SC - Sauce recipe for Lamb Shanks

[Nick Sasso]

Bonne, I had another thought about Fruit Vinegar sources:

Try 'A Book of Fruits and Flowers'. Someone out there on the cooks list
must have it. I know I make the Sallet of Leamons (first recipe, though I
don't own the book---had a lucky peek at it from a friend a while back). I
have adapted the recipe with onother, and the syrup from making the lemmons
is really good as a drink syrup. Somewhere my recipe for pickled lemons is
posted, perhaps in the florilegium. I served them at AE first Crown
tourney. If I find it on the hard drive I'll post it at the end of this
msg.

There may be more worth perusing in F&F regarding syrups, but I was looking
for lemon recipes at the time.

AHA! Found it!

Aoife


Pickled Lemons (adapted from Preserved Orenges, Dawson, and A Sallet of
Lemons from A book of Fruits and Flowers, and various  anecdotal evidence
such as  Elizabeth Ayreton's Food in Briton, etc.). This recipe copyright
1997 by L. Herr-Gelatt.

2 blemish-free lemons
Juice  and zest of 1 lemon (no white)
1 cup white wine (sweet, like Rhine wine)
1 c.  sugar
1/3 cup vinegar (I used home-made costmary/lemon verbena vinegar)

Cut a small round hole in the 2 lemons the size of the end of your little
finger. Remove the piece of peel. Insert  a paring knife into the hole and 
give it several twists to loosen and break the membranes. Insert little
finger and press gently against the flesh to try and loosen any pits.
Remove the pits that fall out, and reserve the draining lemon juice for
syrup, below. 

Gently bring to boil 1 quart of water in a suacepan. Lower lemons into the
pan and boil rapidly 5 minutes. Remove and drain. Repeat 3 more times with
fresh water (it is more efficient to have a pan heating while boiling in
another). Drain them well.

In a separate saucepan combine remaining ingredients (and the drained lemon
juice from above). Bring to a boil to combine, and turn off heat. When
lemons have been boiled in the 4 changes of water, put them (drained) into
the wine-syrup mixture and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer approx.
15 minutes or until syrup volume has reduced by 1/3-1/2. Cool. Remove lemon
zest and reserve for another use (it is now candied).

Store in an airtight container. Slice lemons thinly  or dice and use pieces
in salads.


	To Make a Sallet of all kinde of hearbes

Take your hearbes and pick them very fine into faire water, and picke your
flowers by themselves, and washe them al cleane, and swing them in a
strainer, and when you put them into a dish, mingle them with Cowcumbers or
Lemmons pared and sliced, and scrape Suger, and put in vinegar and Oyle,
and throwe the flowers on the toppe of the sallet, and of every sort of the
aforsaide things, and hard egges boyled and laide about the dish and uppon
the sallet

Note: This is the salad originally used for the pickled lemons. Since then
I stick with violas and violets, both period flowers, as the colors are
pretty with the lemons (yellow and purple), and like to use those flowers
whole. Period Marigolds (pot marigold or calendula to you and I, not the
modern marigold) are hard to find. Nasturtium will add a peppery
flavor---quite good, and they grow quickly. As there will be much more
syrup from the lemons than you need to make the dressing, make lemonade
with it, or bottle it as a gift! Make sure your flowers are not grown with
any pesticides, and are organically grown if possible. I have a local
nursery that does beautiful, huge violets and violas for mespecially if  I
ask in advance or the growing season, indistinguishable from non-organixc
ones. 


A Grande Sallet

2 heads loose-leaf lettuce (red bib is pretty), washed and torn
1 large bunch dill, roughly chopped
1 large bunch Chives, roughly chopped
1 cucumber, pared and sliced
1 pickled lemon, diced finely,  with 1/4 cup syrup reserved
2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered for garnish
Marigold, Nasturtium or rose petals (or any edible flower), washed and
white pith removed.
Red wine vinegar
Olive oil

Toss the washed lettuce, chopped herbs, sliced cucumber, and diced lemon.
Put into the serving dish. Arrange hard-boiled eggs and flower petals in a
pretty pattern. Sprinkle with the lemon syrup, red-wine vinegar and oil  to
taste (or, mix these to taste, and then pour gently over). Serve
immediately. 8-10 servings.


*Note: The first time I served this I was unprepared for the return trips
to the kitchen asking for more salad---usually folks could care less about
the salad course. BE PREPARED. This salad has lots of flavor and folks will
want more, esp. if the other courses are slow coming out.



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