Monthly Archives: March 2011

Pork in red wine and fennel sauce

Pork in red wine and fennel sauce

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I was in the mood to try a little bit of Roman again.  I haven’t had a good wine and pork dish for a bit so turned to my trusted Roman books for inspiration.  And look!  We have a yummy tasty pork dish ready for the first days of spring and those first few blushing bulbs of fennel, not to mention a way to use all those bits of left over red wine from our dark cold Ansteorran winters.

Pork in a red wine and fennel sauce

Krea Tareikhera

Translation:

Cured meat or slices of ham, similarly raw meat: first the cured meat is boiled a little just to take away its saltiness.  Then put tall these ingredients into a pan: four parts of wine, two parts of grape syrup, one part of wine vinegar, dry coriander, thyme, dill, fennel.  Fry after putting everything in together at the start, then boil.  Half-way through the cooking some people add honey and ground cumin, others pepper, and after putting the sauce into a warmed pt they add little pieces of hot loin and bread. (Heidelberg papyrus)

(Grant, pp. 124-125)

Ingredients:

2lbs of cured ham or raw pork

1 pint red wine

½ cup grape syrup or Sapa

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp dry coriander

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp dill

¼ C fennel (roughly ½ a fennel bulb)

Optional:

1 tsp cumin

1 Tbs honey

1 tsp pepper

¼ C bread crumbs or 1 slice of bread

Redaction:

Gather together all your ingredients.

If using cured meat, boil for about 3 minutes till the saltiness is gone and drain.  If using fresh, cut into bite sized pieces.

Combine all the first round of ingredients into a pot.  Here I did things slightly different.  I used fresh thyme and dill from my garden roughly chopped.

Instead of using grape syrup or Sapa, I used port.  I like sweet wine so had some on hand.  I used balsamic vinegar as my vinegar, again as it was on hand.

I combined the wines and vinegar together, then all the spices.

This is the cummin added.

Here the thyme, fennel and dill are being added.

Stir everything together.

Add the pork and mix well.

At this point I put the lid on to the clay pot and placed in the oven for about an hour at 350.

This picture does not do the dish justice.  Once the pork is cooked pull it out of the clay pot and into a bowl.

If I had boiled the meat and sauce together in a pot, the remaining liquid would have thickened up and I would have then removed the meat cubes and used the sauce on the side.  What I wanted was slow cooked pork in wine and spice, with out a sauce.

So after removing the liquid from the clay pot, I took the remaining sauce which had not reduced much at all an, and placed into a regular cooking pot.

You want to boil this till the sauce has reduced by about half, forming a nice thick red wine and fennel sauce.  I can’t show you this as I left my pot boiling and ended up with a sticky burnt sauce.  I was very sad at this.  The pork was excellent with out the sauce but I’m sure the sauce would have added a sweet tangy tastiness.

So, if you want a thick sauce on the side you can cook everything together then boil the remaining liquid into a sauce or just boil everything together and let the sauce reduce that way.  Roman cooking lets you experiment with many different options and ways.  Do not think that just one way is the only way!

Medieval Middle Eastern Redactions, Tharid - a brief overview, Tharid or Thaida

Tharid or Tharida

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This dish is considered by many modern day Arabs to be a holiday dish. In Medieval Middle Eastern times this dish was claimed by the prophet Muhammad to be the best of all dishes and there for entered into Tradition (sunna), to be respected, passed down and maintained. (Zaouali, pp. 68)

There are as many ways to make Tharid as there are to make modern day lasagna.  The basics are a tender meat with crumbled/broken bread that has been moistened with broth.  The meat, bread, spicing, vegetables etc vary widely from region to region and person to person.  There are spicy, plain or sweet Tharids available.  Some thing for everyone’s taste.

Fennel, Ingredients and Spices

Fennel

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A few, or many, words about the edibility of fennel; also known as Tribonella foenum-graecum.  Fennel is one of those love/hate type of edibles.  The bulb and seeds have a mild licorices flavor that not every one is fond of.  My favorite way to eat fennel, is to eat the seeds when they are fully formed but still green.  A burst of wonderful yummy licorices!

