[Sca-cooks] Modern Medieval Blancmange

[Alex Clark]

At 09:05 AM 5/28/2004 -0700, Anahita wrote:
>Chicken Breast
>Sidreyat al Dajaj
>
>2 chicken breasts (skinned)
>2 tablespoons rice flour
>1 teaspoon ground cardamom
>5 cups milk
>ground cinnamon for decoration
>1 cup sugar
>2 tablespoons rose water
>
>Boil the chicken breasts until well-cooked. Remove the bones from the 
>chicken. Put the chicken in a food blender with 1 1/2 cups of milk and the 
>cardamom. Blend thoroughly then strain through a fine mesh metal sieve. 
>Sweeten the remaining milk. Add the rose water and bring to a boil over 
>low heat. Add the blended chicken to the milk and stir. Add the rice 
>flour, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Pour the mixture 
>into a dish and leave aside to thicken. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon, and 
>place in the refrigerator to cool.
>
>http://www.saudiembassy.net/Publications/magspring96/recipes.html

For a more exact idea of what kind of blancmange this resembles:

_Curye on Inglysch_ III 27
For to make blawmaunger mole. Tak the braun of capounnes or of hennes that 
ben sothe & hew it & bray it smal & tempre it vp with almaund melk & do it 
in a pot, & do therto floure of rys & fresch gres & a litel amodyn. & boyle 
it al togedere & salt it, & do therto sugre, & dresch it in disches & sett 
theryn greyn of poum gernetes.

  But the following might be a closer medieval relative:

_Curye on Inglysch_ II 29
For to make blank de surry, tak braun of caponys other of hennys and the 
thyes wythowte the skyn, & kerf hem smal als thou mayst & grynd hem smal in 
a morter. & tak mylk of almaundys & do yn the braune, & grynd hem thanne 
togedere & seth hem togedere. | And tak flour of rys other amydoun and lye 
it that yt be charchant, and do thereto sugur a god perti and a perty of 
wyt grees and boyle yt; & wan yt ys doun in dyschis straw vpon blanke 
poudere, and do togedere blank de sury & maumene in a dysch & serue yt forthe.

=====
Blank de surry, modern interpretation
(proportions based on Sidreyat al Dajaj, some other details based on other 
blank de sury recipes in _Curye on Inglysch_)

1 chicken breast and 2 chicken thighs (or 2 breasts), skinned
5 cups almond milk (almonds ground well with water, strained and 
kneaded/wrung through a fine cloth)
2 tablespoons rice flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 c. white grease
optional: a bit of salt, to taste
1 Tbsp. white powder (finely ground ginger-sugar)

Simmer chicken parts until tender. Remove bones and gristle, and puree the 
meat with almond milk in a blender (or (if you prefer) cut thin across the 
grain, grind in a mortar, and grind again with almond milk). Heat to a 
simmer, then add rice flour (it might be easier to reserve some of the 
almond milk to mix with the rice flour) and boil, stirring constantly, 
until evenly thickened. Add sugar and grease (and optionally salt), and 
cook briefly, stirring. Put into dishes side by side with maumene (the next 
recipe in the same source), and sprinkle the blank de surry with white 
powder. Let it rest and thicken before serving.

Note: while the period recipe calls for "sugur a god perti" this could 
still have been less than is used in the modern recipe.

-- 
Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark