Being on a bit of a weird kick, I made a fruit pie with marrow.  The cooking sometimes looks…odd, but this is another trust me recipes.  It is very good!  Not a normal day treat but something to try out some day.

Daryoles Marrow and Fruit Pies

interior of pie

Daryoles. Take wine & fresh broth, cloves, maces & marrow, & powder of ginger, & saffron, & let boil together, & put thereto cream,…& yolks of eggs, & mix them together, & pour the liquor that the marrow was seethed in thereto; then make fair coffins of fair paste, & put the marrow therein, & mince dates, & strawberries in time of year, & put the coffins in the oven, & let them harden a little; then take them out& put the liquor thereto, & let them bake, & serve. (Renfrow, Vol. 2, pp. 551)

Ingredients:

1/2 C wine

1/2 C broth

1/2 tsp ea ground cloves, mace, and ginger

pinch saffron

Marrow (from one batch of bones…roughly 1/2 to 2/3 C.)

1/2 C Marrow fat broth (you’ll understand when you cook the marrow)

1/2 C Cream

2 egg yolks

2/3 C de-stoned ground dates

2/3 C de-stoned ground apricots

 

Redaction:

I gathered the ingredients together, having done a rough chop on the dates and apricots.  Yes the recipes calls for strawberries, I had to improvise as strawberries were out of season.

Spices and ingredients

Then I put broth into a pot with wine.

wine with brothThe broth was made from the previous marrow dish in which the chicken was par-boiled in wine and water.  I saved a little of the broth from the last dish for this one.  It helps to be a little prepared.

Next the spices are added to the broth.

cloves mace ginger safron in broth

Next comes the marrow.

marrow to spiced brothThen boil it a little and add add cream.

everything stirred looking grossThen add eggs, stirring well.

egg yolk to marrow brothAt this point it looks…weird and not tasty.  So what do we do?  We add well ground up dates and apricots.

minced dates with brothMix this up well.  Very very well.  If the filling is a little to soupy, let the mixture cook down a little.  Once the mixture is creamy but not soupy, pour into your bottom crust.

everything in the crustAdd the lid.

top crust onDon’t forget to add slits to let the escaping steam out and not deform the crust top.

New pics 121119a 086I’m afraid I don’t have the perfect slice of the fruit marrow pie.  Just an inside look with a very crumbly crust.

interior of pieThe pie was tasty though not my favorite.  The pie was more savory then sweet, when I expected sweeter then savory.  The flavors were magnificent though.  Don’t pass this up because there is no sugar, try this for a new taste!

 

February 28, 2014 | No comments

The Kraken

An Original Subtlety

By Honorable Lady Sosha Lyon’s O’Rourke

The Kraken

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/carta-marina/#slideid-412001

Kraken crawling

Dining in the Tudor and Elizabethan era was a time of great merriment and fabulous feasting, which sought to display a host’s wealth and dining creativity.  I have undertaken an original subtlety depicting the great ocean monster “The Kraken”.  This subtlety is based on historic president where subtleties could be great works from rolling pachyderm to re-skinned peacocks.

It is the nature of this creature to swallow men and ships, and even whales and everything else within reach. It stays submerged for days, then rears its head and nostrils above surface and stays that way at least until the change of tide. Now, that sound we just sailed through was the space between its jaws, and its nostrils and lower jaw were those rocks that appeared in the sea, while the lyngbakr was the island we saw sinking down. However, Ogmund Tussock has sent these creatures to you by means of his magic to cause the death of you and all your men. He thought more men would have gone the same way as those that had already drowned and he expected that the hafgufa would have swallowed us all.  (Orvar – Oddr)

I.  A History of Subtleties

Subtleties are works of art in food and story telling.  A subtlety should be, per Hunter, an intermission with in a meal between courses that entertains while heavily disguising the origins of the main ingredients.  Fooling, or tricking the eye into seeing the unusual and mythical, while using every day food items in unique ways, subtleties promoted thought and good will towards the host.

 Hunter notes the coinciding of the change of venue for the banquet course (to another room) to promote conversation in the fifteenth century with the publication in the vernacular of Platos Symposium (defined as a meeting to exchange ideas after a meal… The qualities of wit and wisdom associated with the literary …appear to metamorphose sotil into the more modern sense of subtle through association with the sweetmeat course (Hunter 1986:38,39). Witty conversation was to work with the sweetmeats or confectionery subtleties to help the diner digest physically and mentally. Once the effects of wonder wear off, the need for quick wit, humor and subtle sayings represent the transfer of ingenuity from the chef to the guests. The subtlety is creative and prompts creativity; if the chef can make it, the guest should be able to comment on it. Unlike with many other performance genres, the subtlety relies on ingenuity from both the audience and the director in order to be successful. It also depends on a unique form of ingenuity: playing with nature. (Martins)

 An early example, written by an Egyptian caliph in the eleventh century describes from one Islamic feast day a hundred and fifty seven figures and seven table sized palaces made of sugar.   Another set of notations of subtleties, occurring from the book Satyricon, by Petronius, wrote that a Roman feast dinner included a rabbit that had been made to look like the mythological winged horse Pegasus.  From the 1300 through 1500, subtleties, also known as sotelite in English and an entremet in French, became popular for royal and noble displays as stiff competition between England and France developed during the fourteenth and fifteenth century.  (The Renaissance cornered the market on subtleties; art work in food started much earlier).  (Mintz, pp. 88/Martins. p 12)

These feats of food were put on by the nobility and very wealthy. These fleeting art works were for display and thought not for a monetary gain at first sight or taste.

The intention of a subtlety is to create an experience rather than something that can be given as a gift or sold.  Unlike permanent displays of power, the subtlety it not durable, it spoils, it has a fixed life-span that ends when it is eaten. The subtlety also enters the dining hall in motion: the set itself is wheeled in, fire blazes out of the mouths of beasts and the actors are put into life-like poses intended to be animated by other performers or the imagination. (Martins)

Monarchs put the feasts to good use as ways to make a vivid point, i.e. the inducing of guests to pledge allegiance to a planned crusade.  An example of this was when Philip the Fair, at the Feast of the Pheasant, showcased a giant Saracen entering the feasting hall leading an elephant (there is question about the edibility of said pachyderm), with a knight (Oliver de La Marche) playing the role of the captive Eastern church. (Wheaton, pg. 8/Martins).  Another example of the royal use of subtleties was by Henry VIII.  George Cavendish wrote about a feast sponsored by the great Tudor king in such waxing enthusiasm for the feast “…I do both lack wit in my gross old head and cunning in my bowels to declare the wondrous and curious imaginations in the same invented and devised.” (Henisch, pp. 236/Martins)  The feasting was a display to move men and women into wondrous thoughts, glossing over a harsh reality of court life or a grand and compelling gesture.