So a little historical back ground.  Consulting 75 Exceptional Herbs, Staub writes that fennel is native to southern Europe and SW Asia.  Per Toussaint-Samat the Roman’s took fennel from Rome and transplanted the edible across northern Europe and Britton.  Fennel was thought to cure anything and everything (as well as weight loss).  A rather negative proverb, from the late Elizabethan period I believe went along the lines of  “Sow fennel, sow sorrow”.   I’m not sure about the sorrow part but I do highly recommend using fennel in many types of cooking.

The Florence Fennel is the one recommended for taste though the bronze fennel comes in a close second for both looks and taste for those curious on which to plant.  The stems and seeds can be used dried but the leaves are recommended fresh only, as they become very unpleasant dried.   To harvest the seeds, let the seeds start to turn brown on the stalk, then harvest the seed head.  Place a brown paper bag over the seed head till the seeds fully ripen and dry, then shake the bag, letting gravity do the hard work of separating seed from plant.  The bulb though is the star of the plant, being able to be eaten raw or cooked. Fennel works well with a variety of different types of meat and fruit, i.e. fish, chicken, pork and oranges.  For the blanched bulbs, let the bulbs get to the size of golf balls then mound up around the bulbs from which the plant naturally blanches the bulbs and doubles in size.  Or you can let the bulbs grow with out help and harvest as if you were on the wild hills of Italy!

A couple of dishes to try on whim:

Thinly sliced fennel with orange segments and dressed with a vinaigrette.  The other would be a roasting hen surrounded by cubed fennel, sliced carrots and new potatoes with a bit of olive oil, roasted till the hen were done.

I have yet to try these two recipes.  I do have another recipe to present shortly with fennel and pork and lots and lots of wine!

Library, Supportive Research Books

Supportive Research Books

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This is a listing of books that I think are great supporting research books for food.  Now what I mean by this is the history of some of the basic food items i.e. banana’s, chicken, olives.  Items we don’t really think much of yet consume vast quantities of.  These books give great documentation on such things as the different types of pears that were available to Romans, or Apricots from Armenia.

History of Food. Toussaint- Samat: This book is a must have.  Great references with fun little tidbits thrown in.  I really like this book.  It is one of my go to for information concerning an ingredient.

75 Exciting Vegetables for your Garden.

75 Remarkable Fruits for your Garden.

75 Exceptional Herbs for your Garden.

These three books were written by Staub.  Easily found on Amazon.com and definitly fun useful information present in short bites.  When first perusing these books I had a hard time not turning my entire back yard into a historical garden with the non standard every day plants found in Rome, Persia, Armenia and China.

Almond Milk, Elizabethan, Uncategorized

Almond Milk

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This post was originally put into another post which is well buried now.  Almond milk is not a stable to all soups, broths or drinks but it’s not uncommon either.  I thought a quick re-posting as a separate post for those who were searching would be helpful.

So a quick run down on how to make.  Take ground almonds (here they are with a french press but you can use just a regular cup or glass you would normally pour water into).


Next add water.  I use the ratio of 1 cup of almond meal to two cups of water.


Then drain off the milk liquid, known as almond milk.


Nutritious and mildly decadent in period.  SAVE the wet ground almonds.  They are still very useful.

Library, Midieval Middle Eastern Books

Midieval Middle Eastern Books

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Here are the books that are a must for your Medieval Middle Eastern collection of cookbooks.

Medieval Arab Cookery by Rodinson, Arberry & Perry.  This book will be your bible for research and recipes.  The recipes are translation.  There are few measurements.  Yet the information is incredible.  This is THE mainstay for historic Middle Eastern recipes.

Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World by Zaouali. This book has translations with few measurements as well.  At the end of the book are recipes given for by the author of their rendition for some of the period recipes.  I didn’t agree with some of the given recipes as they seem to be only loosely based on the period translation.  I like the original historic part and have used the given recipes as a secondary source for reverse redactions.  This also has great historical references and research.

A Baghdad Cookery Book by Perry.  This book is Perry’s idea of going back to the recipes he redacted for A Medieval Arab Cookery and updating/correcting a few of the translation.  Minimal history and some duplication from Medieval Arab Cookery.  Useful.