[Sca-cooks] Salad recipes from Valles

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

Here's the first batch of recipes.  They're salads, which are somewhat rare
in the Spanish corpus.  I made the dressing using option B (honey instead
of sugar), mixed 1:1 by volume with white wine vinegar.  Tasty, though next
time I might increase the honey just a touch.  I plan to try #83 next.  I
have everything but the borage, which shouldn't make a huge difference to
the flavor.


*Regalo de la vida humana*, by Juan Valles, Book VI, chapters 79-84

79.. ENSALADA MUY BUENA (Very Good Salad)

Take lettuce, two parts, borage and purslane, one part each; mint and
parsley and onion, half a part each. Do not cut them with a knife, except
for the onion, but rather strip these herbs so they become rather small,
and wash them very well after stripping them, and put them in a very clean
linen napkin, and squeeze them a little and shake the napkin so that it
doesn't retain water, and put the herbs on a plate, and cut the onion and
cast it in, and a little ground salt, and cast on them sufficient oil,
which should be light and sweet, and mix them well so that they all carry
the oil, and then cast in a little vinegar in such a way that it has a
little touch of sourness, and stir them again, and cast on ground sugar
that which will suffice so that the salad has a touch of sweet and sour.
 And if there are borage flowers, cast them on top of the salad, and if
there is no sugar, moderate the touch of vinegar with a little honey
dissolved in the vinegar.


80.  OTRA ENSALADA BUENA (Another Good Salad)

Take lettuce and borage and purslane, or sorrel in its place, or cucumber
or snake cucumber cut in thin little slices, mint and parsley, and onion
and borage flower, and make it as it was said.

81.  OTRA ENSALADA MEJOR (Another Better Salad)

Take lettuce and borage and purslane, or sorrel instead, and mint and
parsley and desalted capers, onion and borage flower, and seeds of
sweet-sour pomegranates, and make it as has been said.

82.  OTRA ENSALADA (Another Salad)

Take lettuce and borage and cucumbers, or snake cucumbers instead,
nasturtium and leaves of radish, mint and parsley, onion and borage flower,
and make it as has been said.

83.  OTRA ENSALADA (Another Salad)

Take lettuce and borage, and apples and pears cut into thin little slices,
and mint and parsley and onion and borage flower, and make it as has been
said.

84.  OTRA ENSALADA (Another Salad)

Take lettuce and borage, rampion, bastard-parsley, apricots cut very small,
nasturtium, mint, parsley, onion and borage flower.  Make it as has been
said.

translations c. 2014, Robin Carroll-Mann (Brighid ni Chiarain)

Note: I have translated 'quixones' (modern spelling 'quijones') as 'bastard
parsley'.  Richard Percival's 1591 Spanish-English dictionary says:
"bastard parsley or wilde chervile, caucalis scandix".  John Stevens' 1706
dictionary also says 'bastard parsley'.  Various pre-1900 Spanish
dictionaries identify quixones as caucalis; some refer the reader to see
'Pie de Gallina' (Hen's Foot). I am not a botanist or herbalist, and I know
that common names of plants can change over the years, and can often be
used to refer to more than one species.  Do not use any plant unless you
know for sure that it is safe to eat.


Brighid ni Chiarain