Artichokes
A favorite simple dish in our house is steamed artichokes. They can stand alone as an entire meal, or they can be a wonderfully fun appetizer, just adjust the portion size. A classic beurre blanc, or white butter, is a classic French sauce made with equal parts white wine and white wine vinegar, but this adaptation imparts a unique flavor for a decadent holiday treat of feasting caliber! There is some work to eating artichokes; it is what I call an interactive food. You’ll want to put a “graveyard” bowl on the table for the inedible portions of the petals to be tossed in during eating. However, there is no combination quite like butter and artichokes.
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 25—60 minutes (~half inactive)
Serves: 2—4
4 large whole artichokes
3 tbsp all-purpose seasoning
For the beurre blanc
1 tbsp diced onion
¼ cup cooking sherry, mead, or other alcohol
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
1 lb butter cut into 1 tbsp pieces
Salt to taste
Cracked pepper to taste
Begin by placing a few inches of water into a large cooking pot with a steamer basket placed inside. Bring water to a boil and add artichokes into the pot. Cover and let steam until tender. This will take anywhere from 25—60 minutes depending on the size of the artichokes. This is a popular dish and has been cooked many times in our house. The cooking time has varied, so be sure to test before serving for doneness. This is easily achieved by seeing if you can pull off a petal and taste. If it isn’t done, you’ll have extreme difficulty removing the petal, and further the edible portion will not be tender. When done, serve with beurre blanc in a bowl for dipping.
You can prepare the beurre blanc while the artichokes are steaming. To prepare the beurre blanc, place onion, alcohol, and vinegar in a medium saucepan and reduce by three quarters to a syrup. While whisking continuously, add butter 1—2 pieces at a time. Do not add more butter until what has previously been added has completely melted. Adding all the butter will take approximately 15—20 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh to remove the onion chunks, season with salt and pepper. A little added garnish and seasoning of white pepper makes for a pleasing presentation. Serve immediately.
Note: For those of you who may have never tried eating a whole artichoke before and want to give this a shot, it can be a little mystifying, but really it’s quite easy. You pull the petals off and scrape them between your teeth to pull off the fleshy edible part, and you discard the unedible portion of the petals. At the end, you’re left with the artichoke heart. You’ll find a hairy looking part on top. Don’t eat the hairy part! That’s called the choke and it’ll be most unpleasant to eat. Scrape that part off with a fork or spoon, then cut up the heart and dip in the buerre blanc to eat.
Mediterranean Inspired Pasta
Our shamanic and druidic sister, Susan, is fairly famous among her loved ones for a simple delicious pasta dish that uses ingredients easy to stock back into the pantry. The whole dish comes together fairly fast, and yet it tastes as though the flavors have been melding for hours. She happily bequeathed me her recipe and allowed me to develop it further into my own variation. When I was designing menus for this book, she and I both thought a variation would be a lovely fit for a summer Beltane evening!
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Serves: 5—6
1 cup sliced green olives
1 8-ounce jar of sun dried tomatoes in oil
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
⅓ cup capers
1 lb rotini or other pasta
Olive oil (to taste)
8 ounce log of goat cheese
In a medium saucepan add the green olives, sundried tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and capers. Set on medium low heat to warm. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and then add pasta and cook until al dente, 9—12 minutes. Drain pasta in colander.
Add in the vegetable mixture from saucepan and the drained pasta back to the pot and mix until all ingredients are well combined. Add olive oil as needed to get an even coat of the entire mixture. Note: how much you will have to add varies and it’s up to your culinary judgement. There will be some oil existing from the sundried tomatoes.
Serve into bowls and place goat cheese on table so that diners may add the desired amount on top of their dishes.
Chocolate Strawberry Milkshake
Beltane in many areas of the globe can have quite warm weather. There is nothing better than a cold sweet treat on a hot day. This chocolate strawberry milkshake fits the bill for Beltane quite nicely. Frankly, Beltane should have sexy foods. It’s a fertility holiday for goddess sake! Strawberries and chocolate both make that list. Is it a standalone treat? Is it a desert? Can it be served alongside the main feast? The answer to all of these questions is of course, yes! Actually, I think it makes a really creative drink for cakes and ale ceremonies during the sabbat ritual, but be sure to pop them into the freezer beforehand and pull them out just before so they don’t melt!
Prep time: 5 minutes (per milkshake)
Serves: 1
½ cup frozen strawberries
3 large scoops chocolate ice cream
½ cup milk (more as desired for consistency)
2 tbsp chocolate syrup
Add all ingredients into a blender. Blend until desired thickness and consistency is reached. If your mixture is too thick, add additional milk to thin to desired consistency. Serve and add additional frozen strawberries and chocolate syrup to top as desired. Serve in a glass with a spoon and straw.