A subtlety could be simple items such as a redressed peacock on proud display or stuffed fowl riding roast piglets; or as elaborate as a full pastry castle with trees containing candied fruit, glazed and stuffed mythical beasts, and musicians.  Allegorical scenes were not uncommon, with themes like “Castle of Love” or “Lady of the Unicorn”.  A subtlety could made of just the edible, such as a re-skinned peacock, or as a combination of paper machie and lumber to accent the food in the display.  These decorative subtleties were for powerful displays and less about eating, with the production being done by carpenters, metals smiths and painters and very little with chefs. Horace Warpole describes a banquet given in honor of the birth of Duke of Burgundy, where the centerpiece was of wax figures moved by clock work at the end of the feast to represent the labor of the Dauphiness and the happy birth of the heir to the monarchy. (Martins, pp 2/Craig, pp. 17)

Creating a display:

Creating a display seem to rely heavily on allegorical content from myth, fantasy or biblical content, such as the Pegasus from myth at the Roman table (Scully, pp. 107) or Lady of the Unicorn.  Part of the thought process that goes behind making a display was how each animal was viewed in allegorical terms.

“…the horns of an antelope might get caught in a bush in

the same way humans might get caught in a life of sin. The nightingale represented love, the elephant implied chastity, the ape, ludeness and lust and the peacock, the purity of someone who never turns to sin.” (Martins)

The main display item, per these views, should play upon the strength of the subjects or as humorous joke on the subject presented.

Menu:

The menu for adding a subtlety could be during the end of a course or at the end of a meal.  One menu described a 5 course meal with a crown subtlety at the end.

“…At each end, outside the green lawn, was an enormous pie, surmounted with smaller pies, which formed a crown. The crust of the large ones was silvered all round and gilt at the top; each contained a whole roe-deer, a gosling, three capons, six chickens, ten pigeons, one young rabbit…

To serve as seasoning or stuffing, a minced loin of veal, two pounds of fat, and twenty-six hard-boiled eggs, covered with saffron and flavoured with cloves.

(www.elizabethan-era.org.uk)

This display put on for an honored guest shows the detail and extravaganza that went into each dish and for the visual delight for the guests, not only for the bodily need of food but also for the intellectual delight and discussion by the guests long after the meal had been consumed.

II. The Kraken Subtlety

This subtlety is done in the style of the Elizabethan subtlety.  I fell in love with the subtleties listed in the medieval cookbooks describing how a the front of a chicken was married with the back of a fish forming a cockatrice.

The Amphisien Cockatrice looks much like a cock with a long serpent-like tail ending with a second head. It is a rare charge in heraldic achievements.

http://yourarmiger.com/?p=2290

When I decided on the Kraken, I wanted something both medieval and original.  Some that combined several different foods that would not normally be touching let alone combined into one dish to create a spectacle type of food.

The Kraken, whose name derives from the Norse Draken, is an ancient maritime creature ranging from the cold northern coast of Norse legend to the warm seas of Greece.  The Kraken could be a sea dragon or a serpent with many legs, possibly even resembling an island, which could plunge to great deeps without warning and drag a large ship down. In the tales of the Kraken, ships were dragged into the sea by arms as long and massive as a ships mast.).  The Kraken has also been described as a crab-like creature that caused whirlpools when sinking to the depths. (Orvar-Oddr, pp 1/ancient-origins/mythicalrealm)

Erik Pontoppidan, the Bishop of Bergen and renowned naturalist, insisted that the Kraken was “the largest and most surprising of all the animal creation” lending credence that this creature actually existed and not the imagination of ship wrecked sailors with water starved fevered imagination. (mythicalrealm)

Aspects of the legends in common are that the creature was huge, huge enough to pull down a full sized ship with a complete and armed crew. Roughly, the size of an island, there could be tentacles that resembled those of a squid and possibly legs of a crab or a sea serpent.  All in all, a combination to give nightmares when sailing the briny sea.

My subject choice is fairly unique.  I chose the Kraken, not on whim but on sight.  Let me explain.  I saw this incredible unique dish and had a period epiphany on what might have been served as a subtlety dish.  I was moved and possessed to see this project completed to perfection both in looks and in taste.  I had the cooking skill and knew where to gather the ingredients.  The paper came together through various research projects and books.

 

Period Ingredients:

If this subtlety was served in England, the Turkey breed would be the Black Spanish (Spanish turkey) or a Black Norfolk (English Turkey).   (Albc-usa)  The squid, which would be more common around the English Channel and SW of England and parts of Scotland, could have been used in period being far more common then the cuttlefish. (bristishseafishing.co.uk) The brown crab would have been used for their legs, instead of the smaller crabs which are both period and abundant but do not match the size of the common brown. (bristishseafishing.co.uk) For the shrimp portion, an English cook would have used the common prawn (Palaemon serratus) or their near kin Palaemon elegans, adspersus and longirostris also would have been used.  These prawns are differentiated only by small external details such as different segments or leg paddle shape.  These prawns and shrimp live in the same areas around England and are devoured with great appetite. (bristishseafishing.co.uk)

Each portion of the Kraken subtlety was cooked separately except the turkey, bacon then assembled into the creature before you.

 

Kitchen:

An Elizabethan kitchen included whole spits from which to turn oxen and pigs in as well as a host of chefs and underling to present a note worthy subtlety for the royal courts pleasure. This varies greatly from a modern kitchen, which is lucky to be able to roast a piglet in…one at a time.  Trying to prepare a feast is a multi-week task for cooking of many animals where on a feast day many animals could be cooked at one time in these huge roasting pits.

Redon insists that the first part of an evolved kitchen is the knife.  The knife is the first line in slicing, cutting, and chopping the variety of items necessary to prepare a feast.  Modern knives are less likely to go dull with the serrated edges, making the process of cutting and chopping easier then in period where a kitchen knife would need to be sharpened periodically.

Next was the mortar and pestle for grinding up spices, herbs, breads and meats for measured inclusions into a chef’s careful creative dish. (Redon)  Personally I prefer to use a mortal and pestle for small items; however due to the fact there is only me and not a kitchen of help I find a small coffee grinder or a small cuisinart helps with the items that require more then a tablespoon.

I have used both hand ground and machine ground spices for various cooking projects.  I find the hand ground spices are usually a little larger and rougher, than their machine ground counter part, but only marginally, depending on the grinding determination of the cook.

The plates for serving dinner on were of baked bread (trenchers) during Henry VIII and prior ages. During Elizabeth’s reign, her plates were of silver instead of bread trenchers, showing a higher level of dinnerware than previous kings.  I used metal pots and pans, trying to duplicate the temperature range of medieval cooking oven and stove with my modern gas stove.

 

Spices: 

Spices included but were not limited to ginger, cinnamon, cloves, grains of paradise, long pepper, aspic, round pepper, cassia buds, saffron, nutmeg, bay leaves, galingale, mace, cumin, sugar, garlic, onions, shallots and scallions (Taillevent, pp, 230)  Spices not only add flavor and color but were also testaments to the wealth of the host adding to the sumptuousness of any given dish.  This dish will be relatively light in spices due to the recipes used.  This does not negate the importance of spices, but will place an emphasis on the natural flavors of the meat and aquatic items used.

 

Color:

Some times the color was more desirable then the flavor and the spicing used would over power the dish so much so as to be less sumptuous than a less colorful dish. Vivid colors, Wheaton explains, were highly prized and were often achieved at the expense of flavor.  Taillevent also suggested more common spices for green coloring such as parsley, sorrel and winter wheat still green.  Gold and silver leaf was brushed onto the surfaces of food i.e pastries for a greater visual impact. (Wheaton, pp. 15/Martins pp. 5)

 

III. Making of the Subtlety

The overall idea for the subtlety is a gorgeous piece of edible artwork meant to invoke the awe and terror of the sea.  As I attempted each section, I realized that there were cooking steps within the main cooking dishes, which had to be done such as cooking squid separately from the turkey wrapped in bacon therefore each item is a separate cooking experiment.

