SC - Recipes from War
Mordonna22 at aol.com
Mordonna22 at aol.com
Tue Feb 22 18:50:32 PST 2000
The period dishes I cooked at War were:
A Mirause of Catalonia and Fried Gourd from Platina as translated in
Cariadoc's Miscellany. and Apple Frittours for Lent from "Two Fifteenth
Century Cookery Books" as found in "Take a Thousand Eggs or more" by Cindy
Renfrew.
A Mirause of Catalonia
Put together on a spit capons or pullets or pigeons well cleaned and washed
and turn them over the hearth until they are half cooked. then remove them
and cut them in pieces and put them in a pot. Then chop almonds that have
been toasted under warm ashes and cleaned with some cloth. To this add some
bread crumbs lightly toasted with vinegar and juice and pass all this through
a strainer. This is all put in the same pot with cinnamon and ginger and a
good amount of sugar and left to boil on the live coals with a slow fire
until it is done, all the time being stirred with a spoon so that it does not
stick to the pot. It is quite nourishing, long in being digested, it warms
the liver and kidneys and fattens the body and stirs the belly.
My adaptation:
5 small frying chickens
1 quart chopped, toasted Almonds
2 cups bread crumbs
2 cups red wine vinegar
4 sticks cinnamon
4 tsp. ginger
2 cups sugar
Roast the chickens until "Half done". Debone, and add to four cups water in
a large pot and place over a slow fire. Add the almonds, bread crumbs, and
the vinegar and spices and simmer but do not boil for twenty minutes or so,
stirring frequently.
Notes: I did not strain the almonds and bread crumbs, and used only vinegar
and no verjuice. My Household called it "Period Sweet and Sour Chicken," and
it was all eaten.
Fried Gourd
Scrape off the skin from the gourd and cut it sideways in thin slices. When
it has boilled once, transfer it onto the board and leave it there until it
has dried out a little. Then roll it in salt and good white flour and fry it
in oil, when it is done and put on a platter, pour a garlic sauce over it,
with fennel blossoms and bread crumbs so dissolved in verjuice that it looks
thin rather than thick. It would not be amiss to pass this sauce through a
strainer. There are those, too, who use only verjuice and fannel bloom, if
you like saffron, add saffron.
My adaptation
5 lbs European Squash ( I don't know what it was, but the label said European
Squash. It had orangey-yellow flesh with slight green flecks, and a hard,
thin, brown skin. It was cut in pieces, so I couldn't even tell the shape,
but must have been about the size of a small pumpkin.)
salt
flour
lard
Peel the squash and cut in thin slices. Place in a pot with about two cups
water and bring to a boil. Drain well, and allow to dry a bit (20 minutes in
Aten aridity). Dredge in flour and salt, and deep fry in hot lard.
Garlic sauce
2 tsp. fennel seeds,
2 cups red wine vinegar
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Add the fennel seed to the vinegar and bring to a boil. Add the bread crumbs
and mix well, serve over the squash.
The Apple Frittours for Lent recipe I have posted here before. Note that
this time I used Apple Cider instead of Ale in the recipe, because of Aten's
current policy concerning recipes containing alcohol. It turned out simply
fabulous, and I've already had requests for it next year.
Mordonna the Cook,
SunDragon's Western Reaches
Atenveldt
(m.k.a. Buckeye, AZ)
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