[Sca-cooks] non-sweet Elizabethan dishes

[Kirrily Robert]

Olwen asked:
> Say Kirrily, can you post to me the recipe for the bean cakes, figs, onions
> and sage.  It sounds very interesting.  My daughter, the vegetarian (unless
> someone is throwing away meat [no sense wasting!]), would probably really
> like that one.

To frie Beanes in a pan

Take Beanes, Sage, Onions and Figges as aforesaid, with other good hearbes, and
mingle them together, then frie them in a frying pan with oyle, and make it
like a pancake, and when it is baked take it out, and cast spice upon it.

(from Epulario, a 1598 English translation of the original Italian text)

    * 1 small onion, finely chopped
    * 8 semi-dry figs, finely chopped
    * 1 cup cooked fava beans
    * 1 tsp dried, powdered sage
    * 1 tsp dried parsley leaves
    * 1/4 cup olive oil (for frying)
    * 1 tsp mixed spices (I used pre-made poudre fort)

Put all ingredients except oil and spices in a bowl and mash with a potato
masher until there are no whole beans visible and you can form a ball or patty
from the mixture. If it seems too dry, add a tablespoon or two of water.

Take small handfuls of the mixture and form into patties. Don't make them too
thin or they will break up. Shallow-fry in the oil until browned on both sides.

Sprinkle with spices and serve hot.

This recipe makes about 6 patties.

Substitution notes:

I used dried herbs because I didn't have fresh handy at the time. I think the
dried sage works very well in this recipe, and I wouldn't necessarily go out of
my way to get fresh sage next time.

If you don't have access to figs, dates would work quite well as a substitute.
I used semi-dry figs, which are sticky and slightly squishy, a bit like dried
prunes are. If I used fully dried figs I would have chopped them even finer,
added a little more water to the mix, and let it sit for a while before making
the patties. I don't think fresh figs would work very well for this recipe.

I used poudre fort that I'd made earlier for the sprinkling of spices called
for in the recipe. My poudre fort contains about 50% pepper and a mixture of
cinnamon, ginger, galangal, mace, cloves, etc. If you don't have anything like
this easily to hand, I'd recommend pepper, cinnamon, mace and cloves. You want
it to have a bit of bite to it.


--
Lady Katherine Rowberd (mka Kirrily "Skud" Robert)
katherine at infotrope.net  http://infotrope.net/sca/
Caldrithig, Skraeling Althing, Ealdormere
"The rose is red, the leaves are grene, God save Elizabeth our Queene"