With this rough and varied description, I have assembled a subtlety that could have been served at a medieval feast with a nautical theme.   The body of the “beast” would have to be from a creature that was very large but still portable and a delicacy.  This to my mind could be a turkey brought forth from the New World on a very long and arduous voyage across the sea.  To denote the scary but mighty tentacles, I have opted to stuff the arse end of the turkey with octopus, as if the mouth were covered in large tentacles out of a sailor’s nightmare.  The legs I made from snow crab for both a tasty treat and scary mobility.   The back is covered in bacon to represent the island for which it might lure sailors onto its back before plunging into the depths drowning them.  Olives were used for multiple eyes to finish off the truly magnificent and scary of watery beasts.

Rosemary was used to mimic the seaweed and kelp of the deep ocean.  Salt was used at the bas to represent the sand and display the wealth of the nobility for whom the subtlety was created by.

 

The Kraken Recipe:

I have taken the liberty of combining a couple of excellent period recipes to build the Kraken.  I used the Scappi’s American Peacock recipe and the Roman Octopus recipe combined to form this very tasty and scary subtlety.

I took a turkey and wrapped it in bacon, weaving it tightly over the breast and legs to form a second skin that is not only allegorical but locks in the juices and flavor.

 

 wrapping turkey for kraken

 

I decided to incorporate shrimp for the eyebrows.  Unfortunately, the first round of eyebrows became exceedingly crispy after spending the same amount of time in the oven as the turkey.  I had to switch out the original “eyebrows” for less well-done bacon wrapped shrimp.  For the eyes I used oil cured black olives, which is another Italian food item.

While the turkey was cooking I went to work on the octopus and squid.  I was unsure how I wanted to use and display the squid but I didn’t want to use whole squid or whole octopus.  I would have preferred to have gotten a much much larger octopus or octopi, however there were no shops selling anything other then baby octopus.  I bought them knowing the octopus were to small for my imagined display but hoping to put them to use.  I did decide to get squid as they had longer tentacles which would be useful for the “mouth” of the Kraken.  I pulled out the beak of the squid opening them up and took off the heads of the octopus and the squid.

 

split squid

 

These were then dunked into boiling water.  This had the effect of curling both the squid and the octopi into much smaller and chewier bits with much stiffer arms.

IMG_0699

 

The crab legs were also dunked into boiling water so that they would be come edible.

The crab legs were placed on the plate.  The bacon wrapped turkey was then placed on top of the legs.  The olives were pinned into place with toothpicks and the squid arms formed both the lower portion of the Kraken mouth and an upper mustache on the turkey.

 

IMG_0701

 

IV. Period vs Modern

Period wise, the turkey would have been roasted in a large wood-fired oven instead of a gas stove either in a pottery or metal pan.  I actually used a large metal pan but not one made in a period fashion.  The bacon would have been homemade or bought from a supplier who made it in their kitchen.  I tried making homemade bacon using Master Gunther’s recipe.  I could not get the slices thin enough to actually wrap or drape properly, also my bacon was seriously odd tasting and way too salty.  The squid or octopus (depending on what was a fresh catch for the day) would be cooked in a metal or pottery pan.  Again, I used a non-period metal pan for this.  The same for the crab legs in cooking and market freshness.  The olives would have been brined on a farm then brought to the castle or nobles house (if the farm were in conjunction with the nobility or the market place if further away).  The olives I used were bought in a store, not exactly the same as a period market, and brined somewhere else for sale.  Hopefully, in a few years my own olive trees will be producing and I can experiment with brining and tasting then.

The display plate is hand thrown pottery in a period style.

 

V. Conclusion

My overall impression is that this type of project would have been a chef’s idea of how to both amuse and surprise the nobility with a grand feast for the eyes.  The visuals would cause both unquiet, due to the nautical scary tales told, and delight at the unique edibleness of the entire display.  If this display were served in period, the Kraken would do what it was suppose to.  The display would cause the guests pause while they contemplated the nuances of what was before their eyes.

When I first gathered the ingredients together, I was really nervous putting this piece together.  I had never put pieces together in a food item to create a towering monolith of frightful proportion.  I discovered that thin bacon just does not cover the turkey very well.  Thick cut bacon is needed to keep shrinking to a minimum and maximum coverage (larding) maintained.  Once I pulled the crab legs from the pot, things were much calmer.  The crab legs fit perfectly on the plate, the turkey looked awesome straight out of the oven and the octopi and squid had boiled very well.

This project was the most fun in making any subtlety I have yet tried.  The theme is tasty, unique, and odd.  Just the way I like it!  The overall project was not difficult, nor were the ingredients (other then the squid/octopus) hard to acquire.  Overall, I would gladly do this project again.

Works Cited/Works Consulted:

Craig, E., (1953). English Royal Cookbook, Favorite Court Recipes. Hippocreen books.

Damerow, G., (2010). Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens.

Hieatt, C., Hosington, B, Butler, S. (1979). Pleyn Delit: medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks. University of Toronto Press.

Hunter, L., (1986) Sweet Secrets from Occasional Receipts to Specialized:  The Growth of a Genre; as cited in Banquetting Stuffe.  Edited by C. Anne Wilson. Edinburgh University Press.

Markham, G., (1986). The English Housewife. McGill-Queens University Press.

Martins, P. (1998). Subtleties, Power and Consumption: A Study of French and English cuisine from 1300-1500). Nyu.edu

McDonald, W., (2004). Recipes from Banquet dels Quatre Barres.

Orvar-Oddr saga

Redon, O., (1998). The Medieval Kitchen, Recipes from France and Italy. University of Chicago Press.

Renfrow, C., (1996). A Sip Through Time. Pg.113

Renfrow, C., (1998). Take a Thousand Eggs, A collection of 15th century recipes. 2nd edition.

Toussaint-Samat, M., (1992). History of Food. Barnes & Nobles.

The Four Elements of Fire, Joachim Beuckelaer 1569

The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570). Translated by Scully., T.,  University of Toronto Press.

The Viandier of Taillevent , ed. Terence Scully,(University of Ottawa Press, 1988).  As present by http://www.reference.com/browse/subtlety and by Patrick Martins, nyu

The Vianderi of Taillevent., (1998) presented in “A Collection of medieval and Renaissance Cookbooks).

The Well-Stocked Kitchen, Joachim Beuckelaer, 1566

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/89/ca/80/89ca809248a0a901d1ab824dcca82b98.jpg

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/carta-marina/#slideid-412001

http://www.angelfire.com/ia3/kraken/myth.index.html

http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/browse/D4.HTM

http://www.mythicalrealm.com/creatures/kraken.html

http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/legendary-kraken-00267

http://www.reference.com/browse/subtlety

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-banquet-feast.htm

http://www.godecookery.com/cookies/ingred.html

http://www.albc-usa.org/

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_eggs_can_a_turkey_lay

http://thecoolchickenreturns.blogspot.com/2006/05/chickens-in-ancient-rome.html

Other Crab and Lobster Species

 

Appendix 1

Recipes

 

Translation:

Turkey:

To roast turkey cock and turkey hen, which in some places in Italy are called ‘Indian Peacocks.

