[Sca-cooks] Greco-Roman Feast, Course 3

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

This was the first of two "main" courses

Anahita

---------------------

Primera Mensa, Cena Prima
First Course, First Table

Acetaria: Mixed Greens Salad and Hypotrimma: Cheese Sauce
Pullus cum Iure: Chicken with Plum/Prune Sauce
Boletos: Another Mushroom Dish
Erebinthoi Knakosymmigeis: Saffron Chickpeas

NOTE: All recipes serve 80 to 100

ACETARIUM - Salad

Patrick Faas (Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient 
Rome, p. 229) suggests, besides lettuce: basil, beet greens, celery, 
chervil, chicory, cilantro, goosefoot, leek, lettuce, mallow, mint, 
parsley, purslane, rocket (radicchio), rue, sorrel, thyme, 
watercress, etc.

We bought a few large packages of mixed greens (also known mesclun) 
that included several types of lettuce and radicchio at a 
"warehouse"-type supermarket. We tore the greens by hand. Then we 
added fresh basil, cilantro, mint, thyme, and watercress, also torn 
by hand, to the salad greens.

HYPOTRIMMA - Cheese Sauce

Hypotrimma. Pepper, lovage, dry mint, pine nuts, raisins, Jericho 
date, sweet cheese, honey, vinegar, fish sauce, oil, wine, defrutum 
or caroenum
[--- Apicius, Book I, Chapter XIX]

1 quart Olive Oil
2 cups Wine Vinegar (red or white)
1 cup Red Wine
1 cup defrutum or caroenum - we used White Grape Juice Concentrate 
(not reconstituted)
1 cup Honey
fresh Lovage or Chinese Celery
fresh Mint
ground Black Pepper
1/4 cup Tiparos (brand) Thai Fish Sauce
5 cups Ricotta Cheese
2 cups Raisins
1 cup Pine Nuts

Put oil, vinegar, wine, juice concentrate, honey, lovage, mint, and 
pepper in blender and mix.
Set aside a dish without cheese for the Prince, and stir 1 tsp. fish 
sauce into it.
Add ricotta to remainder and blend.
Pour out of blender, stir in raisins.
Set aside a dish for the vegetarians, and stir 1 tsp. soy sauce into it.
Add fish sauce to remaining dressing.
Serve with a spoon in each dish along with green salad.

NOTE: This could have used much less liquid, in my opinion. I'd 
suggest halving the first five ingredients, mixing and tasting, then 
adding back as you think it needs them.

NOTE: I forgot to add the raisins. I intentionally left the pine nuts 
out, as they were in several other dishes throughout the feast.

NOTE: Vaious people who have "redacted" this recipe - scholars and 
SCAdians - have come up with VERY different interpretations, ranging 
from cheese spread to sauce to salad dressing.


CHICKEN WITH PLUM/PRUNE SAUCE

Sauce for Various Birds. Pepper, grilled cumin, lovage, mint, stoned 
raisins or damsons, a little honey; blend with mytrle wine, vinegar, 
fish sauce, and oil. Heat up and stir with celery and savory.
[--- Apicius, Book VI, Chapter V, Recipe 1]

Plums didn't grow in Italy at the time. Rather, dried plums were 
imported from Syria, where they grew. I mixed fresh and dried in hope 
that the sauce would be less cloying... see note below.

Plum/Prune Sauce

60 pitted Prunes
warm Water to cover
40 fresh Plums
1 gallon Red Wine
1-1/4 cups Red Wine Vinegar
1-1/4 cups Tiparos (brand) Thai Fish Sauce
1-1/4 cups Olive Oil
1/4 cup & 3 Tb. Honey
2 Tb. fresh Mint
2 Tb. Lovage Herb or Chinese Celery Leaves
1 Tb. ground roasted Cumin Seeds
1-1/2 tsp. ground Black Pepper
5-10 leafy stalks Celery
1 container fresh Savory Herb

Soak prunes in lukewarm water.
Plunge fresh plums in boiling water.
-- Drain and remove and discard skins.
-- Cut in half and discard pits.
Drain and chop prunes, saving liquid.
Tie celery and savory into bouquets.
Put all ingredients in saucepan, bring to boil and simmer 20 min., 
stirring with bouquet, and mashing prunes and plums occasionally.
Taste and adjust seasonings.
When done, leave bouquet in sauce until ready to serve.

NOTE: In fact the sauce was not sweet enough and needed more honey.

Chicken

36 lb. Chicken Thighs and Legs

Put pieces in a single layer in enough roasting pans.
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.
Roast at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, turning so they brown evenly until 
cooked through, between 30 and 45 minutes.

To serve, plate cooked chicken and pour sauce over.


SEASONED MUSHROOMS

Another Mushroom Dish: Put chopped mushroom stalks (from a variety of 
wild mushrooms) in a baking dish, add pepper, lovage, and a bit of 
honey. Blend with fish sauce, and a bit of oil.
[--- Apicius, Book VII, Chapter XIII, Recipe 6]

10 lb. thawed Trader Joe's frozen Mushroom Medley
3 Tb Lovage Seeds
2 Tb ground Black Pepper
1-1/4 cups Honey
1-1/2 cups Olive Oil
1/2 cup Tiparos (brand) Thai Fish Sauce
1 tsp. Salt

In a saucepan mix honey, oil, pepper, and lovage.
Cook on medium-low heat until honey is liquefied and ingredients well blended.
Put mushrooms in a baking dish.
Pour sauce over mushrooms.
Bake until cooked.
Remove vegetarian serving and add salt to taste.
Stir fish sauce into remaining mushrooms, taste and add more is needed.
Plate.

NOTE: As far as i know, the Romans didn't farm mushrooms and would 
have used a mixture of wild mushrooms.

I like the "Mushroom Medley" because it contains a mixture of 
mushrooms with varying flavors, colors, and textures. It includes 
champignon (i.e. button), shiitake, oyster and kikurage mushrooms, 
not all necessarily mushrooms the Romans would have had. Since Trader 
Joe's brand is only available at Trader Joe's Markets, you can use a 
mix of whatever fresh mushrooms are available and affordable, 
especially if you live where this product is not available.


CHICKPEAS IN SAFFRON SAUCE - Erebinthoi Knakosymmigeis

"And then chick-peas marinated in saffron, plump in their tender youth"
[Piloxenus, The Dinner, quoted in Anthenaeus (circa 170-239 CE), The 
Partying Professors]

NOTE: It's possible that the Greeks used FRESH chickpeas, but i don't 
think i'll find them, so...

A couple generous pinches of Saffron
a few Tb. Warm Water
3 giant cans Chickpeas
2 cups Olive Oil
Salt to taste, as garbanzos already salted
2 Tb. ground Cumin Seed
2 Tb. ground Coriander Seed
2 tsp. ground Black Pepper

Crumble saffron threads in a tablespoon or two of warm water. Let 
stand about 15 minutes.
Drain and rinse canned chickpeas.
Put chickpeas in a pot with olive oil and a little water, stir well, 
and heat on medium fire, adjusting heat as needed so they don't burn.
Add saffron, coriander, cumin, and salt to taste.
Stir and simmer until warm through. Taste and adjust seasonings, 
adding more cumin and coriander seed, as needed.

NOTE: These were surprisingly popular, considering what i have heard 
about how people dislike chickpeas. We had quite a bit left over, but 
nowhere near as much as i expected, and several people asked for the 
recipe.

NOTE: There was some controversy among scholars as to whether the 
Greeks would have used saffron, which is flavorful as well as 
colorful, or safflower, which adds color but no appreciable flavor. I 
chose to use the tastier saffron, a flavor i love.