[Sca-cooks] RE Drachenwald Coronation/12th Night Menu

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Christina Nevin wrote:


>  > > Greek rice (half-boiled then fried)
>  > Any evidence of rice being done this way there (or anywhere else) in
> period?
>
> It tells you to do so in the recipe:
> 5. This is called Greek rice. [Greek Rice]
> This is called Greek rice. Take rice and boil it in spring-water. When
> half cooked pour away the water, and fry the rice in pure lard. Then
> pour away the lard, sprinkle with sugar and serve. Don't oversalt.

I wondered about this myself. Given that most medieval European rice
recipes seem to produce a thick porridge-type dish, and these dishes
often speak of cooking he rice in water or broth until it begins to
split/burst, it would seem that half-cooking it in water would produce
rice that is very nearly cooked through by modern standards. In other
words, probably pretty similar to the point at which Creole [boiled like
pasta] rice is removed from the water and steamed until fluffy, or the
point at which Chinese boiled rice has absorbed all the water and is
steamed over low heat to finish.

Except you then fry it instead of steaming it. The fact that the recipe
speaks of draining it suggests that a fair amount of fat is involved,
but the question that comes to mind is whether this is deep-fried,
crispy or puffy rice, or more like an Asian fried rice, which is itself
not too different from a pilaf in texture. I'm thinking it may be the
latter, Greece being close to Turkey and all; it would then be a matter
of simply having reversed the order of the cooking processes, since
nowadays pilaf is usually sauteed first, then combined with boiling
liquid and simmered.

On the other hand, sprinkling sugar on fried foods being a pretty common
habit in medieval European recipes, maybe the rice _is_ supposed to be
crispy.

Opinions? Info?

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98