A turkey cock and turkey hen are much bigger in the body then an ordinary peacock; and the cock can spread its tail like the peacock….Its breast is broad…its flesh much whiter and softer then that of the common peacock and it is hung for a shorter time then any similar fowl.

If you want to spit-spit roast it, do not let it sit for more then six days in winter before being drawn or in the summer for more then two.  Pluck it dry or in hot water…If you want to stuff it, use one of the stuffings of Recipe 115…stick it with fine lardoons of pork fat, although if it is fat, an stuffed there will not be any need for larding; you will have to stud it though with a few whole cloves.  Mount it on a spit and cook it slowly, that bird cooking much more quickly that a common peacock. (Scappi, pp. 208-209)

Stuffing:

…for every four pounds of beaten pork fat get two pounds of parboiled veal or goat-kid sweetbreads…four ounces of sugar, four egg yolks, a handful of herbs, nine not-too-ripe plums or else muscatel pears…instead of sweetbreads you can use calf, kid or pig brain, parboiled. (Scappi, pp. 193-194)

Ingredients:

1 small young turkey

1 lb chopped bacon ends

1 lb bacon strips

3 Tbs sugar

4 egg yolks

Herbs –sage, rosemary, basil, thyme, bruised laurel leaves, parsley – rinsed and chopped

½ lb sweetbread

Whole cloves for studding

 

Redaction:

I have cooked turkey on many occasions; however cooking a period recipes require a slight mind shift.  The stuffing is very different as the main ingredient is pork fat not bread crumbs and there is the inclusion of sugar to counter the savory, not to mention egg yolks instead of whole eggs.

The first thing to do is try to get a heritage turkey, from either a specialty shop or raising one.  Should a heritage turkey be unattainable, go for a young turkey NOT an old turkey.  The older the turkey, the tougher the meat.  Young and sweet is what you would want to serve to the pope or visiting royalty.

 

Turkey raw

Clean out the giblets and set to the side while gathering and mixing the stuffing ingredients.

My first task was to pick herbs from the garden.  A handful of or a few stems of each of the above listed herbs were gathered then rinsed well.

Herbs in strainer

Once they were patted dry, I de-stemmed the leaves from woody stalks.  The bay laurel I left intact but bruised the leaves for maximum flavor.  Everything else was then chopped and set to the side.

 chopped herbs

The sweetbread was chopped into small chunks and set to the side as well

 

chopped sweetbread

I used bacon ends for the pork fat instead of raw pork fat.

 chopped smoked bacon

I could have used rendered pork fat but I don’t think that is what was really used.  Rendered pork fat would drip and slide with out actually staying inside the turkey for flavoring, as it has a fairly low melting temperature.

I did not have slightly tart plums on hand.  I used dried un-sugared plums with the thought that in period if plums were not in season dried plums (prunes) would have been used instead.

dried plumsI also added more then 9 as I actually like the flavor of dried plums and wanted to offset the bacon ends with a bit more sweet.

chopped dried plums

The bacon ends were placed in a bowl.  From here I added the sweetbread, herbs, sugar, egg yolks, and dried plums.

Mixed all together

Then I mixed well.

final mix herbs

 

I was now ready to stuff a turkey.

stuffed raw turkey

The turkey was stuffed to just the right amount.

endview of bacon wrapped turkey

 

Once stuffed, I laid bacon strips across the top of the turkey breast “as fine lardoons” (Scappi, pp. 193-194) .  A fat turkey is subjective and I like bacon.  Bacon is never a bad thing when it comes to meat.  So bacon it was on top of the turkey in a criss-cross decorative patterning.

 roasted turkey on platter

The bacon will shrink so lay the bacon half over the first strip when laying out your pattern.  You’ll understand once you’ve cooked the bacon on top of the turkey once.

I did not have a spit handy so had to use a gas stove oven and a rack.  From here it was 2.5 hours at 350.

The turkey is incredibly moist while the stuffing is very meaty with savory and sweet flavorings.

Modern vs. Period:

I did not have a period turkey.  I could have bought a “heritage turkey” however the packaging did not say what “heritage” and I really wanted a Black Spanish or Black Norway.  I am just going to have to raise my own I think.

The herbs came from my garden and were mostly period.  The dried plums were from California and did not designate the type which means that a period type of plum was probably not used.  The eggs were organic but the sugar was regular table sugar instead of brown or turbinado; however fine sugar was known in Italy at this point.

 

Sugar- Considered very expensive till the late 1500.  Loaf sugar given the name due to the conical shape derivded from refining into a hard and very white refined form. Caffetin or Couffin (English equivalent of “coffer” or “coffin”) named for the form, packed in plaited leaves palm and from the city shipped from called Caffa in the Crimea.    Casson a very fragile sugar also considered the ancestor to castor sugar.  Muscarrat considered the best of all sugars, reported to be made in Egypt for the Sultan of Babylon.  The Italian name mucchera denotes that it had been refined twice. (Toussaint-Samat, pg. 553-555)

 

I did not have a wood fire spit on which to roast the now stuffed turkey.  I had to rely on the modern convenience of a gas stove and a roasting pan with a rack.  This does not give the wood flavor that a smoke fire would thought the smoked bacon helps with this; however the heat was maintained at a regular temperature which precludes charred spot or raw and undercooked areas.

 

Boiled Octopus

 

Translation:

For octopus: pepper, liquamen and laser. Serve

(Faas, pp. 341)

 

Ingredients:

1 octopus

2 TBS ground pepper corns

1 Tbs fish sauce

1 tbs garlic or 1 tsp of Asafoetida

 

Redaction:

The notes say that there are several ways in which octopus was cooked.  One of the fastest being, unskinned to preserve the beautiful colors to start.  The next cooking method would be to poach for no more then 5 minutes and allow to cool slowly or cook for hours in a very low temperature in white wine, water and herbs.  Garlic or asoafoetida could have been added to the water as well.

 

I gathered the octopus with asoafoetida and peppercorns (pre grinding) next to the stove.

baby octopi w spices

Next the spices were added to a pot of boiling water.

peppercorns in simmering water

Once the water and spices were at a rolling boil, I added the octopi.  Here are the cooked octopi.  They look very different from their raw state.

 cookied ocotpi

February 11, 2014 | No comments

This dish is one I have wanted to try for a very long time, not that I have a thing for kidneys, it’s just that there are so very few edible dishes that involve kidneys or testicles out there.  And lets face it, the Romans knew how to cook anything and make it taste divine!

kidney out of oven cooked

Renes (Grilled Kidney)

Translation:

Grilled kidneys are made as follows: They are cut down the middle to spread them out, and seasoned with ground pepper, pine kernals and very finely chopped coriander and ground fennel seed.  Then the kidneys are closed up, sewn together, wrapped in caul, parboiled in oil and fish sauce, and then baked in a crock or on a grill.  (apicius 7,8/Dalby, pp. 111)

Lumbi et Renes (Testicles and Kidneys)

 

Translation:

