SC - Cominee de poissons

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hullo, the list!

Phillipa asked for this, I believe...

Cuminade of Fish

	“Poultry flavoured with cumin. Cut it into pieces and put it to cook in
a little wine, then
fry it in  fat;  then take a little bread dipped in your broth and take
first ginger and cumin,
moisten them with verjuice, bray and strain and put all together with
meat or chicken broth, and
then color it either with saffron or with eggs or yolks run through a
strainer and dropped slowly
into the pottage, after it is taken off the fire. Item, best it is to
make it with milk as aforesaid and
then to bray your bread after your spices, but behoveth it to boil the
milk first lest it burn, and
after the pottage is finished let the milk be put into wine (meseemeth
this is not needful)  and fry
it. Many there be that fry it not, nathless it tastes best so.
	“(Bread is the thickening and afterwards he saith eggs, which is
another thickening,  and
one should suffice, as is said in the chapter concerning the creton´nee.
Verjuice and wine.--If you
would make your pottage with milk behoveth not to use wine or verjuice.)
	“Commineé for a fish day. Fry your fish, then peel almonds and bray
them and dilute with
pureé or fish broth and make milk of almonds; but cow’s milk is more
appetising, though not so
healthy for the sick; and for the rest do as above. Item, on a meat day,
if you cannot have cow’s
milk, you may make the dish of milk of almonds and meat as above.”
	
	Le Menagier de Paris, trans. Eileen Power; Harcourt, Brace  New York 1928
 
	I envision this dish as something like fish fillets in a curry flavored
almond-milk sauce, just a bit like a very mild Singapore-type curry. The
dish is intended as a spoon-food, so the fish should be either in chunks
or soft enough to break up easily.  				
	
	For eight servings:
 	
	2 pounds white, lean (“non-fishy”) fillets or steaks, such as cod,
bass, monkfish, etc.
	2-3 Tbs olive oil for frying 
	Almond milk made from 1/4 pound finely ground blanched almonds (1 cup)
and 1 pint boiling water, 			fish stock, or pea broth, blended and strained
	1-inch chunk ginger root, grated or 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
	~3 Tbs ground cumin seed
	1 pinch saffron
	salt and pepper
	
	Season the fish with salt and pepper and either saute or bake at 400° F
in a greased pan. Olive oil is best for this. Cook for about eight
minutes per inch of thickness of your fish, til fish is barely opaque
inside and flaky. Keep the fish warm.
 
	Meanwhile, cook the ginger over low heat in a saucepan, with a little
more oil. When aromatic, but no longer volatile (you’ll know it when you
see it), add cumin and saffron. Do not brown. Add almond milk and mix
thoroughly. Raise heat a bit and bring it to a boil, stirring frequently
until thickened slightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and add
more cumin if you feel like it. You can blenderize and/or strain the
sauce if you want it smoother and/or thinner. Pour it over the fish and
mess it forth.
    
	Recommended garnish - Durkee French Fried Onion Rings. OK, I’m kidding,
but we happened to have them on hand and people did like them on
top...that was when restaurants were into that Tall Food thing...

Enjoy!

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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