[Sca-cooks] squash recipes

[david friedman]

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>My dear & wonderful cooks -
>
>I am looking for some sort of recipe for squash for a feast in a
>couple of months.  I have tried to look up different recipes but I
>think I must lack the magic touch.
>
>Can any one out there give any ideas for a summer feast with
>squash?? There will be beef and turkey served as the main meat
>dishes.


1. Squash is a New World vegetable; while it is possible that there
are period recipes for it, I don't know of any. Turkey is a New World
animal; I believe there is good evidence that turkeys were being
eaten in Europe before 1600, but I don't know if there are surviving
recipes for them or not.

2. There are, however, old world gourds which are reasonably similar,
and for which there are period recipes. You may be able to find the
old world gourds (Lageneria sicereia (sp?)--the white flowered gourd)
in a chinese grocery store, since they are still used in Chinese
cooking. I think they are sometimes called "Opo" gourds.
Alternatively you can do a period gourd recipe with  out of period
gourds--the period ones we have found are not all that different in
taste from zucchini.

3. Here are some period gourd recipes, from the _Miscellany_. The
part at the beginning is the original recipe, the rest is how we do
it with comments.

Gourd in Juice
Platina p. 123 (Book 7)

Cook a gourd in juice or in water with a few little onions and after
it is cut up, pass it through a perforated spoon into a kettle in
which there is rich juice, a little verjuice and saffron. Take it
from the hearth when it has boiled a little. After it has been set
aside and cooled a little, put in a little aged cheese ground up and
softened with two egg yolks; or keep stirring it with a spoon so that
lumps do not spoil it. After you have put it into saucers, sprinkle
with spices.

2 3/4 lb zucchini squash	7 threads saffron
1/2-3/4 lb onions	5 oz cheddar cheese
1/2 c rich juice: canned beef or chicken broth	2 egg yolks
verjuice: 4 T verjuice or 2 T wine vinegar	spices (cinnamon,
ginger or nutmeg)

Peel squash, remove seeds, slice; coarsely chop onions. Cook 10
minutes in water to cover. Drain and mash. Mix broth, vinegar, and
saffron and add mashed squash. Heat, then add egg yolks and cheese.
Sprinkle with one of the spices: cinnamon was considered best.

We have also made this using gourds from a Chinese grocery store
which we believe were bottle gourds (Lagenaria siceraria), our best
guess at the gourd used in period; see the discussion at p. 152-153
below. The recipe we worked out is: Double the quantity of onions and
beef broth, keeping the other proportions as in version with squash.
Peel the gourd, boil it with whole small onions for an hour, then
discard the onions (which seems to be what the original recipe
implies). Slice gourd, mash through strainer (or use a potato ricer).
Add beef broth and verjuice, heat 15 minutes on low, let cool 10
minutes, add grated cheese and egg yolks. Sprinkle with cinnamon and
serve.

Fried Gourd
Platina p. 119 (Book 7)

Scrape off the skin from the gourd and cut it sideways in thin
slices. When it is boiled once transfer it from the pot onto the
board and leave it there till 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 breadcrumbs 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 fennel
bloom. If you like saffron, add saffron.

1 1/8 lbs gourd (see p. 152-153)	1 c flour
1 t salt	enough olive oil to fry: ~1/4" in pan

Peel gourd and slice very thin, boil in water 7 minutes, spread out
and let dry for 40 minutes. Mix flour and salt, dip gourd in it, and
fry for ~4 minutes per batch in hot olive oil. See under sauces for
Platina's garlic sauce.

Torta from Gourds
Platina p. 136 (book 8)

Grind up gourds that have been well cleaned as you are accustomed to
do with cheese. Then let them boil a little, either in rich juice or
in milk. When they are half-cooked and have been passed through a
strainer into a bowl, add as much cheese as I said before [a pound
and a half]. Take half a pound of belly or fat udder boiled and cut
up or, instead of this, if you wish, take the same amount of either
butter or liquamen, add half a pound of sugar, a little ginger, some
cinnamon, six eggs, two ladles of milk, a little saffron, and blend
thoroughly. Put this preparation in a greased pan or in a pastry
shell and cook it over a slow fire. There are those who add strips of
leaves, which they call lagana, instead of the upper crust. When it
is cooked and set on a plate, sprinkle it with sugar and rosewater.

1/2 lb gourd (after peeling) (see p. 152-153)	1/8 t ground ginger
	6 threads saffron
1/2 c milk to cook in	1/2 t cinnamon	double 9" pastry shell
8 oz cheddar cheese	1 egg	2 T sugar sprinkled on top
2 oz butter	1/2 c milk	1 T rosewater
1/4 c sugar

Grind gourd finely with a grater and boil in milk for six minutes on
low heat while being stirred; drain in strainer and throw away
liquid, then force squash through strainer. Grate or cut up cheese;
mix with gourd, butter, sugar, egg, milk, ginger, and cinnamon. Put
in pie shell and cover with top crust. Bake in 350° oven for 65
minutes; at this point it is bubbly and needs to set for a while.
Sprinkle top with sugar and rosewater. Makes one 9 inch pie.


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David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/