They are opened up into two parts and stretched out, and ground pepper, pine nuts, finely chopped coriander and pounded fennel seed are sprinkled on them.  Then the testicles are closed up again and sewn together and wrapped in caul, and in this state they are fried in oil and liquamen and then roasted in clibanus or on a gridiron. (Apicius/Grocock, pp. 249)

Ingredients:

1 package of kidneys

5 slices of bacon (preferably thick cut)

1/4 C pine nuts

1 tbs coriander and fennel seeds

1/2 tsp fish sauce

 

Redaction:

Per usual gather all the ingredients into one area.

kidney ingredients

Here we are!  Everything looks good…the kidneys are a little raw and need to be fiddled with.  So slice the kidneys down the middle and remove any fat globules or veins still attached.

devining raw kidneyHere you can see one that has been cleaned and a second one that is need of cleaning out.  Sort of like the before and after pictures.  These are goat kidneys, so they are fairly small.  Calf or cow kidneys are HUGE!  Lots more room to work in.  For a cow kidney you’ll want to devein them just the way you would a goat kidney and possibly cut the cow kidneys into much smaller pieces.  This is an appetizer/finger food type of dish.  Very rich and very yummy but a little goes a long way.

Next we add the spices to the pine nuts.

pine nut and spicesAfter the pine nuts and spices have been added together, stuff what you can into a deveined kidney.  Roughly a tbs.

pine nut stuffed raw kidneyThen wrap it in bacon.  If you have caul fat (the fat around organ meats) use that.  If you do not have access to caul fat use bacon.  Bacon makes everything better!

raw wrapped kidneyThen we start to fey this up.  Now I have added the fish sauce to the oil and heated that up.

oil and fish sauce

Then we add the kidney(es)

frying up kidneyAs you will notice I am only cooking one kidney.  I’m the only one in my house who likes organ meats so I didn’t think more then one would be appreciated.  Not to worry!  The other kidneys went into a really tasty organ meat pie.  Don’t judge, just try it!

So after I cooked this on both sides for about 3 minutes each, I place the kidney into a baking dish to cook another 20 minutes.

kidney in dish going into ovenWhen I was doing this, I almost decided to skip this step, figuring it had cooked enough.  Do NOT skip the second round of cooking.  This helps to meld all the flavors into one taste sensation.

kidney out of oven cookedThis was the final end product of a perfectly stuffed, wrapped, fried and baked kidney.  It was very tasty!  I do recommend these if you are having friends over and want to give them an unusual treat.

January 29, 2014 | No comments

So I had a great idea for doing a body of work on organ meats.  Due to real life, this project got about half way done before I switched projects in midstream.  I had to go from really LARGE body of work project to a singular item.  Mostly due to injury, as I just could not stand for hours in the kitchen trying awesome new recipes.  Don’t ask, unless you want to know about a sprained butt.  No really, I sprained my butt in a very round about way.

Despite injuries and bruised ego, this is one of my more favorite types of organ meat recipes.  Well not organ meat but not a food group most modern people would consider.

 

A Baked Meat Royal

Chicken and Marrow Meat Pie

New pics 121119a 089

Translation:

A baked Meat Royal,  Take & make little coffins, & take Chickens seethe: or pork seethed, & small hacked; or of them both: take coves, maces, cubebs, & hack withal, & mix it with crumbled Marrow, & lay on sugar enough; then lay it in the coffin, & in the middle lay a gobbet of marrow, & sugar round about, and let bake; & this is for supper.  (Renfrow, Vol. 1, pp. 79)

Ingredients:

Dough (for the coffin)

4 ckicken thighs

roasted marrow (about 1/4 C)

1/4 C sugar

1 tsp each cloves, mace, cubebs

 

Redaction:

I used 4 chicken thighs (with skin and bones).  These were cooked in water till done.  Save the broth for the base of a chicken stock and chicken soup!!  I can not stress this enough.  The medieval mentality saved and used everything.  Resources were scarce to everything was used. If you want to make this really awesome you can cook the chicken in wine for a wine based broth later.

New pics 121119a 078Here is the cooked chicken with spices, sugar and marrow.

Pull the chicken into bite sized pieces, removing the skin and bones, and mix in the spices.

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Next add in the marrow.

New pics 121119a 081 I know this looks a bit yuck! But marrow is a wonderful meaty fat that just melts on the tongue.  A must try for any medieval cook!

Next add the sugar.

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Then mix well!

New pics 121119a 083

For the modern palate, these flavors are just going to make your head spin.  We have sweet and sweet spices with meat and fat.  This is just so weird to most of us, but in period this was considered a real delicacy.  Give it a try, you may find this flavoring just your thing!

Finally place the meat into a “coffin”.

New pics 121119a 085

Now my coffin is not truly period.  A period coffin is just dough.  I lined a pie pan with dough, filled with meat then added a crust with vents for steam to escape from.

New pics 121119a 086

I did this as an experiment for a hand held but round shape modern eyes are more use to.  These pies are also miniature, fitting into the palm of one hand.

I have to admit…I also have dough issues.  Dough and I just aren’t on good terms.  I can make really tasty dough, I just can’t make a dough so stiff it stands on it’s own and asks for my car keys.  I’m still working on this!  Don’t let my inability to build a true “coffin” keep you from experimenting!  Keep on keep on with the dough and the building.

Here is the cooked pie.

New pics 121119a 090

As you can see the crust is overly crumbly (but very very tasty) while the meat and spices are well cooked and blended.  This was an amazing tasting dish.  I just could not get over how much I enjoyed eating this.  I could eat 1/2 of these minis for any one meal (breakfast, lunch, or dinner) and feel that I had been treated to an awesome meal.

 

 

 

January 19, 2014 | No comments

This dish is a wonderful mix of sweet and a little savory.  The spices blend with the sweet fruit for a delectable mix of new!  It also happens to be a fairly easy dish and I had all the ingredients on hand…but don’t let the easy part stop you from trying this dish!

Muruziyab:

Tajine Lamb and Sweet Plums

New pics 121119a 067

Translation:

One and half ratls of meat, four uiqiyahs of prunes, a half ratl of onions, the weight of half and a quarter dirhams of saffron, and two and a half uqiyahs of raisins, and four uqiyahs of good quality wine vinegar in a pot large enough.  Boil the meat without spices.  When it is done, add the measure of a ratl and a half of water.  When the water boils, wash the onions cut them….Add them to this meat and leave to boil, letting the onions cook part way.  Then add to the pot the prunes which were soaked in water; raisins and jubjubes done in the same manner.  Leave to cook until the prunes and raisins sweeten.  If you wish, add three uqiyahs of sugar to the mixture after it comes to a boil. Dilute the saffron and add it.  When it comes to a hard boil, throw mint in it and atraf al-tib and lower the heat. (Kanz al-Fawd’id fi Tanwi al-Mawa’id/Salloum, pp. 49)

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs lamb (or beef or chicken)

1 onion

1 pinch saffron

½ C dried prunes

1 Tbs jujubes

½ C raisons

4 tbs balsamic vinegar

1 Tbs dried mint

½ C honey or sugar.

Redaction:

Gather everything together.

plums raisons jujubes

Soak the raisons and prunes in warm water or a sweet wine.

