[Sca-cooks] fresh figs

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Sue Clemenger:
>What about some sort of subtlety, in which you did a poultry dish, but
>made it look like fish? Some sort of molded blancmange, maybe? That way,
>your little fishes could be presented, swimming in the puddle of blue
>sauce.....
>--maire, sorry to hear that Lainie's sick (was the food "bad," dear, or
>was it a sensitivity thang? I'd be more than willing to eat your share
>of anything curried, if it's the latter case! ;-)

It could just be a combination of the design/definition of Indian
food, in which onions and garlic and oil are definite food groups.
And this can easily be pushed over the edge by any of a number of
factors, making these foods deadly, as anybody familiar with enough
American fast food can attest. The difference is that Indian food is
a lot better at tricking you into eating more than a bite or two
without making you feel sick, which White Castle and Burger King
haven't figured out yet.

As for a fish subtlety I am reminded of a time, a few years ago, when
we served seafood sausages with a green sauce (Ostgardr's colors
being green and white), "flatfish" (actually flattened, semi-boneless
chickens, what the French would call crapaudines) in a vinegar/butter
sauce intended for sole, and the veal birds from Taillevent (there
was a sauce but I forget, offhand, what it was).

Actually, I was going to say that one of the slightly "fishier" fish,
something like mackerel or bluefish, would be quite tasty with the
blue sauce (for example, mackerel with gooseberries is a fairly
common modern English thang, but with, I believe, examples found in
period). Of course, the more powerfully-flavored fish tend not to be
white in color, so the look would be different. It's a shame that
shad are going out of season just before blackberries are coming in;
Jadwiga's geography (I mean, that of her home, not _her_ geography,
but we can talk about that later ;-) ) would make that a felicitous
combination, and shad's boniness makes it responsive to the kinds of
treatment used for carp, things like boning it out, grinding and
forming the meat, all that gefilte-type stuff. And, of course, tart
sauces.

But we should talk more about Jadwiga's geography...

Adamantius

--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER