SC - Re: Lenten feasts

[Chris Stanifer]

By way of penance for my off-topic posts, here's a rice recipe from 
Granado, suitable for Lent.

Source: Diego Granado, _Libro del Arte de Cozina_ (Spanish, 1599)

Para hazer escudilla de arroz con leche de almendras, o con 
azeyte

To make a dish of rice with almond milk, or with oil

Take the rice, clean it, and wash it with warm water so that it will 
become whiter, and will cook more quickly; have it be soaking in 
warm water for an hour, remove it, and let it dry in the sun, or by 
the heat of the fire, far from the flame, so that it does not turn red, 
and set it on the fire in a vessel of earthenware with enough water 
to cover it, and when it has absorbed the water, put in the almond 
milk with fine sugar, many times, and cause it to finish cooking, in 
such a manner that it becomes solid, and being cooked, serve it 
with sugar and cinnamon on top.  You can sometimes serve it as 
ginestada[1], having strained it through a sieve, with more sugar 
and ground cinnamon and saffron, and returning it to cook with a 
little rosewater and malvasia[2].  If you wish to make the rice with 
oil in the Italian style, it is not necessary to do more than to cast 
the rice in water in a pot with oil and salt and saffron, and at the 
last [moment] add ginger with some chopped herbs, or fried 
onions.  But in Valencia, it is made so curiously, that each grain is 
separate, in this manner.  The rice having been washed, and dried 
in the sun in a very white napkin, they put it in a casserole, and 
cast in the quantity of sweet oil that is needed: in which oil they fry 
a some cloves of garlic, so that all the grains become coated, 
turning them very well with the oil and the garlic, and cast in 
spices, and saffron, and some beaten eggs, turning them by 
stirring everything together; then they cast in water, and set the 
casserole on the fire, and after it has finished absorbing the water, 
they put in three or four whole heads of garlic, and carry it to 
thicken in the oven, and when it has made a crust the color of gold, 
they set it to stew[3] until it is the dinner hour; and each grain 
comes out separately, and in whatever manner, this dish must be 
served hot.


Notes:
[1] ginestada is a pudding-like dish made with rice flour, milk (or 
almond milk), sugar, and spices.  It may contain nuts and dried 
fruits.  There are a couple of ginestada recipes in the Florilegium.

[2] malvasia (aka malmsey) is a sweet wine.

[3] "estobar" means "to stew".  In other recipes involving grains, it 
usually means to leave the cooked grain in a covered dish, so that 
it will continue to absorb moisture.
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
now at a new address: rcmann4 at earthlink.net