Add the meat to water.  Don’t drown the meat.  Use just enough water to cover.  Here I’ve used lamb neck bones.  I get a slightly fatty meat with excellent marrow.  This is not a standard cut of meat but one that should be tried occasionally for tender and very tasty!

raw lamb necks in pot

Next boil the meat until done and the water had reduced by half.  Add the chopped onions.

pouring vinegarAnd a little of the vinegar.

Next, while the onions are cooking with the meat, drain the prunes, raisons and jujubes.

soaking plums etcHer you can see I have each ingredient in it’s own bowl covered in water.  Drain the plums and raisins but hold the jujubes back for a moment.

crushed jujubeA close up of the jujubes.  Either before or after you’ve soaked them, squish the jujubes a little.  Don’t turn them into paste but do flatten them enough the skin breaks and they are no longer round.

Add the prunes, raisons and squished jujubes to the pot.

adding plums to cooking lamb

Next add the spices and saffron.

saffron and Rogan JoshHere is a good picture pre-cooking.

saffron in pot

Add in the basalmic vinegar and saffron.  Taste.  If the taste is a bit sour add sugar or honey till it is a just sweet enough.

honey towards the endYeah…I added a bit…of honey to the lamb.  I like mine sweet!  Don’t judge.  If salt is needed add a pinch.

 

New pics 121119a 067This is fork tender and so very very tasty.  You can serve this with rice or carrots or cabbage and you wouldn’t be wrong.  You may want to make a slightly larger pot then intended as this dish goes fast!

 

 

December 15, 2013 | No comments

With cold weather setting in once again, (funny how the seasons work and all that!) I thought now would be the time to add a warm sweet dish that is redolent of spices fruit and meat.

Mishmish Yabis

(Meat with Dried Apricots)

Apricot chicne in green bowl

Translations:

Chop meat in small pieces and boil.  Put the broth aside.  Cook the onions, fresh coriander, and spices until limp and until the meat browns and changes color and the onions have shrunk.  Then take dried sweet-kernelled apricots and wash them in hot water for a while just until the pits can be easily removed with out damaging the apricots.  Arrange them on the fried meat and add enough broth to cover them.  Turn over every once in a while in order that the apricots are cooked very well.  When they are cooked, add honey and lemon juice.  If sour grape juice is available it is better then lemon juice because its aftertaste is distinct and sweet.  Cook it until its broth has dried up.  Add to it mint and fresh coriander.  If lemon juice is not used then replace it with the sour grape juice to make it more potent.  Add finely pounded spices, mint, fresh coriander and onions.  Cook, simmer, and spoon into a serving bowl and sprinkle on its both dried and chopped fresh coriander.  If dry apricot paste is available, the king made in Byzantium or in Medina, this is better then (sweet-kernelled) apricots.  (Ibn al-‘Adim, Kitab al-Wuslah ila al-Habib fi Wasf al-Tayyibat wa al-Tib/Salloum, pp. 80-81)

Ingredients:

2 lbs chicken (beef or lamb)   3-4 C broth (enough to cover)    2 tbs olive oil

1 onion    ½ C honey   2 tbs coriander   1 pinch saffron  1 tsp cumin  1 tsp ginger  2 tbs mint

¼ C lemon juice  2/3 C apricots

Optional:

1 C sweet wine (red or white)

Redaction:

First things first, gather up all your ingredients.

spices and wine on board

Set your apricots in warm water (or wine) until they are soft and pliable.

Next take your meat of preference, here I used chicken thighs, pour the broth into a pot and add the meat  Then boil for 10 minutes, just enough to lock in juices.

chicken cooking in wineAs you can see this is not broth but a sweet red wine.  I was feeling very Persian when I was cooking this.

Drain the meat form the broth and set the broth to the side.

In a pan, add olive oil, chopped onion, spices and meat.

all spices on top and onionsHere I used dried coriander as fresh was not available.  If you have, fresh used that, if not dried will work.

onions w wine cooked chickenLet the meat brown.

While the meat, onions and spices are browning, drain your apricots and add them to the pan.

apricots added to chickenThen add the lemon juice, honey and 1 C off the reserved broth.

sweetening w honeyAllow these to simmer until the broth is mostly cooked away.  Towards the end (before all the broth has simmered away) add in more mint and coriander.  Take a taste.  If you need a little more honey add a spoonful or two.  If you need a pinch of salt don’t hesitate to add just a touch.  This is to your taste.  Make it good!

Apricot chicne in green bowl

 

This is a great dish either own it’s own or over cardamom rice.  Take a bite, it is soooo good!

 

 

December 11, 2013 | No comments

Chocolate in Period

By

Honorable Lady Sosha Lyon’s O’Rourke

Coco mud

Chocolate:

Cacoa grows in Mexico, Central and South America.  The seeds were used by the Mayans as a form of currency (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_bean) when not roasted and ground into a powdery that was whisked to form a drink.  When the Aztec conquered the Mayans, they took over the cocoa drink tradition including spices such as chili pepper and cinnamon into the powder as well as honey and musk.  (Toussaint-Samat, pp. 574)  When the Spanish came and conquered the recipe went from chili’s and spices to vanilla sugar and milk. (Toussaint-Samat/Wikipedia).  The theory is that the chili was not well liked and the spices induced diabolical sin.

The new cocoa drink was imbibed so heavily that Cortez is said to have a full chocolate pot on his desk at all times once he returned home in 1572 from conquering the Aztecs.  The Spanish ladies were so enthralled with this new drink flavored with cinnamon that they would have the drink all day long and served to them during church.  The drink was ruled by Pope Clementine the VIII, in 1594 that liquid does not break the fast. (Toussaint-Samat, pp. 576)  It is to note that in 1565 and 1578, Perez Samper writes a treaty on how to prepare the chocolate beverage; however the popularity of chocolate does not hit Italy for another century at least. (Scappi, pp. 58)

Ingredients:

 

Dutch cocoa

Sugar

Saigon Cinnamon

Vanilla or Vanilla powder

 

(for spicier coco add chilies)

 

Redaction:

I gathered all the ingredients together.

half coco half sugar

Then started to combine for the ultimate hot period drink.

coco powder w sugar

You can use either sugar or honey, but don’t skimp this step.  The coco is very tasty; however you will need sweet to counter the natural bitterness.

I put in about two heaping tablespoons of the mix into a cup.  I have found that this gives a really good depth of flavor even with the mixtures tendency to settle, much like coffee grounds in boiled coffee.

 Coco powder in cup

 Add water.

Pouring water into coco

Then mix till you have the consistency, flavor and sweetness you desire.

Coco mud

Looks a little like hot mud but tastes sooo much better.

Period vs. Modern

This recipe is very sketchy.  There are no direct recipes written down, just written accounts from diaries and court scribal recounts.  Sort of a third hand account at best on how this was made.  The supplies for the drink, other then the sugar, were as period as possible.  Saigon cinnamon (the best cinnamon that is suggested in many cooking books.  Please refer to Rodinson and Take a 1,000 eggs as two examples touting good Chinese cinnamon.)

