[Sca-cooks] blue food

[ruadh]

103. Summertime Cerulean Blue Sauce
  Sky-blue sauce for summer
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/706842.html

Take some of the wild blackberries that grow in hedgerows and some
thoroughly pounded almonds, with a little ginger. And moisten these things
with verjuice and strain through a sieve.
Toward the end of summer, when blackberries are at their best, this cerulean
blue sauce will add zest to your September meat dinners. The pectin in the
berries helps the sauce set to a lovely midnight-blue jelly that is a visual
foil and a delicious accompaniment to white meats such as veal and chicken.
 1 quart (1 liter) blackberries
1/3 cup (50 g) unblanched almonds
2/3 cup verjuice, or a mixture of two parts cider vinegar to one part water
1/4-inch slice ginger, peeled
salt
Puree the blackberries in a food processor or food mill, and strain the
juice, pressing to extract as much liquid as possible. In a mortar or in a
blender, grind the almonds and ginger, then mix with the blackberry juice.
Contact with the air will turn the mixture a dark blue.
   Add the verjuice and strain once more. Season with salt to taste.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Pixel, Queen of Cats" <pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 8:43 AM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] blue food


> On Mon, 25 Jun 2001, margali wrote:
>
> > Not again ;-)
> > Quick - where's the recipe for cuskynoles?
> > margali
> >
> > [check in the floregelium, we discussed it last year ;-) ]
>
>
> I *did* check in the florilegium. Which is why I posted. There isn't much
> of anything there except random bits of discussion about the various
> species of berries. Else I wouldn't have opened that can of worms.
>
> I don't necessarily need the fruit sauce. I really just need a blue sauce,
> in which case, I need a period blue food coloring, and I don't remember if
> alkanet is food-safe or not. I could do it with red cabbage, but I don't
> know of any sauce that has cabbage in it to start with.
>
> I am of course, breaking one of my own rules, which is "Don't eat blue
> food, don't drink blue drinks." ;-)
>
> I *think* it's Barbara Santich's book that lists the blue sauce, and says
> it's a "lovely midnight-blue jelly", but that recipe calls for American
> blackberries. Which, if nothing else, are not in season and not easily
> available frozen around here. Even if I were going to use her redaction,
> which I'm not.
>
>
> Margaret, who has the other colors pretty much figured out
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks
>