 

SugarSaccharum officinarum “…considered a spice even rarer and more expensive then any other…pharmaceutical use…gives its species name of officinarum.”   Considered very expensive till the late 1500.  Loaf sugar given the name due to the conical shape derivded from refining into a hard and very white refined form. Caffetin or Couffin (English equivalent of “coffer” or “coffin”) named for the form, packed in plaited leaves palm and from the city shipped from called Caffa in the Crimea.    Casson a very fragile sugar also considered the ancestor to castor sugar.  Muscarrat considered the best of all sugars, reported to be made in Egypt for the Sultan of Babylon.  The Italian name mucchera denotes that it had been refined twice. (Toussaint-Samat, pg. 553-555)

 

The vanilla, I used real Mexican vanilla.  Excellent quality ingredient that just goes so very well with this drink.  I went for a pottery style sipping mug instead of silver as Spanish ladies would have been want to do.  I think the pottery cup added a little more rustic originality to the look and helped to prevent burnt fingers.

 References:

 

Rodinson, M., Arberry, A., Perry, C., (2001). Medieval Arab Cookery.  Prospect Books. Cromwell Press.

 

The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570). Translated by Scully., T.,  University of Toronto Press.

 

Toussaint-Samat, M., (1992). History of Food.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_bean

 

November 27, 2013 | No comments

I have been on a kick to find banana recipes, not only for my edification but to show that bananas are indeed a very period dish for those who still believe that the tasty wonderful banana is a new world only item.  It’s not.  Really.

Mawz Ma Lahm: Bananas with Meat

chicken with toppings on a plate

Translation:

Peel green bananas.  Slice lengthwise like colcosia.  Fry them in a lot of sesame oil until the bananas have browned but remain like colcosia.  Then, cut the meat and boil it.  Fry it in the same way as colcosia {along with} fresh coriander, pounded garlic, and onion.  When the meat is brown and cooked through, put the fried bananas on it and a little broth and finely toasted shelled hazelnuts.  Let it dry until the broth has evaporated.  Then, serv….(Ibn al-Adim, Kitab al-Wuslah ila al-Habib fi Wasf al-Tayyibat wa at-Tib (Salloum, pp. 63)

Ingredients:

4 Chicken thighs (or 1lb cubed lamb or beef stew meat)

1 onion

5 cloves garlic

1 tsp ground cilantro (you can use a handful of fresh)

4 green bananas

¼ C toasted peeled hazelnuts

1 tsp salt

Redaction.

I had to use only mostly green bananas.

Bananas

The really green ones weren’t in for once at the store.  I sliced them in half (for better fitting into the pan when frying).

sliced bananas

Then fried them in sesame oil (not toasted sesame oil).

frying bananas

They came out a in pieces.

fried bananas

The greener the bananas the firmer the flesh, so really ripe bananas are just not going to work.

For the meat I used chicken thighs.  If you want to use a whole chicken, slice it down the breast bone and so that the entire chicken can be laid flat.  The meat is placed in water to boil for 10-15 minutes then removed and drained.  The next step is to fry the meat in sesame oil till cooked through.

chicken in oilOnce the chicken is in the oil bath add the onion, garlic and cilantro.

chicken frying with onion stuff

Any meat for the recipe i.e. chicken, lamb or beef needs to be boiled then fried.

While the meat was finishing cooking I toasted hazelnuts and peeled the paper skins off by rubbing by hand.  This is not hard…just time consuming and a bit frustrating as some of the skins refuse to come off no matter how much you try.

roasted peeled hazelnuts

Once the meat has cooked through, I added the bananas and hazelnuts.  In this recipe, I originally used 1 cup of hazelnuts.  The dish was waaay nuttier then it should have been.  I also think the bananas should have been slightly sugared for a better taste.  Other wise the bananas sort add a sesame lightly banana flavored wet bread type texture and flavor.

finished dish

This is why I suggest fewer hazelnuts.  Other wise the dish seems to be buried in small roasted hazelnuts and the other flavors are some what buried or you end up wasting the hazelnuts as you try to get more then just hazelnuts with a little chicken on your plate.

 

chicken with toppings on a plateThe dish is tasty, but I’d have done a few different tweaks.  Plated this dish looks awesome.  Flavor wise, I would definitely add  sugar to the frying bananas for a salty sweet meaty dish.

November 20, 2013 | No comments

Maghmum: the Veiled or Covered One. Zesty Almond and Chicken Pie

chicken w roman carrots and barley salad

Take a cleaned chicken and put it, as is, whole, with its breast split, in a pot with salt, oil, black pepper and dried coriander and a small onion.  Cook half way.  Then, then take it out and put it in another pot and put on it its broth, macerated (naqui) murri, saffron, rue, thyme and citron leaves. Put in its cavity a lime.  Scatter over it peeled almonds and cover the top of the pot with dough.  Place it in the oven until it is cooked, then use.

(al-Tujibi, Fadalah al-Khiwan fi Tayyibat al-ta’am wa a;-A;wan/Saaloum, pg. 109.)

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken or Chicken thighs

1 tsp salt

3 Tbs oil

1 tsp crushed black pepper

1 tsp dried coriander or 1 Tbs dried cilantro leaves

1 sm onion chopped

1 C chicken broth

½ tsp fish sauce

1 pinch saffron

1 tsp thyme

1 handful citron or kafir lime leaves with the center vein pulled out

1 lime quartered

 

½ cup chopped or sliced almonds

 

1 pie crust:

2 C flour

1 1/3 stick of butter

¼ C CHILLED water

½ tsp salt

Redaction:

I had to change this slightly.  Instead of using a whole chicken, I used chicken thighs because it’s a small household and I am not feeding 15.  I will explain how use this recipe with a whole chicken as we go, but don’t be worried if you only see chicken thighs in the pictures.

First, I gathered all the ingredients together for frying.

Ingredients for Lime Chicken

I poured the oil into a pan,

Get the oil to a good temperature (dribble a couple drops of water into the oil, when it sizzles the oil is ready).  Then I liberally applied salt, pepper and dried cilantro leaves (or if you prefer ground coriander…same plant different name).

pepper on frying chicken

The dried cilantro leaves aren’t as potent as the ground coriander.  Dried leaves take up more room then ground, so you need a little more dried leaves then of the ground spice.

Once the chicken was thoroughly coated, I placed the chicken into the frying pan, turning every 3-5 minutes.  If you are using a whole chicken, cut the chicken in half, coat as you would the thighs and brown the same way.  You just have one very large piece to turn instead of several smaller pieces.

Once the chicken has browned and partially cooked, pull from the pan and place the piece(s) on a plate.  Next, fry up the chopped onion in the spiced chicken broth and oil until translucent.  Place to the side.

Pull out a Dutch oven or a large clay-baking dish.  Lightly oil the bottom and place the lime quarters (or if you prefer rounds) in the dish.

deviened kafir leaves and limes

Mix the broth, fish sauce, saffron, thyme and kafir leaves together.

limes and kafir leaves for chicken

Put half the mixture over the lime wedges, then put the chicken thighs (or the whole chicken) over them.  Sprinkle the remaining spices over the chicken.

limes under and kafir over chicken

Over this place the almonds,

smothered in almondsYeah, here I added almost a whole cup of chopped almonds.  You really don’t want this many almonds.  It’s yummy crunchy fun, but a full cup is waaaay to much.  Scale down to about 1/2 or 1/4 depending on preference.

Then the pie crust.

trimming pastry crust

Next add small vents for the steam to escape from.

heat vents for pastry

This dish will be incredibly lime and chicken flavor.

chicken w roman carrots and barley salad

Here is the dish after pulling (messily) from my clay baking dish with Roman Carrots and a spinach and barely salad.  The meat, is tender and so many flavors you would almost swear there is an opera going on in your mouth.  The other flavors are the back up singer to this glorious dish!

 

November 11, 2013 | No comments

This is the 2nd rendition of this recipe.  The first one has a chicken, showing raw dough and apricots.  I think that recipe is perfectly wonderful for apricots.  This recipe is targeted to bananas and the lovely cake/pie that can be made.

I know most people think of the lowly common banana as coming from South America but that’s not the case.  This wonderful and humble piece of fruit comes from South East Asisan area, found in Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern cooking in period.  This is one of my favorite recipes.  Sweet savory and melty banana stuffed bread.  Either plain or with vanilla ice cream, this is amazingly good.  You can use apricots if you choose, but do try this with bananas at least once!

Judhaba

Apricots (or Bananas) and Chicken

 Banana Pie Slice

Translation:

First Recipe: Banana

Take bananas that are fully ripe.  Peel them and immerse them in fine samid sour dough, kneaded as for pancakes.  Then take them up and leave on some thing woven.  Boil sesame oil, fry the bananas, take them out and throw them in syrup.  Then throw them in a dish with pounded, sugar, then arrange them in a tray with fine flat breads above and below.  Hang fat chicken above.

(Rodison, pp. 411).

Second Recipe: Apricots

Take some sweet and mature apricots; detach (the fruit) from the pit.  (Mix it with sugar.) In a clean baking pan…spread out (an already baked) flat bread) and place the mixture of apricots and place the mixture of apricots and sugar) on top.  (over this with another cooked flat bread.)  If you wish to add a bit of saffron , do so and sprinkle with rose water; then hang an excellent hen over (the dish), may it please God.

(Zaouali, pp. 82)

Ingredients:

5 Bananas firm bananas and 3 over ripe bananas       1/3 cup sugar    flat bread dough

Walnut  oil

½ C rendered chicken fat Or 1/2 stick of salted butter.

For Apricots

or 2 cups fresh or dried apricots 1 pinch saffron            1/8 teaspoon rosewater

 Banana Flat Bread Dough

4 C flour           2 TBS honey    1 TBS salt        1 C water         3 VERY ripe bananas

 

Redaction:

When I did this recipe the first time, I used sliced home made bread and apricots.  The bread burnt on the bottom..  The second time I used raw flat bread dough but not flat bread with banana, and a chicken sitting on top of the raw flat bread.  This was much much better.  I also did half apricots (mixed with saffron and rose water) and raw bananas (uncooked).  This time, I adapted the dough a bit and the stuffing. Originally I took a shallow tangine, and poured a little sesame oil down to coat the dish then laid down the raw flat bread.   This time I used a clay dish, deeper then a tangine unfortunately not deep enough as the dough raised and the rendered chicken fat could not all be used only a small portion.

First I made the dough.  Flour in a bowl.

flour in bowl

The ingredients honey, salt, yeast and water.

Honey, flour salt water

Are then mixed together.

ingredients for dough in bowl

This is very well mixed together.  You can see a bit of crystallized honey here.

Mixxing dough together

Next add in three very ripe bananas to the soft dough.

 Bananas added to dough

 Mix, in the bananas, very well.

finalized banana dough

The dough should be pliable and soft but not hard.  Some where between a pancake dough and a bread dough.  Divide the dough into two.

 banana dough rolled out

On a well floured surface, roll the dough out.  Here bits of honey that have not been well mixed are showing through.  I used honey that had gone granular due to the cold.  To fix this, in a period manner, just put granular honey in a bowl then place that bowl in another bowl with hot water coming to just the middle of the first bowl.  This should melt the honey. Or, modernly, just stick the bowl with the granular honey in a microwave for 30 seconds or so.

cooking pottery with walnut oil in bottom

Take a deep clay dish and oil the bottom.  Here I used walnut oil.  Sesame oil has a very strong taste and I wanted a nuttier flavor instead.  The recipe calls for sesame but I changed this to my taste.

Ibanana dough bottom

Place the dough in the bottom of the dish.

Next  take and chop 5 bananas.  These bananas need to be not overly ripe.  Green bananas to almost brown but not squishy.

firm bananas on cutting board knife and oil

Slice the bananas up as thicker or slightly thicker then a finger width (roughly ½ inch)

sliced bananas

 Take a frying pan and add walnut oil with 1/3 C of sugar.

walnut oil with just entered sugar

Then add the raw bananas until slightly browned.  Maybe 2 minutes.  Do not burn.  The sugar will caramelize adding a deeper color to the bananas so pay strict attention to this part.

banana filling cooking

And now yummy tasty divine cooked bananas.  These are so incredibly good, that I had to limit myself to only a couple of bites other wise I would have eaten the entire filling of cooked bananas.

cooked banan filling

 

Place the caramelized bananas on top of the bottom layer of dough.

banana cooked stuffing

Place the second layer of dough on top.  Place the dish into the oven at 350.

Topping of banana pie dough

This is where things get a little tricky.  In period, the oven area had hooks for the a chicken to be roasted on (Rodison/Zaouali,  Most people do not have such an item in their modern ovens or fire pits these days, which makes adding chicken fat a little rough.  There are two choices, place a raw chicken on top while the dish cooks or take the rendered fat from roasted chicken.

rendered chicken fat

I chose to take the fat from a roasted chicken cooked prior that week.  The fat/drippings were gathered in a jar and place in the refrigerator till I was ready to use.   I was not impressed with either the chicken on top of the dough or how the dough came out with a chicken on top.  With the rendered chicken fat the crust puffs up nicely and a golden salty brown crust results.

So every 15 minutes pour a few tablespoons on top of the dough.

chicken fat on banana pie

Pouring a little at a time will simulate the dripping of the fat from a chicken over the pudding dish instead of drowning the dish in chicken fat if poured on all at once.

Banana pie from oven

This is the final dish.  The crust is lightly browned, even golden, where you can see the chicken fat has crisped the dough along the edges.  If you do not have any chicken fat available use butter.  Put a few teaspoons on the crust about half way through for this lovely salty sweet crust.

Banana Pie Slice

The final taste test was incredible.  The top is savory sweet while the filling adds an extra layer of sweetness.  The bottom is perfectly done, sweet but not as savory as the top.

Period vs. Modern

The period dish would have been done in a wood fired stove with a hanging chicken on a hook or spit.  I had to do this dish in a gas fired stove with collected rendered chicken fat.  I used as many organic items as possible.  The chicken that would have been cooked over this dish would have been either a Sultan or a Russian Orlaff (Chickens in Period Research Paper).  I had to use a modern chicken for the rendered fat.  As seen in the photos, I tried to use as period dishes as possible for mixing and cooking.  The bananas would have been fried on a flat sheet of metal. (Rodinson, p. 286)

I enjoyed this dish very much.  I would have personally seasoned the dough with spices but the recipe did not indicate this was done.  I am betting; however that the love for spices was great enough someone somewhere would have thought to spice the dough up.  If I were serving this to friends, I would; however the dough at this point is a simple dough relying on bananas and honey for flavor.

October 23, 2013 | No comments

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